on the gulf
NEWS & PREVIEWS
Summer Circus
Returns to
Asolo Theatre
in Sarasota
For nearly two decades, The Circus Arts Conservatory and The Ringling have partnered to bring Summer Circus Spectacular to the Historic Asolo Theatre, an intimate theater on The Ringling Museum campus in Sarasota.
This year, performances run through August 8, featuring some of the finest circus artists from around the world performing breathtaking acts of comedy, aerial artistry, juggling, acrobatics, hand balancing, and daring athleticism.
This summer’s performers include:
• Davis Vassallo: Clowning & Slack Wire
• Yelitza Vivas: Hand Balancing
• Noel Aguilar: Juggling
• Emma Grace Clarke: Aerial Spiral
• Duo Transcend: Duo Roller Skating & Duo Trapeze
Performances of Summer Circus Spectacular are Tue-Fri at 11am & 2pm and Sat at 2 & 5pm.
Asolo Repertory Theatre is located at 5555 N. Tamiami Trail in Sarasota. For information, call 941-360-7399.
Lynn Goldsmith's
Photographs at
Selby Gardens
Marie Selby Botanical Gardens presents an indoor and outdoor exhibition featuring the work of legendary photographer, Lynn Goldsmith, who is renowned for both her celebrity portraits and fine art images. ‘Shared Light: Lynn Goldsmith’, on view at the Garden’s Downtown Sarasota campus, combines stunning images of flowers with intimate portraits of Selby Gardens’ artist in residence, Patti Smith.
Over the past 50 years, Goldsmith’s photography has appeared on or between the covers of magazines including Life, Newsweek, Time, Vanity Fair, Rolling Stone, and Sports Illustrated. Her work is held in numerous private art collections and museums, including the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, the Museum of Modern Art, and the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.
Goldsmith remarked, “At Marie Selby Botanical Gardens, my photographs of flowers linger in that brief territory between bloom and surrender, where beauty is never separate from fragility. In the Museum, the portraits and moments beside them suggest that our relationships unfold much the same way as flowers do — reaching toward light, opening in trust, bruised by time, yet carrying an elegance that survives even in fading.”
Selby Gardens’ President, Jennifer Rominiecki, commented, “This exhibition beautifully bridges the worlds of fine art, music, and nature through Goldsmith’s evocative floral imagery and her personal portraits of Patti Smith, our artist-in-residence.”
‘Shared Light: Lynn Goldsmith’ will be on view through September 13 in the galleries of the Gardens’ Museum of Botany and outdoor installations positioned throughout the Gardens.
Marie Selby Botanical Gardens’ Downtown campus is located at 1534 Mound St. in Sarasota. The Gardens are open daily 10am-5pm. For information, call 941-366-5731.
Modern Works
Festival
in Sarasota
Back for its seventh year at Urbanite Theatre, the 2026 Modern Works Festival is a two-week celebration of new play development and women in theatre.
The Modern Works Festival offers audiences the opportunity to experience new plays as they are being shaped. With a Festival Pass, you gain all-access entry to the work in progress, including staged readings of finalist plays, a kickoff celebration, guest speaker events, artist performances, and post-show conversations that bring audiences and creators into direct dialogue.
Passholders are not just attending a staged reading. They vote for their favorite works and help shape which stories move forward.
Past finalists have gone on to full productions on the Urbanite stage.
Each year, the festival provides employment for more than 40 artists, bringing together playwrights, directors, actors, and stage managers in a collaborative process designed to support bold new work.
Behind the scenes, that process begins months in advance. A team of readers carefully reviews more than 300 submissions from playwrights across the country, narrowing the field to a handful of finalists. Those selected artists are then brought to Sarasota and given the time, space, and resources to develop their work. Each playwright is supported by a professional team, including a director, stage manager, and actors, along with rehearsal and script development time, travel and housing, a stipend, a per diem, and two public readings.
Festival Schedule
SEPTEMBER 17
7:30pm Headliner Production
SEPTEMBER 18
7:30pm: Headliner Production
SEPTEMBER 19
2 & 7pm: Headliner Production
SEPTEMBER 20
2pm: Headliner Production
SEPTEMBER 24
7:30pm: Kick Off Party
SEPTEMBER 25
2pm: Staged Play Reading - Finalist 1
5pm: Staged Play Reading - Finalist 2
7:30pm: Festival Guest Speaker
SEPTEMBER 26
2pm: Staged Play Reading - Finalist 3
5pm: Staged Play Reading - Finalist 1
7:30pm: Staged Play Reading - Finalist 2
SEPTEMBER 27
2pm: Staged Play Reading - Finalist 3
4:30pm: Audience Roundtable &
Closing Celebration
Finalists & headliners to be announced later this summer.
