Category: Uncategorized

David Burnett exhibit featured in ESPN The Magazine

Who are you calling old? Age is but a number for these senior athletes

“Their hair is gray, their skin is wrinkled and they’re unlikely to defy the law of gravity for more than a moment at a time. But photographer David Burnett, who has covered 12 Olympic Games, considers them the most inspiring subjects he’s captured.” Read the article Steve Wulf here.

Photo credit: David Burnett, Runners, 2017 National Senior Games, Birmingham, AL, June 2017, ©2019 David Burnett/Contact Press Images — “Fourth Quarter,” commissioned by the Greenfield Prize at the Hermitage Artist Retreat

Now accepting applications for development director

Come and work on the beach!  The Hermitage Artist Retreat on Manasota Key, Englewood seeks a dynamic development director to join its administrative team. The development director reports to the executive director and is specifically charged with donor cultivation, administration and stewardship. While grant writing and event administration are contracted activities, coordination with the granting process will be necessary. The position will supervise the event administration contractor. The successful candidate will feel comfortable working with autonomy and flexibility in collaboration with the small Hermitage administrative team.

Education:  Undergraduate degree required, Master’s degree preferred.

Experience: At least three-five years of experience in a senior not-for-profit development position.

Essential Skills: Superior interpersonal skills required. This position is about interacting with our donors and potential donors with grace and charm; following up in an organized and timely fashion, and working with the Hermitage staff to create and execute an overall development plan. The ideal candidate is a well-organized “people person” who is comfortable with the 21st century digital world. Primary areas of responsibility are:

DONOR Administration

  • Maintain Donorsnap data base
  • Acknowledge all gifts, including tax donations, in a timely manner
  • Develop and implement recognition opportunities for donors, including giving levels, communications, and web page listings

DONOR Retention and Acquisition

  • Design, implement, and manage the Annual Fund Campaign
  • Assist executive director, program director, and trustees in identifying, recruiting and retaining Palm Circle, Residency Sponsors, and other major donors
  • Design, implement, and manage the Giving Challenge on-line campaign

EVENTS

  • Supervise contracted event administration
  • Serve as staff liaison to the three event committees
  • Cultivate sponsors for these and other events and programs
  • Assist with Hermitage public programs as needed

ADMINISTRATION

  • Produce event and campaign financial reports for the board
  • Review Hermitage monthly financial reports
  • Participate in annual budget development
  • Assist the executive director as requested

Salary commensurate with experience.

To apply, send a cover letter, resume, and references in .pdf format to director@HermitageArtistRetreat.org with the subject line: Development Director Application.

Felix de la Concha exhibit in the Palm House

On exhibit in the Hermitage Palm House is “Hermitage Artist Intrigue,” a collection of twelve oil-on-linen paintings by Spanish painter Felix de la Concha, who was a resident Fellow in 2015. The paintings are of the historic Hermitage structures.

“I became absorbed by my surroundings at the Hermitage,” says de la Concha. “My creativity was fueled by the natural beauty and serenity of the Hermitage grounds – the ‘old Florida’ structures, the trees, the water and the waves.”

These paintings are a gift of the artist and of Alfstad& Editions. The paintings can be viewed from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. weekdays, and during all Palm House public programs.

Bruce Rodgers to retire in December

Debbi Benedict, president of the Hermitage Artist Retreat’s board of trustees, announced today the pending retirement of Hermitage founding executive director Bruce E. Rodgers as of December 31, 2019.  Rodgers served on the original steering committee organized by the Sarasota County Arts Council and co-founders Patricia Caswell and Syd Adler to restore and adapt the five historic buildings into an artist community.  After the organization received its not-for-profit status in 2002, Rodgers became a founding trustee. He stepped down from the board to become the acting director in 2004 and was appointed the first Hermitage executive director in 2005.

“Since our beginning, Bruce has been our guiding light and a remarkable visionary, taking the Hermitage further than we could imagine,” said Benedict. “Our entire board, past and present, wish him great happiness in his retirement and thank him for leading us on this incredible journey.”

