Pictured: "Stop Watch" by Marianne Chapel. Photo courtesy of FASS.

The Fine Arts Society of Sarasota (FASS) stages its 46th annual Creators and Collectors Tour this Friday and Saturday. The primary fundraiser for this organization dedicated to promoting the local artistic community, this year’s tour includes stops in the studios of six artists working in a variety of media and a group show of 14 other regional artists in the pop-up FASS Galleria at the Diane Roskamp Exhibition Hall at Ringling College of Art and Design. “I’ve heard people say that they can’t find art in Sarasota,” says FASS Member Artist Joanne McCobb, who chaired the volunteer organization’s studio selection committee this year. “That’s something that needs to change.”

It’s not that people don’t know that Sarasota is a great place to visit various cultural institutions, says McCobb, so much as a general overlooking of the astounding number of artists populating the neighborhoods and side streets of the town. “I don’t think people are aware,” she says. “There are so many, even I’m surprised sometimes.” Hopefully, through the Creators and Collectors Tour, visitors will be exposed to more of what’s in their own backyard.

To that end, six local artists open their studios for ticketholders this Friday and Saturday, including oil painters Lucy Barber and Marianne Chapel, printmaker and mixed media artist Joan Lyons, photographer Chuck Reich, sculptor Duncan Chamberlain and resin artist Andrea Dasha Reich. Studios can be viewed in any order on the self-guided tour, allowing visitors the opportunity to linger where they may, explore the spaces and minds of participating artists and “hopefully leave with a little piece of art,” says McCobb. In the studios as well as the Galleria, which features artists working in everything from ceramic sculpture to wearable art to woodworking and enviro-art sculpture, work will be available for sale to the prospective collector.

Running March 10–11 from 10am–4pm each day, the Creators and Collectors Tour begins Friday night. Tickets cost $20 in advance or $25 at the door. In addition to ticket sales, a percentage of every piece sold will go toward FASS scholarship opportunities and educational outreach. Last year, FASS gave out $58,500 in scholarships to more than 15 students seeking advanced arts education. A list of ticket outlets and online ordering is available at the link below.

Pictured: "Stop Watch" by Marianne Chapel. Photo courtesy of FASS.

FASS Creators and Collectors Tour