Georgine Shillard-Smith was a woman possessed of extraordinary vision, grace, and generosity who devoted her energy and resources to realizing the dream of a professional art school and gallery on a beautiful site adjacent to her home in Belleair, Florida. Her vision was for a “…universal creative center where the young-at-heart of all ages might walk with beauty, sharing their new insights in the silent eloquence of art…” Today, the Gulf Coast Museum of Art interprets that vision as an institution accredited by the American Association of Museums, with a sophisticated collection of contemporary Florida art and Southeastern fine crafts, a comprehensive teaching program for adults and children (including college credit and non-credit courses) and a variety of interpretive educational and school service programs.
The Clearwater Museum Association (forerunner of the Florida Gulf Coast Art Center and the Gulf Coast Museum of Art) was incorporated in 1936 as a non-profit educational institution. An exhibition program was inaugurated under the presidency of John Hall Jones and expanded when Mrs. Smith became president in 1938. She recognized the need for art instruction in the community, and a school was established in the Clearwater Municipal Auditorium that provided beginning and advanced classes. The school progressed steadily, and after World War II, outgrew its limited quarters.
In 1936, Mrs. Smith acquired the Rutherford B. Hayes house in Belleair, and her dream of an art center with national significance began to take shape. On January 14, 1948, ground was broken on her estate for the first in a series of buildings that would comprise the Florida Gulf Coast Art Center.

Provisions were made in Mrs. Smith’s will which provided that the Belleair property be used by her daughter, Tina Leser Howley, (1911-1986) during her lifetime, with the property reverting to the Art Center upon Mrs. Howley’s death. Additionally, Mrs. Smith bequeathed the proceeds of a trust and her collection of artwork to the Art Center.
The original plans for the Art Center called for a main building which would house the school in its south wing, an administrative area in the center, and a north wing also devoted to studio space. A walled patio, which would afford privacy for sketching and serve as an area for outdoor concerts, was also included. Although the original plan was never built as conceived, four buildings were ultimately constructed to house the gallery, administrative building, ceramics studio, and sculpture/metals studio.
The purposes of the Florida Gulf Coast Art Center as defined by Mrs. Smith were:

• To bring the best in art ever closer to the daily life of the entire community.
  
  
• To attract American’s finest artists to Belleair for their own creative work, and to teach students of all ages, from beginners to post-graduates, in an environment of inspiration.
  
  
• To develop new and better ways and means of applying the aesthetic values of the fine arts to industry, to handicrafts, and especially to beautifying the American home.
  
  
• To present frequent public programs of artistic significance to the largest possible audience, by all known media of cultural communication.
  
  
• To serve the needs of those true artists, the children.
  
  
• To be a fountainhead, a forum, and a focal point for any and all sincere, intelligent activities to advance the fine arts, the applied arts, literature and human understanding.
  
  

Today, the Gulf Coast Museum of Art continues to be guided by these purposes, as articulated by Mrs. Smith and which are reflected in the Museum’s Mission Statement. The Gulf Coast Museum of Art is deeply committed to Mrs. Smith’s vision of enriching the lives of the residents of the Tampa Bay region through exhibitions which challenge and expand our perceptions of the world, and classes and workshops which encourage students to reach into their untapped creativity, not only to produce objects of value and beauty, but also to experience the transcendent power of art in everyday life.

The Museum continues to provide the very finest in instruction for its students by providing opportunities to work with artists of national and international acclaim in new state-of-the-art studios.