ABOUT KISSIMMEE VALLEY GALLERY
Jim and Anne
Kissimmee Valley Gallery is a website that focuses on the current status of Florida's newly born art tradition, the art history of the state, and offers criticisms, observations, and insight for potential collectors. I throw in commentary and stories, mostly true, about those misunderstood folks called Florida Crackers.
I have spent over forty years advocating for the art and artists of Florida as a gallery owner, artists representative, and art promoter. Along the way I discovered, named, and wrote about the Florida art phenomenon now known as the Highwaymen founded the Museum of Florida Art and Culture (MOFAC.ORG) where I served as curator and interim director for five years. I keep my hand in as the acquisition agent for the Florida Masters Collection and art consultant for Fitch Global LLC.
Those are the hard facts about Kissimmee Valley Gallery, the back story is more interesting so let’s start there.
In 1965 my wife Anne and I along with our three boys determined to flee Broward County, a place I used to call Paradise, but became Paradise lost. The question was, “to where.” Long story short, we fortunately wound up in Sebring, my wife’s birthplace. I justified the choice by telling Anne I was just taking her home.
I convinced my mother and father to buy 43 acres on Kissimmee River at Fort Basinger that came with an old two-story Cracker house built in 1895 by Frank Pearce with heart pine that came downriver on a steamboat. My family moved into this house for several years until we could get our own place on ten acres at the south end of the property.
My wife, who was working in our Sebring art and craft business, got wind of a house that needed to be moved to make way for the new post office and the owner of the house was willing to give it away to anyone who would move it. The price was within our budget and we negotiated with the owner to take the deal if she would finance the cost of the move and use my 10 acres as collateral for the loan. She said OK.
I contacted a house mover in Avon Park, his name was Murphy but he’s another story. We agreed on a price to move and set up the house. Things were looking good until he came and told me that the D.O.T. would not give permission to move it because it exceeded the size limits for transport on their roadways. The solution to the problem was easy enough, I’d just take a chainsaw and cut the house half in two. Which I did. Next to this house was a local pub and my efforts provided several days worth of excitement for the regulars there who pulled lawn chairs and bar stools out on the lawn to watch the idiot who was cutting up a house. The story has a happy ending, the roof never leaked and the foundation never shifted. The house has been reborn as a waterfront palace for Mr. and Mrs. Phil Holden who use it to escape the rigors of life in Palm Beach. Fort Basinger on Kissimmee River became a place of refuge for both my family and the Holdens.
The move to Highlands County, the purchase of property that was the site of a Seminole war encampment built by Zachary Taylor, plus my relationship with Florida artist Robert Butler who lived next door in Okeechobee County, all fired my passion to know more about Florida history and art.
I have spent over forty years advocating for the art and artists of Florida as a gallery owner, artists representative, and art promoter. Along the way I discovered, named, and wrote about the Florida art phenomenon now known as the Highwaymen founded the Museum of Florida Art and Culture (MOFAC.ORG) where I served as curator and interim director for five years. I keep my hand in as the acquisition agent for the Florida Masters Collection and art consultant for Fitch Global LLC.
Those are the hard facts about Kissimmee Valley Gallery, the back story is more interesting so let’s start there.
In 1965 my wife Anne and I along with our three boys determined to flee Broward County, a place I used to call Paradise, but became Paradise lost. The question was, “to where.” Long story short, we fortunately wound up in Sebring, my wife’s birthplace. I justified the choice by telling Anne I was just taking her home.
I convinced my mother and father to buy 43 acres on Kissimmee River at Fort Basinger that came with an old two-story Cracker house built in 1895 by Frank Pearce with heart pine that came downriver on a steamboat. My family moved into this house for several years until we could get our own place on ten acres at the south end of the property.
My wife, who was working in our Sebring art and craft business, got wind of a house that needed to be moved to make way for the new post office and the owner of the house was willing to give it away to anyone who would move it. The price was within our budget and we negotiated with the owner to take the deal if she would finance the cost of the move and use my 10 acres as collateral for the loan. She said OK.
I contacted a house mover in Avon Park, his name was Murphy but he’s another story. We agreed on a price to move and set up the house. Things were looking good until he came and told me that the D.O.T. would not give permission to move it because it exceeded the size limits for transport on their roadways. The solution to the problem was easy enough, I’d just take a chainsaw and cut the house half in two. Which I did. Next to this house was a local pub and my efforts provided several days worth of excitement for the regulars there who pulled lawn chairs and bar stools out on the lawn to watch the idiot who was cutting up a house. The story has a happy ending, the roof never leaked and the foundation never shifted. The house has been reborn as a waterfront palace for Mr. and Mrs. Phil Holden who use it to escape the rigors of life in Palm Beach. Fort Basinger on Kissimmee River became a place of refuge for both my family and the Holdens.
The move to Highlands County, the purchase of property that was the site of a Seminole war encampment built by Zachary Taylor, plus my relationship with Florida artist Robert Butler who lived next door in Okeechobee County, all fired my passion to know more about Florida history and art.
