Pictured: Samantha Modder, A Field of Lost Hair Ties (detail), 2023. Digitally manipulated ballpoint pen on adhesive print.

When Skyway 2024: A Contemporary Collaboration opens in museums across the region this summer, it will be with the Sarasota Art Museum of Ringling College of Art and Design as the latest institution to join the initiative.

Begun in 2017, Skyway unites area museums every three years for a collaborative exhibition—held simultaneously across all participating museums—highlighting the working artists of the region who give the Cultural Coast its name. The Sarasota Art Museum brings the number of participating museums to five, joining the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, the Tampa Museum of Art, the University of South Florida Contemporary Art Museum, and the Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg.

“This is a very important exhibition for the region,” says Dr. Rangsook Yoon, senior curator at Sarasota Art Museum, who, with fellow curators from the other participating museums, scrutinized nearly 300 applications from artists in the Hillsborough, Manatee, Pasco, Pinellas, and Sarasota counties, meeting many and even visiting their studios to determine this year’s exhibition. “It is an opportunity to broaden the audience for these artists,” she says. “It’s the type of collaboration that enriches the arts ecosystem.”

And when Skyway 2024 opens on July 28, the Sarasota Art Museum will be hosting work by 15 of the 63 featured artists, including Rob Tarbell, Jill Taffett, Kim Anderson, Gabriel Ramos, Ryan Day, Roger Clay Palmer, and Corinne Zepeda. From more traditional mediums like painting and sculpture to cutting-edge augmented reality murals, printing on ice and even portraits made of smoke, the exhibition provides audiences a broad view into the depth and variety of creative work being done every day in studios all across the region. And too often, says Yoon, these hidden gems are not celebrated until they’re gone, finding recognition elsewhere. “They leave to cities like New York and then they’re appreciated,” she says. But with Skyway, local institutions can highlight local artists for local audiences.

“I want people to see the incredible artists living in our region and hear their stories,” Yoon says. “These artists are sharing their lives, so I hope people pay attention.”

To make it even easier, the Sarasota Art Museum will also be hosting a series of events where guests can meet the Skyway artists for a guided experience through the exhibition.

Skyway 2024: A Contemporary Collaboration opens at the Sarasota Art Museum on July 28 and runs through October 27.

Pictured: Samantha Modder, A Field of Lost Hair Ties (detail), 2023. Digitally manipulated ballpoint pen on adhesive print.