Permanent & Loan Collection
Bay County Public Library as Gallery
Over the years BCPL has acquired both permanent and loaned art work, which are displayed throughout the library.
The Middlemas family donated an untitled oil painting by award-winning artist Dan Dunn, who began creating nautical scenes as a young man in Florida. The painting exemplifies a frequent motif in Dunn’s work, a boat weathering stormy seas.
During construction of BCPL’s current building, which opened in 2008, then-County Commissioner George Gainer commissioned a Paul Brent painting for the new library. The nationally-known artist, based mainly in Panama City, is best known for his watercolors. “Bay County – The Natural Environment” depicts a pastiche of coastal scenes from Bay County on a 6’ x 12’ canvas mural.
At the same time, Dr. and Mrs. H. Felton Cofer donated a set of lithographs by renowned Spanish surrealist Joan Miró. The set includes four of 11 lithographs from Lithographs Volume 1 (1972): “The Singing Fish,” “The Green Moon,” “The Blue Star” and “The Red Sun.”
Rounding out the library’s collection are pieces by Roland Hockett. After Hockett exhibited his work at BCPL in 2010, he gave them two block prints (“Pablo Casals” and “Dreams of Dancing”) and the sculpture “Group 1.”
In a Panama City News Herald article about his library exhibit, Hockett said of his gift, “I wanted to leave them with art – the community moves through the library. By leaving things, that’s good for the community. The library represents a new, nice respectful relationship with visual arts.”
In 2011, the Panama City-Bay County Airport relocated and presented BCPL with another Hockett piece, the copper sculpture “Circle of Flight,” on long-term loan.
Shader hopes to someday enlist an intern to help create a handout about and possibly an audio walking tour of the library’s art.
