In honor of the day, here are a number of events, resources, art, and art exhibitions to help you celebrate. 

Art and resources at the Library

The Alfred R. Goldstein Library has physical and digital resources on Juneteenth and anti-racism. Explore their online or visit and check out their curated collection in person. Students, faculty, and staff can check out up to 40 books at one time. 

On the second floor of Goldstein, visitors can explore the Brizdle-Schoenberg Special Collections Center’s collection of works on paper and art books that share the history of radical Black activism, from Kara Walker’s pop-up book, Freedom, a Fable, to Brooklyn-based Char Jeré’s The periodic table of Black revolutionaries. Students, faculty, and staff can schedule a visit to explore the collection by using the signup form and selecting a 45-minute appointment. 

How to Celebrate Juneteenth in Sarasota

Our Sarasota community members and neighbors are hosting a number of events throughout the Sarasota-Bradenton region, and most of them are free and open to the public. 

Last Sunday, June 16, the hosted the Second Annual Juneteenth Arts Festival which featured an art exhibition with work from local artists, food vendors, a screening of ������Ƶ student short films, and live performances, dances, and music.

The Sarasota County NAACP Voting Collaboration Committee will host today, Wednesday, June 19, from 1-4 pm at the Historic Leonard Reid House. There will be performances by students of the Manasota ASALH Freedom School and spoken word poets throughout the day. The event is free to the public.

From 6-8 pm tonight, Sarasota African American Cultural Coalition (SAACC) and The Ringling Museum will lead a conversation about the prominence of African American artists and their contributions to the Sarasota art community titled “Let’s Talk” Art Series Juneteenth Edition. This event will also be held at the Leonard Reid House, and also free.

On Saturday, June 22, Inc. will host Juneteenth Reading Conference and Juneteenth Community Festival, with a Black business expo, financial literacy workshops, voter registration, and read-a-long, with live entertainment by local artist Amelia, at Dream Center, 922 24th St E, Bradenton from 2-7 pm. The event is free and open to the public.

The Newtown Historic Community will hold a free block party on Saturday, Newtown Juneteenth Celebration 2024, from 12-7 pm on the corner of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Way and Gillespie Ave. The party will feature live music, street vendors, food, and performances.  

Sarasota African American Cultural Coalition, Inc. (SAACC) will host another free event at the Historic Leonard Reid House on Saturday from 6-9 pm, Juneteenth Jubilee Jam at Leonard Reid House. This party with a purpose will feature performances by popular local artists Jah Movement, Derric Gobourne, Jr., and Ariel Blue. The event will include vendors and art exhibits. 

On Sunday, June 23, the will host Celebrating Juneteenth, a live contemporary art and dining experience featuring artist Kendel Woods, performances, and fundraising for ASALH’s Freedom School. The event will be from 4-6 pm at Chaz 51 Steakhouse in Venice. Tickets are $100 each, with various sponsorship ticket tiers.

More resources to learn more about Juneteenth, from online resources to podcasts to free courses. 

The National Museum of African American History and Culture has put together a collection of resources titled,, and PBS produced a documentary, .

Podcasts

, NPR

, New York Times

, Kimberlé Crenshaw

Engage and Learn

, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

, Harvard University

, National Museum of African American History & Culture

, Kimberlé Crenshaw

, Pulitzer Center

Books

, by Ibram X. Kendi (available at the library) 

, by Robin DiAngelo

, by Angela Davis

, by Beverly Daniel Tatum (available at Goldstein Library)

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The festival will showcase seven features, 21 shorts, and 10 Emerging Filmmaker films, representing China, Ireland, Ukraine, England, Canada, Germany, South Africa,  Belgium, the Philippines, the United Arab Emirates, and the U.S. The selected films reflect the diverse experiences of global women and the LGBTQ+ community. 

The event will be the first in-person North American screening of the documentary Shirin Ebadi: Until We Are Free, which tells the story of Ebadi, a human rights lawyer who has been working diligently to protect women and children against the current regime in Iran, and shows how fragile democracy and human rights can be. Ebadi is the first Muslim woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize. Following the screening, festival organizers will present comments by Dr. Ebadi and film director Dawn Engle. 

