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Art Guild Founder Is On The Move

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By CHERYL KUCK, Tribune correspondent

Published: October 3, 2007

PLANT CITY - Plant City is not only a richly rural community known as the winter strawberry capital of the world, but it also has its share of people who have made a difference in the county and helped shape the state. Its cultural heritage is as rich as the fertile soil and is peppered with the legendary names of those who have made a lasting and meaningful contribution to the arts. Eleanore McDade is one of them.

McDade, who is moving to Georgia in mid-October, was honored recently by the East Hillsborough Art Guild for her many years of service.

'As founder of this guild, I leave my heart here with you in Plant City,' said McDade, who was presented with a string of pearls and matching earrings from the guild. McDade wiped away tears as she said goodbye.
McDade was a South Florida executive before she moved in 1981 to the farming area along Sapp Road in Plant City. Trading her high heels in for mud boots and her marketing portfolio for a paintbrush, she began devoting time to the serious study of art.

The woman who broke through the business world's glass ceiling showed Plant City area residents she could run her acreage, drive a forklift truck, sell what she grew and still manage to graduate from Tampa Tech with honors in graphic arts. She studied with noted art teachers from throughout the United States, England, France and Italy and, in the process, became a recognized and established Florida artist.

McDade also helped other artists network and increase their potential. Finding her executive skills were not as dormant as she had believed, she joined the Brandon League of Fine Arts 16 years ago and one year later became a founder of Plant City's art guild.

'In 1992 I volunteered to establish a new art guild,' she said. 'I called a steering committee to meet at my home and we voted on the name and held a contest for area artists to design a new logo. Shelly Haddox of Plant City won the contest and we have used that logo ever since.'
McDade has also been the guiding force behind the guild's high school arts scholarship program and annual arts competition management venue with the Florida Strawberry Festival.

Her credits and achievements include an invitation to become an arts and letters member of the National Pen Women of America. She is a board member of the Plant City Photo Archives, a member of the Plant City Arts Council, associate member of The Florida Watercolor Society, as well as a member and past president of the GFWC Woman's Club of Plant City. McDade's paintings grace many homes and businesses including renderings of Bruton Memorial Library, Lee Building, St. Clement Catholic Church, Mount Olive Baptist Church and The New York Firefighters Museum, to name a few.

Retiring from the art guild does not mean a retirement from the art world. Now deciding to conquer the Georgia mountain art scene, the artist is moving with her son, William Wooster, a Hillsborough County deputy sheriff, his wife, Tina, and her two grandchildren, Julia and William Jr., to Blairsville. Her daughter Judith Ann Wooster, also a deputy, said, 'I moved here so I could be with my family and now they are all moving away!'

People wishing to follow McDade's career or have questions about art commissions may contact her at her new home: 4923 Big Sky Road, Blairsville GA 30512

Correspondent Cheryl Kuck can be reached at wkuck@tampa bay.rr.com

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