Ft Myers Beach - Good Neighbor

ST INS CARES-FMBAA-Rebuilding Creativity After Hurricane Ian

• "Cabo" Jim Schaller • Season 5 • Episode 51

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The storm took the building, but the community kept the art alive. Join us as we sit down with Sylvia Montgomery and Suzan Lanz from the Fort Myers Beach Art Association to explore how a 1951 plein air tradition weathered Hurricane Ian, found a bright new home at Cypress Square, and transformed recovery into a creative movement. From a cozy hut on Denora Street to a modern gallery buzzing with workshops, rotating shows, and neighborly energy, this story is about resilience with a paintbrush.

We dive into the programs that turned occasional visitors into committed members: quick-hit lunch and learns, open paints, gentle-but-honest critiques, a Sunday art book club, and playful classes like “Bossy Pants” that spark experimentation. You’ll hear how membership doubled, why demographics shifted toward full-time locals and remote workers, and what that means for year-round programming in Fort Myers, Bonita, Punta Gorda, and the beach. Along the way, we highlight community partnerships that amplify impact—Women’s Club events, Lions Club Shrimp Festival murals and t-shirts, library exhibits, greeting cards at the Islander, and a growing First Friday art walk that now starts at Cypress Square before flowing to DAAS Co-op, Alliance for the Arts, and downtown.

If you’ve wondered how local arts strengthen a town, this conversation shows the blueprint: clear invitations, consistent events, shared walls, and open hearts. Whether you’re an artist returning to the easel after years away or a neighbor looking for a meaningful night out, there’s a place for you—paint in hand or simply curious. Come see the rotating exhibitions every four to six weeks, bring a friend to First Friday, or jump into a workshop and meet the good neighbors behind the canvases.

Explore events, join a show, or plan your visit at FortMyersBeachArt.com, and stop by 13451 McGregor Blvd Unit 1 in Cypress Square. If this conversation inspired you, subscribe, share it with a friend, and leave a review so more neighbors can find their creative community.

Fort Myers Beach Art Association
Sylvia Montgomery & Suzan Lanz
3451 McGregor Blvd. Unit 1, Fort Myers, FL 33919
(239) 463-3909
publicity@fortmyersbeachart.com
fortmyersbeachart


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Intro/Close:

Welcome to State Insurance USA Cares Podcast, where we celebrate the heart of our communities. Each episode, we highlight local charities and nonprofits who are bringing hope, help, and healing to those who need it most. Get ready to be inspired by the amazing stories of people making a difference. Because together, we care.

"Cabo" Jim:

Welcome, Fort Myers Beach Good Neighbors. Today we have good neighbors Sylvia Montgomery and Suzan Lanz from the Fort Myers Beach Art Association. Welcome. Thank you.

Suzan Lanz:

Good morning. Good morning.

"Cabo" Jim:

Pleasure to have you ladies on this morning and share a little bit about what you do. So let's start off with you guys sharing a little bit about what the Art Association is all about.

Suzan Lanz:

Okay. Thanks for having us, Jim. Yeah. Fort Myers Beach Art Association was established in 1951 by artists going to the beach and painting Plenaire, which means out in the outdoors. And it grew from there. They did workshops, they did classes. And I believe in the 60s, they bought a piece of property on Denora Street on Fort Myers Beach. And a few years later, they built a lovely little hut, if you will, to have little workshops in and the community, a good place for the community to get together and do some artwork and share it with amongst everybody. And we had a lovely community and everybody, we had international artists come and teach workshops. And you know, it was a good place. We had all kinds of events and activities going on there. But as you know, Jim, with many other buildings, it suffered severe damage from Hurricane Ian. And um subsequently we helped each other out for a long time there. We um the first congregational church on college was kind enough to let us use their fellowship hall. So we never missed a show, we never missed a meeting. A lot of the other local art groups, you know, adopted us temporarily and let us hang our artwork there. But recently, um, you know, we need our own, we need a home back. You know, we we didn't we did some fundraisers to raise money to rebuild. And, you know, it's still we'd still would love to rebuild, but you know, financially we can't do it right this moment. Um, so we rent a space on uh Cypress Square right next to Prawn Brokers and Bellini's in that little restaurant row there. We have a lovely little gallery, and uh we've been there since April 1st.

"Cabo" Jim:

Very nice. It's a beautiful beautiful location. I've been there myself, and uh you guys have done a great job with it. It's very welcoming, very bright, very uh, very artistic, I might say, right?

Suzan Lanz:

Well, we hope so. We hope so. And Sylvia joined. Um When did you join?

