HISTORY: IMAGES and Atlantic Center for the Arts

In 2004, Atlantic Center for the Arts became the presenting organization for IMAGES: A Festival of the Arts, bringing their shared history full circle after 29 years.

“IMAGES is invaluable to the cultural life of this community, and it made perfect sense for Atlantic Center to bring its resources—volunteers, artists, and more—together to uphold the arts at the highest level in New Smyrna Beach,” said Mona Brewer, former Atlantic Center Board member and IMAGES Chair.

Both nonprofits trace their roots to 1976, when Doris Leeper, Holly Bivins, and volunteers founded IMAGES. The first fundraising event, held at Leeper’s Canaveral National Seashore compound, led to the inaugural festival in 1977. This interdisciplinary event foreshadowed Leeper’s later creation of Atlantic Center for the Arts, an artists’ residency program established that same year. IMAGES drew early ACA supporters, including Samuel Bell, Tippen and Jo Davidson, and Howard Klein of the Rockefeller Foundation, showcasing the community’s strong commitment to the arts in New Smyrna Beach.

By 1979, the IMAGES concept had grown to include an artists-in-residence community, leading to the formation of two boards: one for the festival and another for what became Atlantic Center for the Arts. This allowed for better focus on fundraising and planning. Doris Leeper chaired the new Atlantic Center Board, which included members from both boards.

Now located on 69 acres along Turnbull Bay, Atlantic Center for the Arts has become a globally recognized artists-in-residence community. Since 1982, its residency program has hosted artists from all disciplines for three-week sessions, providing spaces to live, work, and collaborate. The campus features award-winning studios, including spaces for painting, sculpture, music, dance, theater, writing, and digital arts, as well as a resource library.

In 2007, the 5,000-square-foot Mark and Margery Pabst Visitor Center & Gallery was added, offering expanded opportunities for public engagement, partnerships with schools and organizations, and event rentals, while showcasing the creative process.

Each residency session at Atlantic Center for the Arts brings together three mentoring artists from different disciplines, who select a group of emerging artists through an ACA-administered application process. During the residency, participants engage in informal sessions, collaborate on projects, and work independently in a relaxed, unstructured environment that fosters creativity.

ACA provides private accommodations, weekday meals prepared by an on-site chef, and communal studio spaces.

Notable former mentors include Edward Albee, Marilyn French, David Parsons, Dennis Oppenheim, Alex Katz, Arata Isozaki, Ursula Von Rydingsvard, Quincy Troupe, William Wegman, John Corigliano, and Alan Berliner.

For more information, contact Atlantic Center for the Arts at 386-427-6975, or visit the website www.atlanticcenterforthearts.org

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