Elma A. Berner, Wekiva Homestead, oil on canvas board, 16 by 20 inches. Signed verso, E.A. Berner 1924.*
After study at the Art Institute of Chicago, in 1913 Elma Berner moved from White Hall, Michigan to Orlando, Florida. Over the next forty years Berner would become an important asset for the development of art in the greater Orlando area. A charter member and later president of the Orlando Art Association, Berner was for years in charge of the art department of the Central Florida Fair. Hugh McKean, president of Rollins College was one of her students.
Elma A. Berner, New Smyrna Beach, oil on board signed verso E. A. Berner 26.
Berner is listed as a participating artist, Region No. 5, Report of the Assistant Secretary of the Treasury to Federal Emergency Relied Administration, December 8, 1933-June 30, 1934 (FERA). During the Depression Berner worked as a government artist for the Florida Art Project (FAP). In 1935 she and artist George Sternberg assisted Edith Fairfax Davenport on a series of four murals for the civic auditorium of the Orlando Chamber of Commerce. The murals record the industries of Orlando County, including the cattle, lumber, turpentine, and orange industries. As a FAP artist, Berner’s painting, Azalea Gardens, was made for a residence hall at Florida State College for Women. When Orville Davis, Principal at Orlando Memorial Junior High, decided he wanted some culture on his bare walls, the PTA and the School Board agreed and petitioned the FAP for an artist. Elma Berner got the assignment. A year later two large murals were hung, one depicting Osceola’s refusal to surrender at Moultrie Creek, thrusting a dagger through the treaty, the other the first steamboat on the Wekiwa River with Seminoles watching.
Edna A. Berner, St. Johns River, Crew Landing, Rollins College, Winter Park, oil on canvas 9 by 12 inches, signed lower left Berner 40.
The murals at both the Orlando Chamber of Commerce and Memorial Junior Hight appear to have been lost when the buildings were demolished. The Orlando Sentinel (March 21, 1937) notes the Memorial murals (center panel 10 feet wide by 13 feet high, with two side panels both 7 feet wide tapering from 13 to 7 1/2 feet) were not painted directly on concrete or dry wall, they were “hung,” and should have survived demolition. Did they? As for the Davenport murals at the Chamber of Commerce, they were 10 by 12-foot panels. What happened to them? Berner died in Orlando, June 25, 1953. Born: 1879, Grand Rapids, Michigan. Died. June 25, 1953, Orlando. Education: Art Institute of Chicago; with Weyman Adams and John Vanderpool; Rollins College with George Ganiere. Membership; Florida Federation of Art; Orlando Art Association. Exhibits: South Florida Fair, Tampa Fair Grounds, February 1921, first prize, watercolor from nature, third prize, oil portrait from nature, first prize, charcoal; Students’ Art Club, 2nd Annual Exhibit of Florida Art, Tampa Museum of Art, City Hall, March 12- 19, 1923, Oaks at Palm Springs; Tampa Art Institute, 5th Annual Exhibit of Florida Artists at Tampa City Hall, March 1926, Marches of the St. Johns, Portrait of a Lady, Flatwoods November, Hibiscus, Banks o’ Gatlm; South Florida Fair, Tampa, February 1927, award portrait copy; Orlando Art Association, Florida artist exhibit, May 1927, 1st prize flower study, Peonies; Central Florida Exposition, Orlando, February 1928, 1st prize, oil portrait, 1st place, still life, 2nd prize, original composition; Tuttle Shop, 16 North Orange Avenue, October 1928, Zinnias and a portrait, Mrs. E. G. Duckworth; Orlando Art Association at Chamber of Commerce, November 1928, Zinnias; Central Florida Exposition, Orlando, February 1930, 1st prize in landscape, prize, portrait in oil; Orlando Art Association, at Chamber of Commerce, December 1931; Orlando Chamber of Commerce, December 1931, two-man exhibit with Florence Hudson, 34 paintings, many of Florida scenes; Art Mart in Murphy Arcade, Orlando, January 20, 1934; Orlando Art Association at Chamber of Commerce, January 1935, Little Wekiwa and Cypress Water; Florida Art Project of Florida Emergency Relief administration, at Florida State College for Women, June 1935; Federal Art Project, Florida State Fair, Tampa, June 1937; Florida Federation of Art 14th Annual Circuit, December 5, 1941, Tampa, best Florida subject, Morning on the Little Wekiwa.
*With thanks to Linda J. Ponder, daughter of Elma Berner’s great grandson, F. Bary Berner III.
