Artful Lobster |

Artful Lobster 2011 A Great Success!

It was a picture perfect day for the annual Artful Lobster (AL) event at the Hermitage Artist Retreat. Thanks to the efforts of three-time Chair and Hermitage Trustee Debbi Benedict and her talented committee, the AL had its largest attendance to date; exciting new live and silent auction items, including unique trips to Santa Fe, Antibes and Washington DC; and the always anticipated delicious lobster and barbecue lunch prepared and served by Michael’s On East. Guests were invited to tour the historic campus, generally not open to the public. All artists in residence were in attendance and spoke to guests about their work and Hermitage experience. Topping off the program was a special performance by guest artist and past Hermitage Fellow, Cellist Michael Fitzpatrick. The audience rose to their feet with a standing ovation and if that wasn’t enough, everyone went home with a specially-created CD of Fitzpatrick’s music. And of course it was a rousing financial success. While all bills are not yet accounted for, the ballpark figures point to the largest profit in the event’s history. Thanks to all who attended and contributed to make the afternoon so special.

Thank You from a Grateful Artful Lobster

While weâ€™re not through balancing the books on the Artful Lobster, itâ€™s clear that many thousands of dollars were raised that will allow us to continue supporting world-class, mid-career writers, painters, poets, playwrights, and other primary creators.

Mother Nature set the quality standard; the temperate Gulf breezes, the azure water, miles of pristine beach, and wheeling gulls and osprey fishing for their meal. Michaelâ€™s on East stepped up with mounds of delicious lobster, ribs, chicken, chowder, corn and all the trimmings. Hermitage artists Christopher Still, Andrew McKenna Lee, Robert Blake and Fellows Sabrina Small and Meg Pierce shared their work and made it clear why they were Hermitage artists. Scott Blum and Los Rumberos provided just the right music, MC and auctioneer Cliff Roless kept the program rolling, and event chair Debbi Benedict and her committee had it all well organized. None of these events happen without a team of volunteers and our Friends of the Hermitage led by Connie Ellis are the very best. The Lemon Bay Garden Club came out before the event to help us spruce up out campus. And our media sponsors, Sarasota Magazine and Scene Magazine helped make sure that everyone knew about it in the first place. We thank them as well.

In the end, the event was a great success. While weâ€™re not through balancing the books on the Artful Lobster, itâ€™s clear that many thousands of dollars were raised that will allow us to continue supporting world-class, mid-career writers, painters, poets, playwrights, and other primary creators, and then sharing them with our Gulf Coast communities in free programs for children, adults, and seniors. These funds will also help us preserve these magnificent historic buildings and protect the native ecology that we all love and enjoy so much.

The support we enjoy for our work is humbling, and it inspires us to make certain the investment in the Hermitage Artist Retreat made by individuals, foundations, corporations, and County and national government is leveraged and returned to the community in the unique benefits only we can provide.

Thank you.

Leslie_Annette — Honoree Lesley Edwards and her mother, Annette Dignam Photo by Cliff Roles, courtesy of Scene Magazine

Debbi_Caroline — Event Chair Debbi Benedict with Hermitage President Caroline Andrus
Photo by Cliff Roles, courtesy of Scene Magazine

Sep

Wed

Speaking of the Arts: Exploring & Supporting the Creative Process

Tickets

Sep 30 @ 1:00 pm

REGISTER HERE.

Arts Advocates, in collaboration with the Hermitage Artist Retreat, present
“Speaking of the Arts … Exploring and Supporting the Creative Process”
A conversation with Hermitage Artistic Director Andy Sandberg and musician/composer Allison Loggins-Hull

A Zoom Presentation
Wednesday, September 30th, 2020
1 pm

Registration for this free program is required – please register here. You will receive an email with a Zoom link and instructions about how to join within 48 hours of the event. Please watch your inboxes!

