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Visual Artist Charisse Pearlina Weston Honored at Hermitage Greenfield Prize Celebration

The annual Hermitage Greenfield Prize Dinner on Sunday, April 12^th honored visual artist Charisse Pearlina Weston. This was the central event of a three-day celebration, hosted by the Hermitage Artist Retreat (Andy Sandberg, Artistic Director and CEO) in partnership with the Greenfield Foundation. The gala evening was presented at Michael’s on East and featured inspiring performances from Tony Award-nominated Broadway star Will Swenson (Hair, A Beautiful Noise), accompanied by pianist Joseph Holt; original songs performed by Hermitage Fellow and 2024 Hermitage Greenfield Prize-finalist Britton Smith, accompanied by AJ Jagannath; and an unexpected performance of hit song “Golden,” written by Academy Award-winning Hermitage Fellow Mark Sonnenblick and sung by Maicy Powell. The annual gala raised $400,000 in support of the Hermitage’s mission, in addition to the Greenfield Foundation’s annual gift of $175,000. Hermitage Artistic Director and CEO Andy Sandberg served as master of ceremonies, with Co-Chairs Ellen & Richard Sandor, who announced an additional commitment of $250,000 to underwrite the “Sandor Residency at the Hermitage.”

As this year’s HGP recipient, Weston receives a $35,000 commission, along with an extended residency at the Hermitage Artist Retreat. Sandberg announced at the event that Weston will also receive a world premiere exhibition in 2028 at The Ringling Museum of Art, presented in collaboration with the Hermitage.

The Hermitage Greenfield Prize (HGP) Dinner kicked off with a year-in-review video showcasing highlighting this year of transformational growth for the Hermitage. The inspirational video was followed by a powerhouse performance from Maicy Powell singing “Golden” from the global mega-hit KPop Demon Hunters, first heard by Sarasota audiences last summer on the Hermitage Beach; “Golden” was written by Hermitage alumnus Mark Sonnenblick, who recently won an Academy Award for this song. Andy Sandberg took the stage as master of ceremonies and spoke about the legacy and impact of the Hermitage Greenfield Prize, thanking Hermitage supporters, friends, and partners. This was followed by a brief video encapsulating the level of talent and the impact that the Hermitage Greenfield Prize has on the greater artistic landscape as well as the spotlight this prestigious award shines on the region. Sandbergthen introduced the evening’s headliner, Tony Award-nominated Broadway star Will Swenson. Swenson started the night with a throwback song from the musical Adrift in Macao. Swenson spoke of meeting Andy Sandberg twenty years ago when they worked together on that show; Sandberg worked with Swenson again as a producer of Hair on Broadway, in which Will co-starred opposite Hermitage Fellow Gavin Creel, earning them both Tony Award nominations. Swenson then picked up a guitar to perform a moving rendition of the song “Gold” from the movie and musical Once. Accompanying the evening on piano was Joseph Holt. Swenson expressed his gratitude for all the Hermitage supporters who recognize the importance of championing new talent and new work.

After a dinner provided by Michael’s on East, the festivities continued with a congratulatory video from past Hermitage Greenfield Prize winners Rucyl Mills (2025), Deepa Purohit (2024), and Sandy Rodriguez (2023). This was followed by a special appearance from Tony Award-winning singer, musician, and Hermitage alumnus Britton Smith, who was accompanied by “Britton and the Sting” bandmate and returning Hermitage Fellow Andrew “AJ” Jagannath. Smith, a past Hermitage Greenfield Prize finalist,charmed the audience with stories from his recent Hermitage residency and unforgettable performances of his original songs “Come to Me” and ‘Bucket of Love.”

Following Smith’s performance, Sandberg introduced curator, co-founder of ARTNOIR, and 2026 HGP juror Larry Ossei-Mensah, who described Charisse’s singular artistic style as having “rigor, curiosity, and imagination,” adding that “the time and space given through this commission is a catalytic moment for her career.” Ossei-Mensah went on to share how excited he is for our community to get to know Charisse as an artist, writer, and creator. Following a brief video presentation of her work, Sandberg and Ossei-Mensah presented Charisse Pearlina Weston with this year’s Hermitage Greenfield Prize. “I didn’t quite realize what I was walking into this weekend, but I can honestly say that I have never felt so welcomed,” said Weston. Thank you to the Greenfield Foundation, Andy and the Hermitage team, this wonderful community, and all of you. It is an amazing honor to be here.”

To close out this memorable night after an enthusiastic paddle raise, Will Swenson returned to the stage, first singing “Sara” from the musical Murder Ballad, written by Hermitage alumna Julia Jordan; Swenson debuted the role of Tom in its Off-Broadway premiere. Swenson closed out the night with a rousing rendition of Neil Diamond’s crowd-favorite “Sweet Caroline,” having originated the role of the iconic rock legend in the Broadway musical A Beautiful Noise. Needless to say, all guests were enthusiastically singing along!

“This was a truly remarkable evening and a joyful celebration of visual art and this incredible prize,” said Hermitage Artistic Director and CEO Andy Sandberg. “It was an honor to celebrate Charisse Pearlina Weston, and we can’t wait to introduce her original commission to our Gulf Coast community. It was thrilling to hear unforgettable live performances from Will Swenson and original songs by Britton Smith, along with inspiring performances from AJ Jagannath, Maicy Powell, Joe Holt, and more. We are so grateful to the Greenfield Foundation, the Community Foundation of Sarasota County, and all our sponsors and donors for their belief in our mission and the support of new work.”

The annual Prize Dinner anchored a series of events celebrating the impact and legacy of the Hermitage Greenfield Prize. The programming kicked off on Saturday, April 11^th at The Ringling’s Historic Asolo Theater, where Hermitage audiences had a chance to meet Charisse Pearlina Weston. This event included an in-depth conversation with this year’s 2026 HGP Winner, alongside 2026 HGP juror Larry Ossei-Mensah, offering an introduction to Weston’s work and career, as well as insight into her plans for this new commission and a sampling of her past work.

On Monday, April 13^th the world premiere commission presentation from 2024 HGP recipient Deepa Purohit, Mxx: The Dignity Project, was presented at the Asolo Rep’s Koski Center. The moving and inspiring workshop presentation featured an extraordinary cast of four South Asian women, including Hermitage Fellow Nandita Shenoy, Sara Haider, Indika Senanayake, and Rita Wolf.

The Hermitage Greenfield Prize is presented in partnership with the Philadelphia-based Greenfield Foundation, who launched this initiative with the Hermitage in 2009. The Community Foundation of Sarasota County once again served as the lead community sponsor for this year’s festivities.

Weston was selected by a distinguished jury that included Ian Alteveer, Beal Family Chair of Contemporary Art, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Alison Gass, Founding Executive Director of the Institute of Contemporary Art San Francisco; and Larry Ossei-Mensah, independent curator and co-founder of ARTNOIR, a nonprofit supporting artists, curators, cultural workers, and emerging patrons. For her Hermitage Greenfield Prize commission, Charisse Pearlina Weston will create a new body of work examining specters of desire, control, and recognition through the phenomenon of so-called “zombie laws” – legal statutes that persist beyond their supposed obsolescence. Rather than treating these laws as dormant remnants, Weston approaches them as active structures that continue to organize bodies and social life through desire, fear, punishment, and moral authority. The project draws on Zora Neale Hurston’s ethnographic writing on zombies in Haiti, where the zombie emerges not as spectacle, but as a social figure shaped by unmet desires for recognition, care, and belonging. This commission deepens Weston’s ongoing investigation into the dialectics of Black interior life and resistance, extending her exploration of how structures of power and surveillance produce constrictive intimacies, and how tactics of refusal enable Black interior life to re-inscribe intimacy despite those constraints.

