In addition to previously announced August programs with Marie Selby Botanical Gardens, Urbanite Theater, and Sarasota Opera, the Hermitage is partnering with Suncoast Black Arts Collaborative and Sarasota Art Museum to offer candid conversations with leading artists in theater and visual art.
(August 19, 2022) — The Hermitage Artist Retreat announces new community programs in September with acclaimed Hermitage Fellows in visual art and theater. These newly added programs are presented at outdoor venues throughout Sarasota County as part of the Hermitage’s partnerships with Gulf Coast organizations, as well as virtually to provide accessibility to audience members across the country.
First, in the Hermitage’s first partnership with Suncoast Black Arts Collaborative, Hermitage Fellow, playwright, and television writer Donnetta Lavinia Grays presents excerpts from and discusses her play Kudzu Calling. An interweaving of poems and moments which seek to expand and complicate the Southern narrative, Kudzu Calling is a celebration of Black Southern Love, Black Southern Queerness, Black Southern Playfulness, Culture, and Spirituality. It is the playwright’s love letter to the place that made her. With selections presented live on Zoom on Monday September 19th at 7pm EST, the program concludes with a conversation in which the audience is invited to engage with the accomplished playwright, screenwriter, and performer about her work.
Later in September, the Hermitage returns to Sarasota Art Museum to present returning Hermitage Fellow and acclaimed multi-disciplinary artist Anne Patterson in a conversation moderated by Hermitage Artistic Director and CEO Andy Sandberg. Patterson is familiar to Sarasota audiences, as her work has been exhibited at The Ringling Museum and commissioned by the Community Foundation of Sarasota County. With a visionary eye informed by her experience as a theater and opera set designer, Patterson’s art invites viewers to inhabit new worlds, sometimes literally encouraging people to interact with a given piece. Presented outdoors at the Sarasota Art Museum in the Klein Plaza on Friday, September 23rd at 5:30pm, the conversation explores the unique way Patterson’s creations burst into life and what is next for this visionary creator – and why it could be particularly relevant to Sarasota audiences.
These programs are in addition to previously announced programs in August at Marie Selby Botanical Garden and the Sarasota Opera House. (Full program details for all four events are provided below below.)
“The Hermitage’s ongoing August and September programming speaks to the expansive diversity and creative range of our renowned Hermitage Fellows, who are all brilliant talents in their respective fields,” notes Hermitage Artistic Director and CEO Andy Sandberg. “There is a growing year-round community of arts appreciators here in our Gulf Coast region, which is why we are now offering twelve months of public programming featuring some of the world’s leading artists. We are excited to introduce these audiences to Donnetta Lavinia Grays, and thrilled to welcome our friend Anne Patterson back to Sarasota to unveil some exciting news about a future project.”
Hermitage programs like these are free and open to the public with a $5/person registration fee. Due to capacity limitations and social distancing, registration is required at HermitageArtistRetreat.org.
See below for complete program details and artist bios.
The newly announced program descriptions:
- “Kudzu Calling” A Play Reading and conversation with Hermitage Fellow Donnetta Lavinia Grays, Monday, September 19 @ 7pm: Presented in Partnership with Suncoast Black Arts Collaborative, Hermitage Fellow Donetta Lavinia Grays’ play Kudzu Calling is an interweaving of poems and moments which seek to expand and complicate the Southern narrative – a celebration of Black Southern Love, Black Southern Queerness, Black Southern Playfulness, Culture, and Spirituality. It is the playwright’s love letter to the place that made her. Join the Hermitage Artist Retreat and Suncoast Black Arts Collaborative to experience excerpts from this work performed live on Zoom, followed by a candid conversation with the playwright. Donnetta Lavinia Grays’ Hermitage Residency is generously sponsored by Charlotte and Charles Perret. This event is presented in partnership with Suncoast Black Arts Collaborative. Registration is required at HermitageArtistRetreat.org ($5/household registration fee). Presented on Zoom.
