Gene Leedy's Bold Mid-Century vision turned a citrus town into a quiet capital of modern design. On a crest of land between an old grapefruit grove and the gentle shoreline of Lake Elbert, eleven low-slung homes sit beneath flat roofs and sliding glass walls, looking very much as they did the day Gene Leedy drew them. Locals call them the Craney Spec Homes. The rest of the world, increasingly, calls them a treasure. Decades after Leedy first set up his drafting table in town,

Calling all art lovers, this one’s for you! I had the immense pleasure of sitting down with two artists in Polk County who are hoping to make a “splash” on the art scene come November. Gillian Fazio and Katerina Santos have a festival in the works running from November 6 through November 14, 2026, that is sure to knock your socks off. Coming from a shared love of each others’ work and a serendipitous meeting through murals at Disney Springs, Gillian and Katerina are the geniu

If you had to choose, which would you pick: teaching an entire class of T. Rexes how to paint (reminder about the big heads and little arms) or participate in a figure drawing class of Lady Gaga in her meat suit, but you’re blindfolded, so you have to rely on touch and smell? For Sara Jones, Director of SPACE Art Collective, there is no choice. “T-Rex art class. Easy. Literally the same as teaching art to Kindergarteners, which I do on the regular.” Maybe one day T. Rex art c

The Black and White Photography class at Polk State College is far more than its name suggests. This foundational film course is a gateway to mastering the art and science of photography, offering students hands-on experience with 35-mm cameras, film processing and darkroom techniques that are unique in Polk County. Under the guidance of Professor Sarah Brewington, students like Candace Knoebel, Michael Comings, and Ean Pennypacker are discovering the timeless craft of film p

As evident by the many construction sites all across the city, Winter Haven is changing. New stores, new housing developments, and new recreational centers are being built and will result in the physical representation of the area’s growth. However, the ideals that permeate special pockets remain constant, such as those held by the 75-year staple that is the Ridge Art Association (RAA). RAA’s objective is to provide an open door for all to appreciate art, the literal creation

WHAT NOTTA? If Lakeland were the “small” town setting for a budding film festival romcom and the main characters met up for a day date, they would meet at Notta Gallery. With the farmers market in the background, they would stroll up the incline of N. Kentucky Ave. knowing Downtown was the perfect choice. There are just enough people around to not feel either secluded or overwhelmed. There is just enough happening to provide options just in case the date goes stale. They woul

Mary Correa is the vice president of the Lakeland Arts Association and was kind enough to answer a few questions about the new Depot Art District in Lakeland. Learn about their vision for making art more accessible, their passion for community, and how they’re turning inspiration into impact. WHERE DID THE IDEA FOR THE DEPOT ARTS DISTRICT ORIGINATE? The Lakeland Arts Association (LAA) had long had a dream of having a physical location to host workshops and gallery space. Ove

No other film bridges the sacred and the profane quite like Charles Laughton’s “The Night of the Hunter” (1955), a Depression-era fairy tale that ends one cinematic age and inaugurates another, painted in all the shades of nostalgia Norman Rockwell left out when depicting the past. Part noir, part parable, it is a story of flight and faith, innocence, and inheritance, revealing the uneasy marriage between American piety and spectacle — a theme that would echo throughout postw

Mirror, mirror, on the wall, tell me, which is the fairest festival of them all? The very first Rainbow Roots Festival, of course! Projected to be chock full of performances, history, stories, tasty food, and vendors, this event is sure to fill your brain, belly, and tote bag with all sorts of wonderful treats and treasures. Jason DeShazo, aka the incomparable Momma Ashley Rose, chatted with us about what to expect and how excited all of us Polk County residents should be to

I. Amid the chaos of a malfunctioning shark and blockbuster ambition, it was the stillness of a story—told low and slow in the belly of a boat—that gave “Jaws” (1975) an inexorable sense of reality, serving to heighten fears imagined. Robert Shaw’s portrayal of Quint, recounting the horrors of the USS Indianapolis, etched itself into film legend. Shaw seemed to summon the performance from his marrow— something personal, something primal. It evoked the late-night tales told by

TELL US ABOUT YOURSELF My name is James Huffstutler. I am a hobbyist photographer living in Winter Haven, Florida, with my wife and kids. My father was in the Air Force growing up, but we settled in Winter Haven around 2003. I graduated from Chain of Lakes Collegiate High School in 2011 and Florida Southern College in 2014. WHAT SPARKED YOUR INTEREST IN PHOTOGRAPHY? I have been interested in photography since I was a young child. I remember spending hours poring over old fami

