Cultural Council of Palm Beach County

Despite Florida’s relatively poor and infrequent surf, the state has produced a disproportionate number of world-class surfers and contributions to the global history of surfing, surf culture and the surf industry. Through panels communicating the narrative history, photographers portfolios and multi-media stations his exhibition seeks to reposition the awareness of Florida’s huge and rich surf history and culture while also elucidating wider themes – maritime history, spirituality, environmentalism, music - that run through surfing and have strongly affected popular culture since the 1960s. Organized by the University Galleries as a traveling exhibition Surfing Florida will be presented in most, if not all of the seven coastal regions that are documented in the exhibition. A series of public film screenings and lectures by “surf scholars” will complement the exhibition along with a comprehensive and richly illustrated book. The project is made possible in part by a grant from the Flor