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.

Welcome back! Here’s a taste of arts and culture in Florida during March 2019:

FEATURED FESTIVALS

The annual Gasparilla Music Festival was held in Tampa on March 9-10. This year’s festival featured a wide variety of performances that promoted the region’s cultural heritage and supported the festival’s music education initiatives.

In Miami, the Miami Design Preservation League facilitated the inaugural Miami Beach Cultural Crawl. Some of the areas most famous institutions teamed up to offer complimentary admission to attendees, who enjoyed a free trolley between venues such as the New World Symphony, The BASS Museum, and the Miami Beach Botanical Gardens among others.

“The greatest show in Gainesville” was on full display during Jest Fest. The event featured six stages of continuous entertainment from world-famous stars of circus and comedy.

The cities of Pembroke Pines and Apollo Beach also hosted weekend-long festivals that included juried art fairs, entertainment, food, and workshops for adults and children, and in Orange County, the Orlando Museum of Art held their annual Festival of Fine Arts and Flowers. This unique event hosted a museum-wide showcase of fresh floral designs inspired by the OMA permanent collection and current exhibitions in addition to a “Flower Power” party, a mystery home tour, live jazz, antique dealers, and much more.

EXCITING EVENTS

Key Chorale hosted their annual collaboration with The Circus Arts Conservatory, Cirque des Voix (R), performed under the Big Top at Nathan Benderson Park. This event, unlike anything else in the country, combined a 100 voice chorus, a 40 piece orchestra, and many spellbinding circus acts. At the Gold Coast Railroad Museum, visitors embarked on a Day Out with Thomas, a family-oriented event that offers aspiring engineers the opportunity to take a ride with Thomas the Tank Engine™.

Emerald Coast Science Center celebrated their 30th birthday this month with a celebration including live music, food and beverages, and a silent auction, and Zoo Miami held their annual fundraiser called Feast with the Beasts. This highly unique event offered wild animal encounters, food, live music, and merriment.

Naples Botanical Garden and Naples Garden Club teamed up to present the annual Naples Flower Show. This event is one of the largest flower shows in Florida and includes a Garden Market, educational demonstrations, juried designs and horticultural exhibits. Polk Museum of Art honored French language and culture by hosting La Francophonie Day. This French-focused educational program coincided with the closing of the museum’s Edgar Degas: The Private Impressionist exhibition.

Studios of Key West hosted a Piano Marathon on March 17 to benefit Hugh’s View, the Studios’ rooftop visual and performing space set to open to the public in 2020. The all-day line-up of jazz, blues, classical, gospel, show tunes, standards, new music, and more featured a rotating cast of eighteen fabulous pianists.

In St. Petersburg, Studio @620 teamed up with projectAlchemy and Rebekah Lazaridis for a collaborative dance and visual art performance entitled “Bloom and Residue”. This interactive design performance explored themes of change, transformation, and new life.

OPENINGS AND CLOSINGS

In Fort Myers, Alliance for the Arts held their 33rd annual All-Florida juried art exhibit. This exhibit featured pieces created by artists working in a wide variety of media from all over Florida. In Key West, Studios of Key West opened With the Grain, a collection of some of the nation’s most accomplished wood artists.

Carrollwood Cultural Center curated a unique show of expressive art that addresses the effects of Red Tide and other oceanic challenges called Ode to Red Tide and in Fort Lauderdale, Bonnet House and ArtServe opened Impressions: The New Aesthetic, Fort Lauderdale’s preeminent exhibition of modern and contemporary original work from South Florida.

Art and Culture Center/Hollywood opened a series of site-specific installations by local and national artists who explore discoveries between experimentation and academic practice with lighting, sets, sculpture, and performance called Frimaire is the Color of Adolescent Sunset.

Palm Beach’s Society of the Four Arts opened an exhibit that grew out of the Bush Institute’s Military Service Initiative called Portraits of Courage: A Commander-in-Chief’s Tribute to America’s Warriors. This exhibit brings together 66 full-color portraits and a four-panel mural painted by President Bush and other members of the United States military.

In Jacksonville, the Cummer Museum and Gardens opened Kota Ezawa: The Crime of Art, an exhibition that brings together light-boxes and video animations tha chronicle some of the most infamous and high profile museum heists in history. The exhibition’s images pay homage to artworks by Degas, Manet, Rembrandt, Vermeer, and others that were stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in 1990.

UPCOMING IN APRIL

Check back next motnh to hear about Sarasota Film Festival, the Pensacola Jazz Festival, the Inaugural Holly Hill Arts Festival and so much more! Subscribe to this blog or follow us on Twitter for updates. 

Have an event you’d like to see featured as part of this blog series? Please fill out this form: https://goo.gl/forms/rNFpweK1euL3y9YH2. Note: submission does not guarantee inclusion.