CODING: Words stricken are deletions; words underlined are additions.House Bill 9193
Florida House of Representatives - 1997 HR 9193
By Representative Crow
1 House Resolution
2 A resolution honoring Dr. Allen Leepa for his
3 contributions to the art world and for bringing
4 the Leepa Rattner Museum of Fine Arts to the
5 Tarpon Springs Center of the St. Petersburg
6 Junior College.
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8 WHEREAS, the State of Florida is enriched by the
9 intellectual capital of its people, and
10 WHEREAS, art provides the stimulus for humanity to see
11 itself in new, exciting, and challenging ways, and
12 WHEREAS, it is in the public interest to recognize and
13 promote the development and demonstration of great art in
14 Florida and to honor those whose lives have been marked by
15 artistic success and personal philanthropy, and
16 WHEREAS, Dr. Allen Leepa has been honored by his peers
17 in state, national, and international circles and has recently
18 donated approximately $2.5 million and hundreds of selections
19 of outstanding art for the establishment of the Leepa Rattner
20 Museum at Tarpon Springs in cooperation with the St.
21 Petersburg Junior College Development Foundation, and
22 WHEREAS, Dr. Leepa has served American higher education
23 with distinction as Professor of Art at Michigan State
24 University from 1945 until 1983, and as Professor Emeritus
25 from 1983 to the present, and
26 WHEREAS, Dr. Leepa was regarded as a leader among
27 faculty at the university, having previously studied as a
28 scholarship winner at The New Bauhaus, in Chicago and with
29 Hans Hofmann in Provincetown; having also taught at Chicago's
30 Hull House and the Metropolitan Museum of Art; having earned
31 his Bachelor of Science in Fine Arts, his Master of Fine Arts,
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Florida House of Representatives - 1997 HR 9193
568-130-97
1 and his Doctorate in Education from Columbia University; and
2 having received both the Fulbright Award for work in France
3 and the Ford Foundation Grant for work in South America, and
4 WHEREAS, he is recognized as an outstanding, pioneering
5 American artist who established an expansive career in
6 Abstract Expressionist and Minimalist works and who has been
7 given countless honors and purchase awards, such as the Childe
8 Hassam Prize (1969) and the Michigan Competition Mural Prize
9 (1982), and
10 WHEREAS, he was selected for membership in the
11 prestigious American Academy of Arts and Letters (1970), and
12 WHEREAS, his works have been exhibited in museums of
13 international acclaim such as the Prado in Madrid, Spain, the
14 Museum of Modern Art in New York City, the Musee de l'Art
15 Visuel in Paris, France, and the VII Biennalle in Sao Paulo,
16 Brazil, and
17 WHEREAS, he is widely known for his lucid and
18 persuasive writing about the meaning of art in texts such as
19 The Challenge of Modern Art, which is in its fifth printing,
20 and his revealing biography of the life and works of Abraham
21 Rattner, and
22 WHEREAS, he became the steward of the art collection of
23 the world-renowned artist Abraham Rattner who was the
24 self-effacing peer of Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dali, Henry
25 Moore, Willem de Kooning, Georges Rouault, Henry Miller, and
26 others, and
27 WHEREAS, he has demonstrated unusual generosity to the
28 Tampa Bay area, St. Petersburg Junior College, and the
29 Pinellas County Community by bestowing to the college this
30 magnificent collection of the works of Rattner and Rattner's
31 contemporaries, of Leepa's own works, as well as those of
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Florida House of Representatives - 1997 HR 9193
568-130-97
1 Esther Gentle, his mother and the widowed Rattner's second
2 wife, and
3 WHEREAS, he has contributed the resources for an
4 endowment for the Leepa Rattner Museum of Fine Arts so that
5 the public will not have to bear operating costs of the
6 Museum, and
7 WHEREAS, his example of selflessness and benevolence
8 speaks of the highest and best in the human spirit, and
9 WHEREAS, his vision includes sharing the unique
10 experience of art-and-viewer as well as art-and-artist with
11 all peoples of all nations, and
12 WHEREAS, students of every age, vocation, and interest
13 will benefit in perpetuity from his work and his gifts, NOW,
14 THEREFORE,
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16 Be It Resolved by the House of Representatives of the State of
17 Florida:
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19 That Dr. Allen Leepa is commended for his outstanding
20 accomplishments and for bringing the Leepa Rattner Museum of
21 Fine Arts to the Tarpon Springs Center of St. Petersburg
22 Junior College.
23 BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that a copy of this resolution
24 with the Seal of Florida House of Representatives affixed, be
25 presented to Dr. Allen Leepa as a tangible token of the
26 sentiments of the Florida House of Representatives.
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