James Whale (Left) - Boris Karloff (Right) The Motion Picture Production Code—enforced from 1930 and reaching its most stringent application from 1934 until its decline in the late 1960s—represented one of the most aggressive regulatory frameworks in American cinematic history. Known commonly as the Hays Code, it functioned as both a moral compass and a tool of censorship, explicitly forbidding depictions of what it termed “sexual perversion.” The Hays Code was never just abo

We teamed up with the very talented James Huffstutler at the Central Florida Photo Club and invited our amazing readers to snap and share their best shots with the theme “People and Places of Polk County”— and wow, did you deliver. From February 28 to April 27, we received over 180 stunning submissions! Choosing which ones to feature in the magazine was no easy task (seriously, can we get more pages next time?!). If we could, we’d show off every single photo—because they were

If, like me, you grew up in Central Florida during the final bow of a golden age for theme parks, then you may have more memories than most of pyrotechnic demonstrations celebrating the movie magic of box office hits from decades past. As a young child— already weary of fireworks, lacking any contextual knowledge of film, and harboring a persistent belief that an accident would happen while I was present—I was terrified anytime something blew up. The film-loving adult I grew

Known as “The Man of a Thousand Faces,” Lon Chaney Sr.—silent film actor and pioneering makeup artist—is revered for his transformative performances and groundbreaking prosthetic work. He starred in more than 150 films and was an audience favorite, earning him the kind of immortality the screen seldom grants. Through both purpose and ability, he chose to embody characters existing outside the realm of conventional beauty and normalcy, giving depth to figures often relegated t

The audiences who once gathered to witness live feats of escape and illusion, whether in grand theaters or intimate parlor rooms, were the very same who later beheld cinema’s first flickering screens. For some, the experiences might have felt much the same—the same stirring of wonder, the same exhilaration for human possibility, and the same reverence for those fleeting moments when we allow ourselves to be deceived, if only to escape into a world where anything feels within

Nestled in the heart of Downtown Winter Haven, Tree Swallow Gallery is a pop-up art destination dedicated to celebrating the unique spirit and creativity of Central Florida’s local artists. Curated by Amanda McCallister, the gallery focuses on hyper-local talent, showcasing carefully selected fine art that reflects the beauty, history, and culture of the Winter Haven community and its surrounding areas. Tree Swallow Gallery embraces its pop-up nature, offering a dynamic exper

Time is one of the few variables with enough power to end, improve, inspire, and change the memory of love. Whatever its influence, we usually understand its meaning years later, but on the screen, we can live through its passages in hours. Manipulating time lends not only the philosophical and societal questions science fiction asks, but also those of personal reflection, changes in perspective, and a chance to see how our lives might have turned out if we had loved differen

TELL US A LITTLE ABOUT YOURSELF I am a writer, author, and poet who believes in the power of words to inspire and connect. I love to travel and use it as a creative source for my writing. I make it a priority to explore and immerse myself in a variety of cuisines and cultures, always seeking to expand my views and deepen my understanding of the world. I love to garden and spend most of my free time planting fruit trees, nurturing my garden, and creating a space to read, write

Austin Snedden is a talented local ceramicist taking pieces of clay and thoughtfully turning them into beautiful and functional pieces of art. He was in the fourth grade the first time he had ever made pottery. It was a Japanese teacup pinch pot that the teacher fired using the raku method. (Raku is the Japanese method of firing pottery.) Although the teacup may be long gone, the monumental experience has stayed with him and shaped his life in ways he couldn’t have imagined.

The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) We spend most of our time looking either downward or directly ahead, splitting our focus between screens and various realities. For many of us, looking up is occasional—admiring the moon, watching a plane land, or enjoying a fireworks show. Our upward glances connect us to a world larger and more unknown than comprehension allows. When you don’t know, you wonder. Wonder, of any and every kind, is the imagination’s lifeblood. It is the grea

There is a capacity within the best-told stories on screen to become timeless in a way that connects people across generations, despite the differences in years between those watching them. During the holiday season, we are reminded to extend uncommon kindness and promote inclusion to those outside our social spheres. We’ve long been encouraged by a multitude of traditions to see ourselves as more similar than different, to foster a moment of peace and light during the darkes

Named by French critics to describe films based on mid-20th-century crime fiction, noir features a style and language unique to itself. These films often center on stories told from the viewpoint of morally gray or explicitly criminal protagonists, with shadows used so powerfully that they become central characters themselves. With the Second World War behind us, writers could more freely question the nature of crime, our economic structure, and the moral dilemmas hidden behi

Polk Arts and Cultural Alliance (PACA) is the Local Arts Agency for Polk County. As such, PACA “advocates for all the Cultural Arts Organizations in Polk County and promotes the impact of the Cultural Arts Sector as integral to the quality-of-life in our county.” The organization actively represents Polk County’s arts and cultural interests to agencies, governments, chambers of commerce, and the business community on a national, state, and local level. They allocate funding a