Sylvia Montgomery:

I joined in July of last year. And I was just, you know, driving with a friend and we saw the sign and it said art gallery, and we're like, oh, let's go check it out.

Suzan Lanz:

So Sylvia and I are different than most members in the organization, whereas we have um scientific degrees, you know, business degrees. We're not our we were not trained as artists. So we bring a different perspective to the organization, and it's good for uh to have a you know wide variety of folks because she is a publicity and marketing expert. And so we're so lucky to have her join us.

Sylvia Montgomery:

That's very kind. I'm happy to be here, yeah.

Suzan Lanz:

And so I kind of just do, you know, Jack of all trades, master of nothing.

Sylvia Montgomery:

Yeah, but she does a lot, let me tell you. It's a pleasure.

"Cabo" Jim:

I bet so so how did each of you get involved in this? I mean, obviously, without backgrounds, I do I do personally have an art background myself, even though I really don't use it. I I use another one.

Sylvia Montgomery:

You could join us, you gotta join us.

Suzan Lanz:

I know, right? Exactly. We'll make you an honorary member. There we go, perfect. So, um, well, you know, we moved down in 2020 during COVID. I'm originally from New Jersey, and um, I was an art, I tried to be an artist and a crafter many, many years ago, but you know, corporate life got in the way and I couldn't, I didn't pick up a paintbrush for 25 years. And then once we moved down here, I was still working full-time, but remotely, COVID, you know, God bless, and um started picking up a paintbrush again. And I wanted to find my own little tribe and looked around and looked around and found Fort Myers Beach, unfortunately, right during or right after the hurricane. Um, so I did go to the new the old building a few times, but I wasn't an official member at the time. So I do recall the building, but I didn't have the honor of you know sitting there in the building.

Sylvia Montgomery:

So and I um go ahead.

"Cabo" Jim:

Nope, go ahead, Sylvia.

Sylvia Montgomery:

I was gonna say my husband and I bought in 2021, you know, during COVID, like a gazillion other people, um, and we lived right outside Washington, DC. And with the idea that once he retired, I was working remote, you know, we would move down here. And yes, my background is in marketing. Um, fun fact, I did go to school for art school, but I didn't do anything with it for 40 some years because you know, normally just doesn't pay the bills. Painting doesn't pay the bills. Um, so you know, um went into the marketing direction. And when I first came across the organization, you know, one of the things that really attracted me to it was the fact that it had been established, it had this just uh tremendous heritage. I never had the opportunity to go to the facility um, you know, at the beach. Um, but given that I live in North Foremers, it's super convenient to be able to get to Cyber Square. Um, whereas I, you know, going to the beach on a more regular basis is not quite as convenient. Um, but it just has a tremendous heritage, it has a tremendous wealth of knowledge, um, different people from different backgrounds. And I started my goal was to be able to start painting. Um, and then as I learned more about the organization and that they needed some help with marketing, I just couldn't help myself.

Suzan Lanz:

So I had to jump in there, and I've been having a lot of fun just you know, contributing and um because we need to get the word out, we need to get the word out that we're there and that we love to have new members and um learn more about their own and it's working when we be prior to us moving into the new space in Cyprus Square, we had approximately 75, 78 members. We're approximately at 150 members right now. Oh every week and from all over greater Fort Myers community as well as Fort Myers Beach community. And you know, our demographics have shifted earlier on. It was a lot of Fort Myers Beach snowbirds. Okay now, as you know, Jim, a lot of us are retired, a lot of us baby boomers have retired and younger and Gen X and Gen X, last year baby boomer, um, have retired or retired early, work remotely, and have moved down to Florida full-time. So our demographics has changed to much more full-time um members. That being said, that means we need to offer a lot more to our full-time members over the summer months, the non-winter, you know, the non-high season. And we are implementing that now. We're working towards that. What are some of the programs that we've done and will be doing?

Sylvia Montgomery:

Well, for example, the one that you know immediately caught my attention this past summer was the lunch and learns, because you know, it's a quick one-hour middle of the day on Saturday. You can bring your own lunch or not, cup coffee. Um, and there's a demo, there's a talk by a local artist. A lot of times they're members, a lot of times sometimes they're not. Um, so the lunch and learns were a quick hit with me because I could just pop in, you know, come in, come out.

Suzan Lanz:

Free and open to everyone.

Sylvia Montgomery:

Yes.

Suzan Lanz:

So we had very good attendance for these lunch and learns, and we hope to continue them. And the lunch and learns can consist of all different things how to how to frame a piece of art. Um, I did one on how to make greeting cards of your art. Um, we had some jewelry making, we had some how to paint fine pop art with crayons.

Sylvia Montgomery:

Yes.

