Culture in Florida is a monthly news roundup to showcase our state’s wonderful diversity, spotlight the organizations and artists that contribute so much to our communities, and stress the comprehensive benefits of arts and culture to Florida’s economy and quality of life.
Here’s a sample of arts and culture around the state for the month of July:
SPECIAL EVENTS
On Saturday, July 13th, the Matheson History Museum teamed up with the Gainesville Sun and Piedmont Publishing for a unique partnership called the “Gainesville Memories Community Project.” This project utilizes images from the Matheson’s collection to create a book focused on the city’s history prior to 1940, tentatively entitled “Gainesville Memories: The Early Years.” Community members were invited to bring in their historic photos dating back to 1940 or earlier.
The Pensacola Orchestra performed a free concert in the Happiness Is exhibition at the Artel Gallery on July 25th. The musicians, a string quartet with oboe, performed works by Mozart, Elgar, and others.
Florida Secretary of State, Laurel M. Lee, visited Tampa and St. Petersburg on July 18th and 19th. While in Tampa, she toured the Straz Center and met with a group of young actors from the cast of Annie with the Patel Conservatory. In St. Petersburg, she alongside Senator Darryl Rouson met with staff from the Morean Arts Center to discuss their community engagement programs, and ended the day by exploring the spectacular Chihuly Collection with her family. Photographs below are from her Twitter page.
OPENINGS AND CLOSINGS
The Ringling Museum in partnership with the Circus Arts Conservatory opened their Summer Circus Spectacular this month, which will run through August 3rd. This hour-long show, housed in the Historic Asolo Theatre, showcases breath-taking circus acts such as the Rolla Bolla, Hand Balancing, Aerial Lyra, Hula Hoop and Interactive Comedy. This summer special is perfect for the entire family!
The 31st Annual Arts in Gadsden exhibition opened at the Gadsden Arts Center & Museum in Quincy on July 25th, and will run through August 6th. This celebration of the region’s creative work presents 101 works by 82 artists. Exhibited works span the mediums of watercolor, egg tempera, acrylic, oil, photography, clay, encaustic, wood, metal, glass, papier maché, and serigraph.
The Venice Theatre opened their performance of Urinetown on July 26th, and it will run until August 11th. The production is described as “a side splitting sendup of greed, love, revolution (and musicals!), in a time when water is worth its weight in gold.”
APOLLO 11 ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATIONS
July 20th, 2019 marked the 50th anniversary of the first Moon Landing by spaceflight Apollo 11. Several arts organizations around the state took an opportunity to celebrate this event with special programming outside of their regular season!
The Gulf Coast Symphony celebrated the event with a concert of “moon music” and footage from the historic flight. The program included iconic fare such as Strauss’ “Also Sprach Zarathustra” made famous by the film “2001: A Space Odyssey,” themes from the popular TV show “Star Trek,” and two segments from Gustav Holst’s “The Planets.”
On July 31st and August 1st, the Melbourne Municipal Band will celebrate the moon landing anniversary with a picnic concert featuring various jazz hits.
UPCOMING IN AUGUST
On Thursday, August 15th, the Naples Players will present “Laugh for a Change!” in collaboration with the United Arts Council of Collier County. This fun-filled night of improvisational comedy will allow the Southwest Florida to unite for a great cause: to help provide access to the arts for at-risk children in their community. There will be two separate performances, at 6:00 PM and 8:30 PM.
In collaboration with the Museum of Discovery and Science in Ft. Lauderdale, the South Florida Symphony will present their “Preserve the Coral Reef” concert on August 4th. The performance will feature their music educator, Donna Wissinger, and admission is free with the purchase of a museum ticket.
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At 58 years old, the 
Beginning in 2016, the symphony began experimenting with crossover concerts that blended classical music with other genres; indie rock, electronica, jazz and Latin. As artistic trust continued to develop between the symphony and its audiences and our community expressed more “classical curiosity,” the symphony became more artistically confident in its ability to expand its horizons and establish a new concert series called Brave New Music. Not exactly Pops, though featuring popular music – and not exactly classical, though always featuring classical repertoire, this series is designed to encourage dedicated, knowledgeable classical music enthusiasts to examine familiar works through a new lens and to remove classical music’s historic intimidation factor for audiences that are not ordinary classical music consumers.
Ultimately, this is a way to demonstrate the relevance of classical music to new patrons of the arts and to lead classical audiophiles on a musical journey that begins in familiar territory for them. In addition to the music these audiences experience, these concerts provide educational opportunities through guest artist and conductor Q&A sessions, to meet our orchestral musicians to gain their perspective on these concerts, pre-concert lectures and social gatherings. The best, most beautiful part is that it brings both of those audiences together; spanning generations, socioeconomic and cultural strata, forging relationships among them. It has been said that music is the greatest social network. That’s what we for envision Brave New Music. The Southwest Florida Symphony is honored that Brave New Music can serve as the cornerstone of that network in our community.
Brave New Music initiatives have included jazz arrangements of Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition created and performed by Israeli jazz pianist, Yaron Gottfried and Bach – Jazz fusion arrangements created and performed by pianist Matt Herskowitz. Upcoming Brave New Music programs include an evening of Beethoven v. Coldplay, featuring original electronica – classical compositions and visionary arrangements by Maestro Steve Hackman. This concert culminates the Southwest Florida Symphony’s 58th season with a fusion of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 3 and tunes by British pop band, Coldplay, on Saturday, May 4th. The orchestra commences its 59th season with a screening of the classic thriller film, Psycho, with live orchestral accompaniment on Friday, October 25th and Saturday, October 26th, then closes its 59th season with a celebratory program of tolerance and joy – Symphabulous! A Symphonic Drag Show features nationally known drag performer Chris Weaver. We have every expectation that this innovative programing will enlighten and bring audiences together and will inspire other orchestras to do the same.
Since 2003, Art and Culture Center/Hollywood has dramatically expanded their education initiatives to include both summer and year-round programming for children, teens, and adults. They also have a successful Distance Learning program, which has provided arts education broadcasts to nearly 14,000 Broward County students since its inception.
One of their programs for teens, Arts Aspire, is a three-tier pyramid of defined, hands-on activities that promote strong leadership as well as college and career readiness for students and young adults ages 14-21. The program grew out of the Center’s thriving summer performing arts camps. It became evident to the education staff that as the campers were growing older, they were becoming interested not only in performing but in everything that was happening behind the scenes to support the productions. As a result, several interested students were invited to participate in an informal apprenticeship with the camps, exploring set design, lighting, and sound engineering, as well as leadership and business skills.
Students participating at all levels not only gain valuable work experience, but receive hands-on training in 21st-century leadership skills that are transferrable to any occupation. Arts Associates and Arts Apprentices are even paid for their work, providing many students with their very first formalized work experiences in an environment in which they are already comfortable. The Center selects up to 5 students each year as Arts Apprentices, 3-5 Associates, and around 20 Arts Ambassadors, with most spots available during the summer months. Many past participants have gone on to work in similar fields at other organizations or in college.
Culture Builds Florida 