« Back To SRQ Daily Archive

SRQ DAILY Apr 1, 2022

Friday Weekend Edition

Friday Weekend Edition

"It is not very often that you can see an artist start with a blank canvas and watch their whole process from beginning to end."

- Denise Kowal, Founder, International Chalk Festival.
 

[Arts & Entertainment]  A Daughter's Tribute to Her Inspiring Parents
Dylan.Campbell. Dylan@srqme.com

Through her parent’s toil, a daughter realized her dream. Award-winning Sarasota filmmaker Kathryn Parks explores that bond between her and her parents, Sharon and David Ohrenstien, in her new documentary, “The Fabulous Ohs: the Marriage and the Music”, which will make its World Premiere this April at the 2022 Sarasota Film Festival.

The 45 minute documentary chronicles the musical story of Sharon and David’s marriage, from the time they met, to their years spent performing as the duo, “The Fabulous Ohs”, to their most impressive act - raising a family of three while maintaining a career in the performing arts.

“I wanted people, regardless of their age, to see that they can accomplish anything they want to. My parents are getting older, yet they still have these dreams and I wanted to give them that pedestal. Anyone as an artist can take away that message,” states Parks.

The documentary intertwines excerpts of the archived tapes with footage of Parks’ own interviews that she shot with her parents. Directed, edited, and produced by Parks, the project — by far the largest yet of her career — took around nine months to complete. “In going through footage of our interviews, I needed to watch them 2-3 times before it really connected. I was trying so many different things and nothing really worked - it was a lot of trial and error,” admits Parks.

For Parks, however, it was time well spent. “The process of watching them through the years brought me so much joy. Going back and seeing it now, I just have so much more respect for their level of professionalism and joy they had in creating their work. I have so much pride with what they’ve done. It was like falling in love with them all over again.” 

“The Fabulous Ohs” will have an in-person screening Monday, April 4th at 7:45pm at the Sarasota Municipal Auditorium and can be viewed virtually throughout the duration of the Sarasota Film Festival.

Sarasota Municipal Auditorium, 801 N. Tamiami Trail, Sarasota. YouTube Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e29Pd5maiP0 

Pictured: The Fabulous Ohs BTS, David Ohrenstein, Director Kathryn Parks, Cinematographer Dylan Jon Wade Cox, Sharon Ohrenstein. Photo by Goddess Imagery Studios.

To purchase tickets click here

[Weekend Festival]  Wonder Returns to The International Chalk Festival
Dylan.Campbell. Dylan@srqme.com

The International Chalk Festival is returning to Sarasota this Friday, April 1st, after a two year hiatus. The festival, which began in 2007 and features the most 3D pavement paintings ever created in one location, will be on display at the Venice Airport Fairgrounds from April 1st-3rd.

In addition to the festival’s signature stable of 2D and 3D chalk art - pavement art that appears to rise above or sink down into the concrete canvas - it will also feature immersive illusion rooms - displays that spectators can walk into and be surrounded by these 3D illusions on the floor and the walls around them. While many of these illusion rooms will be ready to view on Friday, the 3D and other pavement work will not be completed until Sunday.

“Spectators get to experience the act of creation. It’s not very often that you can see an artist start with a blank canvas and watch their whole process from beginning to end. That’s unique - normally you don’t have any context to the struggles artists go through to create their work,” says Denise Kowal, founder of the International Chalk Festival.

This gathering of international artists is a welcome return for the Sarasota art community, as the festival serves as both a public display of performance art and a learning experience for burdenoining artists. “Our event does a lot of group projects - we host people like Kurt Wenner, who invented the 3D art form, we have him create group projects and work together to train and teach all the projects,” attests Kowal.

The effort that it takes to assemble the festival and bring together internationally renowned artists from all over the world is resemblant of the theme of this year’s festival, resilience. “In light of the global pandemic and the war in Ukraine, it’s been a very challenging task to do an international festival. Everything from out of date visas and passports to increased housing costs for our artists have presented obstacles, but the product and relationships that emerge from the event are so worth it,” says Kowal.

