Volume I No. 48 |November 19, 2019
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ARTS NEWS
& PROFILES
FROM
FLORIDA'S
TREASURE COAST & BEYOND
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Sharing our wealth of arts and culture.
We're having an ARTS BLAST!
Supporting arts and cultural councils everywhere.
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Festival of Trees This Week
Sean Sexton Goes to Miami
Bears and Blankies for Chimps
Vero Vino Wine & Food Festival
2019 Marties Awarded
Remembering Dorothea Benton Frank
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Think Small - And Local - When You Do Your Holiday Shopping
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The Arts Council of Martin County and the Arts Foundation for Martin County have some interesting information on the impact of the arts in the community. Read it
here
.
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Scroll down for guidelines for submitting calendar items and feature suggestions to ARTS BLAST.
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Like Willi Miller's Arts Blast Facebook page for updates and Willi Miller's Arts Blast Just For Fun for interesting, inspiring, and fun shared posts, then go to willimiller.com to catch up on every issue of
Arts Blast, and see the latest ON THE CALENDAR listings.
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It's here at last! The arrival of Riverside Theatre's Festival of Trees is right up there on the excitement scale with Christmas itself! And you don't even have to set out cookies and milk for the big guy.
This is the 22nd year for what has become a holiday tradition on the Treasure Coast. The theme this year is Winter Wonderful, and if the temperature continues to be in the low 70s, we'll get a chance to bundle up for our visit to Santa's village and the "sparkling world of Christmas trees" that will be the Riverside campus.
If tickets are still available (The Broadway Tenors concert sold out very early in the game), the Festival Gala that kicks off the big weekend promises an unforgettable evening of good music, great food, a silent auction, and a preview of the Festival Forest. The Forest, with more than 50 trees and 20 wreaths is one of four special areas for holiday visitors. the others are Santa's Village, Grand Festival Hall & Christmas Shoppe, and Festival Market. Dine with Santa is back, with two seatings Nov. 24.
Tickets for all events are
online and at the box office, 772-231-6990.
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- Friday, November 22 – 6pm to 10pm (Gala Party &Motown Christmas Show)
- Saturday, November 23 – 10am to 8pm (Regular Showcase & Family Night)
- Sunday, November 24 – 10am to 4pm (Regular Showcase)
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Sean Sexton Goes to Miami
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Florida rancher, artist, and poet Sean Sexton will be heading south this week for an event readers and authors look forward to every year. Sexton will be featured in a group reading at
Miami Book Fair Internationa
l Nov. 24, at 4:30 p.m. This is Sexton’s second appearance at this prestigious gathering of writers, readers, editors, and publishers. His first time as a presenter was in 2010, for the debut of his first volume of poetry,
Blood Writing
. This time he’ll be reading from his latest book,
May Darkness Restore
, published earlier this year.
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He’ll be sharing the stage with two Florida Authors, Lola Haskins, of Gainesville, and David Kirby, of Tallahassee, and with John Balaban, of North Carolina. Balaban “served in the Viet Nam war and was a Conscientious Objector. He has seen and written about much of the world. He's also a translator, and has published six full volumes of poetry, including the one he'll read during our session,” Sexton said.
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Miami Book Fair will present close to 500 authors this year and event organizers have said that more than half a million people attend the multi-day event. The first Miami Book Fair took place in 1984 and has grown to become “the nation’s finest literary festival,” according to the website. “During Street Fair weekend, November 22-24, more than 250 publishers and booksellers exhibit and sell books, with special features like the antiquarians, who showcase signed first editions, original manuscripts and other collectibles.”
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Vero Vino Wine & Food Festival
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From Glenn Ferdinand and the Vero Vino Wine & Food Festival:
If you like food, wine, and a good time while supporting youngsters, reserve your ticket for the 3rd annual Vero Vino Wine & Food Festival and mark your calendar for Nov. 23. Then plan to be at the Heritage Center on 14th Avenue in Vero Beach from 4 to 6 p.m. that day to get your fill of hors d'oeuvres from Wild Thyme Catering, decadent desserts by Sweet Creations Bakery, and an "umcompromising selection of international and domestic wines," said co-chair of the event, Tammy Bursick. An ensemble from Indian River Charter High School will provide the entertainment.
Ferdinand said, "
This fundraising festival will primarily benefit the Education Foundation of who spearheads the Regional Science Fair and various programs for teachers and students throughout Indian River County. The festival will also continue to produce its “Have Piano will Duel” summer concert series which promotes young musicians interested in jazz."
Tickets are available online.
Photo: Vero Vino Team Members
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Treasure Coast Youth Symphony
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The Treasure Coast Youth Symphony’s Fall Concert Season brings more classic fun as the orchestra plays the music behind the adventures of those lovable but sometimes zany cartoon characters. The area’s finest young musicians perform the works of some of the world’s greatest composers introduced to the youngest among us by our most distinguished rabbits, ducks, fawns, fairies, and mice.
