2022-2023 MKAC Season is here! Check out our 25th Anniversary Brochure

MKAC Logo
MKAC Logo
MKAC galleries logo (transparent PNG)
MKAC galleries logo (transparent PNG)
PlayPause
previous arrow
next arrow
Shadow

 

Welcome

to the Mattie Kelly Arts Center Galleries

 

Mattie Kelly Arts Center (MKAC) is the Emerald Coast’s premier source for arts and culture. Mattie Kelly Arts Center Galleries (MKAC) are well known for hosting internationally recognized, national and regional exhibitions in addition to hosting regular gallery talks and workshops related to the exhibits on display.

Among the numerous events hosted at MKAC’s galleries includes two annual juried exhibitions:

•  the Arnie Hart Juried Student Exhibition, a competition for Northwest Florida State College student artists, and the

• 30th Annual Emerald Coast National! Call for Art! which is open to artists from all over the United States and where people who attend can enjoy the beautiful building!

The Mattie Kelly Arts Center Galleries (MKAC) are a vital part of the community and inspire our mission to provide guests access to our vibrant artistic community through quality exhibits while inspiring folks of all ages to appreciate the arts together.

For more information about our exhibitions or how to host an event, please contact Galleries Director J. Wren Supak at [email protected].

Artists interested in showcasing their work at the Mattie Kelly Arts Center should view our current Call to Artists →

 

CLICK HERE FOR OUR 2022-2023 SEASON CALENDAR

 

OUR MISSION

MKAC Galleries are on an academic mission that conducts programs to enhance the educational mission of Northwest Florida State College. Serving as a teaching adjunct to the Department of Art within the college’s Division of Fine and Performing Arts and Humanities, the galleries organize exhibitions by established national and international artists across styles and media. The MKAC galleries are a reputed viable cultural asset for the entire campus and the regional community.

HOURS:
Monday – Friday 10AM – 4PM

SUMMER HOURS:
May 9 – July 22
Monday – Thursday 10AM – 4PM

 

Announcing: 30th Annual Emerald Coast National! Call for Art!

Various Artists

Recent Exhibitions

Deborah Masters: Ghosts

“Deborah Masters is a highly gifted figurative sculptor whose speciality is heads. She constructs works that are both much greater than life-size and also tabletop portraits. Both kinds of work depict animals — she has two dogs — and people.”

“In a large barn, she both makes her art and stores it: in the back of the space, the outsize heads, outfitted with long, spectral white garments, are hung from chains attached to the ceiling. They are arrayed in a row across the room and look like a ghostly choir, whose presence suggests both intense spirituality and a somber point of view. The smaller heads, also clothed in a roomy fabric, maintain the larger pieces’ sobriety, but do evoke a bit of a smile — likely the result of their comparatively lesser size. Still, overall, the impression of Masters’ art is that of an undertaking that is both otherworldly and artistic: the point at which longing and the accomplishment of the hand meet.”

Exhibition information adapted from art writer and editor Jonathan Goodman, contributed by Deborah Masters. For more information on the exhibition artist, please visit www.deborahmasters.com. “Ghosts” was on exhibition in the Mattie Kelly Arts Center Galleries from January 27 – February 28, 2020.

Artists interested in showcasing their work at the Mattie Kelly Arts Center should view our current Call to Artists →

 

Spirit Figure

Sublette New Guinea Collection

Permanent Collection

Mattie Kelly Arts Center Galleries (MKAC) has a world-class, multi-million-dollar permanent collection. This collection has been assembled since the founding of Northwest State College (then Okaloosa Walton Junior college) in 1963. Selections from this elite gallery are displayed at least twice per year; during the summer high light and holiday spotlight shows which run continuously 10 months out of 12 each calendar year.

This extensive teaching collection is made up of more than 1,000 artworks and includes multiple sub-collections.

Learn more about our permanent collection →

Art Galleries Permanent Collections

About the Galleries

McIlroy Gallery

The beautiful Mcllroy Gallery provides visitors with an immersive experience. With its diffused natural light and 18-foot ceiling, it’s the perfect place in which you can lose yourself among incredible works of visual art from around world.  This gallery was a gift from the McIlroy family through the Northwest Florida State College Foundation.

Holzhauer Gallery

The pristine Holzhauer Gallery is named after renowned artist Emil Holzhauer, who donated a multi-million-dollar permanent collection of his works to Northwest Florida State College. This intimate room for exhibiting guest artists’ work allows visitors an opportunity they may not get anywhere else to experience what it feels like being behind closed doors with world famous works of art!