Venice Airport Festival Grounds, 610 Airport Avenue East, Venice. 941-488-8877 

PIctured: Artist Remko VanSchaik, 2017 Chalk Festival.

https://chalkfestival.org/events/chalk-festival-apr-1-3-2022

[SRQ Book Club]  Nonfiction Book Review of Inspired: Understanding Creativity A Journey Through Art, Science, and the Soul
Bookseller Roxanne Baker, BookStoreOne Sarasota

Inspired by Matt Rictel may have a War and Peace length subtitle, but that’s in order to encapsulate all the factors that influence our individual creativity. And if you’re like me, post Covid has been especially challenging in rekindling creative fires. Our world has changed irrevocably and as a consequence, I’m sure I’m not alone in walking around in a somewhat cynical, nihilistic daze.

But Richtel came to the rescue! Richtel taps into past creative sages, Bob Dylan being one, who discounted politics or any agenda for his creative inspiration. He also addresses the definition of creation (novelty, value and surprise), with half of the book’s focus being a nature vs. nurture perspective. His take on forces outside of our control, from the bubonic plague to Covid, force renaissance like invigoration and lead to new avenues of success (think Tik Tok).

Best of all, Richtel reassures the reader that our expanding melting pot population is a help, not a hindrance, to creation. His straightforward optimism made me see writer’s block as a round problem by pointing out that our greatest roadblock is our expectation of instant perfection. Without trial (emphasis on day in day out practice) and error (aka failure), no one can climb the mountain of creativity.

Inspired: Understanding Creativity A Journey Through Art, Science, and the Soul is available for pre-order at BookStore1 by calling 941-365-7900 or seeking out their online store at www.sarasotabooks.com. Publication Date April 19, 2022 ISBN: 9780063209305

  

[Historic Home]  Historic Ringling Home is On the Market

One of the most historic homes on the Florida Gulf Coast, the original Ringling house built between 1918 and 1920 for Alfred Ringling, has just come on the market after an extensive two-year renovation. Listed by John and Christina McNaught of the McNaught Group at Vacasa Real Estate LLC, the property is located in southern Manatee County at 7715 Westmoreland Drive near the Ringling Museum and is being offered for $1.499 million by owner Sherri Coble, President of Coble Enterprises. With almost 4,700 square feet of living space, five bedrooms, four and a half bathrooms, and expansive pool deck, this house is unlike any other on the market. The palatial country home was built on 218 bayfront acres for Alfred Ringling, the middle brother of the seven Ringling brothers. Alfred died before the home was completed, leaving his widow, Elizabeth, and son, Richard, to finish it. Richard and his wife were said to have entertained lavishly in the home until 1924, when he sold the entire 218 acres to the developers of Whitfield Estates. The placement of the house conflicted with the Whitfield Estates proposed street and lot layout, so the house was later moved a short distance to its current location. The house is known as the original Ringling house because even though circus magnate brothers John and Charles Ringling already had winter homes on Sarasota Bay, they did not build their palatial homes until around six years later. 

Click here for virtual tour.

[Award Given]  SMH Earns Exceptional Workplace Award

Gallup announced the winners of its “Exceptional Workplace Award” for 2022, and Sarasota Memorial was one of only 41 organizations worldwide to make the list. This is the third time that Sarasota Memorial has won the prestigious Gallup award, which honors thriving organizations that have attained world-class performance by making employee engagement a cornerstone of their strategy. Gallup’s studies of team engagement and performance have found that highly engaged organizations significantly outperform their peers in important outcomes such as customer ratings, turnover, safety incidents, absenteeism, quality, well-being and organizational citizenship. To qualify for the 2022 award, organizations were required to meet rigorous criteria, including a high qualifying participation rate on Gallup’s 2021 employee engagement survey, and scores placing them at the top of Gallup's global database. They also had to demonstrate overall performance excellence. 2021 was the eighth year that Gallup — the internationally known research and polling organization — conducted an employee survey for Sarasota Memorial. SMH also won the Gallup workplace honor (previously known as the Great Workplace Award) in 2015 and 2018. Gallup’s survey, which contains key questions to measure staff’s engagement, has been administered to organizations around the world, and is based on decades of research across multiple diverse industries. 