Hear
Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsody, Beethoven’s 5
th
, Rossini’s Barber of Seville, Strauss’s Die Fledermaus, and Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite in a cultural encounter where silly meets sublime. Conducting the four November concerts are John Enyart, the youth symphony’s founder, Thomas Servinsky, founder of Academy Orchestra, and Benjamin Enyart.
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The Martin Artisans Guild is hosting its first Fine Artists Group Exhibition at the Palm Room in Harbour Bay Plaza. The six artists showcased for the Month of November are: Amber Moran, Carol Kepp, Jane Baldridge, Helen Kagan, Lorrie Goss and Mia Lindberg. Amber, Carol, Jane and Helen are painters while Lorrie and Mia are three dimensional sculptors.
This is the first exhibition in the monthly line up for the Palm Room.
The show is open
Wednesdays through Saturdays, noon to 7pm through the month of November. Palm Room, 3778 SE Ocean Boulevard, Stuart, Florida. It is across from Josephine’s Restaurant in Harbour Bay Plaza.
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Congratulations to the 2019 mARTies Awards Recipients!
Lifetime Achievement in the Arts - Guy Coheleach
Philanthropy in the Arts -Jerome and Phyllis Rappaport
Corporate Leadership in the Arts - PNC-Arts Alive!
Excellence in Arts Education - Cindy Kessler
Arts Leadership - Karen L. Barnes
Arts Service - Mary Ann Loomis
Special Rcognition - MCHS Visual Arts Teachers Amand Jones and Bryan Johnson and Kim Jones for the Martin County Historical Mural at the Prescription Shop
Professional Artists Awards
Literary - Betty Jo Buro
Performing - Tasha Patterson Shirley
Visual - Suzanne Connors
Student Artists Awards
Performing Music - Brandon Gunter
Performing Theatre - Eliza Levy
Visual - Isabella Gallese
A Special Thank you to the team at The Lyric Theatre for their hard work and support!
Nancy K. Turrell
Executive Director, The Arts Council of Martin County
CEO, The Arts Foundation for Martin County
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I didn't know Ann Rivers Siddons but did meet and interview
Dorothea Benton Frank
several times. By all accounts, she was as strong as the women who were the backbone of her novels. The story goes that she wrote her first one, "Sullivan's Island: A Lowcountry Tale," as a challenge. It sold more than a million copies.
She once told me that she loves to have older people in her stories. "People in their 70s and 80s know a lot, have wisdom." Sadly, she didn't make it that far, passing away in September at 67. Her characters weren't people from her life, she said. That life was split between her homes in New Jersey and South Carolina's Low Country — and book stores everywhere, where she introduced fans to the women they took to their hearts.
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Both Benton and Siddons were in that very special category, Southern Women Writers, and the sub-group Southern Women Writers with three names.
Two of my favorites in the group, Mary Alice Monroe and Patti Callahan Henry, both popular visitors to the Vero Beach Book Center, remembered her in recent emails. Patti said, "
One of my favorite things about Dottie was that she always said that people just didn’t know how to dream big enough. Well, she did dream big enough and showed us all how to do the same!"
Mary Alice noted that Southern women writers have "a familiarity of place, language and sentiment we share." Reading their books "is like coming home." And although they share a readership, their personal backgrounds are different, she said. That didn't keep them from becoming fast friends as well as colleagues for some twenty years. One of her favorite memories of Dottie included Patti. "I was with Patti and Dottie at Palmetto Bluff, South Carolina, We were doing an event together and afterward we sat on the porch on a balmy night, just chatting about this and that. Dottie and Patti taught me about dirty martinis, and I've loved them ever since!"
They leave a lasting legacy, Mary Alice said. "
They will be loved and missed as women by family and friends. They will be remembered as icons of Southern Literature."
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Mary Alice wrote about the loss she and friends felt in her latest newsletter:
LOSING LITERARY ICONS AND FRIENDS
The summer book season ended with heavy news that rocked the hearts of many in the book world. First, the death of fellow writer and friend Dorothea Benton Frank. She was far too young and had just wrapped up a successful book tour.
Then, before any funeral plans could be set, news hit of another death. The passing of writer and friend Anne Rivers Siddons.
Garden & Gun Magazine reached out to me with an invitation to write a tribute. So, I teamed up with my dear friend and writer Patti Callahan Henry, and we spent a day working on this essay to celebrate who Dottie and Anne were as writers, as women, and as friends.
Photos: Dorothea Benton Frank; Southern Women Writers
Mary Alice Monroe, Signe Pike, Patti Callahan Henry, Dorothea Benton Frank, Marjory Wentworth
; Dorothea Benton Frank, Mary Alice Monroe, Patti Callahan Henry.