Hermitage Artist Retreat Fellow Allison Loggins-Hull is a flutist, composer and producer. In 2009, she co-founded the duo Flutronix, which was praised by The Wall Street Journal for being able “to redefine the instrument.” She has performed at Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, and other major venues around the world. Loggins-Hull has been commissioned by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Carolina Performing Arts, Alarm Will Sound and The Library of Congress. She is on the flute faculty of The John J. Cali School of Music at Montclair State University, and is a teaching artist at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Music Institute and The Juilliard School’s Global Ventures.

Andy Sandberg, an accomplished director and writer whose national and international career has been committed to new work and artist development, was appointed Artistic Director and CEO of the Hermitage Artist Retreat in 2019. In 2009, at the age of 25, he became one of the youngest producers in history to win a Tony Award. His theatrical work has been represented in New York City, London, and throughout the United States. Sandberg is a graduate of Yale University with a B.A. in English and Theater Studies.

Oct

Thu

“Art & Controversy”: A Conversation with Coco Fusco

Tickets

Oct 1 @ 5:00 pm

REGISTER HERE.

“Art & Controversy”: A Conversation with Coco Fusco
Acclaimed Multidisciplinary Artist and Writer
2016 Hermitage Greenfield Prize Winner
2013 Fulbright Fellow & Guggenheim Fellow

Creator & Artist
“Tin Man of the Twenty-First Century”
Hermitage Greenfield Prize Commission
Premiered at the Ringling Museum in 2018

Thursday, October 1^st at 5pm EST (via Zoom)
Click here to RSVP.

Join us for a discussion and Q&A about the controversy surrounding sculptures and public statues, the way artists are making an impact, and the responses of viewers.

Moderated by Hermitage Artistic Director and CEO Andy Sandberg

Free admission. Registration required – click here to RSVP.

An invitation link to the Zoom will be sent within 48 hours of the event to all registered attendants.

Free Hermitage programs like this are made possible by the generosity of our donors. Please help us continue to champion artists and the creative process. Support the Hermitage – click here to make a donation.

Oct

Fri

“Genius Loci: A Sense of Place in Story, Music, & Poetry” @ Hermitage Artist Retreat Beach

Tickets

Oct 9 @ 6:00 pm – 7:00 pm

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER.

The Hermitage Artist Retreat announces the return of its popular beachfront series with “Genius Loci: A Sense of Place in Story, Music, & Poetry,” Friday, October 9, 6 p.m., at the Hermitage Beach, 6660 Manasota Key Road, Englewood.

This outdoor event features three Hermitage artists-in-residence: composer and bassist Michael Kurth, poet Lynnell Edwards, and author Justin Torres. In Edwards’ book of poetry This Great Green Valley and Torres’ book and film We the Animals, each captures the sense of place of their childhoods. Composer and bassist Michael Kurth, meanwhile, defines his place as the bottom staff of an orchestral score. The artistic realms include music, film, and the spoken and written word. In every realm, each artist has created a place of their own. As the sun sets over the Gulf of Mexico, Edwards and Torres will read from their celebrated works, and Kurth will delight audiences with his string bass and bass ukulele.

Admission is free but registration is required. CLICK HERE TO REGISTER. Capacity will be limited to accommodate safe social distancing, so early reservations are recommended. Masks are strongly encouraged.

Lynnell Edwards is author of author of several poetry collections, including This Great Green Valley, Covet, The Highwayman’s Wife, The Farmer’s Daughter, and the Kings of the Rock Hot Shop. Her work has appeared in New Madrid, Connecticut Review, Cincinnati Review, and Pleiades, and her poems have been featured on Verse Daily. She is an associate professor of English at Spalding University in Louisville, Kentucky. Edwards is a founding member of Louisville Literary Arts and serves on the Kentucky Women Writers Conference Board. A recipient of the Al Smith Fellowship, Edwards holds a Ph.D. in rhetoric and composition and a master’s degree in creative writing, both from the University of Louisville.

