Community Calendar

Join us for an artistic journey geared toward young artventurers every Saturday! Led by our friendly associates, children ages 4-11 will be guided through our world-class glass art galleries. They will then have the opportunity to unleash their imagination and express themselves with a fun and engaging craft activity.

OLLI CONNECTIONS - Elie Wiesel: Soul on Fire
Presented by Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI)
Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2:30-4:30 pm
Sarasota Art Museum, Ringling College Museum Campus, 1001 S. Tamiami Trail, Sarasota, FL 34236
$15 | 941-309-5111 • olliringlingcollege.org

CONNECTIONS is an opportunity for OLLI students and guests to connect with many of today’s pressing issues via the penetrating perspectives of contemporary documentary films.

Eighty years after his liberation from Buchenwald, this film seeks to understand the man behind Elie Wiesel's searing and widely read memoir, Night. Told largely through his own words and eloquent voice, Elie Wiesel: Soul on Fire seeks to penetrate the heart of the known and unknown Elie Wiesel (1928-2016) — his passions, his conflicts, and his legacy as one of the most public survivors of the trauma of the Holocaust. With unique access to personal archives, original interviews, and employing hand-painted animation, the film illuminates Wiesel’s biography as a survivor, writer, teacher, public figure, and Nobel Peace Prize winner. Soul on Fire is a testament to an extraordinary man who helped shape our collective memory of the darkest chapter of the 20th century. After the movie and discussion, there will be a reception honoring Julie Cotton, the series creator and host of CONNECTIONS. Light refreshments will be provided.

Swing into an evening of style, swagger, and timeless charm with Feeling Good, a high-energy celebration of modern crooners. From the timeless elegance of Sinatra and the smooth sophistication of Michael Bublé to the sparkle of Bette Midler and Lady Gaga, this show delivers silky vocals, irresistible rhythms, and captivating personality. Savor swingin’ favorites like “Come Fly With Me” and “It Had to Be You,” fresh hits like “Home” and “Moondance,” and delightfully cheeky numbers such as “Stuff Like That There” and “Me and Mrs. Jones.” Equal parts class and sass, Feeling Good will leave you – well – feeling good.

From Billy Joel to Alicia Keys, from Ray Charles to Freddie Mercury, Three Pianos celebrates the piano legends who refused to play by the rules. These aren’t your cookie-cutter rock stars: they’re the rebels, romantics, and risk-takers who turned 88 keys into pure magic. Enjoy timeless favorites like “Crocodile Rock,” “Just the Way You Are,” “Great Balls of Fire,” “I’m Still Standing,” and “Beautiful.” From the soulful sway of Fats Domino to the anthemic joy of Elton John, this high-energy musical revue proves that when you follow your own tune, the music never stops.

Southeastern Premiere. In this heartwarming tale, a man visits a tailor to have his suit pants let out after realizing he's gained some weight since he last wore them. What starts as a simple alteration turns into a transformative journey. Through their deepening conversations both their lives are altered. A Tailor Near Me is a story of self-discovery, friendship, and the magic of a perfectly tailored suit.

Go nose to nose with Big John, the World’s Largest Triceratops, in an immersive and playful dinosaur exhibit at the Glazer Children’s Museum in Downtown Tampa. Whether you have a child at home or not, all are welcome to visit this colossal exhibit, 66 million years in the making.

La Grande Illusion is a major exhibition of works by internationally acclaimed artist, Brian Maguire. The exhibition spans two decades of work that spotlights the artist’s lifelong quest to draw attention to global injustices, war, and human rights. One of Ireland's leading cultural figures, Maguire has turned the practice and tradition of painting into acts of visual testimony. Maguire’s paintings are global in scope and are derived from projects undertaken between 2007 and 2024 in Mexico, the Mediterranean, Syria, Sudan, the United States, and the Amazon. Maguire's artworks are painted from direct experience and involve the artist spending extensive time on the ground with the communities that welcome him. The results are, plainly put, paintings that visualize the commonality of human suffering and dramatize the plight of people in need.

Sarasota Art Museum shines a spotlight on Art Deco as the artform celebrates its centennial anniversary. Art Deco: The Golden Age of Illustration showcases 100 rare posters from the Crouse Collection created by some of the world’s earliest master graphic designers during the 1920s and 1930s.

