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George Pappas

George Pappas of Sarasota is one of the longest serving members on the Hermitage Board. But long before he became involved with the Hermitage, he had made art his career having earned a Master’s Degree from Harvard University and an Ed.D in Art Education from Penn State. He made arts education his career and in 1993 he retired as Professor and Chair Emeritus from the art department of USF Tampa. He and his wife Sarah moved to the Sarasota area in 1997 after she was named president of Manatee Community College in Bradenton.

George Pappas of Sarasota is one of the longest serving members on the Hermitage Board. But long before he became involved with the Hermitage, he had made art his career having earned a Master’s Degree from Harvard University and an Ed.D in Art Education from Penn State. He made arts education his career and in 1993 he retired as Professor and Chair Emeritus from the art department of USF Tampa. He and his wife Sarah moved to the Sarasota area in 1997 after she was named president of Manatee Community College in Bradenton.

George had already served on the Board of Trustees at the Atlantic Center for the Arts, an artist community in New Smyrna Beach, when he met with Hermitage founder Syd Adler and Bruce a decade ago and learned of their dream to start an artist retreat in this area.

George said he and Sarah look forward to the Greenfield Prize Weekend every year and they also enjoy the partnership with the Ringling Museum and the performances by Hermitage artists at the Historic Asolo Theater. “And of course the Artful Lobster is a great place to bring friends to introduce them to the Hermitage Campus and enjoy a fantastic meal!”

He has remained involved and committed to the Hermitage mission. “The Hermitage is important to this area because it brings a variety of artists from all over the nation to our county where they interact with our patrons, school and college students and the community at large.”

“A highlight of my many years on the Board is seeing how Bruce has lead us into innovative partnerships with local and national groups and how we’ve grown in stature and prestige…Artists are so appreciative of the experiences we provide for them.”

And George should know. A respected artist in his own right, he’s had more than 60 solo exhibitions. His paintings have been seen throughout the United States, including at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

His work has been featured at the National Gallery of Art, the deCordova Museum and the Ringling Museum and many others.

George is still retired and Sarah Pappas is now President of the William and Marie Selby Foundation. They have two children, Tom, an artist living in New York and Jane, a trainer for Wells Fargo Bank, who lives in Jacksonville, and two grandsons.

Artful Lobster Huge Success!

What a picture perfect day was enjoyed at the Hermitage on Saturday November 15 for our annual Artful Lobster fundraiser! 225 guests enjoyed the music of Ruthie Stephens, the lobster feast by Michael’s on East, and the themed decorations by Joy Rogers and her decorations committee. Kudos to event chair Susan Brennan and her hardworking team that raised more than $50,000 net to support the Hermitage mission!

What a picture perfect day was enjoyed at the Hermitage on Saturday November 15 for our annual Artful Lobster fundraiser! 225 guests enjoyed the music of Ruthie Stephens, the lobster feast by Michael’s on East, and the themed decorations by Joy Rogers and her decorations committee. Kudos to event chair Susan Brennan and her hardworking team that raised more than $50,000 net to support the Hermitage mission!

Preservation Paddle Raise

So how do we care for this magnificent historic and environmental site? Of great help in the future will be an all-terrain service vehicle, a John Deere “gator,”” made possible by a grant from Gulf Coast Community Foundation that was matched through the Artful Lobster Paddle Raise with gifts from the following:

Ellen Berman, Gene and Rita Bicknell, Larry and Carol White Bold, Mark Cole, Linda Crawford and Arthur Adelberg, Joan Engelbach, Susan Erhart, Patrick Henningan, Bette and Arn Hoffman, Susan Hollins, Whitmore Kelley, Key Agency, Inc., Dorothy and Bogie Korszen, Cornelia Matson, Gary and Lynne Mormino, the Paver Family, Mario Petrini and Sandra Nohre, Jocelyn and Jeffery Stevens, and Jean and Jim Wurdeman. Thank you all!

