Jim (Junkyard Dog) Fitch

WORK EXPERIENCE

Present – Acquisition agent for the Florida Masters Collection, Freelance Curator

2005 -2001 –  Curator, South Florida Community College Museum of Florida Art and Culture              

2000 - 1994 -  Art acquisition agent for Florida Masters Collection Ltd., an investment partnership responsible for discovering the group of artists now known as the  Highwaymen.

1993 - 1970  -  Owner, Kissimmee Valley Gallery

ORGANIZATIONS / INVOLVEMENTS

 Board  member Primal Connection, percussion as therapy ( 2006) 

Board member, Heartland Cultural Alliance ( 2003 – 2005)

Founder, Museum of Florida Art and Culture (1999)

Director, Highlands Art League, ( 1997 )

Producer, Painting Southern Landscapes, video series aired nationally on PBS ( 1993 )

Member, past chairman, Highlands County Historic Preservation Commission  (1991)

Founder, Cowboy Artists Association of Florida ( CAAF ) ( 1990 )

Founding president, Kissimmee Valley Archaeological and Historical Conservancy ( 1989 )

Founder, Association of Florida Environmental Artists (AFEA ) ( 1985 )

ARTICLES / PUBLICATIONS / PRESENTATIONS

Antiques and Art Around Florida, journal, History as a Crystal Ball

Antiques and Art Around Florida, journal, Art as Commodity. ( 2006.)

Presenter, Orange County History Center, The Highwaymen, (2006)

Presenter, Safety Harbor Museum, The Highwaymen 2005

Presenter, Sarasota Public Library, The Highwaymen, ( 2004 )

Panelist, Clearwater Public Access T.V., Archaeology of the Lake Wales Ridge, ( 2004 )

Antiques and Art Around Florida, journal, A Highwayman; To Be Or Not To Be? (2004) )

Presenter, Oakland Park Public Library, The Highwaymen, ( 2003, two different dates )

Antiques and Art Around Florida, journal, The Highwaymen Updated, ( Summer/Fall 2000 )

Presenter, Safety Harbor Museum, A Highwayman Symposium, ( 2000 )

Sebring News-Sun, There’s No Such Thing As A Seminole Indian Mound, ( 1997)

South Florida History Magazine, Artists of the Road, (Fall 1997 )

Antiques and Art Around Florida, journal, The Highwaymen Revisited, ( Winter/Summer 1997 )

Visiting Lecturer for a one year period, Florida Art Touring Program, Randle/Sheffield Collection of Seminole Photographs, ( 1996 )

Presenter, annual convention, Florida Anthropological Society, Humble Beginnings, A Tradition Is Born (1995 )

Antiques and Art Around Florida, journal, The Highwaymen, (Winter/Spring 1995)

Art and Artists of Florida, newsletter, Florida’s Art Tradition, Part 1, ( Spring 1994 )

Art and Artists of Florida, newsletter, Florida’s Art Tradition, Part 2, ( Fall 1994 )

MAJOR EXHIBITIONS

Curator/Project Director, Catfish, Moonshine, Cattle on the Peavine – Surviving on Florida’s Last Frontier, (2005). A program about resourceful, determined people who, confronted with a rapidly changing environment, made a conscious decision to remain free of the encumbrances of  modern society. A traveling exhibit funded by the Florida Humanities Council. Catalog available.

Curator, The New Masters: Florida’s Contemporary Regionalists, paintings by nineteen  Florida artists

presented against a backdrop of paintings from Florida’s Golden Age of Art furnished by Mr. Sam Vickers. This exhibit was curated and presented as the opening exhibit for the Museum of Florida Art and Culture,

( 2002 – 2003 ) Catalog available.

Curator, Two of a Kind, Last of a Breed, paintings by two members of the Cowboy Artists Association of Florida, Bill Roberts and Sean Sexton. Museum of Florida Art and Culture ( 2003 )

Curator, Two Worlds, an  installation by Hoang Van Bui. South Florida Community College ( 1997 )

Curator,/Producer, Randle/Sheffield Collection of Seminole Photographs, ( 1996 ). Forty seven original photographs taken of the Seminole Indians living along the Tamiami Trail in the 1940’s. Exhibited at the offices of the Florida Masters Collection Ltd. A video interview with the photographer Phyliss Sheffield was produced as part of this exhibit.

Co-Curator, Florida’s Artistic Trailblazers,The Highwaymen, Museum of African American Art, Tampa ( 1996 ).

Curator/ Organizer, Artists Views of the Suwannee River, ( 1984 ).  Five artists painted on location scenes of the Suwannee River over a period of a year. Fifty plus works of art were exhibited at the Thomas Center in Gainesville and the Brevard Art Center and Museum in Melbourne.

PUBLIC ART INSTALLATIONS

Passing Through the Light,  stabile, University Center, South Florida Community College

Old Beliefs, stabile,  Museum of Florida Art and Culture

13238 US 98
Sebring, FL 33876
(863) 655-0412
jim.fitch@gmail.com
Spouse: Meredith Anne