In 2022, the ������Ƶ alumni film Code Red screened at the Through Women’s Eyes festival. Code Red was written and directed by Jada Poon ’20, Film, producer Katerina Mullen ’20, Film, and executive produced by Vivian Owen who was the lead faculty for the Branded Entertainment track at the time the film was produced. The film shines a light on period poverty. It tells the story of a sixth-grader experiencing her first period while at school. The film follows her on her journey to track down a pad or tampon. Winning several awards and screening at multiple festivals, the film drew the attention of Always, a company that produces period products, and inspired them to name the Code Red team a Period Hero. Code Red was launched on on March 8, 2023 on International Women’s Day.   

for the film festival are available at the Through Women’s Eyes International Film Festival website.

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This comprehensive grant will support ������Ƶ’s  and Campus Art Walks;  of ������Ƶ’s (SAM) Sara Berman’s Closet exhibition and its Dec. 10 Art Bash. The grant was awarded from the Community Foundation’s John and Dorothy Brennan Charitable Fund.

“This is the fourth consecutive year the Community Foundation of Sarasota County has supported strategic arts programming for the College and our contemporary art museum,” said ������Ƶ President Dr. Larry R. Thompson. “Since 2019, CFSC has supported our on-campus galleries and our then newly-opened Sarasota Art Museum every step of the way in making world-class arts programming available and accessible to our community.”

“As we approach a post-pandemic life of the on-campus Galleries, we see this moment as an opportunity for growth, innovation, and a redefinition of how we use our exhibitions and programming to expand and strengthen our work of bringing art and people together,” said Tim Jaeger, director and chief curator of galleries and exhibitions at ������Ƶ. “We are aligning our focus on Ringling-sourced exhibitions and want to encapsulate the idea of the Galleries as a center of creative life and dialogue on campus, which includes critical self-reflection, identifying and building relationships with new audiences, and making our Galleries more accessible through media and technology.”

“In underwriting programming for Sarasota Art Museum since we opened our doors, the Community Foundation of Sarasota County has time and again helped drive arts engagement for all constituencies of our community,” said Sarasota Art Museum executive director Virginia Shearer. “We are thrilled to bring the Sara Berman’s Closet exhibition to the Sarasota Community. We thank the Foundation for its support of this one-of-a-kind exhibition by artists Maira Kalman and Alex Kalman– inspired by the life of Maira’s mother and Alex’s grandmother, Sara Berman– and for supporting the upcoming Art Bash on December 10.”

The first annual  on Saturday, Dec. 10 supports Sarasota Art Museum’s dynamic season of thought-provoking exhibitions featuring local, national, and international artists, and the ever-growing roster of education programs and arts classes. At their core, artists and nature share an infinite creative spirit that enchants, teaches, and shapes our perceptions of the world. The Art Bash theme is ecologically-themed as Immersive Nature, and is inspired by elements of artworks in Sarasota Art Museum’s Winter Exhibitions.

Contact:
Rich Schineller
941-780-8100

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The exhibition showcases the work of these ������Ƶ students who placed in a college-wide competition.

• Briana Uchendu ’21, Illustration
• DeAnna Boyer ’22, Illustration
• Emily Ehlen ’21, Illustration
• Juniper (Jiana) Johnson ’22, Creative Writing
• Jithesh Beeharry ’21, Film
• Katelan Thomas ’21, Visual Studies
• Luna Krizan ’22, Film
• Ezar Savaro ‘22, Illustration
• Steven Staub ’22, Illustration
• Will Mauricette ’24, Film

The exhibition is a collaboration between the organization and Ringling’s INDEX program. INDEX provides students with the chance to work on real-world projects with real-world clients to gain crucial work experience before graduation.

Through the INDEX program, the Newtown Alive Exhibition Series sent out calls for submission multiple times throughout the school year. Each call focused on a specific person, place, or event from Sarasota’s African American history, and included supporting explanatory materials to help inspire and inform student submissions. A panel of judges selected the exhibition winners. 

“Our partnership with ������Ƶ is helping to fulfill the mission of preserving, celebrating and sharing the history, arts, and cultural heritage of African Americans,” said Vickie Oldham. Oldham, along with a team of professionals and volunteers, is leading the Newtown Alive initiative to compile, organize, and package the history of Newtown, the historically black neighborhood of Sarasota in which she grew up.

