{"id":76043,"date":"2026-08-08T16:00:06","date_gmt":"2026-08-08T20:00:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=76043"},"modified":"2026-08-08T16:00:20","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T20:00:20","slug":"the-polk-arts-cultural-alliance-paca-announced-its-2026-polk-arts-culture-hall-of-fame-class","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2026\/08\/08\/the-polk-arts-cultural-alliance-paca-announced-its-2026-polk-arts-culture-hall-of-fame-class\/","title":{"rendered":"The Polk Arts & Cultural Alliance (PACA) announced its 2026 Polk Arts & Culture Hall of Fame class"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The honorees represent a broad spectrum of disciplines, including music, visual arts, historic preservation, philanthropy, and arts education.<\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n

2026 Hall of Fame Inductees<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
    \n
  1. Patrick Fleitz<\/strong> (Music Educator, Pianist, and Arts Advocate<\/em>)Accomplished pianist and longtime faculty member at the Harrison School for the Arts who mentored generations of professional musicians and elevated local theater productions.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. Tom Freeman<\/strong> (Artist, Educator, and Community Builder<\/em>)The late artist and educator whose work celebrated Florida’s landscape, history, and community spirit.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  3. David and Jean Bunch<\/strong> (Historic Preservation and Cultural Heritage Champions<\/em>)Prominent voices for historical preservation in Polk County and civic leaders honored for their work sustaining the county’s historical core.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  4. Lois Cowles Harrison<\/strong> (Philanthropist, Civic Leader, and Arts Visionary<\/em>)A transformative advocate for local arts access and cultural enrichment whose legacy is tied directly to the advancement of arts education throughout Polk County.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  5. Gram Parsons<\/strong> (Music Pioneer<\/em>)The late Winter Haven-born artist who pioneered “Cosmic American Music”\u2014a genre-blending fusion of country, rock, soul, and R&B that influenced American music history.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    Induction Ceremony Details<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
      \n
    • Event:<\/strong> Polk Arts & Culture Hall of Fame Gala<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • Date:<\/strong> Tuesday, October 6, 2026<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • Location:<\/strong> Lake Eva Event Center in Haines City<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • Permanent Exhibit:<\/strong> The inductees will join previous honorees on permanent display in the Polk Arts & Culture Exhibit on the second floor of the Polk County History Center in Bartow.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      The honorees represent a broad spectrum of disciplines, including music, visual arts, historic preservation, philanthropy, and arts education. 2026 Hall of Fame Inductees Induction Ceremony Details<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":76044,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"{title}\n\n{excerpt}\n\n{url}","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","default_image_id":71799,"font":"","enabled":true,"token":"eyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvaTAud3AuY29tXC9sYWtlbGFuZGdhemV0dGUuaW5mb1wvbmV3c1wvd3AtY29udGVudFwvdXBsb2Fkc1wvMjAyNlwvMDhcL1BBQ0FfSW5saW5lX3dlYi0xLndlYnA_Zml0PTQ4MCUyQzgzJnNzbD0xIiwidHh0IjoiVGhlIFBvbGsgQXJ0cyAmYW1wOyBDdWx0dXJhbCBBbGxpYW5jZSAoUEFDQSkgYW5ub3VuY2VkIGl0cyAyMDI2IFBvbGsgQXJ0cyAmYW1wOyBDdWx0dXJlIEhhbGwgb2YgRmFtZSBjbGFzcyIsInRlbXBsYXRlIjoiZG9pcyIsImZvbnQiOiIiLCJibG9nX2lkIjoxNjMwNDA2NjF9.cJwloLoMjuNYuTZ7OX6lV8ioBmoSSfW1kHdPBe5YNS8MQ"},"version":2,"media_source":"sig","attached_media":[{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/jetpack.com\/redirect\/?source=sigenerate&query=t%3DeyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvbGFrZWxhbmRnYXpldHRlLmluZm9cL25ld3NcL3dwLWNvbnRlbnRcL3VwbG9hZHNcLzIwMjZcLzA4XC9QQUNBX0lubGluZV93ZWItMS53ZWJwIiwidHh0IjoiVGhlIFBvbGsgQXJ0cyAmYW1wOyBDdWx0dXJhbCBBbGxpYW5jZSAoUEFDQSkgYW5ub3VuY2VkIGl0cyAyMDI2IFBvbGsgQXJ0cyAmYW1wOyBDdWx0dXJlIEhhbGwgb2YgRmFtZSBjbGFzcyIsInRlbXBsYXRlIjoiZG9pcyIsImZvbnQiOiIiLCJibG9nX2lkIjoxNjMwNDA2NjF9._12q3XUY91o7hzFv_cwzCRbDBydpQH6kxLQ5tc9clV8MQ","type":"image\/jpeg"}]},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[6],"tags":[15828,15824,15825,15826,15829,15827],"class_list":["post-76043","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community","tag-david-and-jean-bunch","tag-gram-parsons","tag-lois-cowles-harrison","tag-patrick-fleitz","tag-polk-arts-culture-hall-of-fame","tag-tom-freeman"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76043","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76043"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76043\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":76045,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76043\/revisions\/76045"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/76044"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76043"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76043"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76043"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}