Past winners of this distinguished honor include Rucyl Mills, composer/sound artist (2025); Deepa Purohit, playwright (2024); Rennie Harris, choreographer (2023), Sandy Rodriguez, visual artist (2023), Angélica Negrón, composer (2022); Aleshea Harris, playwright (2021); Helga Davis, composer (2019); Martyna Majok, playwright (2018); David Burnett, photojournalist (2017); Coco Fusco, visual artist (2016); Bobby Previte, composer (2015); Nilo Cruz, playwright (2014); Trenton Doyle Hancock, visual artist (2013); Vijay Iyer, composer (2012); John Guare, playwright (2011); Sanford Biggers, visual artist (2010); Craig Lucas, playwright (2009); and Eve Beglarian, composer (2009).

Hermitage Announces New Programs at Benderson Park and Selby Gardens

Featuring Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-Winning Playwright and Composer MICHAEL R. JACKSON, Broadway and Television Actor ADAM CHANLER-BERAT, and Returning Hermitage Composer JULIAN HORNIK

The Hermitage Artist Retreat today announced two new Hermitage programs featuring Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning playwright and composer Michael R. Jackson (A Strange Loop, White Girl in Danger, Teeth), celebrated Broadway and television actor Adam Chanler-Berat (Next to Normal, Peter and the Starcatcher, HBO’s Gossip Girl), and returning Hermitage Fellow and composer Julian Hornik, a recipient of the Jonathan Larson Grant who recently collaborated with Academy Award-wining Hermitage Fellow Mark Sonnenblick. Hornik’s residency is made possible through the McNally Fellowship at the Hermitage, supported by the Terrence McNally Foundation.

On Thursday, April 30 at 6:30pm, the Hermitage will present Hermitage Sunsets @ Benderson Park: “Making Songs and Making Sense,” featuring returning Hermitage Fellow, Pulitzer Prize winner, and Tony Award-winning playwright and composer Michael R. Jackson. Jackson exploded into the public consciousness with the premiere of his celebrated musical A Strange Loop, which transferred to Broadway after an acclaimed run at Playwrights Horizons, earning Jackson a Pulitzer Prize for Drama, a Tony Award for Best Musical, a Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical, and a total of eleven Tony Award nominations for the production. Registering to be in the audience for this special Hermitage program might just offer a ‘sneak peek’ into what is next for this celebrated theater writer. In 2022, Jackson was named as one of Time Magazine’s “100 Most Influential People.” A returning Hermitage Fellow, Jackson has previously shared selections from A Strange Loop and his original musical White Girl in Danger with Hermitage audiences after developing the latter during his time at the Hermitage. This time, Jackson will offer insight into his latest work and his creative process.

Then on Wednesday, May 6^th at 6:30pm, the Hermitage will present Hermitage Sunsets @ Selby Gardens: “The New Generation of Musical Theater,” featuring two powerhouse writers and performers. Adam Chanler-Berat, a celebrated Broadway and television actor as well as a playwright, is known for originating leading roles in Next to Normal, Peter and the Starcatcher, and Amélie, as well as appearing as Jordan Glassberg on HBO’s Gossip Girl. Returning Hermitage Fellow Julian Hornik has developed work with Academy Award-winning Hermitage Fellow Mark Sonnenblick and is a recipient of the Jonathan Larson Grant from the American Theatre Wing. These two extraordinary talents are frequent collaborators and rising stars in the New York musical theater world. They are now here at the Hermitage developing a new musical together. Join us for the latest “Hermitage Sunsets @ Selby Gardens” program as we hear these celebrated artists talk about their creative process and share original songs.

Julian Hornik’s Hermitage residency is made possible through the McNally Fellowship at the Hermitage, generously sponsored by the Terrence McNally Foundation, a nonprofit organization committed to supporting bold new voices in the American theater by providing support to early-career playwrights and the institutions that support them. The McNally Foundation’s mission to champion new playwrights aligns with the mission of the Hermitage Artist Retreat: to inspire and foster the most influential and consequential art and artists of our time. Created by legendary playwright/librettist Terrence McNallyand supported through the ongoing royalties of his work, the Foundation is also committed to supporting LGBTQ+ causes, as McNally did throughout his life. Following Terrence’s passing, Tom Kirdahy stated that the Foundation would continue the legendary playwright’s “singular legacy of mentorship and activism.”Kirdahy, a Tony and Olivier Award-winning Broadway producer and the late Terrence McNally’s husband, is the president of Tom Kirdahy Productions and a principal trustee of the McNally Foundation. He is currently represented in New York as the lead producer of the Tony Award-winning musical Hadestown, Just in Time,Ragtime, and the hit Off-Broadway revival of Little Shop of Horrors.

Hermitage programs are free and open to the public (with a $5/person registration fee), offering Gulf Coast audiences a rare chance to engage and interact with some of the world’s leading talent. Running time for most Hermitage programs is 60-70 minutes with no intermission. Due to capacity limitations, registration is required at HermitageArtistRetreat.org.

Broadway Star Will Swenson to Perform at 2026 Hermitage Greenfield Prize Dinner

The Hermitage Artist Retreat (Andy Sandberg, Artistic Director and CEO) today announced that Tony Award-nominated Broadway star and Obie Award winner Will Swenson (Hair, A Beautiful Noise, Les Misérables) will headline the 2026 Hermitage Greenfield Prize Dinner on Sunday, April 12^th. He will be joined by returning Hermitage Fellow Britton Smith, who has appeared in two recent Hermitage programs and will share some of his original music.

Will Swenson is celebrated as one of Broadway’s most versatile actors. He is a Tony Award nominee and an Obie Award winner who recently starred as Neil Diamond in the Broadway musical A Beautiful Noise. He previously co-starred with Hermitage Fellow Gavin Creel in the hit Broadway revival of Hair. Swenson’s acclaimed performance as Berger earned him Tony Award and Drama Desk Award nominations. (Hermitage Artistic Director and CEO Andy Sandberg won a Tony Award for his role as a producer of this acclaimed revival.) Swenson’s portrayal of Charles Guiteau in the Off-Broadway revival of Stephen Sondheim’s Assassins earned him nominations for Outer Critics Circle, Lucille Lortel, and Drama League Awards. He won an Obie Award for his role in Jerry Springer: The Opera. Swenson’s other Broadway and Off-Broadway credits include Priscilla: Queen of the Desert, Les Misérables, Waitress, Murder Ballad (written by Hermitage Fellow Julia Jordan), Rock of Ages, Pericles, Nantucket Sleighride, Little Miss Sunshine, Adrift in Macao, and many more. Swenson’s film and television credits include The Greatest Showman, The Kitchen, This is Where I Leave You, The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, Law & Order (SVU & CI), The Good Wife, Hit and Run, The Bite, First Kill, and Elsbeth.

