Spring is upon us! While we rarely deal with the winter doldrums of the north, there is still a palpable, undeniable feeling of expectation and possibility in the air. At Ringling College of Art and Design, we love this time of year. It’s the time when we begin to see not just the beautiful trees on campus blooming, but also our amazing student body, especially our seniors, getting ready to fly from the Ringling College nest.   

This time of year is when the seeds planted at the start of their college careers blossom into the highest level of artwork, projects and presentations. Springtime is also when we gear up for our annual Best of Ringling Exhibition and Senior Thesis Exhibitions. We also have Accepted Students Day, which is devoted to those who will be new, incoming students in the fall.  

But back to the more seasoned creatives. On April 9, we will open our annual Best of Ringling Exhibition to celebrate the top work as selected by outside jurors who are working artists and designers in every discipline provided at the College. Open to Ringling College students of every year and every major, this juried show recognizes the best of the best artwork in all of our majors. For students to have a piece selected for the show is truly an honor. And for many students, this exhibition is a rare opportunity to view the extraordinary art and design work coming out of other majors—how often does an Interior Design student get to view the work of our Film students? For the faculty, staff and community, this exhibition of student work inspires and motivates us to continue our work in support of such talent and creativity.

Right on its heels are the Senior Thesis Exhibitions starting in May. These exhibitions highlight and celebrate the work of students who are about to graduate after four years of dedication and hard work of. It is with bittersweet pride that we recognize these emerging creative leaders and ready them for commencement. Their work on exhibit speaks for itself—they are ready for flight! And we are excited to see where they go and what they accomplish in the years to come. The public is welcome to see this work, as well.

Of course, as we prepare to release our seniors into the creative world, we, as mentioned earlier, are also getting ready to welcome a new class of talented, inspired creatives. The day after our Best of Ringling Exhibition openings and award ceremony, we host our yearly Accepted Students Day, a day of festivities and fun to celebrate our new class and introduce them to their new home in Sarasota. We give them a glimpse into the life of a Ringling student and open up our Best of Ringling galleries to show them and their families what our students are creating. It is a day of celebrations, of new beginnings and of unbridled optimism.

Indeed, we love this time of the year. Spring is the perfect time to fondly look back with appreciation in order to herald a new fresh start. We will watch with pride as our graduates go on to create award-winning films, artwork, interiors, design solutions and much, much more. We will congratulate their promotions and honors, and continue to support them every step of the way.

At the same time we will build new relationships with our incoming young artists, giving them four years of instruction, inspiration and guidance, all the while anticipating the work they will one day show at Best of Ringling, Senior Thesis, and, eventually, as a leader in the world of art and design.  

The energy exhibited at Ringling College evidences the fact that Spring has truly sprung in Sarasota!

Dr. Larry R. Thompson is president of Ringling College of Art and Design. 

2016 turned out to be the year that Sarasota films broke out in force at the Sundance Film Festival. Other People, the Sarasota-funded directoral debut of Saturday Night Live staff writer Chris Kelly, opened the festival to a standing ovation. Dark Night, a chilling tale of the Aurora theater shootings directed by Sarasota Film Fest alum Tim Sutton (Memphis), and shot in Sarasota with significant help from Ringling College, left audiences stunned and disquieted. Sutton's fellow SFF alum Robert Greene (Actress) won a rare Documentary Writing Award for Kate Plays Christine, about the Christine Chubbuck tragedy, while Antonio Campos' narrative take on the same event, Christine, established itself as an Oscar contender. At the Sarasota Film Festival, we were thrilled to land two of the four for our program—Other People opens our fest just like it did Sundance, and Kate Plays Christine will be the recipient of the Terry Porter Visionary Award and play the first weekend, along with a panel on filmmaking in Sarasota, the life of Christine Chubbuck, and dealing with depression.

