Five teachers selected for 2024 State Teachers Artist Residency program at the Hermitage

Five Florida public school arts teachers will spend part of their summer on Manasota Key while working on their own artistic endeavors as part of the 2024 State Teachers Artist Residency program at the Hermitage Artist Retreat.

STARs – now in its 14th year – is presented by the Hermitage in partnership with the Florida Alliance for Arts Education. This year's recipients were selected from dozens of applicants, and the five teachers selected from across Florida include three visual arts educators, a musician who leads the steel band at their high school, and a theater teacher recognized for his playwriting talents.

The STAR winners receive a residency at the Hermitage to focus on their own work as creative artists. The five teaching artists also will present a showcase of their work on July 12 starting at 2 p.m. at the Hermitage’s beachfront campus on Manasota Key, 6660 Manasota Key Road, in Englewood.

The program is presented in partnership with the Boys & Girls Club of Sarasota and Desoto Counties and the Englewood YMCA. In addition to the students and families attending from the YMCA, this Hermitage program will be open to the public with a $5 registration fee at HermitageArtistRetreat.org .

“These exceptional educators are also talented artists and creative minds in their own right,” said Andy Sandberg, Artistic Director and CEO of the Hermitage. “During the academic year, their attention is devoted to their students, and this has been a particularly challenging few years for educators throughout the State of Florida. ... Over the years, the STARs have created some stunning works of art, music, theater, dance, and literature during their time at the Hermitage.”

The STARs include:

· Greg Burdick , a theater arts educator, director, and playwright in Central Florida (Polk County).

· Dealey Dansby , a sculpture and ceramics visual artist currently teaching elementary and middle school art at Carrollwood K8 in Tampa.

· Shaun Fergus , an art instructor at Fort White Middle School (Columbia County).

· Kayleen Justus , director of steel bands at Leon High School in the Tallahassee area (Leon County).

· Vanessa Watkins , a glass artist with a focus on restoration art at Markham Woods Middle School (Seminole County).

Since the start of the Hermitage STARs program in 2011, 67 teachers have represented over 30 Florida counties.

The STAR program is one of the only Hermitage residency programs open to application; arts educators from schools throughout Florida are eligible, including music, theater, visual art, dance, and creative writing teachers. For more information about the Hermitage STAR program and how to apply, Florida arts educators are encouraged to visit FAAE.org/STAR .

The Hermitage is the only major arts organization in Florida’s Gulf Coast 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 multiweek residencies, where diverse and accomplished artists from around the world and across multiple disciplines create and develop works of theater, music, visual art, literature, dance, film, and more. For more information about the Hermitage and upcoming programs, visit HermitageArtistRetreat.org .

Submitted by the Hermitage

This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Five teachers selected for 2024 State Teachers Artist Residency program at the Hermitage