A (Parking) Lot of Art

Usually, when you want to see the art at the Marco Island Center for the Arts, you park your car in the parking lot and go inside to the galleries. On Saturday, though, the art was in the parking lot – and you had to park somewhere else, maybe across Winterberry in the JCMI parking lot.

“Cars as Art” returned to the art center for the 13th year last weekend, and there were artistic masterpieces galore for connoisseurs to feast their eyes upon. The cars spanned over a century of automaking, from a crank-started Model T Ford up to Nanette Rivera’s three-wheel 2026 Ape Piaggio. Most of the vehicles on display gleamed from the result of hours of detailing and multiple coats of wax, and then there was Keith Pershing’s 1959 VW Beetle in full “barn find” rusty splendor.

That “patina” finished Bug was just one of four personal vehicles Pershing showed, along with another VW, a 1990 Vanagon Campmobile, a ’66 Mercury Monterey convertible, and the 1949 Pontiac Silver Streak that he has driven to memorable family occasions for decades, including his wedding and picking up his newborn baby (and wife) up from the hospital. And beyond his own collection, Pershing was the “driving” force behind the stellar field of cars shown at the exhibition, said Marco Island Center for the Arts executive director Hyla Crane.

“All praise for this event goes to Keith Pershing and the amazing team from Island Automotive, especially Dorie (Landa), who was the event organizer – and it was her first time,” said Crane. “Everyone did an amazing job.”

In all, there were around 50 cars and trucks on display, little ones like Rivera’s Piaggio and big ones like Pershing’s Monterey or Dave Rice’s 1986 Rolls-Royce Silver Spur.

“I lost my last Rolls in Irma, when I had four feet of water in my garage,” said Rice. “I found this one in Las Vegas, and Island Automotive rebuilt the whole engine. There were three parts that had to be custom-made.”

Another boat-length car, Michael Riordan’s 1961 Lincoln Continental, which won a prize last year, had a tally board behind it asking viewers to check which movie they knew the car from – “JFK” or “The Lincoln Lawyer.”

Marco Islanders showed up to view the automotive objets d’art and vote for their favorite.

“In less than four hours, we had over 500 visitors – and their canine friends,” said Hyla. It was less than four hours, which was the scheduled length of the event, because in the afternoon, the rain came down, and the parking lot emptied. Owners of collectible cars love to talk about their cherished chariots, but they do not generally care for having them get soaked.

Bill Britton won the Judges’ Choice award, selected by artists Kevin Hess and Susan Hankin Birke, for his 1934 Plymouth PE rumble seat coupe, but cars and spectators headed out before the people’s choice awards could be tallied and presented.

The Marco Island Center for the Arts has a full slate of shows, concerts, lessons, and workshops upcoming.