Please join us for the opening of Dana Montenieri’s thesis exhibition ‘The Art of Renewal’ in our Miller Gallery!
Reception: Saturday, January 10, 1-3pm CST.
Free to attend.
On display January 10 - 31.
The Center for the Arts is open to the public Tuesday through Saturday, 10am-5pm CST. Fridays from 10am-7pm CST.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Danella “Dana” Montenieri is a Florida-based artist whose work is shaped by a lifelong connection to creativity and family. Raised in the Florida Panhandle, she grew up surrounded by the rhythms of faith, service, and storytelling. Those early foundations—along with profound personal losses later in life—deepened her belief in art as a form of resilience and emotional restoration. Her experiences with grief and renewal inform both her subject matter and her commitment to community-focused healing.
Montenieri holds a Bachelor’s degree in Education and is completing her Master of Fine Arts in Painting at the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD). Her background as a Rehabilitation Therapist at Florida State Hospital deeply informs her studio practice, where she guided psychiatric patients through art, music, nature, and movement-based therapies. These experiences revealed how creativity can restore dignity, identity, and connection for individuals navigating mental and emotional challenges.
Her thesis exhibition, “The Art of Renewal,” examines how expressive and experiential therapies can serve not only individuals within clinical environments but entire communities in need of accessible pathways to healing. Through paintings that blend abstraction and realism, she explores themes of endurance, introspection, and hope—translating her therapeutic work into a visual language of restoration.
Montenieri is the founder of Sable & Stone, LLC, a ceramics and hobby studio where people gather to create, share stories, and reconnect. This space represents the first step toward her larger vision: the Sable & Stone Community Center, a developing creative-therapy hub designed to serve underserved and rural communities across the Florida Panhandle.
Across her work, Montenieri affirms a simple truth: art is both expression and refuge, a place where healing becomes visible. Through every canvas and community endeavor, she strives to create spaces—literal and figurative—where creativity leads to renewed strength, connection, and hope.
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