Paddle Raise generosity did not stop with full funding for the service vehicle. Judith Hydeman and Joy P. Rogers are supporting the restoration of the Hermitage chimney. Others who contributed are funding the chimney project as well as a new skylight in the Whitney house and modifications to the deck on the Hermitage House. Our thanks go to these generous contributors: Karen and Jon Albert, Caroline and Dyckman Andrus, Allen Barry, Robert Blattberg, Dan Denton, Linda and David Green, Jim and Ellie Manser, Donald Oakley, Cherry Richards, Tatiana and David Staats, Jessie Townsend Teague, and Tracy Tucker and Joel Howard.

Annual Fund

Once a year we invite our Hermitage “family” – that’s you! – to contribute in support of our mission to nurture creativity, preserve Florida history, protect native ecology, and serve our Gulf coast communities. If you haven’t yet made a year-end, tax-deductible gift, please click on the DONATE NOW button today!

We want to celebrate the “early” donors to the 2014-2015 Annual Fund Campaign – gifts received as of December 15: Caroline Andrus, Carol Ankerson, Juanita and Ross Branca, Doug and Carol Burns, Carol and Michael Clark, Rosalie Reagan Conlon, Dan Denton, Ilene Denton, Joan and Jim Dusenbury, Wendy Hacker, Millie Headdy, Joel Healy, Christ and Dick Hess, Pense Huneke, Barbara and Charles Kahn, Alyssia Lazin Kapic, Susan and David Katz, Josephine Kixmiller, Christine Koski, Jane and Joel Larus, Cathy Layton, Diane Ledder, Linda Long, Bobbi and Will Lorry, Cornelia Matson, Maggie and John Propst, Ronda Rohde, Jo and Stan Rutstein, Susie Samp, Marianne and Mike Schafer, Eva Slane, Nancy and Jack Sneider, Cathy Snyder, Bonnie Southwind, Karen Stults, Cecilia Sweet, and Michele and Rick Tromble.

Plus, you will be pleased to know that many of the artists who come to the Hermitage “pay it forward” with their own generous contributions. As of December 10, our thanks to Melvin Bukiet, Carin Clevidence, Bob and Coleen Cording, Barbara Ellman, Anne Patterson, Sandra Phaup, Bernard Rands, Barbara Ras, Daniel Sklar, Robert Spano, and Y York for their Annual Fund donations.

Palm Circle

We are pleased to recognize three new members of the Palm Circle – our group of donors who contribute $2,500 or more annually to the Hermitage Artist Retreat – Ginger and Bob Bailey, Dan Denton, and Susie Samp. Thank you!

The Economics of ETHEL on the Beach

As the sun touched the water, ETHEL musicians faced the horizon vocalizing a sound that echoed the whoops of joy the crowd shouted during their applause. Nearly 400 voices joined in a low sonorous “woooooooo” that slowly gained volume and intensity until it reached a deafeningly beautiful pitch as the last ray disappeared. Then silence. Instinctive silence. ETHEL made music from everything – even us.

Be the Music, Do the Math: The Economics of ETHEL on the Beach

By Patricia Caswell, Co-Founder and Program Director

As the sun touched the water, ETHEL musicians faced the horizon vocalizing a sound that echoed the whoops of joy the crowd shouted during their applause. Nearly 400 voices joined in a low sonorous “woooooooo” that slowly gained volume and intensity until it reached a deafeningly beautiful pitch as the last ray disappeared. Then silence. Instinctive silence. ETHEL made music from everything – even us.

For a creative week the old wooden Hermitage floorboards became a drum for improvised chant with ancient flute, voice and cello. Violinist Kip Jones never stopped making music with everything he got his hands on: a miniature Australian didgeridoo; bells; sticks; and a home-made shaker of a Publix hummus container filled with shells. Nothing and no one escaped becoming a musical sound experiment. ETHEL members sang during lunch, joined by a brave Nebraskan fiction writer, Hermitage fellow Tony Eprile. When Tony wanted cellist Dorothy Lawson to pass the salt, he had to request it in a melodic passage.

The week culminated in a concert on the beach with these classical musicians’ chests resonating with their chanting voices and the strings of their instruments. Grammy award winner Robert Mirabal wove the music with a story about a boy named “Drop”, a lesson of land and water conservation observed a thousand years ago.

