35 Years of Art Ventures at The Community Foundation for Northeast Florida
By Laura Jane Pittman
If you have visited the Jacksonville REI lately, you may have admired the North Florida park posters displayed near the check-out counter that are modeled after 1930s-era national park posters of old. These are the brainchild of Kathy Stark, a local artist who was recently recognized with the 2025 Ann McDonald Baker Art Ventures Award by The Community Foundation for Northeast Florida.
A Jacksonville native, Stark has specialized in fine art, mainly oils, watercolors and acrylics, of North Florida nature scenes, culminating with a recent second edition of her publication The Wilderness of North Florida Parks. The coffee table-style book contains art—including the series of park posters—and a clever foldout map created by Stark, along with information on parks, preserves, forests, and three environmental nonprofits that are near and dear to her heart.
Stark’s unrestricted $20,000 grant is the 11th annual Ann Baker Award, announced just as the Art Ventures program celebrates its 35th anniversary at The Community Foundation. Art Ventures grew out of a matching grants challenge from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) in 1989 and has grown into a significant endowment that provides grants to arts and cultural organizations and local artists in alternating years. To date, more than $1.6 million has been granted to 260 individual artists and 150 organizations. It is still highly unique, as it was when it was founded as one of the few initiatives in the nation that offers grants to both organizations and artists.
