DUNEDIN FINE ART CENTER INC

Besides educational outreach programs for local charter/private schools and organizations like the YMCA, the children and teen program follows the same schedule as the adult program, except for May to August, when a 10-week intensive summer enrichment art academy program for children ages: 4.5 to 14 is held. During the summer program, 7 different weekly camps focus on photography, clay (hand building and wheel), 2D (drawing and painting), iPad Explorations, murals and musical theater are offered to age appropriate groupings in week long sessions. DFAC has up to 200 children per week and employs certified art teachers along with professional, degreed working artists from the Tampa Bay area. At the close of summer, a Summer Art Academy Exhibit is held in our Kokolakis Family Youth Gallery curated by the children, for the children. 49 different schools are represented in our summer camp exhibit. Note: Summer of 2020 operated all camps at half capacity (900 students attending as opposed to 1,800) due to COVID-19. CDC recommended protocols were successfully put in place without incident.
Dedicated Youth Gallery: Kokolakis Family Youth Gallery is used exclusively for children's art work from 4.5 yrs. to 17 yrs. DFAC partners with the Pinellas County School District’s Visual Arts Supervisor to provide 4 exhibits yearly featuring 75 Elementary, 19 Middle and 13 High Schools. DFAC also Partners with the City of Dunedin and the Dunedin Principals’ Consortium to provide the Dunedin Schools’ Showcase exhibit featuring the youth’s artwork created in Dunedin. These are wonderful events to attend for the excitement and pride radiating from the children and their families.
Dedicated Youth Clay Lab: DFAC has 12 wheels/and a hand building studio which can be used exclusively by children, while 12 additional wheels are used by the adults in the adjoining clay labs.
David L. Mason Children's Hands-on Art Museum (DLM Museum): A big part of our Youth Education Program is the Children's Hands-on Art Museum. It gives children the opportunity to explore the different media used in art from clay to electronic graphics and Green Screen. The DLM Museum is designed by DFAC's Director of Youth Education and presents a new theme annually. The 22nd annual children’s hands-on exhibit, Mad Science, features a new interactive hands-on experience where preschoolers up to 12 years old explore how integral science is to the world of art. Dancing Frankystein, cool contraptions, monster makers, and more make up this mixed up world of Science and Art. Interactive floor computers, green screen theater, giant touch screen drawing programs, plus 7 iPad air stations with artsy food apps. Due to COVID-19, Free Family Fun Nights and Make It Take It weekends have been suspended for now. These free programs invite the public in for some artsy fun in our hands-on museum the second Friday of the month, with community partners such as Clearwater Marine Aquarium, The Florida Orchestra, Keep Pinellas Beautiful and Publix Supermarkets. We hope to resume when it is safe for larger groups to gather.
School Tours: DFAC’s two-hour tour consists of three components: 1) Students start with a 30-45-minute engaging gallery discussion involving science, history, social influence and impact, principles and elements of design, creative problem solving and humor. 2) Students proceed to the hands-on interactive area where they explore, create and build on concepts and images from the original artworks seen in the galleries. Time in the hands-on area is 30-45 minutes. 3) Tour concludes with students gathering in the art studio for a teacher directed, exhibit related activity involving imagination and motor skills.
Unique Outreach program only at DFAC: Dunedin Fine Art Center’s Wheels on Wheels: A Mobile Pottery Experience, is an exciting, creative, one of a kind, innovative two-hour hands on experience with hand-building clay and more importantly, using clay on a potter’s wheel, "Throwing on the Wheel” as it is known. A converted school bus travels to the schools so that students get the opportunity to experience the fun and magic that is clay! Twelve students will be able to practice their "throwing” skills for 45 minutes with 1lb of Mexo-White self-hardening clay on real, electric potter’s wheels housed in DFAC’s converted school bus. Outside the bus there will be four tables for an additional twelve students using Mexo-Red self-hardening clay to practice their hand-building skills using coil, pinch and slab methods. 1) Youth participating in the program benefit by being a part of a creative process that is not normally available to them in the schools. DFAC’s mobile clay wheel lab makes the wonderful process of throwing on the wheel accessible to everyone. 2) Clay is for all ages but working on the wheel is more suited for 8-year olds on up to 108. Currently the Wheels on Wheels program has served over 3,800 participants. 3) This unique, creative and innovative opportunity started as a fun idea from Todd Still, Director of Youth Education and came to fruition through the support of DFAC, Pougialis-Anastasakis Foundation for the Arts, Pinellas Community Foundation and Parliament Motor Coach.

The Dunedin Fine Art Center (DFAC) has museum quality exhibitions which are organized by our Curatorial Director. Exhibits change every 8 weeks, on average. In a given year, the public can enjoy 20 different exhibits in 6 distinct galleries plus 7 exhibits in our dedicated Children’s Gallery. Our Curatorial Director establishes the exhibition calendar two years in advance selecting from a range of individual artist proposals, traveling exhibits, guest curator concepts plus other organizational and regional proposals. With educational values at the core of the Dunedin Fine Art Center’s mission, it has been our goal, at any given time, that a visitor may view works by our faculty and students alongside exhibits of artists of national and international standing. In addition to numerous themed juried exhibitions for community participation, we have a Student / Member / Faculty exhibit that ensures every work of art submitted is shown and celebrated! It is ideal that we have been able to simultaneously stage shows of broader significance in the contemporary art world while maintaining a commitment to our students, members and their families.
That commitment along with the talent of our curatorial staff led DFAC to be named best museum in Pinellas County in 2014 in a Visit St. Petersburg/Clearwater poll—though we are not a museum nor maintain a permanent collection! In addition to various Critic’s Awards, DFAC has received Creative Loafing Tampa Bay’s Best of the Bay People’s Choice Award for Best Non-Museum Gallery for five consecutive years: 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019 + 2020 plus Best Visual Arts Curator for 2019 and 2020.
Exhibits are a primary component of DFAC’s educational and cultural outreach to our community, greater Tampa Bay and visitors to our state who attend lectures and demonstrations by visiting / exhibiting artists in collaboration with our year-round classes and workshops.
DFAC’s Member/Students are enhanced by daily exposure to a diverse range of contemporary art techniques and media. In addition, throughout the school year, School Tours for children of all ages enjoy: Gallery Talks led by our Youth Education Director, interactive play in our Hands-On Museum and a classroom take-home project conducted by our Youth Education Staff.
In the pandemic year, 2020—DFAC was locked-down but re-opened after 2.5 months with all new exhibits, limited attendance for socially-distanced adult classes and summer art camps with rigorous safety protocols in place. We eliminated receptions and have otherwise presented virtual artists talks. We recreated our signature special events this year and continue to move forward by finding new ways of safely fulfilling our mission.