Michael Kurth was born in Virginia and grew up near Baltimore. After starting to play double bass in fourth grade he went on to get his bachelor’s degree at Peabody Conservatory. Kurth has been a member of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra bass section since 1994. He was named “Best New Composer 2017” by Atlanta Magazine. The Atlanta Orchestra has given world premieres and released an album of many of his orchestral and choral works. In addition, his works have been commissioned and performed by symphonies, choruses, ensembles, instrumentalists, and colleges. He serves as Composer-in-Residence for the Riverside Chamber Players of Roswell, GA., which has premiered many of his chamber works and recorded “The Music of Michael Kurth: String Quartets.” He teaches at Emory University.

Justin Torres has published short fiction in The New Yorker, Harper’s, Granta, Tin House, The Washington Post, and other publications, as well as non-fiction pieces in publications like The Guardian and The Advocate. A graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, Justin’s New York Times bestselling novel We the Animals has been translated into 15 languages and was recently adapted into a film. It premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and was nominated for five Independent Spirit Awards. He was a Wallace Stegner Fellow at Stanford University, a fellow at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard, and a Cullman Center Fellow at the New York Public Library. The National Book Foundation named him one of the 2012’s “5 under 35.” He was the recipient of a grant from the National Endowment of the Arts, a Rolón Fellowship in Literature from United States Artists, and the VCU Cabell First Novelist Award. He lives in Los Angeles where he is an assistant professor of English at UCLA.

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER.

Oct

Fri

“Triple Current: Music of Arabia & America” @ Marie Selby Botanical Gardens

Tickets

Oct 23 @ 6:00 pm

Free admission; registration is required. REGISTER HERE.

“Triple Current” promises a gentle sonic sound from an extraordinary Hermitage artist that reflects the peace and beauty evoked by Selby Gardens as part of our “Hermitage Sunsets @ Selby.”

Composer, santur player, trumpeter and vocalist Amir Elsaffar will preview a new work that is set to premiere in November in New York. ElSaffar’s piece, commissioned by the Jazz Coalition, uses the currents of electronics as they’ve never been used before. Our Sarasota audience will be the first to hear this brand new work!

ElSaffar is an important voice in an age of cross-cultural music, cited as “one of the most promising figures in jazz today” by the Chicago Tribune. Expert trumpeter with a classical background, ElSaffar has created techniques to play microtones and ornaments idiomatic to Arabic music that are not typically heard on the trumpet. He is a purveyor of the centuries old, now endangered, Iraqi maqam tradition, which he performs actively as a vocalist and santur player.

Awards and commissions include the Doris Duke Performing Artist Award, Hodder Fellowship at Princeton University, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Chamber Music America, Jazz Institute of Chicago, as well as traditional Middle Eastern ensembles, chamber orchestras, string quartets, and contemporary music ensembles, and dance troupes. His commission performed at the Newport Jazz Festival made a clear emotional connection to the audience with its visceral passion reflecting the sectarian violence of the Middle East, receiving a rousing standing ovation. With resonance as his governing principle, ElSaffar creates a unique microtonal musical environment that moves beyond the notions of style and tradition.

REGISTER HERE.

Audience members are invited to bring their own chairs and blankets.

Capacity will be limited, so RSVP is required. All seating will be socially distanced; audiences are requested and encouraged to wear face masks.

In the event of rain cancellation, registrants will receive a notification via email no later than 3pm on the day of the event.

Nov

Sat

2020 Artful Lobster: An Outdoor Celebration! @ Hermitage Artist Retreat

Tickets

Nov 14 @ 11:30 am – 2:00 pm

The highly popular Artful Lobster is our signature fundraising event, and the only benefit to take place on our historic Gulf front campus on Manasota Key. With a luscious lobster feast catered by Michael’s On East and live entertainment featuring a celebrated Hermitage Fellow, the Artful Lobster is anticipated as the season kick-off for many across our community.

For complete event details, click here.

To purchase tickets, click here.

September – November 2020 Sep – Nov 2020

Category: Artful Lobster

Artful Lobster 2011 A Great Success!

Thank You from a Grateful Artful Lobster

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