Returning Hermitage Fellow Britton Smith will also be performing at the popular spring gala, sharing some of his original music developed at the Hermitage. He is a 2024 Hermitage Greenfield Prize finalist, a Broadway veteran, and a Tony Award winner for his work with the Broadway Advocacy Coalition. Smith, the leader of the self-described “funk liberation band” Britton and the Sting, has been called a “force to be reckoned with” and a “tornado of talent and energy” by Broadway World. Hermitage audiences will remember Britton’s memorable performances in the “Hermitage Sunsets @ Selby Gardens” series, including his most recent program: “The Rising Stars of Jazz and Soul.”

“I’ve known Will Swenson for twenty years, and I’m so excited that he’ll be sharing his incredible talents with our Hermitage audiences at this year’s event,” says Hermitage Artistic Director and CEO Andy Sandberg. “Will and Britton are both extraordinary performers, and guests at this year’s Hermitage Greenfield Prize Dinner are in for a real treat – this is going to be a night to remember!”

Past performers at the Hermitage Greenfield Prize Dinner have included Tony and Grammy Award winner Rachel Bay Jones (Dear Evan Hansen, Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage), Tony and Emmy Award nominee Eden Espinosa (Wicked, Lempicka, Rent), Tony Award nominee Leslie Rodriguez Kritzer (Beetlejuice, Spamalot), and Tony Award-winning Hermitage Fellow Gavin Creel (Hello Dolly, Hair, Walk on Through).

This year’s event Co-Chairs are Ellen and Richard Sandor. The Hermitage Greenfield Prize is presented by the Hermitage Artist Retreat in partnership with the Philadelphia-based Greenfield Foundation, with the Community Foundation of Sarasota County serving as the lead community sponsor. Media sponsors include The Herald Tribune and SRQ Magazine. A full list of this year’s sponsors, benefactors, and partners can be found at HermitageArtistRetreat.org/HGPDinner2026.

Tables and sponsorships for the 2026 Hermitage Greenfield Prize Dinner may be purchased by contacting the Hermitage Development Office at (941) 475-2098, Ext. 2. Sponsorship levels for this popular Hermitage benefit range from $2,000 to $10,000. Please note: this event has limited capacity remaining.

Ringling College Transfers Ownership of Englewood Art Center to the Hermitage Artist Retreat

Ringling College of Art and Design (Dr. Larry Thompson, President) and The Hermitage Artist Retreat (Andy Sandberg, Artistic Director and CEO) announced today that Ringling College has transferred ownership of the former Englewood Art Center to the Hermitage, a fellow nonprofit organization and a leading national arts incubator based in Englewood. The center is located directly across Lemon Bay and just a ten-minute drive from the Hermitage’s existing home on Manasota Key.

For more than 50 years, the nonprofit organization that became the Englewood Art Center (EAC) served as a creative hub for artists and art enthusiasts in south Sarasota County, Charlotte County, and coastal Lee County. Ringling College assumed ownership of the EAC in 2008 from the original Englewood Art Center organization. Following a strategic decision made by Ringling College to consolidate its community-facing arts programming at the College’s Museum Campus, the EAC permanently closed its doors on May 3, 2025.

The board and leadership of Ringling College are pleased to transition the EAC facility to a fellow cultural nonprofit. The Hermitage and Ringling College notably collaborated on two Hermitage alumni artist exhibitions at Sarasota Art Museum: Impact: Contemporary Artists at the Hermitage Artist Retreat and The Truth of the Night Sky.

“Ringling College has maintained a close relationship with the Hermitage over the years and thus was a natural and deserving successor of the space,” said Dr. Larry R. Thompson, President of Ringling College of Art and Design. “The Englewood Art Center played a pivotal role in the local arts offerings, and it was a difficult decision for the College to close its doors. We are pleased the Hermitage can now step in and continue enriching the community with programming for the foreseeable future.”

“We are deeply grateful to Dr. Thompson and the Board of Ringling College for entrusting the Hermitage with this vital cultural asset,” said Andy Sandberg, Artistic Director and CEO of the Hermitage Artist Retreat. “The college has maintained the property with the highest standard of care for seventeen years, and we look forward to preserving and activating this unique facility for many decades to come. This acquisition allows us to dream bigger and to expand our impact in both the local and global arts ecosystems.”

The Hermitage Englewood Art Center property spans two acres of land and includes two primary buildings totaling 10,000 square feet. The Hermitage intends to make use of this facility as a multidisciplinary arts center in furtherance of its mission: to inspire and foster the most influential and culturally consequential art and artists of our time. To that end, the Hermitage plans to activate the EAC as extended space for visual art installation and its celebrated public programming, spanning music, theater, visual art, literature, dance, and more.

The Hermitage anticipates that there will be some changes to the use and operations of the facility, and the long-term strategic planning for the future of the facility is still in process. Over the coming months, the Hermitage intends to engage in further dialogue with constituents in the Englewood community as plans take shape.

“We want to ensure that we are taking the time needed to thoughtfully activate this invaluable space in the way that best meets the needs of our community while also advancing our mission,” added Sandberg. “Englewood is our home, and our sincere hope is that the Hermitage’s stewardship of this unique cultural facility will allow us to more deeply engage members of the Englewood community and beyond.”

“This is incredible news for Englewood,” added Leslie Dignam, who served as President of the former Englewood Art Center for many years and is now a member of the Hermitage Board of Trustees, where she also previously served as President. The Dignam family spans four generations in Englewood and has played a meaningful role in the growth of both the Hermitage and the EAC. “When Ringling College announced its plans to discontinue operations, the Hermitage became the clear option to take the helm. Knowing that Hermitage will be stewarding this community asset under Andy Sandberg’s visionary leadership is truly a cause for celebration.”

Beyond the public-facing programs intended to enrich the community, this facility will provide meaningful studio and gallery space for the Hermitage’s renowned artist-in-residence program. Each year, generative artists, writers, and performers are invited by nomination to enjoy multi-week residencies on Englewood’s Manasota Key, where they receive the gift of time and space in an inspirational setting to develop new works of theater, music, visual art, literature, dance, and more. These artists are invited to share their work and their talents with the public, offering a rare glimpse into the creative process.

This news comes on the heels of the Hermitage receiving a $12,000,000 gift of land and property on Manasota Key, one of the largest land gifts of its kind to a nonprofit arts organization. Located less than half a mile from the Hermitage’s existing home on Manasota Key, this generous gift from the Morrison and Steans more than doubles the Hermitage’s capacity for its celebrated artist residency program. The Gulf-to-Bay property spans 6.5 acres of land and is comprised of five main structures. These buildings provide additional accommodations for the nonprofit’s renowned artist-in-residence program. The Hermitage emphasizes that the recent acquisitions of both the South Residences on Manasota Key and the Englewood Art Center are expansions, not replacements. The 501(c)(3) organization has no intention of abandoning its original Manasota Key home, where the Hermitage has a lease with Sarasota County that currently allows for extensions up through 2055. These new property acquisitions are intended to broaden the reach and impact of the nonprofit’s mission and programming.

The 850 artists the Hermitage has served includes 18 Pulitzer Prize winners, Poets Laureate, Guggenheim and MacArthur Fellows, and multiple Tony, Emmy, Grammy, Oscar winners and nominees.