In the midst of the #OscarsSoWhite controversy, all eyes were also on African-American-themed films at Sundance, and the films themselves did anything but disappoint. Nate Parker’s Nat Turner biopic Birth of a Nation was possibly the most anticipated film of the festival, and won both the Audience Award and the Grand Jury Award. SFF alum Chad Hartigan (This is Martin Bonner) brought his film Morris From America, about an unusual relationship between an African-American father and son in Germany. Curiously enough, the film began to be attacked by (mostly white) critics for supposedly stereotyped representations of African-American characters, and then was defended by (mostly black) critics who saw the characterizations as insightful and groundbreaking. And Anna Rose Helmer’s The Fits, her first narrative feature, was one of the most innovatively told fables in recent memory, examining an African-American girl’s entry into young womanhood and the challenges and confusion surrounding that transition. In the end, we were proud to land both Morris and The Fits for our fest.

Another big theme from the festival was the firm establishment of Amazon and Netflix as fully legitimate—even dominant—players in the acquisitions game. Each of them acquired seven films from the festival; no other distributor acquired more than four. The emergence of new distributors is always a good development for the state of independent film, and we feel that both these companies are doing great things in the field. Ted Hope’s leadership at Amazon is especially encouraging. We ended up programming two films from Amazon—Penny Lane’s bizarrely entertaining historical documentary Nuts! And Whit Stillman’s lush and utterly delicious Jane Austen adaptation Love & Friendship.

Experiencing the Sundance Film Festival in any capacity—as a fan, as a journalist, as a filmmaker—can be utterly overwhelming. It really is like trying to drink from a firehose, so short is the time and so rich the programming. As a festival programming team, there’s the added pressure of trying to find just the right films for your specific program. But as pressure-filled as the time is, it’s also an incredibly exciting time of discovery and just having your faith in independent film renewed. We count the organizers of Sundance as role models, as colleagues, and as friends, and this year as ever, they were invaluable contributors to our process. We hope you enjoy the Sundance films we’ve brought to this year’s Sarasota Film Fest!

Thanks to special opportunities and great partners like SRQ Magazine, the inner workings of philanthropy get more exposure in our community. This week, I enjoyed serving on the SB2 Foundations panel on the Basis of Giving detailing the ways foundations can take risks and provide innovative solutions to our community’s problems in ways other sectors cannot. Before the panel, Mark Brewer, president and CEO of the Central Florida Foundation, stressed the importance of foundations making decisions based on the strategies that lead to the greatest good, not on popularity or politics. We agree.

To maximize any investment, we like to look at the ways organizations are using the power of partnerships to enhance their impact. One movement we are particularly proud of is the two-generation approach addressing needs of both vulnerable children and their parents together in our region, thanks to the combined efforts of so many partners in both the private and public sector.

In partnership with Ascend at the Aspen Institute, the Community Foundation of Sarasota County is hosting a 2Gen Summit this month, the first of its kind in our region. Over two days, more than 240 local leaders from nonprofit organizations, civic groups, county school systems, city and county commissions and the private sector will convene to determine ways we as a community can strategize how to honor, respect and support vulnerable families as they take steps to build an intergenerational cycle of opportunity. Attendees will also hear from national thought leaders from around the country.

Shortly after I arrived in Sarasota in the spring of 2011, a donor of the Community Foundation, Charlotte Perret, introduced me to Anne Mosle, executive director of Ascend and vice president of the Aspen Institute. After meeting with Anne and learning about her vision, I quickly realized that much of the past work and initiatives of the Community Foundation already touched on many of the key components involved in the two-generation approach:

• Educational opportunities, providing families with scholarship opportunities, life skills and parental and professional development

• Economic supports, offering assistance with housing, transportation, financial education and asset-building, tax credits, and child care subsidies so parents have an important scaffold to support their efforts in gaining financial stability.

• Social capital, building on the resilience of families and bolstering the aspirations parents have for their children and for themselves by providing access to a system of peer support, including networking with family, friends, neighbors, various community organizations and employment contacts.  

