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Nelson Poynter Memorial Library Gallery

K-J Mathieson: How Corky was Created

Fall 2020

 

Animation artist K-J Mathieson, describes in her own words, the process of creating the animated short Corky: A Bedtime Story in both the USF St. Petersburg Library Gallery and online StoryMap exhibits. 

 

K-J describes the theme of the piece as: 

A corkscrew with a screw loose battles a giant glass bottle to uncork seven magical lightning bugs trapped inside. 

Corky: A Bedtime Story can be viewed in our online exhibit.   

K-J Mathieson is an Associate Professor in the USF College of Art and Art History specializing in computer animation. Corky has won international animation awards at the Prague Film Awards Czech Republic, the Smokies Film Festival in the United Kingdom, the Telly Awards, in New York City, and the Buenos Aires Film Festival, Argentina.  For more information about K-J Mathieson's work, visit her Filmmaker Biography.

A key collaborator, composer Tyler Durham also has won awards for Corky  and has worked on major projects in film. 

The in-library exhibit will be on display until the end of 2020.

A Centennial Celebration of the Photographs of Francis G. Wagner

"Remembering St. Petersburg in the 1920s: 
A Centennial Celebration of the Photographs of Francis G. Wagner"

March 2020 thru September 2020

In 1916, just across the street from St. Petersburg’s Detroit Hotel, Francis G. Wagner opened the city’s first camera store, the Strand Camera Shop.

Although his main goal was to sell cameras and photo supplies, during the 1920s Wagner also liked to walk around St. Petersburg taking photos of St. Petersburg landmarks such as the Million Dollar Pier, the Vinoy Hotel, the Coliseum, the railroad station, the open air post office, and many more downtown locations. 

He retired in 1963 and passed away in 1975, but his former business partner, Charles Jones, kept the Strand Camera Shop open until 1981.

A few years later in 1984, Earl R. “Rick” Jacobs III, a student at St. Petersburg Junior College, was hired to help clear out a storage loft in the old Strand Camera Shop building. While preparing to throw out a pile of old papers he found a box filled with more than nine-hundred black and white Francis G. Wagner photo negatives. In 1986 Jacobs donated the 1920s era negatives to USF St. Petersburg’s Nelson Poynter Memorial Library.

In 2001, during the early years of the Internet, the Wagner family gave the Poynter Memorial Library permission to have the negatives scanned and added to the USF Tampa campus Library’s Digital Collections website where they have been shared with students and researchers ever since.

A century has passed since many of these images were first photographed. Similar to then, ourcity is again being transformed by new growth, new buildings, and a vibrant artistic re-imaging of our society. Themes of iconic city piers, grand design, and vibrant and inclusive public spaces continue to be relevant and discussed to this day.

So remember St. Petersburg in the 1920s through the lens of Francis Wagner, but use these iconic images to reflect upon just how much of our urban dialogue has changed and what it might be a hundred years from now.

Tom Kramer: Dancing Alone & Together

Tom Kramer: Dancing Alone & Together

February 2020

This photography exhibit featured the work of Tom Kramer, a dance, film, and theater photographer and includes photographs of professional dancers with and without disabilities and encourages us to re-examine our traditional notions of dance and dancers.  

 

 

Jean Blackburn: Year of the Bird

Jean Blackburn: Year of the Bird

January / February 2020

The work of local Myakka artist Jean Blackburn graced the library gallery in spring. Jean’s work on display comes from 2 of her series that focus on the Florida environment: works from “The Year of the Bird” include lively collages created by recycled beer cans oil paintings, while her series on trees abstractly portray Sabal Palms and a bold red maple reflection on the water. For more information on artist Jean Blackburn, visit: https://jeanblackburn.com/