Hallmark Gallery Event

ROOKSVILLE - As he stood near the top of the stairs on City Hall's second floor last week, City Council member Richard Lewis recalled the building's birth as a public institution.

The city had just bought the place from a bank.

"It was very drab," Lewis recalled. "It was barebones."

He pointed to the two women who he said saved City Hall from its drabness: City Clerk Karen Phillips and Brooksville resident Mary Alice Queiros. The pair founded City Hall's art gallery in 1998, and since then the place has been a showcase of work by local artists.

"It took someone to get it started, and these ladies got it started," Lewis said.

Some 250 people came to City Hall on Wednesday, June 18 to celebrate the gallery's 10th anniversary. The sounds of the Hernando Youth Quartet's stringed instruments and boisterous chatting filled the air.

So did the scent of culinary creations from seven local restaurants that had provided free samples of fare ranging from lobster spread to peach cobbler.

And art, of course, filled the walls.

"I'm stunned," Queiros said a few minutes before Lewis gave his speech when asked about the turnout. "So many faces from my past."

"It has been a passion, but it is such a satisfaction to both of us that it took roots and grew and grew and grew," Phillips told the crowd during an informal ceremony.

When it was her turn to speak, Queiros turned to Phillips with a sly smile.

"See, Karen," she said, "I told you it would work."

The Hernando County Fine Arts Council surprised Phillips and Queiros with news that two $50 annual student art prizes had been created in their names, one for pen and ink artists and another for photography.

Then current gallery coordinator Rhonda Hancock cued quartet, and guests headed downstairs to perfect the art of mingling and noshing.

City Hall's summer exhibit includes the work of David D. Dion, Thomas Hogan, Philip Kopiczko and Lynne Simone and the stained glass of Ann Madsen.

The exhibit also features the handiwork of the Hernando Quilters, Suncoast Ship Model Society, and the Spring Hill Camera Club.

The Just Poets put their words to paper of the show, and the ARC Community Cafe Artists have contributed recycled art.

The exhibit runs through August 10. The fall exhibit will begin Aug. 18. The gallery is open 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday. Admission is free.

For more information, call 544-5407.