Something special is always on the docket for Sarasota’s Art Ovation Hotel and this week is no different. Starting this coming Monday, the hotel will celebrate “Mark” week, a week-long event celebrating the hotel’s signature “Mark”, with portions of the proceeds benefiting the Ringling College of Art and Design.

“Under Marriott we have the Autograph Collection Hotels. Each one has a signature mark, something that they’re known for, something that was conceived and the hotel has a vision for embracing that mark. For us at Art Ovation, that mark is the sketchbook,” says Robyn Holl, Cultural Curator at the hotel. “This was conceived from the developer’s vision of it being an art hotel in collaboration with the Ringling College of Art and Design, everybody collaborating on creating an experience for the guests with our art exhibits and more specifically, a sketchbook in every room where guests can essentially leave behind their mark with their own drawings.”

This week’s celebration incorporates, as Art Ovation Hotel is known to do, parts of Sarasota that are essential to the city’s identity. Mark week opens with a Circus Celebration, featuring performances from some of the Circus Arts Conservatory’s youth performers and is followed on Tuesday night by a Sketch-a-thon, where guests are invited to draw alongside Ringling College students in the hotel’s lobby. Wednesday and Thursday will feature a whiskey dinner and a mixology class, respectively, followed by a closing cocktail party on Friday night.

September 23 to 27, Art Ovation Hotel, 1255 North Palm Ave, Sarasota, 941-316-0808. 

To learn more, visit.

The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art (The Ringling) announces Enduring Light: Photographs by Roy DeCarava and Danny Lyon from the Sandor Family Collectionwill be on view from September 21, 2024 through February 9, 2025, in the Ulla R. and Arthur F. Searing Wing. The exhibition showcases works from two significant portfolios: Twelve Photogravures by Roy DeCarava and Memories of the Southern Civil Rights Movement by Danny Lyon. These bodies of work by two of America’s most consequential photographers offer distinct but complementary expressions of Black life and the struggle for civil rights in the US. Through their respective lenses, both DeCarava and Lyon elevate and communicate the beauty, complexities, and unique perspectives of Black life, and the struggle for equality. Capturing the raw and vulnerable realities of the movement was a central struggle for both artists. Their work aimed to reclaim the narrative of Black life, presenting its complexities and richness with authenticity. Roy DeCarava, a renowned Black artist, captured important African American subjects. His career began with photographing everyday life in the streets of Harlem in the 1950s. Works from his 12 Photogravures portfolio showcase photographs spanning between 1950 and 1979. DeCarava’s images generally work to uplift and communicate the beauty, nuance, and complexity of Black life through his unique, personal style. The Photogravures portfolio on view includes portraits of important Black figures such as singer, actor, and activist Paul Robeson and a portrait of legendary jazz singer Billie Holiday. Danny Lyon is one of America’s most influential documentary photographers. He helped revolutionize the culture of media news reporting as part of the “new journalism” of the 1960s that was passionate, subjective, and immersed within its chosen subject matter. In his last years at the University of Chicago, Lyon became staff photographer of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). This exhibition includes 28 gelatin silver prints Lyon took between 1962 and 1964 for SNCC. It was a crucial moment in the Civil Rights movement and these photographs documented SNCC activities, primarily in the South, helping to give this youth-based civil rights group visibility. They also include images of pivotal organizers such as John Lewis and Martin Luther King Jr. The exhibition is co-curated by Christopher Jones; Jevon Brown, The Ringling’s inaugural Eleanor Merritt Fellow and an artist; and Natalia Benavides, The Ringling’s 2024 Coville Photography Curatorial Intern and a senior at New College of Florida. Enduring Light: Photographs by Roy DeCarava and Danny Lyon from the Sandor Family Collectionwill be on view from Saturday, September 21, 2024, through February 9, 2025, in the A and B Galleries of the Ulla R. and Arthur F. Searing Wing of the Museum of Art.

Pictured: Couple Dancing, New York, from the portfolio Twelve Photogravures,1956, printed 1991 Photogravure. Courtesy of Courtesy of Estate of Roy DeCarava Estate of Roy DeCarava.

The sound of music, the world of dance and theater – even artistic circus performance acts are coming to Downtown Wellen this October as Wellen Park presents its first visual and performing arts festival in partnership with the Arts and Cultural Alliance of Sarasota County. The Wellen Park Visual and Performing Arts Showcase is Saturday, Oct. 26 in Downtown Wellen, with performances beginning at noon and continuing through 6 p.m. The event is free to the public and includes a visual art walk by the North Port Art Center, The Hermitage Artist Retreat, Venice Art Center and the Arts and Cultural Alliance of Sarasota County.
Performances are 30 to 50 minutes and include dance and theater companies, orchestras and symphonies, as well as The Circus Arts Conservatory, featuring students in training. The entertainment takes place on the stage at Solis Hall with seating on the Great Lawn. Guests are encouraged to bring chairs and blankets.
Visitors will enjoy music by the Perlman Music Program/Suncoast, Venice Chorale, Sarasota Concert Association, the Chamber Orchestra of Sarasota and the Venice Symphony Orchestra. The showcase also includes Sarasota Contemporary Dance, Venice Theatre and Circus Arts Conservatory. Showtimes and additional performers will be announced early October. Wellen Park is a frequent collaborator with the Arts and Cultural Alliance of Sarasota County and many of the participating organizations, in an effort to champion the arts, ensuring they flourish throughout the community. For more information, visit wellenpark.com/events/visual-performing-arts-showcase. 

Pictured: The entertainment takes place on the stage at Solis Hall with seating on the Great Lawn. Guests are encouraged to bring chairs and blankets.

Sarasota Orchestra launches its new season with a wide variety of concerts in September and October. From a free concert for the whole family--to a celebration of one of the 20th century’s greatest composers--to the return of the beloved Star Warswatch party with live orchestra--this season kickoff has something for everybody. Audiences could not stop raving about last season’s symphonic screenings of Star Wars: A New Hope! Well, it’s time to dust off those Darth Vader helmets again as Sarasota Orchestra presentsStar Wars: The Empire Strikes Back live in concert, with the full Orchestra playing John Williams’ extraordinary music and the iconic film on the big screen. Prolific conductor Conner Gray Covington leads the Orchestra in this live cinematic experience.

October 25 and 26, 7:30 pm, Van Wezel, Visit SarasotaOrchestra.org or call the Box Office at (941) 953-3434. 

The burgeoning Gulf Coast Maritime Museum honors the distinct legacy of boat building in the region through conservation and community outreach, September 2024.

Read Here!