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The Love Docs will be broadcasting their radio show live from Waldo's in Vero Beach Friday, Dec. 6 from 2-7 p.m., collecting new Teddy bears, blankets, and bananas to donate to
Save the Chimps
, the world’s largest chimp sanctuary, located in Ft. Pierce, Florida. More than 250 retired chimpanzees now live in large family groups on 12 separate three-acre islands, where they receive three fresh meals daily, first-rate medical care, and a variety of activities in an enriched environment.
“The chimps, much like children, love to snuggle bears and blankies. And eat bananas. Anyone who brings in a new item will be entered to win some cool prizes,” Waldo's manager Lee Olsen said.
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Sopranos Mary Anne Kruger and Amy Cofield both live in Brevard County. Separately, they have enjoyed international careers as opera singers. Together-- they are the Space Coast Divas. The duo will present
A Grand Night of Opera
at Eastminster Presbyterian Church, 106 N. Riverside Drive in Indialantic Saturday, November 23 at 7:30 PM, and at First Presbyterian Church of Vero Beach, 520 Royal Palm Boulevard Sunday, November 24 at 3:00 PM.
Accompanied by pianist Jean Black, the singers will perform a range of works from the world of opera, including Puccini, Verdi, Bellini, Gounod and other master composers. Kruger and Cofield are frequent performers with the Space Coast Symphony Orchestra, the sponsor for
A Grand Night of Opera
. "Opera is in our blood," said Kruger. "It's simply part of who we are. Opera singers perform with their whole bodies and whole hearts as musicians, actors and instrument all rolled into one." She continued, "People who think the music is sure to be exotic or unfamiliar will be pleasantly surprised by many of the tunes in our program! The Lakmé is especially popular as the backdrop to an airline commercial and many Puccini works are used in films."
Photo: Mary Anne Kruger and Amy Cofield are the Space Coast Divas.
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Do you enjoy learning new things and talking to people?
Do you have a few hours each week to share?
The House of Refuge and Elliott Museums are great places to volunteer! Join a dynamic group of retired professionals and people with a passion for history, art, transportation, and fun! We need enthusiastic people to lead tours, welcome guests, help out in the Museum Store, work special events and functions, and assist with collections and exhibits.
Volunteer benefits include guest passes, breakfast meetings to share your input, the annual Volunteer Thank You Dinner, and more!
Please call Al Simbritz, HSMC Volunteer Coordinator,
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Thank You
Arts Blast Sponsors
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Arts Blast
Friends and Supporters
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When you're in the audience for
Vero Classical Ballet's The Nutcracker, watch for one of the parents in the party scene. Former NFL player Eric Smith will be on stage in the production for his second year. Barry Trammell, director of the dance school, said Smith doesn't dance as part of the ballet troupe but the party parent dances are easy and he was a quick study.
The Nutcracker, with guest artists
Anna Ciriano and Thomas Holdsworth
from the Orlando Ballet, is at Vero Beach HS Performing Arts Center Nov. 30, 2 and 7 p.m. It's a production of Vero Classical Ballet and Ballet Vero Parents & Friends, Inc.
Tickets are available online.
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While we're eating turkey, termites have been chomping down on the
Lake Wales History Museum,
but their time has come. Spokeswoman Jennifer D'Hollander said, "
The Lake Wales History Museum will be closed November 26 - 30, 2019 for a major termite treatment of our historic buildings on the museum campus. The treatment will include tenting all four of the museum’s historic buildings including: the Historic Stuart House, 1916 Seaboard Air Line Freight Station, the Historic Crystal Lodge, and the main museum building, the 1928 Atlantic Coastline Railroad Station. This is one of the first steps towards the preservation of our historic buildings. We will reopen on Tuesday, December 3, 2019." That won't affect the Nov. 21, 6 p.m., talk by Steve Noll in the Museum Speaker Series: Trains, and Automobiles (&Steamboats, Too!)
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Supporting Arts Councils Everywhere
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LIBRARIES
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IF YOU GO (ONLINE)
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Ft. Pierce Jazz & Blues Society
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Center for Spiritual Care
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Galleries of Historic Downtown Vero Beach Arts District
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Vero Beach Choral Society
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Treasure Coast Community Singers
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Treasure Coast Jazz Society
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Information is to
be received in an email at least one week before publication.
Use this format:
Who (organization)
What (Event)
When (dates, time)
Where (Name of venue, address)
Why (a brief description of the purpose)
Web address
Contact for public (for tickets, questions, etc.)
Then add a short, descriptive release if available.
Send only one photo, with caption, until more are requested.
Media contact with email for my followup (not for publication)
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Here's a suggestion for uploading information to calendars that allow you to input your own events.
In the
body
of the listing, sometimes called
Description
, make sure to include all dates in each upload. For example: Performances are on March 12-31; or the exhibit is open March 12, 14, 15, and 17. That information should be in all dates you post individually.
If you are a member of the
Cultural Council of Indian River County
, you need this information:
The deadline is MONDAY - 10 days prior to the Wednesday publication.
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Copyright
©2019 Willi Miller's ARTS BLAST!, all rights reserved.
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