New York City’s virtuosic ETHEL is one of the most acclaimed string quartets in contemporary classical music. They went from residence at the Hermitage to a resident gig at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. You can see them there, or in February, at the Ringling Museum’s Historic Asolo Theater.

If you are more business minded than “artsy,” then you may not care about the profound, aesthetic high 400 people cumulatively experienced at sunset. You might however like to know that this was a free concert. Generally tickets for ETHEL are $30 or more. At $30 each, this concert was worth $12,000. We program ten of these beach events each year, in addition to 50 or so off-campus educational programs. You’ve got to admit the Hermitage gives a great gift to the people of Florida whether you join us to “be the music” or stay home and “do the math.”

Ernest

Meet Ernest, local celebrity/mascot/muse of the Hermitage Artist Retreat. Ernest has inspired tree carvings, poems, essays and paintings. He has been photographed countless times from countless angles. He is not shy and can often be found perched on the deck of the main house and the beach cottage. His feathers are not easily ruffled.

Meet Ernest, local celebrity/mascot/muse of the Hermitage Artist Retreat. Ernest has inspired tree carvings, poems, essays and paintings. He has been photographed countless times from countless angles. He is not shy and can often be found perched on the deck of the main house and the beach cottage. His feathers are not easily ruffled.

While Ernest did not sit for his festive hat and jingle bell anklet, he was, as always, happy to hold a pose. Credit Bruce Rodgers, executive director of the Hermitage, for creating this holiday version of our beloved Hermitage heron.

Watch out Toulouse the turtle, we see an elf costume in your future.

Playing and Creating at the Hermitage

It’s really quiet at the Hermitage.
It’s probably really quiet where you’re working too, unless you work at an amusement park or sell fireworks. This is a big vacation week and I can count the number of times our phone has rung today, on one hand.

It’s really quiet at the Hermitage.
It’s probably really quiet where you’re working too, unless you work at an amusement park or sell fireworks. This is a big vacation week and I can count the number of times our phone has rung today, on one hand.
We have two artists in residence, and they’re both working in their studios and one of those studios is right next to our office. She’s even playing music, Linda Ronstadt, Bruce Springsteen, James Taylor. I like it. It makes it less quiet.

But the main reason it’s so quiet is because for the past two weeks, it’s been anything but. From June 14-29 the Hermitage hosted its annual Family Weeks Residency. That means there were two moms and two dads (all artists), two pre-preschoolers, two babysitters, at least a dozen stuffed animals, Play-doh, Legos, bubbles, a kiddie pool, puzzles and blocks.

It’s been a long time since I’ve had a two-year-old and I forgot how quickly and completely they can take over a space. Our couch turned into a fort, and then a cave and then a pool. Our dining room table was covered with crayons. There was a train set up on the living room floor.

And I loved every minute of it.

My daughter Jenna, who is certified in early childhood education, jumped at the chance to watch Maddie, a very energetic two-year-old, who sweetly talked Jenna into bringing in her stuffed kitties, and then I’m pretty sure, went home with them. (You can never have enough stuffed kitties according to Maddie). Adam, our slightly less-energetic nearly-three-year-old, also had his own sitter most of the time. This freed up the parents, allowing them to create some amazing art during their stay.
Occasionally Maddie would burst into the office, followed by Jenna, or her mom Erica or maybe her dad, Erik, and often mom or dad would apologize for the interruption. Apologize? No need there. How cool it is to have to pull away from your computer screen to look at a drawing, or a rock or a particularly adorable stuffed kitty? Very cool.

It was also wonderful watching these children, who don’t live very far from each other, play together, invent games and share their toys. When walking past their “cave” I heard Maddie say “I love my Adam” and my heart nearly melted.

Their parents never wasted an opportunity to tell us how much the residency meant to them, the time to work on their art and projects, the time to spend on the beach with their little ones, the time to spend together without their little ones.

