Ken Rollins

Ken Rollins has been Executive Director of four art museums in Florida over a career of thirty years: The Deland Museum of Art, Deland, FL; the Polk Museum of Art, Lakeland, FL; the Gulf Coast Museum of Art, Largo, FL; and finally Interim Executive Director of the Tampa Museum of Art, Tampa, FL. Each museum achieved significant success under Ken’s leadership.

Ken is a 1964 charter class graduate of the University of South Florida where he studied liberal arts. He served as president of the USF National Alumni Association during 1991. Mr. Rollins received a Masters degree in Ceramics/Sculpture from the University of Tennessee in 1973 and is a graduate of the Museum Management Institute, University of California at Berkeley. He has been an instructor in ceramics and design at the University of Tennessee and Daytona Beach Community College. He served three years as a Lieutenant in the United States Navy after receiving his commission in 1966 from the United States Naval Officer Candidate School in Newport, Rhode Island. During 1968-69, he was Assistant Officer-in-Charge of YRBM 21, a U.S. Navy detachment of 133 men in South Vietnam.

As a museum professional, Ken was Executive Director of the Polk Museum of Art in Lakeland, Florida for twelve years and the Gulf Coast Museum of Art in Largo, Florida for eleven years. At both institutions, he led the development efforts and construction of these two major museum facilities in Florida. Most recently, he led the Tampa Museum of Art through a three-year period of development, resulting in a new 66,000 square foot building designed by architect Stanley Saitowitz of San Francisco. Ken has provided statewide leadership in the arts as President of the Florida Art Museum Directors Association on two separate occasions, Chairman of the Florida Association of Museums Foundation, and served numerous times as a grant review panelist for the Florida Arts Council. For three years, he was on the Executive Board of the Southeastern Museums Conference.

Ken is also a Museum Assessment and Accreditation Consultant for the American Association for Museums, and most recently has served on the Boards of the Clearwater Arts Foundation, CreativeTampaBay and the National Society of Arts and Letters Advisory Board. In 2004, Ken was honored with the Florida Association of Museums Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2006, he was presented with the Florida Art Museum Directors Association Lifetime Achievement Award.