Myra Roberts is an artist based in Sanibel, Florida who focuses on social justice themes in her paintings. She earned degrees in art education and printmaking/illustration. Roberts has exhibited widely throughout the US, including at Holocaust museums. She was selected in 2016 as one of five "Makers: Women Who Make Southwest Florida" for her impact in the arts and social justice. Roberts is currently working on two projects celebrating extraordinary lives and telling the story of Jewish partisans during World War II. Her paintings are in public and private collections across the US and Europe.

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Myra Roberts
705 Rabbit Road Sanibel FL 33957
Home: 239-395-5370 Cell: 239-357-3731
myralynn51@msn.com
http://www.myraroberts.com and http://www.projecttolerance.com
“I follow the paths of artists who have a deep commitment to social equality that is
reflected in their art. These include Käthe Kollwitz, Pablo Picasso, Felix Nussbaum, and others
who firmly believed that art can speak volumes where words cannot. … All lose their human
nature in the smokescreen of war. Propaganda maintains the senseless hatred between people –
masking the reality of suffering. In my paintings, I am preserving stories and faces for future
generations.”
Myra Roberts earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in art education, with an emphasis in
painting and drawing, from Arizona State University. Her Master of Fine Arts degree is in
printmaking and illustration, from Northern Illinois University. Roberts taught painting, drawing,
and art history for 25 years in Illinois public schools. She and her family moved from Illinois to
Sanibel Island, Florida, in 1999.
Roberts has exhibited throughout the United States, including in Chicago; Boothbay
Harbor and Bar Harbor, Maine; the Cab Calloway School of the Arts in Wilmington, Delaware
(grant-funded); the Florida Holocaust Museum in St. Petersburg; the Holocaust Museum &
Education Center of Southwest Florida; the Museum of the Everglades, and in galleries around
Florida.
WGCU Public Media, in partnership with the Southwest Florida Community Foundation
and the Women’s Fund of Southwest Florida, chose Roberts as one of five “2016 Makers:
Women Who Make Southwest Florida.” Nominated by the public, the selection of Roberts was
based on her impact in the arts and social justice in Southwest Florida.
The Sidney & Berne Davis Art Center of Fort Myers, Florida, hosted a retrospective
exhibition of her works during January 2015. Included were “Project Tolerance: The Faces of
Anne Frank,” comprised of 40 oil portraits based on The Diary of a Young Girl; and

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“Smokescreen: Prelude to the 1940s,” a series of collages that depict American or German
middle-class domestic life combined with images of Hitler’s rise to power.
She is currently working on two projects: “Angels on Earth” celebrates extraordinary
lives, including 2014 Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai and Sir Nicholas George
Winton, the late Englishman who helped save 669 children from Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia.
Also featured is World War II liberator Dr. Robert Hilliard, a resident of Sanibel, Florida. The
other project, “Hidden in the Trees,” tells the story of Jewish partisans, including the legendary
Tuvia Bielski and his brothers.
Her paintings are in public and private collections across the United States and Europe,
including the estate of Robert Rauschenberg. Roberts received letters of endorsement for her
“Faces of Anne Frank” project from former Secretary of State Hilary Rodham Clinton, and the
Jane Goodall Institute. Roberts donates funds and works (slated for sale at auction) to
organizations such as the following: Holocaust Museum & Education Center of Southwest
Florida; the Ecostudies Institute of Mount Vernon, Washington; the Clinic for the Rehabilitation
of Wildlife; Sanibel-Captiva Conservation Foundation, and Sanibel-Captiva Cares/Golisano
Children’s Hospital of Fort Myers.
Artwork by Roberts is extensively featured in media around the nation, such as WCVB-
TV Boston’s Sanibel-Captiva Segment Four: Island Art feature; Colorado-based SouthwestArt
magazine; Women Artists Datebook of Syracuse, New York; and Art of the Times magazine of
New York City. 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. Her work is the subject of
two books, Retro Images From the Florida Coast and Project Tolerance: The Faces of Anne
Frank, and the film Project Tolerance: The Faces of Anne Frank.
She has lectured extensively at schools and other venues. These include Florida Gulf
Coast University, Florida SouthWestern State College, Rasmussen College, Temple Beth El of
Fort Myers, Cape Coral Historical Society, and the Captiva Yacht Club.