The exhibit will be on display through October 22 and is open to the community. The gallery is open to visitors from 9 am to 3 pm daily. The gallery is located on campus, on the first floor of the Larry R. Thompson Academic Center. Visitor parking is available in the lot directly in front of the building.

This exhibition was made possible, in part, by the Thompson Creative Fund, The Community Foundation of Sarasota County, The Exchange, and by Sarasota County Tourist Development Tax revenues. This exhibition was also made possible, in part, from the support of the ������Ƶ INDEX Program, Newtown Alive, and Sarasota African American Cultural Coalition.

Contact:
Laura Neff-Henderson, APR
Director of Marketing and Communications
941-330-7436

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Richard and Barbara both grew up in a suburb of Boston where their parents were neighbors. They started dating and married a year later and were married for 58 years. In 1979, they moved to Sarasota living for a few years on Siesta Key, before moving to their current home in east Sarasota. Basch worked as a radiologist for over 50 years in Sarasota before his retirement.

In 1993 he and Barbara jumped head first into the world of studio art glass and began collecting and traveling the world to visit the studios of Chihuly, the Venice Masters, and so many others.

Having become involved with the College while serving on the Board of ������Ƶ’s Sarasota Museum of Art (now Sarasota Art Museum), the Basches made a monumental, two-fold philanthropic gift in 2009 that forever changed the fabric of ������Ƶ. The first part of their commitment was at that time the largest philanthropic gift ever made by individual donors in the College’s then-78-year history. The second part was donating their extraordinary, world-class collection of over 300 glass art objects exclusively to ������Ƶ. These items will come to the College after both Richard and Barbara pass. Various pieces from the Basch collection have been exhibited annually at the College in the Richard and Barbara Basch Gallery and Barbara leads a weekly tour each year while the exhibit is on display that has become a must-see on campus for the Sarasota community and beyond.

Several years later in 2014, the Basches announced another very generous gift that was instrumental in erecting the nearly 40,000-square-foot Richard and Barbara Basch Visual Arts Center. This building now houses a hot and cold shop for glassmaking, a wood shop, a “makerspace,” photography labs, a printmaking and letterpress studio, the Lois and David Stulberg Gallery, and classrooms. Of this incredible building, at the unveiling Basch said, “This building is an example of unintended consequences that have become consequential. We started this building out as a glassblowing facility, maybe 1,500 square feet. That didn’t fly, so now we have this,” he said with a smile. “Unintended consequences became consequential.”

Thompson had this to say about Basch: “I am so sad about Richard’s passing. He was a great friend, a confidant, an adviser, an active participant in ������Ƶ’s governance, and a beloved supporter of ������Ƶ. He and his wife have truly transformed the College forever. They have had an indelible impact on the students, past, present, and future, and are the true epitome of what inspiration and dedication can achieve through philanthropy.” 

Basch was an active member of the ������Ƶ Board of Trustees and more recently, an Honorary Life Trustee of the College. He was a member of the original Board of Directors for the Sarasota Art Museum, and, of course, an incredible friend to the College and the local arts community. He was awarded an honorary doctorate of arts degree from ������Ƶ at the opening of the Richard and Basch Visual Arts Center on March 10, 2017. 

He will be deeply missed by all of us at ������Ƶ and we are forever grateful for his inspirational leadership and support. The ������Ƶ flag will be lowered to half-mast for several days and the College plans to hold a celebration of life on campus to honor his and his legacy. Further details will be forthcoming. Our sincere condolences are with the Basch family during this difficult time. 

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The highlight of the event featured nine different instructors talking about their classes. Course topics this fall will include history, music appreciation, health, living sustainably, improvisational theater, and there’s even a course titled “50 Things You Didn’t Know Your iPhone Could Do.”

“At OLLI, our goal is to enrich the lives of mature adults in Sarasota and Manatee counties by providing high-quality educational programs and social interactions that provide intellectual stimulation,” said Dr. Phyllis C. Brown, director of OLLI.

Fall classes begin September 28 and run through November 18. Classes are available during the week and range from two to eight-session courses. They are taught by volunteers, many of whom have retired from successful careers before relocating to Sarasota. Anyone “aged 50 and better” is invited to register for courses or participate in any of the workshops, special lectures, and programs held throughout the term.

