EVOLVE Business and Professional Magazine February 2019 | Page 26

passed in Volusia County, its intentions seem to be panning out.
Organizations such as the City of DeLand and the Museum of
Art, DeLand, have partnered on several projects that bring even
more art to people’s everyday experience, including downtown
sculptures, murals, and utility projects. The combined public arts
Sail Away Artist Jane DeDecker
The same is true for the $82 million renovation in 2009 of the
Ocean Center, a grand meeting space in the center of Daytona
Beach. Events at the Center bring in over 200,000 attendees each
year, and the space boasts a 100,000 square foot gallery exhibiting
Sol Tracker Artist John Rogers
nine artists’ works over various mediums. Highlights include projects showcase Volusia’s recognition of art’s power to celebrate
women playing in the water, which celebrate, in the artist’s position public art as a public right.
Beth Ann Carver’s two tremendous triptych oil panels depicting
words, “the simple joys of living.” Other sculptures and paintings
Wings on Water 2009 Beth Ann Carver
diversity and strengthen community, and its wisdom to therefore
All photos provided by Volusia County Government.
at the Ocean Center depict aspects of the Florida experience, both
specific and abstract—from the cacophony of aquatic life to the
motion of waves and the wind—ensuring that even visitors who
are only in town briefly for an event will come away with
a broader sense of “Florida” than they’d otherwise
experience indoors.
Twenty-six years after the Art in Public Places Ordinance
| 26 | EVOLVE BUSINESS AND PROFESSIONAL MAGAZINE
Brigitte Hoarau is an English Professor and
freelance writer. She earned a BA in Film & Video
and an MFA in Creative Writing: Fiction.