As the founding director, Rodgers set the operating policies and procedures for the organization and grew its annual operating budget from $80,000 to its current $700,000-plus level. He oversaw the completion of the historic campus restoration that was begun by the Sarasota County Arts Council; established the first endowment program; and created many local, regional, and national partnerships. In 2008, in partnership with Bob Greenfield, then president of the Greenfield Foundation, Rodgers created the Greenfield Prize at the Hermitage Artist Retreat—a $30,000 prize in the form of a commission for a new work—which raised the organization’s profile to national status.

In addition to his many achievements as executive director, Rodgers has given back to the local community and to the field of artist communities. He served on the Arts and Cultural Alliance of Sarasota County’s board of directors; Sarasota Film Commission Community Advisory Board; on panels for the Florida Division of Cultural Affairs; and nationally, for 10 years, on the board of the Alliance of Artists Communities.

“In 2004, I was given both the honor and challenge of leading this new kind of cultural organization in our community—an organization that serves writers, painters, poets, composers, playwrights, and visual artists who are creating the art of our time,” says Rodgers. “This challenge could only have been met with the steadfast partnership of our dedicated trustees, our staff, our National Curatorial Council, our volunteers, and our community.  With the solid platform we have established, it’s a perfect time to pass the leadership to the next generation who will continue to use this platform to dream and to create future possibilities for the Hermitage. The blessing of this position has been the incredible talented and generous people I’ve had the privilege to work with and to know.  They are my friends, and I will always keep them in my heart.” 

A search committee, chaired by Englewood businessman David Dignam of Key Agency and comprised of both trustees and community members, has been formed to oversee the national search for the next leader to build on the foundation that has been created.  An email address has been established for interested candidates to send their resume along with a cover letter for the executive director role to HermitageEDSearch@gmail.com.

Hermitage launches search for executive director

The trustees of the Hermitage Artist Retreat seek an executive director to lead the organization into its future. Founded in 2002 as a project of the Sarasota County Arts Council, the Hermitage has grown to become a significant national artist community serving mid-career artists in all disciplines.  The mission of the Hermitage Artist Retreat is to “inspire the artists of today” and it expresses its values of excellence, access, and exemplary service to both artists and community at every opportunity.

The successful candidate will have a significant and effective history of broad engagement in the arts community, a passion for the arts and artists, and a proven track record of inspiring philanthropy with superior interpersonal and speaking skills. Work experience in an artist community is a plus but not a necessity. As a visionary leader of a small staff, he or she should enthusiastically enjoy “doing what it takes” to reinforce the Hermitage brand and experience on an everyday basis.

For complete details about the position, its requirements, and application information, click here.

Helga Davis awarded Greenfield Prize in Music

Congratulations to Helga Davis, who was recently awarded the 2019 Greenfield Prize in Music. Helga is a vocalist and performance artist with feet planted on the most prestigious international stages and with firm roots in the realities and concerns of her local community whose work draws out insights that illuminate how artistic leaps for an individual can offer connection among audiences. Davis was principal actor in the 25th-anniversary international revival of Robert Wilson and Philip Glass’s seminal opera Einstein on the Beach. Among the collaborative and works written for her are Oceanic Verses by Paola Prestini, You Us We All by Shara Nova and Andrew Ondrejcak and Faust’s Box, by Italian contemporary music composer Andrea Liberovici.  Robert Wilson describes her as “a united whole, with spellbinding inner power and strength.” She also starred in Wilson’s The Temptation of St. Anthony, with libretto and score by Bernice Johnson Reagon; and The Blue Planet, by Peter Greenaway. She is the recipient of the 2014 BRIC Media Arts Fireworks Grant and completed her first evening-length piece,Cassandra. Current projects include Silent Voices with the Brooklyn Youth Chorus with text by Hilton Als, Jomama Jones Blacklight by Daniel Alexander Jones, Requiem for a Tuesday with bass-baritone Davóne Tines and dancer/choreographer Reggie Gray,  Yet Unheard, a tribute to Sandra Bland by Courtney Bryan, based on the poem by Sharan Strange. She has conceived and performed First Responder and Wanna as responses to Until and The Let Go by multidisciplinary artist Nick Cave. She is artist in residence at National Sawdust, host of the eponymous podcast HELGA on WQXR/New Sounds, and is the 2018-19 visiting curator for the performing arts at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum.

