Keenan Perren likes to hold onto things. Specifically, skate boards. For the 31-year artist based out of Bradenton, however, the skateboards he keeps aren’t just for sentimental value. They are the very medium that he works with.

“When I left New Jersey, I brought my broken boards with me,” says Perren, who moved to Bradenton from South Jersey in 2012. “I’d always kept my boards and I didn’t really know what to do with them. Eventually, I started cutting them into squares with a jigsaw and sort of collaging them together.”

What began as a way to stave off boredom has evolved into a full fledged artistic practice. Perren likens his work to stained glass—using just the boards themselves, without the use of added paint—he manipulates pieces of skateboards to create various types of sculptures and reliefs. Oftentimes these sculptures are depictions of his friends and fellow skaters, other times they are more abstract, such as figurines that use the wheels of the boards as “heads”. “I’ll often take pictures or drawings that I have and put them together on my Ipad to make a template or pattern for the piece, similar to a mosaic. A skateboard is curved, so I have to use smaller pieces of each board to make the work flat,” says Perren. “I print out a pattern—like if you were creating a template for stained glass—and then build it piece by piece, using a scroll saw to cut up the boards before sanding them down and putting it together like a puzzle.”

The skateboards themselves are a product of Perren’s community, coming from his friends, local shops like Compound Boardshop or even fans online. Skateboards are typically either made from seven layers or nine layers of hard-pressed maple. Underneath the graphics that adorn the deck of every board are layers of differently colored wood that Perren can reveal with a sander. “It’s similar to if you were creating a collage from a magazine, seeking out the different colors. If I need blues or greens, I just look for a bunch of boards with those colors, whether they’re in the graphic itself or underneath it,” says Perren. “I try to keep parts of the graphic so that people can tell the board has been skated, that it had a life to it.”

Keenan Perren’s work can be found on his instagram page, @ayekeenbean and has been shown at various galleries around Sarasota and in Michigan. From January 7-28, he will teach a Mixed Media Collage Portraits class at Art Center Sarasota. 

Provided photo.

To learn more click here

The Sarasota Players is pleased to share important leadership updates as the organization enters a new chapter focused on long-term sustainability, artistic excellence, and community impact. In this new chapter, we are proud to share that a new Board of Trustees, led by Board Chair Katie Weiss, has taken the helm with renewed energy and commitment. Assisted by Vice Chair Diane Weiss, MS, Secretary Scott Keys and trustees Michelle Bilsky, Esquire, Rob McLain Esquire, Dr. Es Swihart and Bill Rusling. In this new chapter, we are proud to share that a new Board of Trustees, led by Board Chair Katie Weiss, has taken the helm with renewed energy and commitment. Assisted by Vice Chair Diane Weiss, MS, Secretary Scott Keys and trustees Michelle Bilsky, Esquire, Rob McLain Esquire, Dr. Es Swihart and Bill Rusling. 

To learn more, visit

Audiences are invited to tune in for a binge-worthy night of nostalgia when The Venice Symphony brings TV Classics! to center stage at the Venice Performing Arts Center. The concert celebrates unforgettable theme songs that defined decades of television, from game shows and sitcoms to gripping dramas and primetime epics. From game show classics and cartoon favorites to dramatic themes that once had viewers racing to the couch, TV Classics! promises a memory-filled journey through television’s most iconic moments. Audiences are encouraged to grab their “remote,” sit back, and let the music do the channel surfing.

Friday, Jan. 9 at 7:30pm, Saturday, Jan. 10 at 3:30 and 7:30pm, Ticket Prices: $45-$85, The Venice Performing Arts Center, 1 Indian Ave., Building 5, Venice. 

The Tampa Bay region’s public media newsroom and music broadcaster WUSF has named Leslie Laney of Tampa as the incoming General Manager of the radio, online and social media organization, effective January 2. Laney takes over from long-time WUSF General Manager JoAnn Urofsky who last October announced plans to retire from the station. Laney currently serves as the WUSF Station Manager overseeing the WUSF 89.7 news and public affairs channel, as well as WSMR 89.1 and 103.9, Florida’s only 24-7 classical music station. Laney joined WUSF in 2018 and has steadily risen to the top ranks of the organization and has launched a growing list of digital and broadcast platforms. 

The world-renowned Philadelphia Orchestra returns to Sarasota for a transformative evening on Monday, February 16, 2026, at 7:30 p.m. Presented by the Sarasota Concert Association, the Philadelphia Orchestra will be led by its charismatic Music Director, Yannick Nézet-Séguin. The all-Brahms program opens with the composer’s passionate, free-spirited Symphony No. 3, a work that balances lush Romanticism with Classical structure.  The composer’s Symphony No. 4, Brahms’ final symphonic work, depicts a more emotional landscape, and is widely regarded as one of his greatest orchestral achievements. 

To learn more, visit