During the 1920s, a bold new artistic style roared to life: Art Deco. This exciting, dramatic, and glamorous new genre bid farewell to the soft, organic forms of Art Nouveau and soon took the world by storm. One of Art Deco’s most significant contributions was the art of printed graphics, giving birth to the disciplines of illustration and typography that permeate our world today.

Featuring subjects ranging from automobiles, airlines, and ocean liners to drinks and tobacco, the works represented in Art Deco: The Golden Age of Illustration celebrate modernity, dynamism, and luxury—the dreams and desires of the turbulent early twentieth century.

In addition to the iconic posters, Art Deco: The Golden Age of Illustration conjures the era’s design aesthetic with selected sculptural works and cocktail shakers from the Crouse Collection, and Art Deco furniture pieces on loan from the Wolfsonian Museum at Florida International University in Miami.

Art Deco: The Golden Age of Illustration is organized by Sarasota Art Museum of Ringling College of Art and Design and curated by Rangsook Yoon, senior curator at Sarasota Art Museum.

Image credit: Installation view of Art Deco: The Golden Age of Illustration at Sarasota Art Museum, Sarasota, Florida, 2025. Photo: Ryan Gamma.

Award-winning and internationally recognized artist Janet Echelman (American) is renowned for her soaring installations that merge ancient craft with cutting-edge technology. Using centuries-old fishing net knotting techniques, Echelman transforms humble materials into ethereal sculptures that visualize natural phenomena and the interconnectedness of humanity and the environment.
Radical Softness offers a rare, intimate look at Echelman’s artistic evolution, tracing her journey from early explorations in drawing, painting, and textiles to the monumental, netted sculptures that have redefined public spaces around the world. This exhibition contextualizes the artist’s practice, revealing the narratives, influences, and processes that drive her work. At its core, the exhibition highlights Echelman’s use of softness as a powerful tool—not only in material but as a philosophy. Showcasing a selection of works from across all four decades of the artist’s path-breaking career, along with a series of never-before-seen cyanotypes, Radical Softness reveals how an artist’s work can bring people together and carve out space for reflection in an ever-changing world.
Founded in New York City and based in Boston, Studio Echelman’s impact is global. A recipient of the Guggenheim Fellowship, Harvard Loeb Fellowship, Smithsonian American Ingenuity Award, Aspen Institute Henry Crown Fellowship, and Fulbright Lectureship, her monumental sculptures span five continents. Recent commissions include Remembering the Future at the MIT Museum (2025), Butterfly Rest Stop in Frisco, Texas (2024), Current in Columbus, Ohio (2023), Bending Arc at the St. Pete Pier in Florida (2020), Earthtime Korea (2020), Impatient Optimist at The Gates Foundation in Seattle (2015), and 1.8 Renwick at the Smithsonian American Art Museum (2015), among others.
Janet Echelman: Radical Softness is organized by Sarasota Art Museum of Ringling College of Art and Design and curated by Lacie Barbour, associate curator of exhibitions at Sarasota Art Museum.

Image: Janet Echelman (American). Study (Butterfly Rest Stop 1/9 scale), Rome, Italy, 2022. Courtesy of the artist. Photo: Giovanni DeAngelis.

New works by Selina Román blend photography, abstraction, and self-portraiture to explore themes of beauty and the politics of size in Selina Román: Abstract Corpulence. Roman’s photographs feature tightly cropped images of the artist’s own body, boldly occupying the full composition and extending past the boundaries of each frame. Pastel bodysuits and tights transform the artist’s flesh into new, gently rolling landscapes as amorphous shapes converge to create modernist-inspired compositions. At this scale, Roman’s tightly cropped portrayals of stomachs, thighs, and hips become formal studies of line, shape and color, asking viewers to consider the human form from a point of true abstraction. The softly hued palette created by the artist’s bodysuits lends itself to narratives around the aesthetics of femininity. Displayed as a colorful never-before-seen installation, Roman’s photographs transform the gallery into a space of quiet resistance, subverting traditional ideas of feminine beauty.

Selina Román: Abstract Corpulence is organized by Sarasota Art Museum of Ringling College of Art and Design and curated by Rangsook Yoon, senior curator at Sarasota Art Museum.

Image credit: Selina Román (American, 1978). Blockhead 1, 2025. Dye sublimation on aluminum, 40 x 50 in. Courtesy of the artist.