Works by Regina Scully on display through December

Small paintings and works on paper by New Orleans visual artist Regina Scully are on view in the Hermitage Palm House from 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Monday through Friday, through December. Admission is free.

Regina lives and paints in the Holy Cross neighborhood of New Orleans, Louisiana. She was the recipient of the 2017 Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Grant Award. Scully’s artwork is showcased in a host of private and public collections, including the Microsoft Art Collection, the Frederick R. Weisman Art Foundation Collection, and the New Orleans Museum of Art.

“The Calling” by Lisa Diane Wedgeworth

The Calling, new video work produced at the Hermitage Artist Retreat, August 6-19, 2018

~ Guest post and photo by Lisa Diane Wedgeworth

I have been reflecting on home, the land of my family. A calling, a tugging at my spirit to return there, if even for a brief visit to set foot upon the land my  ancestors toiled, built, walked and raised families upon.

Traveling through Alabama with my mother, visiting civil rights monuments and memorials, a deep kinship with those who endured and survived the Domestic Slave Trade stirred within me and the American South felt as much as my home as any of the places my immediate family and ancestors were called to put down their roots (Los Angeles, Ohio, Texas, Missouri, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Maryland, North Carolina, England and Jamaica).

While at the Hermitage, the water of the Gulf of Mexico  – although stained with the stench and destruction of the Red Tide – conjured images within my mind’s eye and whispered new work, The Calling, in my ear.

 

Composer Sid Richardson wins the 2018 Hermitage Prize

The Hermitage Artist Retreat and The Aspen Music Festival and School (AMFS) announce that Sid Richardson (pictured above right), a composition student at AMFS, has been awarded the 2018 Hermitage Prize. Richardson receives a six-week residency at the Hermitage, along with a $1,000 stipend for travel and food expenses. Richardson was selected by a jury that included Alan Fletcher, AMFS president and CEO; Robert Spano, music director of AMFS and the Atlanta Symphony; and the composition faculty of AMFS.

Bruce Rodgers (pictured above left), the executive director of the Hermitage, says that the partnership with AMFS has been tremendously rewarding over the past six years. First awarded in 2013, the Hermitage Prize is given to a promising composer who is enrolled as a composition student at AMFS. Rodgers explains that the residency is the only one the Hermitage grants to an artist who is just embarking on his career. “The Hermitage supports mid-career artists of every discipline who are immersed in their careers,” he says. “This is the one time we welcome an artist at the very beginning of his career. But the bottom line is that both organizations share the same goal—to nurture world-class artists. These students are already on their way to impressive careers with a multitude of recognized work under their belts.”

Richardson earned his Ph.D. in composition in the Department of Music at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina. He also holds degrees from Boston Conservatory and Tufts University. He received the Roger Sessions Memorial Composition Award upon graduating from the Boston Conservatory, and the Outstanding Achievement Award from Tufts University’s Department of Music. Richardson has collaborated on compositions with such artists as Conrad Tao, yMusic, the Da Capo Chamber Players, Deviant Septet, and Amarcord.

Richardson says that winning the Hermitage Prize is “an affirmation of my musical explorations. I can’t think of a greater opportunity for a young artist than to be given time, space, and a community of like-minded individuals within which to work.” He adds that he hopes to continue to, “explore the intersections of music and literature in regard to musical form—and to engage with new genres and media. My stay at the Hermitage will prove an important stage in my development as a composer.”

“We never know what will take place during a residency,” Rodgers says. “If the Hermitage Prize winner shares a residency with an established composer it’s usually someone they have heard of and admire. The organic process that occurs when artists interact with each other on our campus is a remarkable thing to observe. We look forward to welcoming Sid and doing everything we can to ensure that he has a successful and productive residency.”