Urbanite Theatre is located at 1487 2nd St. in Sarasota. Call 941-321-1397 for information.
Ringling Museum
Explores the Rise
of Art Photography
Drawn from The Ringling’s permanent collection, the exhibition ‘The Evocative Lens: Pictorialism and the Rise of Art Photography’ examines the emergence and evolution of art photography. To distinguish their work from commercial photography and the growing snapshot culture fueled by Kodak’s newly accessible cameras, Pictorialist photographers deliberately emulated the qualities of painters and graphic artists, and their subject matter often reflected themes found in Impressionist and Symbolist art. By the 1910s & 1920s, many of these artists began developing distinct visual languages unique to photography, using the medium to express themselves in new and innovative ways.
Key figures featured in this exhibition include Alfred Stieglitz, Clarence H. White, Edward Steichen, as well as Gertrude Käsebier, Eva Watson-Schütze, and Anne Brigman, pioneering women with significant contributions to camera clubs and photographic societies of the time, highlighting their impact on the evolution of art photography.
‘Evocative Lens’ is on view thru September 16.
The John & Mable Ringling Museum of Art is located at 5401 Bay Shore Rd. in Sarasota. The museum is open daily 10am-5pm & late Thu 5-8pm. For information, 941-359-5700.
Circus Arts Conservatory's
Summer Circus Spectacular
will be performed
thru August 8 in the
Historic Asolo Theatre
at The Ringling in Sarasota.
Edwin McCain performs
September 21 at the
Westin Cape Coral Resort
& Marina during the
Island Hopper Songwriter Fest.
Marie Selby Gardens hosts an
exhibition of Lynn Goldsmith's
portraits of her friend,
Patti Smith and fine art
photographs of flowers at its
Downtown Sarasota campus,
thru September 13.
Counterpoint celebrates
the last decade of
Marcus Jansen's paintings.
'Evocative Lens: Pictorialism
and the Rise of Art Photography'
is on view thru September 16
at The Ringling Museum of Art
in Sarasota.
Edison & Ford Winter Estates
in Fort Myers' Historic
River District honors
Mina Edison's birthday
on Juy 6.
PARADISE COAST
SPORTS COMPLEX
3940 City Gater Blvd. N.
Naples
933-5335
Oct 3: vs New York Cosmos
Oct 7: vs Richmond Kickers
Oct 24: vs Spokane Velocity
Songwriter Fest
Returns for
12th Year
Island Hopper Songwriter Fest returns to Lee County, September 18-27 with performances by more than three dozen singer-songwriters at two dozen venues in Cape Coral, Captiva, Fort Myers Beach, and downtown Fort Myers.
Headliners this year are platinum-selling Edwin McCain, recently revealed as Nessy, the Loch Ness Monster on the TV show, The Masked Singer, and rising star Alexandra Kay, whose debut album reached No. 1 on the iTunes All Genre and Country charts and earned her a Top 10 on Billboard’s Current Country Album chart.
McCain will headline Island Hopper Songwriter Fest’s ‘Westin Unplugged’ on September 21, at The Westin Cape Coral Resort at Marina Village in Cape Coral.
Alexandra Kay is the featured artist at the festivals’ Stars on the River’ concert on September 24 at the Caloosa Sound Amphitheater in downtown Fort Myers.
Songwriter Fest Schedule
September 18-20: Captiva
September 21 & 22: Cape Coral
September 23 & 24: Fort Myers
September 25-27: Fort Myers Beach
While most Island Hopper shows are free, there are several ticketed events, including the Kay and McCain performances and the closing pool party at Pink Shell Beach Resort & Marina. Other one-of-a-kind ticketed experiences include a songwriter sunset cruise and dinner experiences.