- “Scale and Beauty” A Conversation with Hermitage Fellow Anne Patterson, Friday, September 23 @ 5:30pm, Presented in Partnership with Sarasota Art Museum. Acclaimed Hermitage Fellow and multi-disciplinary artist Anne Patterson’s work ranges from vast, cathedral-filling beauty to smaller, evocative watercolors alive with moment-to-moment discovery. With an eye informed by her experience as a set designer, her art invites viewers to inhabit new worlds, sometimes literally encouraging people to interact with a given piece. Patterson’s work has been exhibited at The Ringling Museum and commissioned by the Community Foundation of Sarasota County. Join the Hermitage and Sarasota Art Museum for a conversation about the unique way Anne’s creations burst into life and what is next for this visionary creator. Moderated by Hermitage Artistic Director and CEO Andy Sandberg. This event is presented in partnership with Sarasota Art Museum. Registration is required at HermitageArtistRetreat.org ($5/person registration fee). Sarasota Art Museum, 1001 S Tamiami Trail, Sarasota, FL 34236
Previously announced program descriptions:
- At Capacity; Now Accepting Waitlist Registrations – “The Latest from Terry Guest” A Play Reading with Hermitage Fellow Terry Guest, Friday, August 19 @ 6:30pm, Presented in Partnership with Urbanite Theater and Marie Selby Botanical Garden. Hermitage Fellow Terry Guest, playwright of Urbanite Theatre’s recent acclaimed production of At The Wake of a Dead Drag Queen, returns to Sarasota to share his latest work. This funny, vital, and raucous new work is a “Pageant on White American Memory” and explores several of our country’s most consequential families through a wickedly contemporary lens. Join the Hermitage for a sneak peek at a new play by the playwright whose work has been described as “breathtaking” with “indelible scenes” (Chicago Reader). Note: May not be suitable for children. Terry Guest’s Hermitage Residency is generously sponsored by Larry Bold and Carol White Bold. This event is presented in partnership with Urbanite Theater and Marie Selby Botanical Gardens. Registration is required at HermitageArtistRetreat.org ($5/person registration fee). Marie Selby Botanical Garden 1534 Mound St, Sarasota, FL 34236
- “Music’s Masterpieces” A Film Screening and Discussion with Hermitage Fellow Hilan Warshaw, Friday, August 26 @ 6pm, Presented in Partnership with Sarasota Opera. Hermitage Fellow Hilan Warshaw‘s films explore the lives and minds of great composers, delving into the often controversial passions and experiences that informed some of music’s most influential masterpieces. Blending documentary, narrative film techniques, and his own musical background as a violinist and conductor, Warshaw’s internationally broadcast films shine a new light on musical and operatic creators including Wagner, Schoenberg, Berg, Bach, and Mahler. For this program, Warshaw shares excerpts from his films and discusses the close relationship between the art forms of cinema and music. Hilan Warshaw’s Hermitage Residency is generously sponsored by Jane and Bill Knapp. This event is presented in partnership with Sarasota Opera. Registration is required at HermitageArtistRetreat.org ($5/person registration fee). Sarasota Opera, 61 N Pineapple Ave, Sarasota, FL 34236
About the Hermitage Artist Retreat:
The Hermitage is a non-profit artist retreat located in Manasota Key, Florida, inviting accomplished artists across multiple disciplines for residencies on its beachfront campus, which is on the National Register of Historic Places. Hermitage artists are invited to interact with the local community, reaching thousands of Gulf Coast residents and visitors each year with unique and inspiring programs. Hermitage Fellows have included 15 Pulitzer Prize winners, Poets Laureate, MacArthur ‘Genius’ Fellows, and multiple Tony, Emmy, Grammy, Oscar winners and nominees. Works created at this beachside retreat by a diverse group of Hermitage alumni have gone on to renowned theaters, concert halls, and galleries throughout the world. Each year, the Hermitage awards the $30,000 Hermitage Greenfield Prize for a new work of art, the newly announced $35,000 Hermitage Major Theater Award for an original theater commission, and the Aspen Music Festival’s Hermitage Prize in Composition.
For more information, visit HermitageArtistRetreat.org.
The Hermitage is supported by:
Hermitage programs are supported, in part, by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts; by Sarasota County Tourist Development Tax Revenues; and by The State of Florida, Department of State, Division of Arts and Culture and the Florida Council on Arts and Culture (Section 286.25 Florida Statutes), as well as the Gulf Coast Community Foundation, Charles & Margery Barancik Foundation, and the Community Foundation of Sarasota County.