Most courses are taught in person at the Sarasota Art Museum on the ������Ƶ Museum Campus, 1001 S. Tamiami Trail, Sarasota, FL 34236. Classes are also available virtually.

Students can enjoy a myriad of classes including “Improv Brain Games” with Will Luera, director of Improvisation at Florida Studio Theater or “Women of the American Songbook” with actress and pianist Sandra Moulin. Plus, there’s CONNECTIONS, the documentary film series, which features two films this term, Lives Well Lived and 100 Days with Tata.

“We are excited to be able to offer so many different and enriching opportunities to our community,” said Jeff Ryder, who retired after a career in the television industry and is chair of the OLLI curriculum committee. “We truly have something for everyone.”

To view the  and to , visit the . Students can also register by phone at 941-309-5111 or in person at Sarasota Art Museum, Mann Reception Area (room 105).  

OLLI is a division of the ������Ƶ Continuing Studies Department.

ABOUT OLLI

The Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI) is a division of the ������Ƶ Continuing Studies department. OLLI operates year-round and is supported through student registrations and private contributions. OLLI courses are non-credit and primarily based on a liberal arts curriculum. OLLI seeks to enrich the lives of mature adults in Sarasota and Manatee counties by providing affordable and outstanding educational programs. OLLI offers classes with topics as varied as Arts and Entertainment, Finance, History, Science, Current Events, Languages, Psychology, and more without the pressure of tests, grades, or credits. Classes are offered purely for the joy of learning! OLLI at ������Ƶ is located on the ������Ƶ Museum Campus at 1001 S. Tamiami Trail, Sarasota, FL 34236.

ABOUT RINGLING COLLEGE 

Since 1931, ������Ƶ has cultivated the creative spirit in students from around the globe. The private, not-for-profit, fully accredited college offers the Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in eleven disciplines and the Bachelor of Arts in two. The College’s rigorous curriculum employs the studio model of teaching and immediately engages students through a comprehensive program that is both specific to the major of study and focused on the liberal arts. The ������Ƶ teaching model ultimately shapes students into highly employable and globally aware artists and designers. Follow ������Ƶ on , , , and and for more information, please visit .

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As part of the requirement for all who are seeking the Eagle Scout rank, scouts must complete a project that benefits their community and/or a not-for-profit. For his final project, Brady decided to hand-build a self-contained local library out of cedar. This free library is now installed on the corner of 25th Street and Cocoanut Avenue, which borders the ������Ƶ campus property and the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Day Park on the edge of the Newtown community. 

The library will be continuously filled with books donated by ������Ƶ’s Goldstein Library; books that feature different artists, art histories, design, books on architecture, video games, and so much more. The books are free and available to everyone in the community, enabling creative and educational resources for all. 

On Saturday, August 27, 2022, the Little Free Library was installed and unveiled. Dr. Larry Thompson, president of ������Ƶ, as well as multiple faculty and staff members, and Ringling students have also achieved the honor of Eagle Scout and share in the celebration of his achievements.

Photo Gallery

Photos by Ryan Moore ’24, Photography and Imaging

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Five interns in Sarasota/Manatee out of 39 total finalists nationwide were selected for the 30th year of the Diversity in Arts Leadership (DIAL) program. They participated in summer work placement at an arts and culture organization in one of six national locations: Nashville, Southern New Jersey, Boston, Sarasota, Raleigh, and New York City. Interns received a $4,500 pre-tax summer work stipend, 30+ hours of professional development workshops, plus arts activities, facilitated discussions, and more. They also receive access to the national DIAL intern cohort and robust DIAL alumni network.

The regional CCA DIAL intern program winners and the arts organizations they served with are:

• Jordyn Caldwell (she/her), currently finishing her final year at George Mason University studying film and media, worked with The Sarasota Ballet.
• Lauren David (she/her), a New College of Florida senior who is passionate about community and art, minoring in museum studies and majors in environmental studies with a focus on urban studies, and the environment, interned with Sarasota Art Museum.
• Yadira Gonzalez (she/her), a music student from the State College of Florida, planning to study music business at Florida Atlantic University, was paired with Manatee Performing Arts Center.
• Jonathan Lee (any pronouns), a Guatemalan-American performing artist originally from Chicago based in Sarasota, and an incoming junior at New College of Florida studying theatre and dance, interned with the CreArte Latino Cultural Center.
• Sierra Schumann (they/them), a multimedia artist from Los Angeles County, California, and a current student at the ������Ƶ majoring in illustration, served at Ringling Museum with the Historic Asolo Theatre.