[Partnership]  Mote SEA Donation

Mote Marine Laboratory & Aquarium is excited to announce a partnership with Florida Power & Light Company (FPL) for the new Mote Science Education Aquarium (Mote SEA) at Nathan Benderson Park. Through FPL’s charitable arm, the NextEra Energy Foundation, the company has committed $300,000 to Mote SEA to sponsor the planned eastern indigo snake and gopher tortoise exhibit, which will highlight the importance of these protected species to Florida’s ecosystems. Gopher tortoises and eastern indigo snakes are both critical species throughout the southeast United States, including Florida. Over 350 species utilize the burrows created by gopher tortoises, including the eastern indigo snake, and the Mote SEA habitat will showcase this cohabitation, called commensalism. With the number of animals that depend on these burrows for survival, gopher tortoises are considered a keystone species, and protecting them in turn protects the animals that depend on them. The exhibit at Mote SEA will serve to educate visitors on the threats facing these two protected species, which mainly include habitat loss and degradation.

A groundbreaking ceremony was hosted in Nov. 2020 to celebrate the beginning of construction for Mote SEA. Currently in the first phase, a new parking lot and other site work have been completed at the aquarium’s future home at Nathan Benderson Park, a nexus location between Sarasota and Manatee counties and along the I-75 corridor. The rebirth of Mote Aquarium as Mote SEA will not only expand the size and number of animals exhibited, but will also double the number of visitors to approximately 700,000 people per year. Mote SEA will also feature STEM teaching labs and provide marine science education to area schoolchildren free of charge.  

Photo courtesy of Mote Marine Laboratory & Aquarium.

To learn more, visit



[SRQ Magazine]  ICYMI - March 2022 Edition

March has come and gone! In case you missed it, you can find the stories from our March 2022 edition on our blog.

Click here! 

[SOON]  GALLERY: SPAACES Gallery: Properties of Ground: Post (post) Painterly Abstraction , March 18 – April 2, Gallery hours.

Properties of Ground: Post (post) Painterly Abstraction, A Two Person Exhibit with Michael Crabb and Tom Stephens. The artwork in this exhibition is foregrounded by the artist’s practice, making the experience of painting paramount to the outcome. Post-painterly abstractionists rejected the mysticism of abstract expressionism and their preconceived references to the external world. They created a purely factual kind of art which functioned in terms of the basic elements of the medium itself; form, colour, texture, scale, composition and so on. Two abstract process painters, well known in the Sarasota/Bradenton/Tampa Area, Michael Crabb and Tom Stephens show their works in this very Post (post) Painterly exhibition focused on the studio experience. These painters emphasize the physical act of painting as an essential part of the finished work, taking precedence over content or representation. Opening Night Reception is Friday, March 18th, 2022 from 6pm to 8pm. Open Exhibition Dates are March 19th through April 2nd By Appointment Only.

[SOON]  MUSIC: Sarasota Orchestra: Masterworks: Breaking Boundaries , April 1 – April 3, 8pm and 2:30pm

Maestro Bramwell Tovey leads a program of works by composers who fearlessly charted their own paths on Friday, April 1 at 8pm, Saturday, April 2 at 8pm, and Sunday, April 3 at 2:30pm at the Van Wezel. British composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor's Ballade for Orchestra is alternately tender and highly dramatic. Violinist Angelo Xiang Yu stars in the cinematic Concerto for Violin by Korngold, the first composer of classical music who was also renowned for his career writing Hollywood film scores. The program concludes with the glorious Symphony No. 7 by classical music's most famous "bad boy," Beethoven.

[SOON]  PERFORMANCE: Urbanite Theatre: A Skeptic and a Bruja , April 1 – May 1, Varies.

A Skeptic and a Bruja by Rosa Fernandez Directed by Patrice Amon is A WORLD PREMIERE produced in Collaboration with freeFall Theatre and will run from April 1 to May 1, 2022. Priscilla buys a home in the middle of nowhere with the hopes of turning it into a lucrative bed and breakfast. When she starts having paranormal experiences, she calls Sam and Jess from the hit ghost-hunting show "A Skeptic and a Bruja" to help her. None of the women are prepared for the haunting they encounter next.