PREVIOUSLY ANNOUNCED HERMITAGE PROGRAMS:
Friday, August 19 @ 6:30pm, “The Latest from Terry Guest,” with Hermitage Fellow Terry Guest (Live and outdoors at Selby Gardens, Downtown Sarasota)
Presented in partnership with Urbanite Theater
Friday, August 26 @ 6pm, “Music’s Masterpieces,” with Hermitage Fellow Hilan Warshaw (Live and indoors at Sarasota Opera, Downtown Sarasota)
Presented in partnership with Sarasota Opera
Monday, September 19 @ 7pm, “Kudzu Calling,” with Hermitage Fellow Donnetta Lavinia Grays (Presented virtually on Zoom)
Presented in partnership with Suncoast Black Arts Collaborative
Friday, September 23 @ 5:30pm, “Scale and Beauty,” with Returning Hermitage Fellow Anne Patterson (Live and outdoors at Sarasota Art Museum)
Presented in partnership with Sarasota Art Museum
COMPLETE ARTIST BIOS
Donnetta Lavinia Grays
Hermitage Fellow Donnetta Lavinia Grays – raised in Columbia, South Carolina – is a Brooklyn-based playwright and actor whose writing credits include Where We Stand (Lucille Lortel, Drama League, and AUDELCO Award Nominations; World Premiere Co-Production – WP Theater and Baltimore Center Stage; Warriors Don’t Cry (TheaterWorks USA/Bushnell commission), Last Night and the Night Before (World Premiere – Denver Center for the Performing Arts; Kilroys List; Todd McNerney National Playwriting Award Winner); Laid to Rest (O’Neill Center National Playwrights Conference Finalist); The Review or How to Eat Your Opposition (WP Pipeline Festival; O’Neill Center National Playwrights Conference Finalist), The New Normal, and The Cowboy Is Dying. Donnetta is a recipient of the Whiting Award for Drama, the Helen Merrill Playwright Award, Lilly Award, National Theater Conference Barrie and Bernice Stavis Playwright Award, and is the inaugural recipient of the Doric Wilson Independent Playwright Award. Her work has been developed with, Hedgebrook, New Harmony Project, Berkeley Rep, Denver Center for the Performing Arts, The Labyrinth Theater Company, New York Theater Workshop, Orlando Shakespeare Theater, Portland Stage Company, Pure Theatre Company, [the claque], Naked Angels, Classical Theater of Harlem, Slant Theater Project, terraNova Collective, and TOSOS. In 2018, Donnetta founded Gap Toothed Griot (GTG) as a home for her particular brand of storytelling. Through GTG, Donnetta is currently under commission with True Love Productions, Steppenwolf, The Denver Center, Alabama Shakespeare Festival, and WP Theater. For television, she has been staffed on Spectrum Original/Lionsgate’s Manhunt, Y: The Last Man for FX Network/Color Force, and is currently the Executive Story Editor on Joe vs. Carole starring Kate McKinnon for NBC Universal.
Anne Patterson
Hermitage Fellow Anne Patterson is a multi-disciplinary artist based in Brooklyn. Her body of work consists of paintings, sculptures, and large-scale multimedia installations that combine sculpture, architecture, lighting, video, music, and scent. Drawing from her background in theater and opera set design, she uses these modalities to create an artistic practice, hovering somewhere between the visual, experientia,l and immersive. Patterson’s large-scale installations have filled cathedrals, office buildings, and galleries across the country with miles of fabric, aluminum ribbon, and metal birds. Her most recent installation, “Art for Earth,” commissioned by the fashion house Ermenegildo Zegna, was made of thousands of lengths of fabric repurposed from Zegna fabrics. Anne has exhibited widely including solo exhibitions at The Ringling Museum and Alfstad & Contemporary. Her work has been shown at The Trapholt Museum, Denmark; Cristina Grajales, New York; Scope Art Fair, Miami; Aqua Art Fair, Miami; Building Bridges Art Exchange, Los Angeles; Valerie Dillon Gallery, New York; Denise Bibro, New York; Cade Tompkins Projects, Providence, RI and One Twelve Gallery, Atlanta. Her paintings and sculptures are in private, public, and corporate collections across the USA (Tishman Speyer, Tribune Media, Nortek, New York Presbyterian Hospital, Memorial Sloan Kettering Hospital, Rhode Island Blue Cross) and in London. Anne’s theatrical and symphonic partnerships have included Lincoln Center, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Arena Stage, The Wilma Theater, The Kennedy Center, Alliance Theater and prestigious symphonies throughout the country (San Francisco, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Chicago, Seattle). Patterson was the 2014 and 2016 CODAaward Winner for Liturgical Art and received a Creative Capital Award in 2008. She is a proud Fellow of the Hermitage Artist’s Retreat. In Sarasota, her work has been exhibited at The Ringling Museum and commissioned by the Community Foundation of Sarasota County. Patterson received her B.A. of Architecture from Yale University and her M.F.A. in Theater Design from The Slade School of Art, London UK.