Located in Orlando’s Loch Haven Cultural Park, the Mennello Museum of American Art provides locals a chance to experience carefully curated art. In addition to their permanent pieces, the museum has rotating exhibits. In the past, rotating exhibits have addressed topics such as Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America, Impression and Reality, and Self-Taught Black Artists in the American South. The current exhibit, Pool Party: The Pool in American Art, was curated by the museum’s Executive Director, Shannon Fitzgerald. Pool Party opened with a reception on June 6 and will stay up until September 28.

Pool Party explores the symbol of the pool in American culture: how can artwork of pools communicate themes of class, culture, and family? The exhibit combines pieces from famous artists like Slim Aarons and Bruce Davidson with work by local artists.

One local artist featured is Peter Schreyer, who was the last photographer to capture Winter Park’s famous Langford Hotel before it was torn down in 2003. Schreyer’s photograph in the exhibit features the hotel’s pool. Also displayed in the museum are Orlando artist Ericka Sobrack’s paintings of pools at night. Sobrack caught Fitzgerald’s attention when her work was featured at Snap! Orlando.

For Fitzgerland, visiting other art exhibits is an effective way to discover new talent for the gallery. In addition to her personal preferences, she takes into consideration how different artists’ collections will work together as a whole.

“We’re certainly following other curatorial endeavours,” she said. “It’s just seeing ‘wow, there’s this collective, although they aren’t made together’. So there’s this spontaneous moment in culture that is happening aligned with your interests.”

Other times, Fitzgerald pulls work from artists that she’s known for much longer.

“It’s really exciting to be able to pull from artists you respect,” she said.

“Derrick Adams is one that resonates to me because it’s so contemporary, so darn dynamic, and its context: it can be historical, provocative, and still very joyful.”

Adams’ piece titled Floater 17 from his series Floaters is pictured prominently on the flyer for the exhibit. In this piece, a woman lounges on a flamingo pool floatie. According to Fitzgerald, this piece was a potent image to represent the exhibit: not only are flamingos symbolically associated with Florida, but Adams' discussion about stereotypes is an excellent example of artwork containing subtext.