“As an artist forever grateful to and fully committed to the mission of the Hermitage, I am very excited about the Englewood Art Center coming under its auspices,” notes acclaimed visual and installation artist Anne Patterson. Patterson’s work developed at the Hermitage has been exhibited in Sarasota at The Ringling Museum of Art and most recently in a Hermitage collaboration at Ringling College’s Sarasota Art Museum with The Truth of the Night Sky. “It is thrilling to imagine all the engaging and exquisite artistry and inspired creativity that will fill this center. While this will obviously enhance the artistic impact for the local community in Englewood and Sarasota, the works of art and performance created here will also influence the wider artistic world.”

“The Hermitage is a visionary leader in the arts world and invaluable player in our cultural landscape,” added internationally acclaimed artist and Hermitage Curatorial Council member Sanford Biggers, an early recipient of the Hermitage Greenfield Prize whose work was recently exhibited in Sarasota Art Museum’s Impact: Contemporary Artists at the Hermitage Artist Retreat. “This generous gift from Ringling College will allow the Hermitage and its cohort of extraordinary artists to achieve their greatest potential while giving back to the community in a deeply meaningful way.”

Ringling College of Art and Design is a global thought leader in educating emerging artists and designers across multiple disciplines, including the business of art and design, computer animation, creative writing, film, fine arts, graphic and motion design, virtual reality, and more. Alumni of Ringling College have gone on to work with industry giants including Disney, DreamWorks, NASA, Pixar, Netflix, Nickelodeon, and the NFL. Students and graduates have been hugely successful, receiving multiple Student Academy Awards, Oscars, Emmys, Annies, ADDY and Telly Awards, and showing in exhibitions across the country. The College is also the home of the Sarasota Art Museum (SAM), the city’s only museum dedicated exclusively to modern and contemporary art. Ringling College’s Museum Campus features three state-of-the-art studios where SAM hosts classes in ceramics, drawing, painting, and mixed media; several of the courses provided were transferred from previous offerings at the EAC.

A leading national arts incubator, the Hermitage is the only major arts organization in Florida exclusively committed to supporting the development and creation of new work across all artistic disciplines. The Hermitage hosts artists on its Gulf Coast Manasota Key campus for multi-week residencies, where diverse and accomplished artists from around the world and across multiple disciplines create and develop new works of theater, music, visual art, literature, dance, film, and more. As part of their residencies, Hermitage Fellows participate in free year-round community programs, offering audiences in the region a unique opportunity to engage with some of the world’s leading artists and to get an authentic “sneak peek” into extraordinary projects and artistic minds before their works go on to major galleries, concert halls, theaters, and museums around the world. These free and innovative programs include performances, conversations, readings, music concerts, interactive experiences, open studios, school programs, teacher workshops, and more, serving thousands in our regional community each year.

Full Event Schedule for the 2026 Hermitage Greenfield Prize Celebration

The Hermitage Artist Retreat (Andy Sandberg, Artistic Director and CEO), in collaboration with the Greenfield Foundation, presents the 18^th year of the Hermitage Greenfield Prize Celebration. The events span from Saturday, April 11^th through Monday, April 13^th, including the annual Hermitage Greenfield Prize Dinner in Sarasota on Sunday, April 12^th. The celebration culminates on Monday, April 13^thwith the first public presentation of 2024 Hermitage Greenfield Prize winner Deepa Purohit’s original play Mxx: The Dignity Project, a new Hermitage commission presented in partnership with Asolo Repertory Theatre.

2026 Hermitage Greenfield Prize winner Charisse Pearlina Weston will offer her first public Hermitage program in partnership with The Ringling at the Museum’s Historic Asolo Theater in Sarasota on Saturday, April 11^th at 5pm. Weston, a conceptual artist and writer, contends with the dynamic interplay of violence and intimacy through repetition, enfoldment, and concealment in her work. Drawn to its fragility and danger, glass has been her primary medium for much of her career. Her recent solo exhibit, “mis/mé- (squeeze)” was a New York Times Critic’s Pick. Weston will spend an hour in conversation with 2026 Hermitage Greenfield Prize juror Larry Ossei-Mensah, independent curator and founder of ARTNOIR. Join the Hermitage for this free community event: “Repetition, Enfoldment, Concealment,” A Conversation on Art and Practice. Together, Weston and Ossei-Mensah will discuss the intricacies of Weston’s practice, offer their perspectives on the arts as a reflection of social impact, and discuss how Charisse’s Hermitage Greenfield Prize commission extends that work into new pathways.

The following night, Charisse Pearlina Weston will be celebrated at the 18^th annual Hermitage Greenfield Prize Dinner, a benefit for the Hermitage Artist Retreat, starting at 6pm on Sunday, April 12^that Michael’s On East (Sarasota, Florida). The annual fundraiser will feature live musical performances from leading talents of Broadway and beyond. (Guest performers will be announced at a later date.) Past guest performers at this popular event have included Tony Award nominee Eden Espinosa, Tony and Grammy Award winner Rachel Bay Jones, Tony Award nominee Leslie Rodriguez Kritzer, and Tony Award winner Gavin Creel. This elegant annual dinner heralds the jury-selected recipient of this prestigious prize, awarded this season in the discipline of visual art. The Hermitage Greenfield Prize (HGP) is a distinguished national commission awarded by the Hermitage Artist Retreat in partnership with the Philadelphia-based Greenfield Foundation; the $35,000 award rotates annually among visual art, theater, and music. The 2026 winner’s newly commissioned work will have its world premiere exhibition in Sarasota in the spring of 2028. The Hermitage Greenfield Prize Celebration is presented in partnership with the Greenfield Foundation, with the Community Foundation of Sarasota County serving as Lead Community Sponsor. Media sponsors include The Herald Tribune, and SRQ Magazine. The co-chairs for this year’s gala dinner are Ellen & Richard Sandor. A full list of this year’s sponsors can be found at HermitageArtistRetreat.org/HGPDinner2026.

Sponsorship levels for this Hermitage Greenfield Prize Dinner, the organization’s spring benefit, range from $2,000 to $10,000. Tables and sponsorships may be purchased by contacting the Hermitage Development Office at (941) 475-2098, Ext. 2, or by emailing Development@HermitageArtistRetreat.org.

The 2026 Hermitage Greenfield Prize Celebration will culminate on Monday, April 13^th at 7pm with the first public presentation of the newly commissioned play by 2024 HGP winner Deepa Purohit, Mxx: The Dignity Project. This presentation will be presented in partnership with Asolo Repertory Theatre at the Asolo’s Koski Center. An immersive play, installation, discussion circle, and “happening,” Mxx: The Dignity Project centers the collected experiences of inter-generational women from the South Asian diaspora in America who engage or disrupt the diasporic rituals and expectations placed on their bodies as they navigate the “machinery” of the medical/elder care/end-of-life system. How do women live, age, and die with dignity in a culture where the entire medical system is built on this key tenet: to prolong life? This workshop presentation features a cast of four South Asian women, including Hermitage Fellow Nandita Shenoy, Sara Haider, Indika Senanayake, and Rita Wolf.