All of this was thanks in part to a grant we received from the Sustainable Arts Foundation, a non-profit organization which supports artists and writers with families. I wish they were here to see what a difference these two weeks made to these two families.

The result was a very cool Open Studio last Friday night featuring paintings, video, dream catchers and jewelry made from objects found by the artist who finally had time to walk on the beach, and an eye-popping interactive installation also made with found objects. Friends of the artists braved some nasty weather to support them and many of them brought their kids too. It was a great night that fittingly ended with ice cream all around.

I can’t wait until next year.

Kate and Adam Wyshock enjoying family time on the beach
Adam and Maddie taking over the dining room table

Historic Cisterns Saved

The two cisterns on the Hermitage campus are extremely valuable historic artifacts marking a period in our past on Manasota Key when potable water was not immediately available at the turn of the tap.

The two cisterns on the Hermitage campus are extremely valuable historic artifacts marking a period in our past on Manasota Key when potable water was not immediately available at the turn of the tap. Dr. Alfred Whitney who built the Whitney House, Pump House and Garage in 1941 was quite the clever guy and he provided for clean water by creating a gutter system that funneled rainwater from the Whitney House into the two wooden cisterns. Pumping equipment in the “Pump House” sent the water back up to the Whitney House under pressure for everyday use. Cisterns were a common way to provide potable water in areas where drilling wells was not practical.

Local historians and County experts tell us that these two wooden cisterns are among the most significant, publicly accessible examples of this aqua-system in the entire region. With historic preservation firmly embedded in our organization’s mission, there was no questioning the importance of raising the funds necessary to save them when nature began having her way with them.

Our community agreed. With major grants from the Gulf Coast Community Foundation, Community Foundation of Sarasota County, Ehrhart Family Foundation, Gerri Aaron, and additional support from 20 other community members, the cisterns have been completely rebuilt and stand ready to face the Florida Gulf Coast climate well into the future. We thank everyone who has made this restoration possible.

Novel Playwrights

After Rey Pamatmat finished writing a play it just kept writing itself. More and more story kept appearing. It seemed much longer than a play.

Novelist Kia Corthron with poet Mimi Herman

After Rey Pamatmat finished writing a play it just kept writing itself. More and more story kept appearing. It seemed much longer than a play.

The idea of writing a book felt fun. Then he discovered how different books are than plays. He had been writing plays or 10 years so he knows the components and how to put them together. “But with a book, I don’t know all the parts, and what it needs” he said.

Plays are collaborative. Directors, even actors fill in between the words of the playwright, but with books you have to write everything down. “In the book I have to make decisions about things with no collaborators. I alone have to decide what people are thinking. And it has so many more words!” he said with genuine surprise. “I asked my manager how many words a book has. The answer was 60,000 to 90,000!”

The story came to a stop one-third of the way through the book because he had play commission deadlines and a revision due. He got too busy to work on the book and couldn’t write it as efficiently as he could section up and write plays in shorter patches of time. He needed an expanse of time to work on the book so when the opportunity of the Hermitage came up it seemed perfect.

Rey’s venture into this new genre isn’t the first time a playwright came to the Hermitage to write a book. While walking the beach with Kia Corthron, I listened as she mumbled and nearly stuttered the word “novelist.” “I’m here as a novelist.” Like Rey, she was struggling with her evolution as a writer. Hers wasn’t a struggle of form and components, but of self-image. She knew herself as a playwright, and her whole image had to morph. When she returned a year later, her novel was nearly done and she had no problem pronouncing the word “novelist.”

Writer Susan Yankowitz Draws Crowds

When Hermitage writer Susan Yankowitz talks about the play she’s working on, small crowds gather around her in fascination. I haven’t seen this phenomenon since 2009 when young artists sat on the floor surrounding a chair where Romulus Linney read his entrancing stories. Each story was an encouraging metaphor meant specifically for someone on the floor. But I digress.

Playwright Susan Yankowitz

When Hermitage writer Susan Yankowitz talks about the play she’s working on, small crowds gather around her in fascination. I haven’t seen this phenomenon since 2009 when young artists sat on the floor surrounding a chair where Romulus Linney read his entrancing stories. Each story was an encouraging metaphor meant specifically for someone on the floor. But I digress.

