Pictured: "Season of Sculpture" poses with its Xerox "Best-of-the-Best" Award. Photo by Serbin Print Marketing & Publishing.

Sarasota Sculpture Center (SSC)—formerly known as “Season of Sculpture”—has earned a new accolade: Season of Sculpture, Biennial Exhibitions 1999-2012, a retrospective coffee-table book chronicling six seasons of the organization’s bayfront sculpture, recently won first place in the book category at Xerox Premier Partners Global Network’s 2016 “Best-of-the-Best Awards.”

The Best-of-the-Best Awards—the ceremony for which took place last month in Dusseldorf—recognizes innovation and excellence in digital publishing, and this recent win catapults SSC into an international spotlight. The 2016 competition included over 90 entrants from 20 different countries, with Season of Sculpture coming in as the only US winner in the books category (the second and third place winners were from Singapore and Norway respectively), and one of only three US winners in the entire competition.

The result of a year and half-long collaboration between SSC and Serbin Print Marketing & Publishing, the 181-page Season of Sculpture features 132 sculptures by 96 different artists, and has been commended for its vibrant images, attention to detail and sleek aesthetic. Originally published in 2013, the publication was entered for consideration this year, as Xerox only holds the competition once every four years.

“The whole purpose of the book was not only to showcase what twelve seasons has produced in Sarasota, but to also encourage Sarasota to embrace new sculptures from around the world,” says Robin Clark, Serbin's Vice President and director of the Season of Sculpture project. “[If] city commissioners pay attention to the magnitude of exposure that this [book] has already gotten, maybe they would help Sarasota Sculpture Center acquire more [sculptures].”

So far, the book’s impact has proved to advance SSC’s mission: Season of Sculpture has already had an instrumental role in assisting SSC obtain funding necessary to carry out its mission of continuing to provide public art for Sarasota’s bayfront. “What we have done for public art in Sarasota is a big deal and to see it all in one publication just makes that statement for us,” says Susan McLeod, current board chair of SSC, which since its founding has displayed 140 sculptures by 103 local and international artists. Currently in the curatorial process, McLeod anticipates that SSC’s next “season” of sculpture will open in May 2017.

Pictured: "Season of Sculpture" poses with its Xerox "Best-of-the-Best" Award. Photo by Serbin Print Marketing & Publishing.

Sarasota Sculpture Center, 1662 Floyd St, Sarasota, 941-928-4445