Past recipients of the Hermitage Greenfield Prize include Rucyl Mills, composer and sound artist (2025); Deepa Purohit, playwright (2024); Sandy Rodriguez, visual artist (2023); Rennie Harris, dancer/choreographer (2023); Angélica Negrón, composer (2022); Aleshea Harris, playwright (2021); Helga Davis, composer / performer (2019); Martyna Majok, playwright (2018); David Burnett, photojournalist (2017); Coco Fusco, interdisciplinary artist (2016); Bobby Previte, composer / drummer (2015); Nilo Cruz, playwright (2014); Trenton Doyle Hancock, visual artist (2013); Vijay Iyer, composer/pianist (2012); John Guare, playwright (2011); Sanford Biggers, visual artist (2010); Craig Lucas, playwright (2009); and Eve Beglarian, composer (2009).

“Repetition, Enfoldment, Concealment” – A Conversation on Art and Practice with 2026 Hermitage Greenfield Prize Winner Charisse Pearlina Weston, Saturday, April 11, 2026 @ 5pm: Winner of the 2026 Hermitage Greenfield Prize in Visual Art, Charisse Pearlina Weston is a conceptual artist and writer whose work contends with the dynamic interplay of violence and intimacy through repetition, enfoldment, and concealment. Drawn to its fragility and danger, Weston has worked with glass as her primary material for much of her career. Her recent solo exhibit, “mis/mé- (squeeze)” was a New York Times Critic’s Pick, the review’s headline exclaiming “Surveillance Never Looked So Good” and noting that “in Weston’s best work, the folds and bends in her industrial ingredients seem to be concealing or safeguarding information, holding things back as they beguile.” Weston will spend this hour in conversation with 2026 Hermitage Greenfield Prize juror Larry Ossei-Mensah, independent curator and founder of ARTNOIR. Together, they will discuss the intricacies of Weston’s practice, offer their perspectives on the arts as a reflection of social impact, and discuss how her Hermitage Greenfield Prize commission extends that work into new pathways. Presented in partnership with the Greenfield Foundation, the Community Foundation of Sarasota County, and The Ringling. Registration is required at HermitageArtistRetreat.org ($5/person registration fee). The Ringling’s Historic Asolo Theater, 5401 Bay Shore Rd., Sarasota, FL 34243.

GALA DINNER! – 2026 Hermitage Greenfield Prize Dinner, Sunday, April 12, 6pm: The 2025 Hermitage Greenfield Prize Dinner recognizes this year’s recipient, visual artist Charisse Pearlina Weston. This 18^th year of the Hermitage Greenfield Prize Dinner will feature live performances from Hermitage alumni. Presented in partnership with the Greenfield Foundation. Lead Community Sponsor: the Community Foundation of Sarasota County. Michael’s On East (1212 South East Ave., Sarasota, FL 34239). For information on tables and sponsorships ($2,000 to $10,000), visit HermitageArtistRetreat.org, or call (941) 475-2098, Ext. 2.

“Mxx: The Dignity Project,” a World Premiere Play Commission from 2024 Hermitage Greenfield Prize Winner Deepa Purohit, Monday, April 13 @ 7pm: The culminating work of her 2024 Hermitage Greenfield Prize commission, Deepa Purohit shares the first public presentation of her new play, Mxx: The Dignity Project. An immersive play, installation, discussion circle, and “happening,” Mxx centers the collected experiences of inter-generational women from the South Asian diaspora in America who engage or disrupt the diasporic rituals and expectations placed on their bodies as they navigate the “machinery” of the medical/elder care/end-of-life system. How do women live, age, and die with dignity in a culture where the entire medical system is built on this key tenet: to prolong life? This presentation features a cast of four South Asian women: Hermitage Fellow Nandita Shenoy, and actors Sara Haider, Indika Senanayake, and Rita Wolf. Presented in partnership with the Greenfield Foundation, the Community Foundation of Sarasota County, and Asolo Repertory Theatre. Registration is required at HermitageArtistRetreat.org ($5/person registration fee). Asolo Repertory Theatre’s Koski Center Coville Rehearsal Hall, 1009 Tallevast Rd., Sarasota, FL 34243.

Playwright Anne Washburn is Sixth Recipient of the Hermitage Major Theater Award

Andy Sandberg, Artistic Director and CEO of the Hermitage Artist Retreat, announced today that New York-based playwright Anne Washburn has been selected as the sixth recipient of the Hermitage Major Theater Award (HMTA). This jury-selected prize, established by the Hermitage in 2021 with generous support from Flora Major and the Kutya Major Foundation, offers one of the largest unrestricted nonprofit theater commissions in the United States. Washburn will receive a cash prize of $35,000, a residency at the Hermitage Artist Retreat in Florida, and a developmental workshop in a major arts capital – which for this commission is anticipated for New York in late 2027.

Anne Washburn is a New York-based playwright. Washburn’s plays include Mr. Burns, A Post-Electric Play, a New York Times Critic’s Pick and fourth on The New York Times list: “The 25 Best American Plays Since Angels in America.” Her other plays include 10 Out of 12, Antlia Pneumatica, The Burning Cauldron of Fiery Fire, A Devil at Noon, Apparition, The Communist Dracula Pageant, I Have Loved Strangers, The Ladies, Little Bunny Foo Foo, The Internationalist, Shipwreck, The Small, and transadaptations of Euripides’ Iphigenia in Aulis and Orestes. Washburn’s work has been produced nationally and internationally and has premiered with 13P, Actors Theater of Louisville, the Almeida, American Repertory Theatre, Cherry Lane Theatre, Classic Stage, Clubbed Thumb, The Civilians, Dixon Place, Ensemble Studio Theater, The Folger, Playwrights Horizons, Soho Rep, Two River, Vineyard Theater, and Woolly Mammoth. Her honors include an Alpert Award, a Guggenheim, a PEN/Laura Pels Award, twice a finalist for the Susan Smith Blackburn, and a Whiting Award.

“I was delighted to receive the Hermitage Major Theater Award and residency,” said Anne Washburn. “This is a demanding project I’ve been thinking about for years, and this award with the residency time at the Hermitage (at what looks like a dreamy stretch of this good earth) makes it all possible.”

“Amidst four extraordinary and deserving finalists, Anne Washburn confirmed herself to be one of America’s most compelling playwrights as she impressed us all with her inventive and ambitious proposal,” said Hermitage Artistic Director and CEO Andy Sandberg. “We are honored to support Anne as she creates this epic new play, and we can’t wait to see her brilliant work come to fruition. I must thank our brilliant and dedicated Award Committee – Evan Cabinet, Snehal Desai, and Jill Rafson – for their passion, intelligence, and care throughout this process. I also want to congratulate Adam Gwon, Talene Monahon, and Aya Ogawa, each of whom are innovative and exceptional artists with thrilling, original ideas for new theatrical works.”

The Hermitage Major Theater Award (HMTA) was established in 2021 to recognize a playwright or theater artist with a $35,000 commission to create a new, original, and impactful piece of theater. Three distinguished finalists for the sixth Hermitage Major Theater Award include Adam Gwon, a Drama Desk and Drama League Award-nominated Hermitage Fellow whose celebrated musicals include Ordinary Days, Scotland, PA, and All the World’s a Stage; Talene Monahon, an award-winning playwright whose acclaimed works include Meet the Cartozians, The Good John Proctor, and Jane Anger; and Aya Ogawa, a Tokyo-born, Brooklyn-based, Obie Award-winning theater-maker whose works include Nosebleed, Journey to the Ocean, and the forthcoming Meat Suit. Each finalist has been awarded a Hermitage residency and Fellowship, in addition to a cash prize of $1,000.

