Since taking on the task of creating a new festival celebrating Sarasota’s rich and diverse arts community about three years ago, Jeffery Kin has faced many challenges, but none more important than trying to define and determine exactly what Sarasota Rising’s first Living Arts Festival would be.
Kin, the former artistic director of the Sarasota Players, always had a vision for an event that would highlight the dozens of arts organizations in the community as well as individual artists, even before those groups signed up or understood what he was up to. The idea behind the festival was to create an event that would promote the region’s diverse arts scene while expanding its reach across the state, nationally and eventually internationally.
“I talked to about 90 percent of the arts groups, took time, organized lunches, coffee and tea, listened to their dreams and tried to incorporate all of that into the festival,” Kin said. “It was a big pyramid of ideas and thoughts, and it was literally up to me to figure out how to make it happen, using as much common sense as possible.”
It was the ultimate chicken-and-egg situation. Arts organizations were interested but were often hesitant to commit to an event that didn’t yet have a clear form, and Kin couldn’t shape it until the arts groups were ready to participate.
Finally, from November 8-17, Sarasota Rising will present five official events and participate in several others held at various locations throughout Sarasota County, featuring local groups and artists, presenting youth programs, and several other programs.
It is the first of hopefully many festivals that will change and grow over the years.
What is the festival?
“It’s almost like the festival is more of a feeling. It’s not a thing,” Kin said in a recent interview. “It’s not a place. It’s not a park. It’s not a single event, it’s not just for kids, it’s not just for our dear older folks. It’s really a feeling of being able to participate in any way you see fit.”
His organization, originally formed with the encouragement of developer Mark Kauffman and financial support from the Downtown Improvement District, wanted to avoid creating a copy of Arts Day, which was hosted by what is now the Arts and Cultural Alliance of Sarasota for 18 years until 2009. Arts Day was a one-day festival around Five Points Park where organizations set up booths to promote their programs and had the opportunity to perform segments of their shows at several indoor and outdoor venues.
Kin was looking for something more extensive, wanted to reach the whole country and hoped that the performing arts organizations would produce something new and unique for the festival. As the event grows in the next few years, such performances could become part of the festival.
“We want to convey an idea of what the community produces,” Kin said. “We need to show who is here, what is here, what is happening here,” he said. “We are a world-class cultural community and we need to be known for that.”
The Living Arts Festival includes five main events across the country
The festival will be a mix of parties and showcases and will kick off on November 8th with the Living Arts Festivala preview of the coming week at the Sarasota Municipal Auditorium. Kin said each of the five major events “has its own purpose. We know we’re going to learn a lot from this event that will impact us in the future.”
The lecture hall will also be the venue for the 9 November Get up and shine on Saturdaya family-oriented, free arts exhibition where organizations are invited to showcase their youth programs. There will be stages for indoor and outdoor performances.
The official opening party on November 10th is called “A world of entertainment” and will be held at the Northern Trust building in downtown Sarasota, where attendees will have a view of the Chalk Festival on the street below and where a Brazilian band and singer will perform. There will also be a performance by a California-based group called Bandaloop, which hosts dances in public spaces and on the sides of buildings.
“We’ll have them dancing on the Northern Trust side for the opening,” Kin said. “We want this to be an exciting spark to kick off the week. We call this a world of entertainment, with different music, different culture, different organizations. We have a world of entertainment at our feet. They don’t have to go anywhere.”
On November 11, Veterans Day, and November 12, the Living Arts Festival will host “Rethinking our embrace”, a partnership with Embracing our Differences and Selby Gardens on the Historic Spanish Point campus. There will be a performance walk through Spanish Point, along with some of the unclaimed banners from previous Embracing Our Differences exhibitions selected by CreArte Latino, Modern Marimba, and Sarasota Contemporary Dance, among others. These groups will use the panels to create their own songs, dances, spoken word, and acting scenes based on the images and messages.
The festival ends with “Sarasota Rising: A Celebration of Youth”, at the Circus Arts Conservatory’s Sailor Circus Arena, where a variety of youth programs are performed, including the Sarasota Ballet, Sarasota Opera, Westcoast Black Theatre, Key Chorale, Venice Theater and Sarasota Contemporary Dance and Circus.
Other events during the week
11 November – Veterans Day – Sarasota Rising partners with area organizations to create a tribute to the nation’s veterans.
14 November – All roads lead to Venice – A number of organizations, including the Venice Art Center, Downtown Association, Venice Main Street, The Venice Symphony and the Venice Theater, will take over downtown for a celebration of the arts featuring local bars, restaurants, hotels and pop-up visual arts exhibitions, impromptu street performances and select buskers.
15 November – Pop-Ups in Sarasota – Downtown Sarasota will host a variety of surprise “happenings” and “pop-ups” featuring live performances, food and spirits.
16 November – Art Roulette – Volunteers will be out in the community giving randomly selected people the chance to win tickets to performances and exhibitions in the coming weeks on a wheel of fortune.
Search for sponsorship
Kin has worked primarily with a volunteer board and recently hired its first paid employee, Erin Lazarro. The festival is seeking sponsors for many of the events to help cover costs and build a foundation for future events.
“We have to raise about $200,000 to fund everything we do, including insurance, paying police and staff. We have a budget for everything. If we had more money, we could do bigger and more comprehensive things. But we are frugal, smart and try to do it in the best way possible and within a manageable framework.”
There will be a program, but the festival probably won’t make any money from it. “The Gulf Coast Community Foundation has come forward as the main sponsor for the final part,” Kin said.
Kin’s team also includes Sonja Shea as director of community engagement and Tamara Solum, who directed Drama Kids of Manasota for 20 years, as director of education. Vern Biaett, who organizes community festivals and has worked on events such as the Super Bowl in Phoenix and Glendale, Arizona, serves as a consultant.
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First steps
Kin said the festival has evolved in its first year “almost exactly as I expected.” Some have mentioned integrating the Living Arts Festival into Sarasota’s version of the Spoleto Festival USA, which composer Gian Carlo Menotti started in Charleston, South Carolina, in 1977. It has grown into a two-week festival with dozens of theater, music, dance, opera, jazz, choral and other programs that has brought the city international attention.
Kin has no intention of trying the same thing in Sarasota.
“At every festival I’ve been to, there were things that were completely different, and even in Spoleto, there were things that were the same. We create an atmosphere where people want to be, where they can be excited and immersed in the art. That’s true of any festival, any fair. It’s about bringing people together, and then we did our part. It takes an event like this to leave you in awe.”
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