Progress Energy Art Gallery’s showcase event, the Members Show, is set to kick off June 4 with over 20 local artists exhibiting their creative wares. “This is their show,” said gallery director Nancy Ciesla. “This is highly anticipated because the artists get to display whatever they want.” Throughout the past year, other shows typically have a set theme for artists to adhere their work toward. The annual Members Show, now in its seventh year and set to run until July 31, lets the imagination run wild.

“Secluded” by Madelyn McMillan Wise won an Award of Excellence from the Gainesville Fine Arts Association Winter Members Show 2008.

About 500 local businesspeople gathered at the Reo Center on the evening of Jan. 17 to celebrate the release of the Tampa Bay Business Journal’s 2008 Book of Lists. The event was sponsored by Bank of Florida, BlueCross BlueShield of Florida, Bright House Networks, Fowler White Boggs Banker, Modern Business Associates and Teasdale Worldwide.

“Docked in Time” by Madelyn McMillan Wise won a place in the 2007 League for Innovation Art Competition at Santa Fe Community College. This Student Art Competition, now in its 21st year, enables community college students to compete with their peers across North America. Notably, the competition provides a means to showcase a selection of the best works being created by today’s community college students.

Madelyn McMillan Wise came to Tarpon Springs as a young girl in 1949, and in her heart never left west-central Florida. Now she’s back, camera in hand, trolling traffic-logged U.S. 19 hunting for images of the Florida that once was. “When I see something I have to be able to isolate it because there’s a lot of junk around,” she says. “Any time I see something that catches my breath, I pull off. If I don’t and I come back later it won’t be the same. The light will have changed.” Most of her images, printed on canvas, look more like oil paintings than photos; they are dreamlike and spiritual, evoking her own vision of memory and longing.