Since he took on the task of spearheading a new festival celebrating Sarasota’s abundant and diverse arts scene about three years ago, Jeffery Kin has been juggling a lot of challenges, but none more important than trying to define and establish exactly what Sarasota Rising’s first Living Arts Festival would be.
Kin, the former producing artistic director of the Sarasota Players , always had a vision for an event that would highlight the dozens of arts organizations in the community, along with individual artists, even before those groups signed on or understood what he was trying to do. The idea behind the festival was to create an event that would promote the region’s diverse arts scene while expanding its reach across the state, nationally and eventually internationally.
“I spoke with about 90 percent of the arts groups, took the time, did lunches, coffees and teas, listened to their dreams and tried to incorporate all that into the festival,” Kin said. “It was a big pyramid of ideas and thoughts and it literally came down to me, with as much common sense as I could come up with, figuring out how to do it.”
It was the ultimate chicken-and-egg situation. Arts organizations were interested but were often hesitant to commit to an event that had no clear shape, and, and Kin couldn’t shape it until the arts groups were willing to sign on.
In the end, Sarasota Rising will present five official events and be involved with several others from Nov. 8-17 at different locations around Sarasota County, featuring local groups and performers and highlighting youth programs. There are also several other programs on the schedule.
It’s the first of what he hopes will be many festivals that will shift and grow over the years.
What is the festival?
“It’s almost like the festival is really more of a feeling. It isn’t a thing,” Kin said during a recent interview. “It isn’t a place. It isn’t a park. It isn’t one event, it’s not just for kids, not just for our lovely elderly folks. It’s really a feeling to be able to participate in any way you see fit.”
His organization, which was initially launched with the encouragement of developer Mark Kauffman and financial support from the Downtown Improvement District , was trying to avoid creating a replica of Arts Day, which was presented for 18 years until 2009 by what is now the Arts and Cultural Alliance of Sarasota. Arts Day was a one-day festival around Five Points Park, where organizations set up tables to promote their programs, and had an opportunity to perform snippets of shows in several indoor and outdoor venues.
Kin was looking for something more expansive, reaching around the county and hoping that performing arts organizations might produce something new and unique for the festival. If the event grows over the next few years, such performances could become part of the festival.
“We want to give an idea of what the community is producing,” Kin said. “We have to showcase who’s here, what’s here, what’s happening here,” he said. “We’re a world-class cultural community and we need to be known for it.”
Living Arts Festival involves five main events around the county
In the end, the festival will be a mix of parties and showcases that opens Nov. 8 with the Living Arts Festival Fete , a preview of the week to come at the Sarasota Municipal Auditorium. Kin said each of the five major events “have their own purpose. We know we will learn a great deal from this one that will inform what we do in the future.”
The auditorium also will be the site for the Nov. 9 Rise and Shine Saturday , a family-focused, free arts exposition, where organizations are invited to highlight the youth programs they offer. There will be indoor and outdoor stages for performances.
The official opening night party on Nov. 10 is called “A World of Entertainment” and will be held at the Northern Trust building in downtown Sarasota, where patrons will have a view of the Chalk Festival on the street below, and where a Brazilian band and singer will perform. It also will feature a California-based group called Bandaloop , which creates dances in public spaces and on the sides of buildings.
“We’ll have them dancing on the side of Northern Trust for the opening,” Kin said. “We want that to be a spark of excitement to kick off the week. We’re calling that a world of entertainment, with different music, different culture, different organizations. We have a world of entertainment at our feet. You don’t need to go anywhere.”
On Nov. 11, Veteran’s Day, and Nov. 12, the Living Arts Festival will host “Our Embrace Reimagined,” a partnership with Embracing our Differences and Selby Gardens at its Historic Spanish Point campus. It will feature a performance walking tour of Spanish Point, along with some of the unclaimed banners from past Embracing Our Differences exhibitions, chosen by CreArte Latino, Modern Marimba and Sarasota Contemporary Dance, among others. These groups will use the panels to create original songs, dance, spoken word and acting scenes based on the images and messages.
The festival closes with “Sarasota Rising: A Celebration of Youth,” at the Circus Arts Conservatory’s Sailor Circus Arena, where a variety of youth-focused programs will be performing. It will include Sarasota Ballet, Sarasota Opera, Westcoast Black Theatre, Key Chorale, The Venice Theater and Sarasota Contemporary Dance, along with the circus.
Additional events during the week
Nov. 11 – Veterans Day – Sarasota Rising is working with area organizations to create a tribute to the nation’s veterans.
Nov. 14 – All Roads Lead to Venice – A number of organizations including Venice Art Center, the Downtown Association, Venice Main Street, The Venice Symphony and the Venice Theater will take over the downtown area for a celebration of the arts that will involve local bars, restaurants, hotels and pop-up visual arts exhibitions, impromptu street performances and curated buskers.
Nov. 15 – Pop-Ups in Sarasota – There will be a variety of surprise “Happenings” and “pop-ups” around downtown Sarasota with live acts, food and spirits.
Nov. 16 – Arts Roulette – Volunteers will be traveling around the community giving random people a chance to spin a wheel to win tickets to performances and exhibitions in the weeks ahead.
Seeking sponsorships
Kin has been working primarily with a volunteer board of directors and recently added his first paid staff member, Erin Lazarro. The festival is looking for sponsors for many of the events to cover the costs and prepare a foundation for future events.
“We need to raise in the $200,000 range to cover everything we’re doing, including insurance, paying for the police force and staff. We have budgets for everything. If we had more money we could do things bigger and broader. But we’re being frugal, being smart and trying to do this in the best way possible on a scale that’s manageable.”
There will be a program book, but the festival likely won’t make money from it. “The Gulf Coast Community Foundation has stepped up as the lead sponsor for the closing part,” Kin said.
Kin’s team also includes Sonja Shea as director of community engagement and Tamara Solum, who ran Drama Kids of Manasota for 20 years, as director of educational outreach. Vern Biaett, who has produced community festivals and worked on such events as the Super Bowl in Phoenix and Glendale, Arizona, has been serving as a consultant.
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First steps
Kin said the festival has shaped up “almost exactly where I thought we would be” for the first year.” Some have mentioned building the Living Arts Festival into Sarasota’s version of the Spoleto Festival USA, which composer Gian Carlo Menotti created in 1977 in Charleston, South Carolina. It has grown into a two-week festival of dozens of theater, music, dance, opera, jazz, choral and other programs, that has brought international attention to the city.
Kin has no intention of trying to create the same thing in Sarasota.
“Every festival I’ve attended, there are things that are completely different, and even with Spoleto, there are things that are the same. We are creating an atmosphere where people want to be, where they can be excited and be immersed in the arts. That’s true of any festival, any county fair. It’s about bringing people together and then we have a part. It takes an event like this to make you be in awe."
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This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Sarasota Rising’s Living Arts Festival taking shape for November debut
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