Suzan Lanz:

Yeah.

Sylvia Montgomery:

I did one that was actually very unexpected, and it was about how to kind of look into yourself and find what is your style and what is it that you want to accomplish with art from a personal reward perspective. So it's not always, you know, you have to come in and you have to do some artwork. There's some really engaging conversations that take place as well.

"Cabo" Jim:

It's a lot of personal growth and connection going on in the community, which is great. It really is.

Suzan Lanz:

And then we get very involved with community activities, other nonprofits. We, you know, we support the women's club activity. We had an absolute blast this past Saturday hosting one of the putt putts um and running for nervous running the you know the show for nervous Nellies there and all the costumes and all of the it was just so much fun. We had a great event. Yeah, yeah. And um, we're helping out the shrimp fest this year and next year. So the Lions Club with that, we're in the process of making a mural um, you know, one of those photo in murals run at the end of February. Um, we're working on a mural right now for them. Uh, next year we're gonna be designing their t-shirts, their designs for their t-shirts. So we're gonna have a little internal competition. So that's setting. We have just initiated that today, actually. So uh we got a lot going on. We support all of the organizations where um some of our members are looking into how we can help some Fort Myers organizations. We do do uh a scholarship. Well, it's more of an art award for Cypress Lake High School. Every year we participate in that and we donate to the award, you know, we donate awards to the the students for that. Um, so you know, we did a food drive recently. We try to stay very involved in the community and give back. I mean, we are a nonprofit, and those that's part of our mission.

unknown:

Absolutely.

"Cabo" Jim:

And you guys are doing a doing a great job. So, on the flip side of that, what are some of the things that the community can do to help you guys?

Sylvia Montgomery:

Well, come visit the gallery.

Suzan Lanz:

Come visit the gallery.

Sylvia Montgomery:

Come visit the gallery.

Suzan Lanz:

Our membership has really grown, and we're grateful for it. We have so many lovely people. But honestly, it would be fabulous if we got more of the public to come in and see our art and see what we offer, see all the workshops we have in the cloud, upcoming classes. We have, you know, dozens of things upcoming, you know, this week alone. We have our plenaire meets every Wednesday and every Saturday, and they're all over Fort Myers, Bonita, Punta Gorda, Fort Myers Beach.

Sylvia Montgomery:

Matt Lachet, I went a couple of weeks ago. It was very nice.

Suzan Lanz:

Yeah, so our website lists everything, uh, Fort Myers Beach Art dot com. Um, we do all different kinds of workshops. We have jewelry making workshop coming up, watercolor. We're doing um actually, we're even we have started a new book club on Sundays for art-related books. The one that they're doing right now is called The Artists' Way, which I actually just started reading it yesterday. It's it's very interesting. So uh we have a lot of offerings because our membership is growing and people want to get involved, our members, we're offering more and more things every week.

"Cabo" Jim:

You've got something for everybody, it seems like, which is great. It's we're trying, we're trying.

Suzan Lanz:

And if we don't, please, we're open to suggestions, you know. We're learning, we're growing. It's a it's a transitional time for us right now, because you know, we were hurting for three years, as everyone else is, and now we're trying to find our way. Um, our space now is smaller. Um, we would love to have a larger space, and we're keeping our options open. Is what can we do once our lease is up at our organization? Do we renew in Cypress Square, or maybe we find a bigger, better, you know, opportunity? Maybe we have the funds to rebuild or work out some kind of opportunity on Denora Street.

"Cabo" Jim:

I love it. And you've got a number of people already displaying their artwork in your gallery, correct?

Suzan Lanz:

Yes. Our artwork changes approximately every four to six weeks. Everything comes off the wall and we start the next show.

Sylvia Montgomery:

It's a lot of work.

Suzan Lanz:

All original artwork. It is a lot of work. We have a good team, but I get stuck spackling and painting in between, but we're working on that as well. Um, so the artwork changes. We also have artwork at the Fort Myers Beach Library. We have a wall or two there where some of our artists hang their art and that rotates periodically. We sell greeting cards at the Islander. Anita is so supportive of our organization, and she sells our greeting cards there, and we do pretty darn well there. Um, we also have a show cur currently right now called Outside the Lines, and it's presented at Cape Coral Art Center. You know, there's there's 23 art centers, nonprofits within the Southwest Florida Art Council, and we all support each other. Exactly. Yeah.

Sylvia Montgomery:

And one of the new things I was going to mention is we're now um going to be part of that extended first Friday art walk with you know, wine and cheese Friday. So you can kind of start doing that art crawl. Start at Cypress Square, work your way down, go to DAWS Co-op, work your way down, and go downtown Fort Myers. So, you know, it's kind of nice that it's extended itself the route.