The two-generation approach created the opportunity for the Community Foundation to bring these elements together to enhance and focus our local impact. Through our Two-Gen Task Force powered by Community Foundation board members and community leaders, we are addressing obstacles that vulnerable families face through partnerships with organizations throughout our community.

We now look forward to exchanging ideas, learning about successes in our community and around the country, connecting with peers working in the same sphere, helping each other find solutions to the problems affecting our region’s most vulnerable families, and creating a region in which a legacy of economic security and educational success can pass on from one generation to the next.

I invite you to contact me to share your thoughts on making even more progress.

Roxie Jerde is the president and CEO of the Community Foundation of Sarasota County. 

The first week in May is National Small Business Week and this year the theme is “Dream Big, Start Small.” This week is an opportunity to not only celebrate small businesses, but to take some time to fully appreciate the critical contributions that they make in our community.   

According to the U.S. Small Business Administration, small businesses are the “heart of the American economy." Nationwide, there are over 28 million small business employing 60 million Americans (half of the private sector workforce). Of these, 7.8 million are owned by women and 3.7 million are owned by veterans.  

In Florida, we have 2.2 million small businesses employing over 3 million workers. These firms make up almost 99 percent of all employers in the state. These 3 million workers comprise roughly 40 percent of the state’s private workforce. While the U.S. Small Business Administration defines a small business as a firm with fewer than 500 employees, Florida’s businesses with fewer than 100 employees maintain the largest share of employment. Florida’s small businesses create two out of every three jobs.

The impact of small businesses is even more evident here in the Sarasota area. Ninety percent of the Greater Sarasota Chamber of Commerce members have less than 50 employees. Eighty percent have less than 20 employees and the majority employ less than 10 workers. Our own economy is dependent on these small businesses to plan our community, supply entrepreneurial talent, generate retail, provide services and a host of other innovative contributions within our marketplace.   

Recently, the Florida Chamber released their Small Business Index Survey showing that 54 percent of small businesses expect to hire over the next six months. Fifty-three percent are planning to increase investments in equipment or structure.

Florida’s small businesses are optimistic about our state and the economy. Roughly 60 percent of respondents to the Florida Chamber’s survey expect to see the economy continue to improve during the next year. Half of the respondents indicated higher sales over the previous year.  

However, challenges remain for small businesses with uncertainty about the economy, concerns about workforce quality, access to capital and government regulations. This is why our Chamber advocates for pro-business policies and works to ensure educational attainment and strong workforce development.  

Next time you drive by a ballpark or a school, look at all of the sponsoring business banners tied to the fences. Most of those banners represent a small business that donates their time, energy and finances to enhance our community’s quality of life.

Even though Small Business Week does not begin until May 1, don’t wait until May to support and thank our area small businesses. These businesses, our neighbors, are certainly dreaming big and starting small.  

I’d like to provide clarification regarding last week’s statement on public funding of the Economic Development Corporation of Sarasota County. According to the EDC, in the 2015 fiscal year, the EDC received 55 percent of its operating budget from public sources.  In 2010, the year mentioned in the column, the funding was 73 percent. Last week's column mistakenly included millions in economic development grants which the EDC works to allocate, but which are not included in the EDC’s operating budget.

Cathy Antunes serves on the board for Sarasota Citizens for Responsible Government. 

Editor's Note: Money contributed by the Economic Development Corporation to the Committee for Jobs in 2010 came exclusively from private donations and was an expenditure approved by the EDC Board of Directors; no public funds were used. The contributions were designated to support two issues of economic development significant: opposing Amendment 4 to the state constitution, a measure defeated by voters, and creation of an ad valorem tax exemption incentive tool to support growing companies diversifying the economy, a measure that Sarasota County voters approved. No money was used to support candidates. 