Special Festival Events
Sept. 21: Songwriter Dinner
Gather (Cape Coral)
Sept. 21: Westin Unplugged
featuring Edwin McCain
Westin Cape Coral Resort & Marina
Sept. 22: Songwriter Sunset Cruise
departs Westin Cape Coral Resort
& Marina
Sept. 23: Luminary’s Dinner Experience
Luminary Hotel (Fort Myers)
Sept. 23: ACMA Showcase
Davis Art Center (Fort Myers)
Sept. 23: Stars on the River
featuring Locash & Alexandra Kay
Caloosa Sound Amphitheater
(Fort Myers)
Sept. 27: Pink Shell Pool Party
featuring Michael Ray
Pink Shell Beach Resort & Marina
(Fort Myers Beach)
Some of the songwriters performing at this year’s festival include: Audrey Spillman, Katrina Cain, Kurt Stevens, Robinson Treacher, Race Ricketts; returning artists Danny Myrick, Frank Myers, Dylan Altman, Jimmy Nichols, Megan Linville; and local artists Claire Liparulo, and Sheena Brook.
Some of the venues hosting concerts this year are: Keylime Bistro & Jensen’s Twin Palm Resort & Marina on Captiva; High Tide Social House and RC Otter’s in Cape Coral; Nervous Nellie’s and Margaritaville Beach Resort in Fort Myers Beach; and the Davis Art Center and Luminary Hotel in downtown Fort Myers.
Additional artists, venues, and schedules will be announced in the coming weeks. Call 338-3500 for information.
New Book
Celebrates
Marcus Jansen's
Art
World-renowned artist — and Fort Myers resident — Marcus Jansen, in collaboration with his friends and associate, award-winning creative director, John Sprecher, are publishing a new museum-quality coffee-table book showcasing more than 50 of the painters’ choice paintings of the last 10 years, many never seen before. The book, Counterpoint: The Defiant Works of Marcus Jansen, features works that Jansen considers many of his most profound artistic statements.
Counterpoint will be available this fall, coinciding with two milestones in Jansen’s life and career.
The publication will celebrate four decades of artistic production by Marcus Jansen, tracing an extraordinary trajectory from the raw immediacy of 1980s’ graffiti culture to mature, globally acclaimed paintings.
It also marks the 20th anniversary of Jansen’s ‘discovery’ by Jerome Donson, Director of Traveling Exhibitions at New York’s Museum of Modern Art. Donson hailed him as the innovator of a modern expressionism. Jansen’s work has been exhibited all over the world and is in many museums’ permanent collections.
Counterpoint marks the first Marcus Jansen collections book under the artist’s complete editorial and creative control. He has personally curated these works and includes his inspirations, interpretations, observations, and messages.
Sprecher and Jansen have been friends for more than a decade, when Jansen was featured in Sprecher’s COASTE magazine. Sprecher is an internationally award-winning creative director, writer, digital creator, video host, magazine editor and autism educator. With his brand agency of 40 years, he’s the recipient of more than 1,000 industry awards and editorial praise in local, regional, national and international business and consumer media.
Counterpoint: The Defiant Works of Marcus Jansen will be available in October. Autographed copies are available for pre-order. For information, call 738-6299.
Edison & Ford
Winter Estates
Celebrates
America
Edison & Ford Winter Estates will celebrate the 250th anniversary of the signing the Declaration of Independence with a series of ‘Step into History’ presentations. Historians will present on a variety of topics, celebrating 250 years of innovation, courage, and patriotism.
Throughout the site, patriotic décor will be on display and music will be played. Patriotic bunting will be displayed on the historic homes and fences.
The gardens will also feature patriotic symbols. The Ford citrus grove features a variety of citrus trees, including the orange blossom, which is Florida’s state flower. The citrus grove will be accented with caladiums to acknowledge Florida as the caladium capital of the world. Visitors can also tour the Florida native plant garden and imagine how the property may have looked 250 years ago.
Step Into History
Presentation Schedule
JULY 1
11am: How the Menge Brothers
Transformed Fort Myers
2pm: Molly Pitcher & Women
of the Revolution
JULY 2
11am: Electrifying Fort Myers
2pm: 1776
JULY 3
11am: Cracker Cuisine
2pm: Women Soldiers of the Civil War
JULY 4
11am: In Defense of Fort Myers
2pm: Edison & Ford and
the First World War
Mina Edison’s (Thomas Edison’s wife) 161st birthday will be honored on July 6. Throughout the day, historians will give special American history presentations. Visitors will be able to interact with ‘Thomas Edison’ and ‘Uncle Sam’ living history characters from 10am-2pm. A special ‘Inside-the-Homes’ Tour will be offered at 10am and ‘Behind-the-Gates’ Edison Laboratory Tours will start at 1:30 & 3:30pm.
The Edison & Ford Winter Estates are located at 2350 McGregor Blvd. In downtown Fort Myers’ Historic River District. It is open daily 9am-5:30pm (last admission at 4:30pm). For information, call 334-7419.