HMTA winners and finalists are nominated and selected by a jury of visionary and forward-thinking artistic leaders. The 2026 HMTA Award Committee included Evan Cabnet, Artistic Director of New York’s Second Stage Theater and longtime Artistic Director of LCT3 at Lincoln Center; Snehal Desai, Artistic Director of Los Angeles’ Center Theatre Group and previous Producing Artistic Director of East West Players; and Jill Rafson, Producing Artistic Director of Classic Stage Company in New York and previously the Associate Artistic Director at Roundabout Theatre Company.

“Anne Washburn is one of our most brilliant and fascinating playwrights, and the Hermitage one of the most important and vital arts organizations in America,” said Evan Cabnet. “To know she’ll have the support of Andy Sandberg and everyone at the Hermitage as she embarks on such an ambitious project makes me excited for the future; I cannot wait to see what she creates.”

“Anne’s work stands the test of time,” noted Snehal Desai. “Her proposal raises interesting and timely questions about the Greeks, and about society. Anne is approaching these stories in a way I haven’t considered before, and I find that refreshing and thrilling.”

“There are not a lot of Anne Washburns out there,” added Jill Rafson. “Her voice is one of a kind, and the preoccupations of her subjects are so unique. No one else would even think about writing this play in this way, or about this combination of things with this source material – and that’s very exciting.”

In addition to the $35,000 commission, the recipient of the annual HMTA will receive six weeks of residency at the Hermitage’s historic beachfront campus to develop the new theatrical work, as well as a reading or workshop in a leading arts and cultural center. Anne Washburn’s commission is expected to receive its first presentation in late 2027 in New York.

For her Hermitage Major Theater Award commission, Anne Washburn will probe what she calls the “dramaturgical flaw at the heart of Western Democracy” by reimagining Aeschylus’ The Oresteia. Her approach will be informed by the ongoing debate about the role of democracy in today’s social media, the history of jury trials as entertainment in ancient Greece, and the scholarship which says that the simultaneous birth of democracy and the Western dramatic tradition was not a coincidence. Washburn plans to complete transadaptations (close although occasionally flexible renderings) of Agamemnon and The Libation Bearers, then will turn her primary attention to The Eumenides, the final play of the trilogy in which Orestes is pursued by the Furies (Greek goddesses of vengeance) and put on trial for the murder of his mother. This trial, in the original, is somewhat cursory, tipping the scales towards the newer Athenian Gods and the brand-new political experiment which was Democracy. Washburn plans to complexify the debate surrounding Orestes’ guilt, fleshing out the arguments on both sides of the conflict to more thoroughly explore the contest between our darkness and our light – and the necessities of both. Washburn also plans to structure the ‘Greek chorus’ so that audience members are invited to sing along during certain sections, a reaction to the phenomenon of Broadway mega-musicals where superfans who sing along are clashing with audience members who just want to hear the professionals. In Washburn’s world, harmony is possible.

In the spirit of the Hermitage’s commitment to the arts across multiple disciplines, recipients of the Hermitage Major Theater Award are encouraged to create a commission that directly or indirectly represents the role and impact of art – musical, literary, theatrical, visual, dance, or otherwise – in our culture and society. As to how this will infuse Washburn’s Hermitage commission, she explains, “The Oresteia was an act of art which was simultaneously an act of deep cultural and social significance. We don’t come together like the ancient Greeks did – one city gathered into one stadium to watch the same stories at the same moment – but that instinct still resounds in us, and the fabric of our culture and our society is woven throughout with the art we remember and the art we no longer remember; it’s a toss-up which is the more powerful driver of individuals and of nations.”

This distinguished Hermitage Major Theater Award recognition is not an award for an existing work, but rather it is designed as a commission that shall serve as a catalyst and inspiration to a theater artist to create a new, original, and impactful piece of theater. Further, the prize is intended to bridge the connection between the Hermitage in Sarasota County, Florida – where the commission is born – and other leading arts and culture centers around the world, including New York, London, Chicago, and other notable arts capitals where great theater is frequently developed and presented. Previous recipients of the HMTA have included Pulitzer Prize finalist and “Only Murders in the Building” writer Madeleine George; theater-maker and director Shariffa Ali; award-winning composer and theater artist Imani Uzuri; Olivier Award-winning playwright and librettist Chris Bush; and California-based playwright Naomi Iizuka. George and Ali had their first readings at New York’s MCC Theater in November of 2023. George’s The Sore Loser is a Faustian comedy reimagining the patriarchy through a small-town bowling tournament, and Ali’s play Hero chronicles a South African village faced with an opportunity for national glory through a singling competition. Uzuri’s commission, Lighthouse of the Singing Birds, had an invitation-only presentation at New York Theatre Workshop in 2024. Chris Bush’s new HMTA commission, Orlando (FL), received a premiere workshop at London’s National Theatre in October of 2025, directed by Andy Sandberg. Naomi Iizuka’s new commission, currently titled Casa de Mañana, is expected to have its first presentation in Chicago in the fall of 2026.

“This award is designed to be transformational for its recipients, providing not only significant funds and recognition, but also invaluable time, space, and inspiration at the Hermitage, plus an opportunity for these innovative theater artists to workshop and develop their original ideas,” said Andy Sandberg. An accomplished director, writer, and Tony Award-winning producer, Sandberg took the helm as Artistic Director and CEO of the Hermitage in early 2020. “In addition to introducing a new work of theater to the world each year, this is a meaningful way for the Hermitage to take a further step in supporting the artistic process, offering meaningful developmental resources to these extraordinary artists and their new commissions.”

The Hermitage Major Theater Award, presented annually, is made possible with a generous multi-year gift to the Hermitage from Flora Major and the Kutya Major Foundation. “No one does more for the arts and the creation of new work than the Hermitage,” added Flora Major, founder and trustee of the Kutya Major Foundation. “The impact and success of this commissioning program are further evidence that Andy and his team have established the Hermitage as a leading international arts incubator. I hope others who are passionate about the arts will support the important work that’s happening there. The impact and reach of the Hermitage is greater than most people realize – it’s truly unbelievable.” Flora Major was named an Honorary Member of the Hermitage Board of Trustees in 2024.

March 19 Program Update

The Hermitage Artist Retreat announced a change to the March 19^thprogram on the Hermitage Beach. Due to a professional conflict, Anna Deavere Smith is no longer able to attend her scheduled Hermitage residency. Tony Award nominee Leslie Rodriguez Kritzer will step in as she returns to the Hermitage to share original work, joining the previously announced Olivier Award nominee and Hermitage Major Theater Award finalist Beth Steel. This sunset program will take place on Thursday, March 19^th at 6:30pm. Kritzer is a celebrated Broadway star best known for her Tony Award-nominated performance as ‘Lady of the Lake’ in Spamalot and Delia in Beetlejuice. Steel is the UK-based author of the acclaimed West End play Till the Stars Come Down, a transfer from the National Theatre. These two distinct talents will offer their unique perspectives and share excerpts of their original work in this sunset program on the Hermitage Beach.