For six weeks beginning Valentine’s Day and concluding on Easter Sunday this year, “The Orchid Show: Celebrating 40 Years at Selby Gardens,” set new high-points for attendance, retail and membership sales. Compared to the same timeframe as last year, admissions revenue is up by 42 percent, retail shop revenue is up by 45 percent and the number of people joining the organization as members is up by 67 percent. The total number of members of Selby Gardens has also reached a high point with nearly 11,000 members. More than 1,000 orchids and plants were on display throughout the show. Nearly half of the visitors to The Orchid Show, 46 percent, came from outside of Florida.  

Marie Selby Botanical Gardens

Humane Society of Sarasota County

Sarasota Manatee Association for Riding Therapy (SMART) has created a mural with the Ringling College of Art and Design to light up blue for the eighth annual World Autism Awareness Day on April 2. Natalie Palumbo, a motion design major from Ringling College of Art and Design worked several days creating two murals at SMART.  Palumbo’s inspiration for artistic expression stems in part to the strong connection with her older brother Anthony who has low-verbal autism. The goal of Natalie’s Autism Awareness Mural is to help inspire the community to bring awareness about the puzzling world of autism and sensory needs.  The mural will be showcased during an Autism Awareness event on April 23 at the SMART facility, from 1-4pm.  The event will provide a day of free fun and refreshment for friends and families of those with autism. Activities include a local jazz and reggae band, a bounce house for the kids, face painting, BBQ, and soft drinks from the Rusty Bucket. 

Sarasota Manatee Association for Riding Therapy

The Northport High School NROTC presented a donation to Scott Bill of The Brian Bill Foundation for $5,000 during their annual Navy Ball -an event that is entirely cadet run and managed and attended by 120 guests.  The event started out with a NJROTC color guard presentation of the United States flag along with the unit’s guidon. Soon after the presentation of the colors an Old Glory presentation was conducted for Mr. Scott Bill in honor of his late son Brain Bill who died on August 6^th, 2011 west of Kabul Afghanistan while conducting a mission as part of the Navy Special Operations Community as a Navy Seal. The Brian Bill foundation helps strengthen and preserve Navy special forces families who have lost a loved one (also known as Gold Star Families) it also helps veterans and their families. The program provides the space and freedom to connect with nature, forge relationships and renew the inner spirit of those that attend. 

The Brian Bill Foundation

Goodwill Ambassador and businessman Darrell Turner of Turner Tree and Landscape has created a garden at Goodwill Manasota’s Corporate Campus offices in honor of the late community leader Rick Fawley and his beloved late wife, Coni.  At last year's Goodwill Ambassador of the Year Awards Dinner, the “Rick and Coni Fawley Scholarship Fund” was launched. Funds are helping Goodwill team members who do not have their high school diploma to earn their GED. “Rick designed the beautiful Goodwill Corporate Campus and I wanted to create a special place to honor him and his wife, Coni, who also passed away last year,” said Turner. “So I selected four crepe myrtle trees to be the focal point. These trees are the essential Southern trees with its blooms and attractive bark. It was the Fawleys' favorite; in fact, I planted a few of them at their home.”  

Goodwill Manasota

Just how well do you know Chopin? Frédéric Chopin wrote pyrotechnic piano pieces during the Romantic Era, premiering his Piano Concerto No. 1 in 1830. This masterpiece still astounds music lovers today. Pianist and rising star Antti Siirala will perform this moving concerto in Sarasota Orchestra's final Masterworks of the season. Five Facts: 1. Born in Poland, his father was French, his mother Polish. After the collapse of the Polish revolution in 1831, he settled in Paris. He spoke Polish in his home, loved his homeland, but was never able to return to Poland. 2. Chopin was a child prodigy, performing publicly and composing by age seven. 3. As an adult, he rarely performed publicly. One musicologist estimates his public performances at “few more than 30.” 4. Over 230 works by Chopin survive. All his known works involve piano. 5. Chopin had a nine-year relationship with Geroge Sand, the female novelist who outraged Paris by smoking of cigars and wearing trousers. 

Sarasota Orchestra