Judy K. Patterson
In 1992 I was a member of the Friends of the Hillsborough Library. My first project was to see that all the art in the libraries of Hillsborough County was repaired, reframed, and in good shape. My second project was to get the Board to buy art for the new libraries from the Gasparilla Festival of Arts Show in Tampa in March. The Friends had ten thousand dollars sitting in a CD for emergencies. I finally convinced them that the money could be earned and replaced, but the new libraries needed art. We had a few holdouts but, eventually, we all agreed to buy art each year. It gives me great pleasure to see new art in the local libraries that I visit.
Looking around for a new project, I heard about the Ybor Library on Nebraska and its damaged mosaic on the front of the building done by Joe Testa-Secca, an artist and art teacher at University of Tampa. (More…)