Suzan Lanz:

Yeah, we're we're, you know, we'll do wine and cheese at four, and then they can go to DOS Co-op and Alliance for the Arts and do the 530 big fancy stuff. See the artwork, the next show that openings there, and then go downtown to Art Walk. So I would love it if people would come join us for for our first Fridays.

Sylvia Montgomery:

Absolutely.

Suzan Lanz:

Yeah.

"Cabo" Jim:

And that sounds like a great time, right? Artwork, people, community, who would who would want to be there, right? The weather could cooperate.

Suzan Lanz:

You know what? When it's cold like this, it's a good time to snuggle up and and to come into the gallery and paint. We do open paints. So today we do something. Today there's a class, free class open to everyone called Bossy Pants, where one of the instructors tells you, prompts you things to do with your canvas. And it, you know, it'll be very abstract, and it's a multimedia um event, and it's fun to see the outcomes of that. So today's Bossy Pants. Tomorrow we do open paint where any of our members can come. They bring their supplies, and you know, it's a good community event. And, you know, every Wednesday we're there.

Sylvia Montgomery:

Well, and Wednesday is plenaire, which I had never done until like last month.

Suzan Lanz:

Sometimes they coincide. They do plenaire in the courtyard at Cypress Square, and then they do we do critiques, you know, Wednesday afternoon we'll do critiques. We're also going to do regular critiques another day of the week, but we're still hemming and hauling on what that's going to be. So if you're if you're a novice artist and you want just to get some opinions, I am not an expert by any stretch of the imagination. So I love to bring some of my semi-finished artwork in to get feedback from the the true professionals. And it's so helpful. And like I said, everyone's willing to help out. They'll tell you, oh, you you know, you didn't hang that correctly. The wires got to be three inches down, not two and a half. And so they're really helpful. And they'll help you mat products if you need to put a mat on your watercolor stuff. And it's a great bunch of ladies and gentlemen.

Sylvia Montgomery:

There's also greeting cards there. There's a couple of racks of greeting cards. So if it's more convenient for someone, they can just pop in there to buy some greeting cards too.

"Cabo" Jim:

I love it, love it. You guys are doing some some great things. It sounds like you have a very bright future ahead, and things are finally recovering and getting back to normal and growing, you know, as well.

Suzan Lanz:

Yes. Um, you know, our heart is is on the beach with, you know, that's our vibe. It's very casual, it's very beachy, and we try to emulate that in the gallery as well. And so it doesn't matter where we live, we always have that spirit in our hearts. Correct.

"Cabo" Jim:

I love that. I love that. So, how would our listeners grow about reaching out to you, contacting you if they want to become involved or wanted to help?

Suzan Lanz:

Well, our best way is our website, which is Fort MyersBeachArt.com, and that gives a list of all our events and activities. Um, if you want to enter any of our shows, you gotta, you know, just follow the prompts on the website, or please come visit us. Our address is 13451 McGregor Boulevard Unit 1 in Cypress Square. Like I said, right between Prawn Brokers and Bellini's. We're right there.

Sylvia Montgomery:

Absolutely. And on the website, you'll find the social media links as well. So there's regular posts on both Instagram and Facebook.

"Cabo" Jim:

Very good. Yeah, great location. I encourage everybody to swing on by and check this out. It's it's a great location. You guys are doing some great things. Any last words for our listeners today?

Suzan Lanz:

Well, we just we love our community, we love our members, and we look forward to meeting and greeting every single person who comes through our doors and participates in all the fun we have.

Sylvia Montgomery:

Yeah, I would just say as a new member this year was the 75th, well, last year, it's still part of the 75th year anniversary of the organization. And I, you know, just looking forward to seeing where the next 75 plus years go. It's a remarkable history. So lucky that we're around and so it's a remarkable history.

"Cabo" Jim:

Very good, ladies. It's been a pleasure getting to know you. Thank you for doing what you're doing for the community and bringing some of this energy back. We love it, and thank you for most of all being such good neighbors.

Suzan Lanz:

It's our pleasure, Jim.

Sylvia Montgomery:

Our pleasure. Thank you, Jim.

Suzan Lanz:

Thank you. We look forward to seeing you at the gallery very soon.

Intro/Close:

Thank you for joining us on State Insurance USA Care. We hope today's story uplifted and inspired you. If you'd like to support or learn more about the incredible work happening in your community, visit StateInsuranceusa.com or call 239 567 9992. You can also visit CaboWabboGym.com. Until next time, be sure to let your sun shine and keep sharing good and positive vibes wherever the waves take you.