Susan’s play is about animals in the Middle Ages that were placed on trial when they hurt or killed a human. Over a thousand such trials were documented in France, Ireland, the USA and England.

A horse was assigned a defense attorney when he kicked a man. Bees were tried after stinging a woman in 18th century England. But the bees didn’t show up for the trial. Animals were almost always found guilty but there was an occasional appeal. The main character in the play is a sow, a 400-pound mother pig, who ate a human baby, which apparently was quite common in those days.

Many trials were on bestiality, which always involved a man and a female animal “paramour” who were put on trial together. The most famous was in New Haven. In the 17th Century a man and a Jewish woman went on trial for bestiality because Jews were not considered human.

In fact there are so many of these cases that Susan is faced with the problem of which fascinating stories to cut from the script.

The play is narrated by the first attorney to defend animals, when in 1521 he represented a group of rats who ate crops, causing famine. The rats won on a technicality.

The play asks the question “What kind of justice do we give to those whom society sees as lesser creatures?” Could this pertain to Abu Ghraib, blacks, the poor?

How do you define suffering? Does a fish suffer? as a Swedish animal rights attorney asserted after a fisherman was tried for showing off his catch flailing on the hook? Where do we draw the lines, personally and societally?

Even God makes an appearance in this play. And why shouldn’t he, since most of the defense and the prosecution use the Bible as argument?

Susan’s subject reminds me of when I first read “To Kill a Mockingbird” and had the revelation that justice changes with the decades. Susan’s play magnifies that revelation using centuries. What was seen as just in the 1500s is laughable today. And how will we look back at justice in 2013? Will we laugh or be appalled?

That question can be found deep within Hermitage Fellow Rey Pamatmat’s play based on the trial of Trayvon Martin. But that’s for another blog….

Laura Kaminsky – Meet Our Board

The Hermitage is thrilled to welcome Laura Kaminsky, Artistic Director of Symphony Space in New York City and an accomplished and award-winning composer, to our Board of Trustees. Laura is the first Hermitage Fellow to serve on our Board. “No one can better represent the insider’s point of view – that of the Hermitage fellow – than someone who has that title. And no one can represent the national point of view from outside this community better than someone living in a distant cultural center. As a Hermitage fellow in music, living in New York City, Laura meets both those qualifications,” said Executive Director Bruce Rodgers.

The Hermitage is thrilled to welcome Laura Kaminsky, Artistic Director of Symphony Space in New York City and an accomplished and award-winning composer, to our Board of Trustees. Laura is the first Hermitage Fellow to serve on our Board. “No one can better represent the insider’s point of view – that of the Hermitage fellow – than someone who has that title. And no one can represent the national point of view from outside this community better than someone living in a distant cultural center. As a Hermitage fellow in music, living in New York City, Laura meets both those qualifications,” said Executive Director Bruce Rodgers.

It took less than a minute for the Hermitage to cast a spell on Kaminsky, who came for her first residency with her partner Rebecca Allan, a painter. The two were collaborating on Horizon Lines, a multi-media work. “Driving up the narrow road and seeing the wooden structures and the dunes glowing under the midday sun was confirmation before ever stepping foot on the ground that this was a special place to nurture one’s creativity,” writes Kaminsky. “I could tell that there was going to be the space to be reflective and therefore productive.”

Kaminsky says that the Hermitage meant “everything” to her as an artist. “Time. Quiet. The stimulating conversation among the artist fellows. The closeness to nature. The sound of the waves. The light. All of this created a perfect environment in which to let loose and to reel in, both of which are necessary to making art.”

And she hasn’t wasted any time in making a difference. Inspired by a conversation with Rodgers, Kaminsky conceived the idea for NOVEMBER 21, 1963: THE DAY BEFORE, a multi-media one-night-only performance that will feature contributions from more than 60 Hermitage composers, writers, filmmakers, and visual artists to contribute original work around the theme of life on the eve of the assassination of John F. Kennedy. “Laura’s deep commitment to the Hermitage was obvious from the beginning. The exciting partnership the Hermitage has with Symphony Space, for whom she is artistic director, is an obvious example of this commitment,” said Rodgers.