[SOON]  DANCE: Sarasota Contemporary Dance: In-Studio Performance featuring Monessa Salley , April 1 – April 2, 7pm

This In-Studio Performance featuring Monessa Salley will take place on Friday April 1st and Saturday April 2nd 2022 at 7pm and its Virtual Stream will take place on April 2nd at 7pm.

[SOON]  FESTIVAL: International Chalk Festival , April 1 – April 3, 10am-8pm

A museum in motion as professional pavement artists from around the world use chalk as their medium and the pavement as their surface with a few pushing the boundaries, including walls and other materials. You are an integral part of the creative process as the viewer laying witness to artists creative process, turning the pavement into a museum in motion while creating oversized masterpieces in chalk. Become a part of the illusion by stepping onto the 3D paintings for photo opportunities and sharing memories. Each day the interactive zone for the 'Young and Young at Heart' is so you have the opportunity to be creative with chalk. We provide colorful chalk, ground surfaces and chalk walls so everyone can create their own mini-masterpiece, or just scribbles to see how easy, or challenging it can be to create with chalk. You can chalk your name or whatever comes to mind. Each day of the festival you can sit under the big tent and listen or dance to live music featuring a diverse selection of local and national musicians and bands. The line-up of live performances will be listed one month prior to event. Each day arts and craft vendors, food vendors, and beverages and spirits of all kinds are available so you can spend a few hours or all day getting lunch, listing to music, shopping with vendors, having a drink and taking your time strolling the artwork. The Chalk festivities run 3 days starting on Friday, April 1 - 3, 2022 from 10am to 8pm at the Venice Airport, 610 Airport Avenue East, Venice.

[SOON]  FILM: The 24th Annual Sarasota Film Festival , April 1 – April 10

The 24th Annual Sarasota Film Festival will take place from April 1 to 10 at CMX CinéBistro Siesta Key. Independent and International narratives, docs and shorts are programmed into a schedule of over 100 features, themed shorts packages and additional programming sidebars that change each year to reflect the strengths of submitted films. Festival events include socially-driven parties and private receptions to honor guest filmmakers, community-wide street festivals and the black-tie Filmmakers Tribute Dinner. SFF patrons have enjoyed intimate performances from Aerosmith and The B52's as well as a host of special appearances from local and international musicians. A host of guests and filmmakers attend to promote their films and celebrate the accomplishments of their peers.

[SOON]  GRAB BAG: Tidewell Foundation 13th Annual Signature Luncheon , April 1, 11:30am

Save the date for the 13th Annual Signature Luncheon hosted by the Tidewell Foundation benefiting Tidewell Hospice. In response to recent increases of COVID-19 cases in the region, the event has been rescheduled for Friday, April 1, 2022 at 11:30am at The Ritz-Carlton, Sarasota. All proceeds from this event will help Tidewell Hospice provide care, comfort, and compassion to more than 10,000 patients and families each year. Featured Speaker is Emmy Award-Winning Actor, Author, Director & Producer Henry Winkler. During the event, a raffle for a chance to win a two night stay at the world-class Ritz-Carlton Sarasota & one round of Golf for Two at the Ritz-Carlton Golf Club will also be held. There is a maximum of 500 raffle tickets available, and they are first-come, first-serve. To enter the raffle, a $100 donation payable to the Tidewell Foundation, Inc. is the suggested minimum donation. However, no purchase or contribution is necessary to participate.

[SOON]  GRAB BAG: Fresh Fridays: Art on the Block , April 1, 7pm-10pm

Your first-Friday downtown block party continues with ART ON THE BLOCK. The city’s arts are the occasion to dance and celebrate creativity as we showcase performance, visual, and circus arts on Friday, April 1st on Lemon Avenue from 7-10pm. Featuring: dancing, free signature party favors, light bites, arts showcases, free polaroid portraits, beverages al fresco, and more.  

[SOON]  PERFORMANCE: Booker High VPA: Fool*ish , April 1 – April 2, Varies.