Leslie Rodriguez Kritzer is an actor, comedian, writer, and returning Hermitage Fellow. She received a 2024 Tony Award nomination for her showstopping turn as ‘Lady of the Lake’ in the Broadway revival of Spamalot. Kritzer previously starred on Broadway as Delia in Beetlejuice, for which she received Drama Desk, Drama League, and Chita Rivera Award nominations. Her additional Broadway credits include Something Rotten!, Elf, Sondheim on Sondheim, Legally Blonde, A Catered Affair and Hairspray. Kritzer can be heard on several original casting recordings including “Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” (as legendary comedian Carol Burnett in the series finale), “The First Lady,” “Bridge & Tunnel,” “New Amsterdam,” “Difficult People,” “Kevin Can Wait,” “Younger,” “Vinyl,” and “Law & Order.” Sarasota audiences have previously seen Leslie perform alongside Andy Sandberg in the Hermitage 20^th Anniversary Concert at the Van Wezel Hall, on the Hermitage Beach sharing her original writing, at the 2023 Hermitage Greenfield Prize Dinner, and the 2024 Hermitage Artful Lobster.

Hermitage Major Theater Award finalist Beth Steel’s most recent play, Till the Stars Come Down, had a sold out run at the National Theatre before transferring to the Theatre Royal Haymarket in London’s West End in 2025. The play was nominated for Best New Play at the 2024 Olivier Awards and has been nominated for Best Play for the 2025 Standard Theatre Awards. Her other plays include The House of Shades, which premiered at the Almeida Theatre and was a Susan Smith Blackburn finalist; the Evening Standard Award-winning Wonderland which was also a Susan Smith Blackburn finalist; and Ditch, a John Whiting Award finalist.

On Thursday, March 19^th at 6:30pm, the Hermitage will present “Dramatizing the Contemporary World,” featuring these two powerhouse theater artists. Together, Kritzer and Steel will provide a sneak peek into their creative process and share excerpts of their original work on the Hermitage Beach.

March 19 Program Features Theater Legend Anna Deavere Smith and UK Playwright Beth Steel

The Hermitage Artist Retreat today announced a new March program on the Hermitage Beach featuringTony Award nominee, Pulitzer Prize finalist, and Hermitage Fellow Anna Deavere Smith, alongside Olivier Award nominee and Hermitage Major Theater Award finalist Beth Steel. Smith is a celebrated writer and performer recognized by millions for her memorable roles on stage and screen, and Steel is the UK-based author of the acclaimed West End play Till the Stars Come Down. On Thursday, March 19^th at 6:30pm, these two heralded playwrights will offer their unique perspectives into playwriting and share excerpts of their original work in this sunset program on the Hermitage Beach.

Credited with having created a new form of theater, Anna Deavere Smith’s plays focus on contemporary issues from multiple points of view and are composed of interview excerpts. She was awarded the National Endowment for the Humanities Medal from President Obama in 2013. Her other awards include the MacArthur Fellowship, several Obie Awards, the George Polk Award in Journalism, and the Dean’s Medal from Stanford University School of Medicine. Smith was a Pulitzer Prize finalist and has received two Tony Award nominations. Her plays and films include Fires in the Mirror, Twilight: Los Angeles, Let Me Down Easy, and Notes from the Field. Her play This Ghost of Slavery, written for TheAtlantic Magazine, was only the second play the magazine has published in 168 years. Smith’s television and film acting credits include Inventing Anna, The West Wing, Nurse Jackie, Black-ish, Philadelphia, The American President, Rachel Getting Married, For the People, and The Boroughs. She is currently a University Professor at New York University, was an Eastman Professor at Oxford, and holds several honorary doctorates, including those from Harvard, Yale, Dartmouth, Spelman College, Juilliard, and Oxford.

On Thursday, March 19^th at 6:30pm, the Hermitage will present “Dramatizing the Contemporary World,” featuring these two powerhouse playwrights. Though one is American and one is British, these award-winning artists are both known for their keen observation and shrewd insight. Together, they will provide a sneak peek into their creative process and share excerpts of their original work on the Hermitage Beach.

New Programs Span from Lee County to Manatee County

The Hermitage Artist Retreat today announced new programs in February and March of 2026, spanning Lee County up through Manatee County and including a return to the Hermitage Beach in Sarasota County. Newly announced events include award-winning poet, writer, and author jessica Care moore and Obie Award winner James Jackson, Jr. for a special Black History Month program on February 26^th on the Hermitage Beach; returning Hermitage Fellow and multihyphenate actor-singer-writer Lauren Marcus and Tony Award-nominated playwright Joe Iconis for a memorable evening of music on March 16^th at the Manatee Performing Arts Center in Bradenton; and Joe Iconis and Lauren Marcus will again split the bill for a beachside program at the Gasparilla Light House – Range Light in Boca Grande on March 20^th.

On Thursday, February 26^th at 5:30pm, the Hermitage will present a special Black History Month program featuring Hermitage Fellows jessica Care moore and James Jackson, Jr. Jessica Care moore has recorded her poetry with hip-hop legends like Common, Nas, Jeezy, Talib Kweli, and others. Moore launched into national attention in the 90s when she won the legendary “It’s Showtime at the Apollo” competition a record-breaking five times in a row – with a poem. She is the current Detroit Poet Laureate and the author of five collections of poetry. James Jackson, Jr. is a seasoned Broadway, Off-Broadway, and cabaret performer who has also graced the stages of Radio City Music Hall and Carnegie Hall. Celebrated for his roles in Hermitage Fellow Michael R. Jackson’s Pulitzer Prize-winning A Strange Loop and White Girl in Danger – developed in part at the Hermitage – Jackson also created the popular “Juneteenth Cabaret” in Provincetown to celebrate the history of Black performers in the city. These two incredible performers will share their talents on the Hermitage Beach with “Speak the Word and Lift Every Voice” – a program celebrating Black culture and identity on the Hermitage Beach. This event is being presented in partnership with Westcoast Black Theatre Troupe.

On Monday, March 16^th at 6pm, audiences will have an opportunity to return to the Manatee Performing Arts Center in Bradenton for “Joe & Lauren Make Cool Music at MPAC.” The iconic Joe Iconis and the marvelous Lauren Marcus are partners in art and life. Iconis wrote the hit score for Tony Award-nominated Broadway musical Be More Chill, the show where Marcus made her Broadway debut. A celebrated writer and composer, Iconis is recognized as a leading voice in the world of contemporary musical theater, with works spanning Broadway, Off-Broadway, and theaters across the globe. He regularly performs concerts with Marcus and other frequent collaborators as “Joe Iconis & Family” at venues throughout New York. Marcus is a beloved Hermitage artist and performer in her own right – actor, writer, and singer-songwriter are all hats she comfortably and regularly shifts between. Together, they are a New York theater power-couple who will share original work during this memorable evening of music. This program is made possible with the support of the Bishop-Parker Foundation and is presented in partnership with the Manatee Performing Arts Center (MPAC).

On Friday, March 20^th at 6:30pm, the Hermitage will present “Joe & Lauren: Making Music in Boca Grande.” The New York theatre power-couple heads south for a beachside program at the Gasparilla Light House – Range Light on Boca Grande as the sun sets over the Gulf. This event is presented in partnership with the Barrier Island Parks Society (BIPS).