The performance, taking place at Symphony Space on November 8, 2013, has already attracted tremendous media attention, has sold out and will be a highpoint of the upcoming Hermitage Artist Tour of New York City. “The outpouring of interesting responses to the challenge from the hermitage fellows has been exceptional and I know we have a great evening in store”, said Kaminsky.

As an artist and Fellow, Kaminsky believes she can bring a unique perspective to the Hermitage Board. “Having lived the artist’s life there I hope I can speak directly to the board from the perspective of one who has benefited from a residency in ways that can lead and inspire the board to continue its good work.”

Laura Kaminsky’s works are frequently performed across the U.S. and abroad; Kaminsky has received numerous commissions, fellowships, and awards. She has received four ASCAP- Chamber Music America Awards for Adventuresome. She currently serves as a member of the board of directors of Chamber Music America and has been a board member of the American Music Center and a member of the Artistic Advisory Council of the New York Foundation for the Arts. She is Artistic Director of Symphony Space in New York City. From 2004-2008, she served as dean of the Conservatory of Music at Purchase College/SUNY, where she is currently professor of music and faculty-at-large for the School of the Arts

After 10 Days of Hard Work at the Hermitage, Suddenly, the Play Wrote Itself!

In February 2011, the directors of the theater production company Phantom Limb, Jessica Grindstaff and husband Erik Sanko, came to the Hermitage exhausted after their successful run of 69° South at Brooklyn Academy of Music. Their work has been described as a series of dynamic tableaux vivants, narrative installations in motion that meld theatrical performance, puppetry, photography and film with unconventional original music. 69° South was a collaboration with the Kronos Quartet inspired by Sir Ernest Shackleton’s Antarctic expedition.

Jessica and Freya at the Hermitage

In February 2011, the directors of the theater production company Phantom Limb, Jessica Grindstaff and husband Erik Sanko, came to the Hermitage exhausted after their successful run of 69° South at Brooklyn Academy of Music. Their work has been described as a series of dynamic tableaux vivants, narrative installations in motion that meld theatrical performance, puppetry, photography and film with unconventional original music. 69° South was a collaboration with the Kronos Quartet inspired by Sir Ernest Shackleton’s Antarctic expedition.

Three months later at a sunset dinner on the beach to welcome them back for the second part of their residency, they surprised us with a bottle of champagne and an announcement. We had the privilege to be the first to hear their news (even before they told their own parents). Jessica was three months pregnant. Now they are back again with their daughter Freya, a true daughter of the Hermitage, as part of the Hermitage’s new family residency program.

While here for the third time they are writing the second of a trilogy that started with 69° South. The piece, Memory Rings, uses the oldest living tree in the world as the center of its narrative.

“The trilogy is united by the theme of ecology and the human relationship with nature through poetry and image. We are exploring the psychology of a collective future using history, legacy, and cultural memory,” said Erik.

They returned to the Hermitage following a residence at Harvard with global warming expert Dan Schrag, head of the Harvard Center for the Environment. Dr. Schrag had been impressed by their work because it moves people into the topic in a way they aren’t used to. Their plays touch audiences at an emotional level with a refreshing absence of the usual didactic lecturing.

Erik described audience reactions as unconscious at first. Then the slow burn of realization sets in. He and Jessica see attitudes change when they tour places like the Midwest where people are not yet convinced to take action on global warming. “Art has the ability to help people see the long arc of 40 to 80 years it may take to recover from climate change,” he explained.

They each have beautiful studios in New York City but they say their work benefits from the open mindedness and wide horizons that come with a place like the Hermitage where there are no expectations, no obligations, and the only distractions are the sea and nature (which is what their play is about).

Jessica said “After 10 days of hard work on Memory Rings at the Hermitage, suddenly, the play wrote itself!”

69° South

Learn more about PhantomLimbCompany.com