Southwest Florida Premier Art Festival comes to Fort Myers

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Downtown Fort Myers’ waterfront was covered in art for the annual Southwest Florida Premier Art Festival this weekend.

Paintings, sculptures and handmade glasswork brought pops of color and life to the area, especially after a gloomy Sunday morning.

Using colorful silk and a needle, Xiao Xia Zhang can create life in her art, spending hours a year hand embroidering each portrait.

The art of fine Chinese embroidery is a passion, a lifestyle and a family tradition for her. For the first time, Zhang was able to showcase her work in Fort Myers at the annual Southwest Florida Premier Art Festival.

“The full family for generations, one day my grandmother taught my mother, my mother taught me, and I’m teaching my daughter,” said Zhang.

Art flooded the streets of downtown Fort Myers, showing the amount of talent within our community.

“There’s some truly amazing artists. We were in the tent for youth. It was unbelievable, the talent that our young people have even,” said Kevin Anderson, mayor of Fort Myers.

This year’s art fest concluded at 4 p.m. on Sunday. Anderson said you can always support your local artists and businesses by reaching out to any of them about their work.

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