These Hermitage programs are free and open to the public (with a $5/person registration fee), offering Gulf Coast audiences a rare chance to engage and interact with some of the world’s leading talent. Running time for most Hermitage programs is 60-70 minutes with no intermission. Due to capacity limitations, registration is required at HermitageArtistRetreat.org.

Visual Artist Charisse Pearlina Weston Receives 2026 Hermitage Greenfield Prize

The Hermitage Artist Retreat (Andy Sandberg, Artistic Director and CEO), in collaboration with the Philadelphia-based Greenfield Foundation, has announced visual artist Charisse Pearlina Weston as the winner of the 2026 Hermitage Greenfield Prize (HGP). Her recent exhibits include group and solo presentations at the Whitney Museum of American Art, MOMA PS1, SITE Santa Fe and the Queens Museum, among other venues. Weston was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship from the Guggenheim Foundation in 2025.

The Hermitage Greenfield Prize is awarded annually, rotating between the fields of visual art, music, and theater. Weston will receive a six-week Hermitage Fellowship and a $35,000 commission to create a new work or collection of art, which will have its premiere exhibition in Sarasota in 2028.

“Amidst a remarkable field of four brilliant finalists, this insightful jury faced the difficult task of selecting a single recipient. Charisse Pearlina Weston emerged as a thoughtful and original artist who impressed the jury with her inspired and ambitious proposal,” says Hermitage Artistic Director Andy Sandberg. “Her innovative work with glass offers a unique lens into life and culture. Charisse’s multifaceted and thoughtful approach to her work embodies the mission of the Hermitage Greenfield Prize: to bring into the world works of art that have a significant impact on the broad as well as the artistic culture of our society. We thank our distinguished jurors for their passion and dedication, and we congratulate all four exceptional finalists, whom we look forward to welcoming at the Hermitage. We’re excited to host Charisse in Florida for the Hermitage Greenfield Prize Dinner in April, and subsequently as a Hermitage Fellow in anticipation of the premiere of her new exhibition in Sarasota in 2028.”

Charisse Pearlina Weston, born in Houston and now based in Harlem, is a conceptual artist whose work contends with the dynamic interplay of violence and intimacy through repetition, enfoldment, and concealment. She works across sculpture, writing, installation, and photography. Weston often integrates glass into her work due to its inherent nature. Whether it be through photographs, fragments incorporated into a canvas, or an element within a sculpture, the duality of the material speaks to Weston’s understanding of Black resistance. Her recent exhibitions include group and solo presentations at the Whitney Museum of American Art, MOMA PS1, SITE Santa Fe, and the Queens Museum, among other venues. Recent fellowships and residencies include the Studio Museum, Harlem Artist in Residency, Jerome Hill Fellowship, Hodder Fellowship at the Lewis Center for the Arts at Princeton University, a 2025 Guggenheim Fellowship from the Guggenheim Foundation, and a 2025 Stepping Stone awardee from the Trellis Foundation. Weston received a BA from the University of North Texas, a MSc in Modern Art from the University of Edinburgh’s College of Art, and an MFA in Studio Art with Critical Theory emphasis from the University of California-Irvine.

Three finalists for the 2026 Hermitage Greenfield Prize include Melissa Joseph, whose work considers themes of memory, family history, and the politics of how we occupy space and has been exhibited at the Brooklyn Museum, Delaware Contemporary, Utah Museum of Contemporary Art, MOCA Arlington, ICA San Francisco, and List Gallery at Swarthmore College; Lily Kwong, a multidisciplinary artist whose work explores plant-life as both an artistic medium and a platform for community building and collective care, with recent projects at Madison Square Park (New York), Night Gallery (Los Angeles), and ICA (San Francisco); and Patrick Martinez, a Los Angeles-based artist whose work examines language, place, memory, and the social histories embedded within the American landscape, with recent exhibitions at the Whitney Museum, The Broad, the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, the Studio Museum in Harlem, El Museo del Barrio, and the Tucson Museum of Art. All three will receive a Hermitage residency, in addition to a finalist prize of $1,000.

“I am thrilled that the Hermitage Greenfield Prize will go to Charisse Pearlina Weston, an artist of great talent and expansive vision, who I know will benefit immensely from the residency’s call for independent thinking and exploration,” added fellow HGP juror Ian Alteveer. “Weston’s practice is fascinating in its wide-ranging references — to literature, to architecture, to social justice — and I cannot wait to see what she accomplishes next.”

“I am so proud that we are awarding this prize to Charisse Pearlina Weston, said 2026 HGP juror Alison Gass. “Charisse’s proposal was astonishing in its thoughtful depth of nuance, building on her past practice, her depth of rigorous research, and her ability to weave storytelling into sculptural form. She is poised at such an exciting moment for an opportunity like this, and I cannot wait to see what is next for her, both with the Hermitage Greenfield Prize and beyond.”

“Charisse Pearlina Weston’s work confronts the complexities of Black life with material rigor and poetic force, moving with a quiet power that makes her one of the most compelling artists of her generation,” said fellow HGP juror Larry Ossei-Mensah, founder of ARTNOIR and independent curator. “The Hermitage Greenfield Prize offers her the rare gift of time, space, and support to expand that visionary practice in ways that will ripple far beyond the studio.”

“I’m honored to receive the 2026 Hermitage Greenfield Prize,” said Weston upon learning of her recognition as this year’s HGP winner. “Through multimedia installations, my commission will address the ongoing entanglement of past and present legal regimes and engage broad audiences in reflecting on how the past continues to shape contemporary life. This Prize provides a rare combination of time, focus, and support that will allow me to fully realize this work and enrich my creative practice.”

For her Hermitage Greenfield Prize commission, Charisse Pearlina Weston will create a new body of work examining specters of desire, control, and recognition through the phenomenon of so-called “zombie laws”—legal statutes that persist beyond their supposed obsolescence. Rather than treating these laws as dormant remnants, Weston approaches them as active structures that continue to organize bodies and social life through desire, fear, punishment, and moral authority. The project draws on Zora Neale Hurston’s ethnographic writing on zombies in Haiti, where the zombie emerges not as spectacle, but as a social figure shaped by unmet desires for recognition, care, and belonging. This commission deepens Weston’s ongoing investigation into the dialectics of Black interior life and resistance, extending her exploration of how structures of power and surveillance produce constrictive intimacies, and how tactics of refusal enable Black interior life to re-inscribe intimacy despite those constraints.

Charisse Pearlina Weston will be celebrated at the Hermitage Greenfield Prize Dinner on Sunday, April 12^th at 6pm at Michael’s On East in Sarasota, Florida. This year’s event Co-Chairs are Ellen & Richard Sandor. Capacity will be limited, so early reservations are strongly recommended. Tables and sponsorships are now available; additional information can be found at HermitageArtistRetreat.org/HGPDinner2026.

In addition to the Hermitage Greenfield Prize Dinner on April 12^th, the Hermitage Greenfield Prize Celebration will include programs April 10-13 with current and past HGP winners, including the HGP commission debut from playwright and 2024 recipient Deepa Purohit, presented in collaboration with Asolo Repertory Theatre. Additional details around these HGP programs will be announced at a later date. The Hermitage Greenfield Prize Celebration is presented in partnership with the Greenfield Foundation, with the Community Foundation of Sarasota County serving as the Lead Community Sponsor.

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