“It has truly been a pleasure working with Lauren David through the DIAL internship this summer and I’m grateful for the opportunity to see Sarasota Art Museum and its potential through her eyes,” said Sarasota Art Museum Executive Director Virginia Shearer. “Lauren came to us with an interest in learning about the curatorial field and she took advantage of every opportunity for skill building in research, exhibition planning, and education programming. I can’t wait to see what Lauren does next!”

“This has been an unprecedented opportunity for these young achievers to work with and learn from the leadership of some of the top arts organizations in our community,” said Josephine Eisenberg, Cross College Alliance initiative coordinator. “This experience will change these interns lives as they complete their collegiate programs and pursue their chosen careers as new leaders in creating equality and equity in the arts.”

With equitable arts leadership at the center, the provides undergraduate students from diverse backgrounds who have a career interest in arts and cultural equity a hands-on introduction to leadership, administration, and management in the arts sector during a 10-week summer internship. By focusing on a healthy, vibrant, and equitable arts ecosystem, interns are interwoven within the arts and culture community and plugged into a cohort of field leaders, mentors, and other cultural practitioners. Altogether, the DIAL network commits to continuous learning and advancing of a more equitable arts ecosystem.

In Sarasota-Manatee, DIAL was presented by the Community Foundation of Sarasota, with additional support from the Flora Major Fund, Jack and Priscilla Schlegel, and the Ruby E. and Carole Crosby Family Foundation.

The Community Foundation’s President and CEO, Roxie Jerde, said that supporting such a program designed to broaden representation of arts leadership is one important way to sustain Sarasota’s cultural integrity.

“We as a community are changing, and the opportunity to bring diverse, smart young leaders here is a way for us to learn as a community,” she said. “This is our future.”

Interested in learning more about the DIAL program? Visit the or contact Keya Crenshaw, manager of Equitable Workforce Development, for more information.

About the Cross College Alliance (CCA)

The five members comprising the CCA are New College of Florida, ������Ƶ, State College of Florida Manatee-Sarasota, The Ringling/FSU, and University of South Florida Sarasota-Manatee Campus. They are located in Sarasota and Manatee counties with main campuses no more than a few miles from each other on Florida’s West Coast.

The Cross College Alliance mission is rethinking education together to broaden educational experiences through unique but complementary programs, services and philosophies, to cultivate the pursuit of knowledge and to establish our region as a destination for academic excellence.

Media contact:
Rich Schineller
rschinel@ringling.edu
941.780.8100

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When the Berlin Wall was being destroyed in 1989, Rainer Hildebrandt did not want history to be forgotten. He purchased one mile of the interior wall, placed some in storage, and used the rest as canvases for his art commissions. This collection was cased and sent to America to be stored until his arrival, however he died before he was able to make his voyage to the United States.

Preserved when the Berlin Wall was demolished in 1989, these unique pieces of history remain to remind us of our past and preserve hope for a peaceful future. 

One of the artists featured in this collection will be Alexander Solotzew, a Russian-born artist who spent time painting on the Berlin Wall in protest against the Soviet regime before he was expelled from East Germany. Alexander was later recognized for his efforts as an artist of East Germany and awarded a prize for his invaluable contribution to the development of culture. He has received high praise from art critics of the Metropolitan Museum of Arts and art historians from the German Museums and was awarded the Gold Medal by the Rhineland-Palatinate state of Germany.

Alexander was born in the Soviet Union, forced to immigrate, and lived in both parts of divided and later reunified Germany. He believes that history must be preserved to avoid repeating it and continues to openly defend human rights and speak about the freedom of speech and expressions.