Fool*ish will take place April 1-2, 2022 at The Courtyard at Booker VPA, 3201 N. Orange Ave. We are fools whether we dance or not, so we may as well dance. Fool-ish is a dance concert that dives into our foolish side to see what we are fooled by and how we fool others.

[SOON]  MUSIC: Guitar Sarasota: International Concert Series: Laura Snowden - United Kingdom , April 2, 7:30pm

Join Laura Snowden on Saturday, April 2, 2022 at Riverview Performing Arts Center at 7:30pm. British-French guitarist and composer Laura Snowden is acclaimed for her “poise and intensity” (The Guardian) and playing of “extraordinary dept” (Strings, Classical Music Magazine). The first guitarist to graduate from the Yehudi Menuhin School, made possible by the Rolling Stones, she is currently teaching there. After she was invited by guitarist Julian Bream to premiere his latest commissions at Wigmore Hall, her international appearances have since built rapidly, with festival debuts across Europe, China and the US, as well as concerto debuts with Norrköping Symphony Orchestra and Münchener Kammerorchester, and a recording of Lisa Streich’s guitar concerto Augenlider with the Deutsches Symphonie Orchester.

[SOON]  FESTIVAL: Lido Beach Spring Craft Show , April 2 – April 3, 10am-5pm

Join us for the 2nd Annual Lido Beach Spring Craft Show on April 2-3, 2022 at Lido Beach in Sarasota, FL. Produced by Paragon Festivals and graciously hosted by the Downtown Sarasota Enrichment Association with the Humane Society of Sarasota the event’s Special Guest. Artisans and crafters from across Florida and throughout America will create a palette of artistic creations in mediums such as sculpture, jewelry, painting, photography, glass, ceramics, mixed-media, metalwork, fiber art, woodworking and more. If you do not find exactly what you wish, consider commissioning a piece made specifically for you as the artists creating all these works will be present at the event. Hours of the Lido Beach Spring Craft Show are Saturday and Sunday 10am-5pm. Admission is free. Come discover the beauty and functionality in what people create. Find that piece of art for home or office to enrich your life and inspire you each day.

[SOON]  PERFORMANCE: FST Improv: Comedy Freestyle , April 2 – May 28, 7:30pm

FST Improv Presents Comedy Freestyle Beginning on April 2 and through May 28, 2022 at 7:30pm. What happens when you take some of your favorite improv games…and remove all the rules? Anything goes at Comedy Freestyle, an off-the-wall improvisation potpourri. Featuring a mashup of both short-form and long-form styles, audiences get the best of the art form when styles and techniques collide! We’ll set our performers free from all of the traditional dos and don’ts of improv, and you get to watch them figure out what comes next, completely on the spot. Tickets are $15 per person and the performance will take place in FST's Bowne's Lab.

SRQ Media Group

SRQ DAILY is produced by SRQ | The Magazine. Note: The views and opinions expressed in the Saturday Perspectives Edition and in the Letters department of SRQ DAILY are those of the author(s) and do not imply endorsement by SRQ Media. Senior Editor Jacob Ogles edits the Saturday Perspective Edition, Letters and Guest Contributor columns.In the CocoTele department, SRQ DAILY is providing excerpts from news releases as a public service. Reference to any specific product or entity does not constitute an endorsement or recommendation by SRQ DAILY. The views expressed by individuals are their own and their appearance in this section does not imply an endorsement of them or any entity they represent. For rates on SRQ DAILY banner advertising and sponsored content opportunities, please contact Ashley Ryan Cannon at 941-365-7702 x211 or via email

Copyright © 2024 by SRQ Media Group, 331 South Pineapple Avenue, Sarasota, FL 34236.
Powered by Sarasota Web Design | Unsubscribe

Read More

Where Oil Meets Water

Where Oil Meets Water

Phil Lederer | Mar 1, 2024

Freedom to Wander

Freedom to Wander

Laura Paquette | Mar 1, 2024

Drive and Dine

Drive and Dine

Laura Paquette | Mar 1, 2024

A Mesmerizing Journey

A Mesmerizing Journey

Barbie Heit | Mar 1, 2024