ABOUT “MANEE HOUSER”

After reading about Community Housing, Myra was inspired to name her Manatee “Manee Houser” to honor five women who paved the way for affordable housing in the United States. Catherine Bauer, Patricia Roberts Harris, Jane Adams and Jane Jacobs fought fearlessly to enrich neighborhoods with the power of diversity, and Tammy Duckworth is still fighting in Congress today! Myra painted five flamingos to honor each of them.

ABOUT MYRA

Myra Roberts earned a B.A. degree in art education, with an emphasis in painting and drawing, from Arizona State University. Her master’s degree is in printmaking and illustration, from Northern Illinois University. She taught painting, drawing, and art history for 25 years in Illinois public schools. Roberts and her family moved from Illinois to Sanibel Island in 1999.

Myra has exhibited and lectured throughout the U.S., including at the Sidney & Berne Davis Art Center of Fort Myers, The Alliance for the Arts, Fort Myers, The Center for the Arts in Bonita Springs, Florida; in Chicago; Boothbay Harbor and Bar Harbor, Maine; at Cab Calloway School of the Arts in Wilmington, Delaware (grant-funded); Florida Holocaust Museum in St. Petersburg; the Holocaust Museum & Education Center of Southwest Florida; Florida Gulf Coast University; Florida Southwestern State College, and the Museum of the Everglades.

Artwork by Roberts is extensively featured in media around the nation, including WCVB-TV Boston; Colorado-based SouthwestArt magazine; Women Artists Datebook of Syracuse, New York; and Art of the Times magazine.

Florida media include WFTX-TV Fox 4, Anna Maria Island Chamber of Commerce Cookbook; WGCU Gulf Coast Live! radio show and WGCU Public Media’s Expressions magazine; Grandeur magazine; Times of the Islands magazine, and several annual guides for The Islands of Sanibel & Captiva Chamber of Commerce.