By Louise Irvine

Public artist, Lloyd Goradesky was honored as a Community Champion at the 9th Annual Legacy Gala for the Ancient Spanish Monastery on January 18. For the last five years, Lloyd’s passion project Let LOVE Guide Your Way has celebrated kindness and shared the message of Universal LOVE while encouraging compassion, consideration and tolerance for everyone. Lloyd’s friends and fans were out in full force at the gala dinner to show their appreciation of his interactive community efforts to make the world a more loving place.

The annual gala raises funds for the maintenance and preservation of the Ancient Spanish Monastery, which was the magical setting for this celebration dinner. The monastery is the oldest European building in the Americas, and construction began in Sacramenia, Spain, in 1133 for the Cistercian order. William Randolph Hearst purchased the monastery buildings and cloisters in 1925, dismantled them stone by stone, and shipped them to the United States.

Following Hearst’s death, the monastery was purchased as a Florida tourist attraction in 1952, and it took 19 months and nearly $20 million dollars in today’s currency to reassemble the monastery, a project described as the “biggest jigsaw puzzle in history.” The cloisters were presented to the Bishop of Florida in 1964, and there is an active and growing Episcopal congregation.

The Ancient Spanish Monastery Foundation generates funds through a variety of art and multicultural events with community involvement, including “Artists in the Cloisters” events. Lloyd has presented spectacular exhibitions of his artwork for the Let LOVE Guide Your Way project in the gardens of the Spanish Monastery. He is also working on new exhibits for the WMODA reopening, including furniture and mirrors inspired by his iconic heart motif. Since 2019, Lloyd’s LOVE project has melted the hearts of our visitors and his weathervanes in all sizes have been sold to benefit the educational programs at the museum.

Let LOVE Guide Your Way to WMODA!

Artists in the Cloisters

Mission of Light

Lloyd Goradesky