Alexander’s art, along with others’ works including ������Ƶ student Franziska Rosa Fleissner ’23, Fine Arts, are among the 15 pieces of Berlin Wall Art that are currently on display at the Art Ovation Hotel in Sarasota, Florida, and will be available for purchase during the July 7 auction.

The auction will begin at 7 pm at the Art Ovation Hotel in downtown Sarasota, preceded by a reception beginning at 6 pm and featuring wine and hors d’oeuvres. The auction will be conducted by Paul Sykes of Art Avenue Florida. A portion of the proceeds from this sale will go to the St. Joseph’s Children’s Hospital and the ������Ƶ to encourage the advancement of art in our community.

To learn more about the event and to purchase tickets, visit the .

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Sarasota, Florida native and ������Ƶ student, Zaine Lodhi ’22, will be honored in Hollywood as a winner in the Illustrators of the Future Contest at The Taglyan Complex on Friday, April 8th.  

In addition, his art has earned him a cash prize and will be published in the international bestselling anthology, L. Ron Hubbard Presents Writers of the Future Volume 38. Prior to the black-tie awards gala, Zaine will attend a week-long workshop with some of the top professionals in the industry. Zaine is in contention for the grand prize of $5,000 and the Golden Pen award which will be announced at the awards event.

Zaine Lohdi was born in 1999 in Sarasota, Florida and is a graduate of Booker High School. He feels as if his path as an illustrator was predestined – he has known the trajectory of his life since childhood. Zaine was surrounded by incredible fantasy art from a young age, collecting Magic: The Gathering cards and whatever comics he could get his hands on. The art of Frank Frazetta, Alex Ross, and Gerald Brom were pivotal in his stylistic development.

Zaine is currently studying Illustration with a Visual Development (concept art) focus at ������Ƶ. He placed the most importance on programs that value an unwavering work ethic and emphasize preparation for the workforce. He has a strong classical painting background fostered by professors who specialize in figure and landscape painting, and he combines traditional painting and drawing skill sets with his visual library to produce concept art for games and film. Currently, he is a student freelance illustrator looking to join a studio and make a mark in the video game industry upon graduation.

The Contest, one of the most prestigious writing and illustrating competitions in the world, is currently in its 34th year and is judged by some of the premier names in speculative fiction.

The Illustrators of the Future Contest judges include, Bob Eggleton (11 Chesley Awards and 7 Hugo Awards), Larry Elmore (Dungeons & Dragons book covers), Echo Chernik (graphic designs for major corporations including Celestial Seasonings tea packaging), Rob Prior (art for Spawn, Heavy Metal comics, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer), Ciruelo (Eragon Coloring Book).

The Writers of the Future Contest judges include, Tim Powers (author of On Stranger Tides), Kevin J. Anderson and Brian Herbert (Dune prequel series), Robert J. Sawyer (Quantum Night), Brandon Sanderson (Mistborn series, The Stormlight Archive), Larry Niven (Ringworld), Orson Scott Card (Ender’s Game), Nnedi Okorafor (Who Fears Death), David Farland (Runelords), and Katherine Kurtz (Deryni series) to name a few.

Following the 1982 release of his internationally acclaimed bestselling science fiction novel, Battlefield Earth, written in celebration of 50 years as a professional writer, L. Ron Hubbard created the Writers of the Future () in 1983 to provide a means for aspiring writers of speculative fiction to get that much-needed break. Due to the success of the Writers of the Future Contest, the companion Illustrators of the Future Contest was inaugurated five years later.

The intensive mentoring process has proven very successful. The 382 past winners of the Illustrating Contest have produced over 6,000 illustrations, 360 comic books, graced 624 books and albums with their art and visually contributed to 68 TV shows, and 40 major movies.

The 452 past winners of the Writing Contest have published 1,150 novels and nearly 4,500 short stories. They have produced 32 New York Times bestsellers and their works have sold over 60 million copies.

The Writers and Illustrators of the Future Award is the genre’s most prestigious award of its kind and has now become the largest, most successful and demonstrably most influential vehicle for budding creative talent in the world of contemporary fiction. Since inception, the Writers and Illustrators of the Future contests have produced 36 anthology volumes and awarded over $1,000,000 cumulatively in prize moneys and royalties.

For more information about the Contests, go to . Learn more about Ringling’s Illustration program here: /illustration/ 

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