DIVERSIONS
YourObserver.com
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 2012
13
Ulla Searing Philanthropy in Sarasota
Surrey, England. She came to the United States in 1946, according to a naturalization certificate, and became a career girl. “I worked at the consulate for a while and I worked for a Swedish importer,” she wrote. “Also, at that time, I was teaching Swedish in the Berlitz School of International Languages in New York. I was very fortunate to get a very good apartment (a walk-up) in a very desirable area on Madison Avenue and 55th Street.” Searing met Arthur Searing,
the finance vice president of AIG, who had an invalid wife, in 1956, and they wed in 1963. She writes, “We were married in the Searing Church in Searingtown on Long Island. We had a house in Southampton and belonged to clubs there. We played a lot of golf, and on one lucky day I won a ladies golf tournament. We traveled an awful lot abroad, once around the world on the QEII.” When Arthur Searing retired in 1973, they began spending winters on Longboat Key, and when
Searing’s athletics included waterskiing, as well as golf.
he died in 1983, she moved into Sarasota. According to the autobiography: “I had two marriages after Arthur, one to a Dane who had Alzheimer’s. That was a very short marriage … Then, I married a very interesting French-Canadian man who was very smart.” That marriage to Claude DuPont was in 1998. Searing came to fear that DuPont would hurt her and at one point decamped with one of her helpers to The Colony, registering under an assumed name; she divorced him in 2004.
Arthur F. and Ulla R. Searing Wing and the Ulla R. Searing Curator of Collections
Ringling College of Art and Design $4 million
Ulla Searing Student Center, Searing Scholars Endowment Fund
Asolo Rep
Endowment Fund
$3 million
New College $2.7 million Foundation
Ulla R. Searing Residence Hall, The Ulla R. Searing Fund for Academic Excellence
$2 million Sarasota Ballet
Supporting the Sarasota Ballet of Florida and its capital needs and operations as determined by the organization
Circus Sarasota
Ulla Searing Tent
$1 million
Notes: Ulla R. Searing was a co-producer of the Sarasota Opera for 32 years and made a gift of $100,000 in 1999 for the renovation of the Youth Opera Room. She was also a $25,000 or higher per year sponsor of Masterworks Concerts by the Sarasota Orchestra since 1999. Throughout her colorful-to-saythe-least life, Searing was a passionate lover of the arts and it is this for which she is most remembered in Sarasota. She was also a fiercely loyal friend. Note this excerpt from a letter she wrote to The Observer about her 2006 donation to New College: “I want to emphasize the fact that the reason I gave the donation to New Col-
lege was that my late husband, Arthur Searing, and I always wanted to honor Gen. Rolland Heiser for the extraordinary work he has done for the college.” How well that fits with Jennie Famiglio’s comment at Searing’s posthumous party: “Despite a 60-year age difference, she was a great girlfriend: strong, formal, playful, refined and focused.”
ASOLO REPERTORY THEATRE
Unique, live musical events that entertain, engage and inspire
Directed by
FRANK GALATI
OF SARASOTA SARASOTA
Saturday, November 10
“irresistibly fluid... vividely crisp articulation... solid technique”
and
Sunday, November 11 at 7:30 p.m.
Music & Lyrics by
SHERMAN EDWARDS Book by
PETER STONE sponsored by
L to R: Andrew Boyer, Brandon Dahlquist & Bernie Yvon, photo: Scott Braun
Booker
94502
OPENS NOVEMBER 16 Previews November 13, 14 & 15 351-8000 • AsoloRep.org
VPa Dance 2012
Fall Performance november 15-17 7 p.m. In the VPA Theatre Booker High School $5 students $10 seniors $15 adults For ticket information visit www.vpabooker.com or call Judy Piercy at 941.355.2967 ext. 65032
ERIC ZUBER piano
Tickets 941.360.7399
Chopin: Andante Spianato and Grande Polonaise, Op. 22 Chopin: Etudes, Op. 10 # 1, 3, 5, 8, 11, 12 Rachmaninov: Preludes, Op. 32 No. 10, 12, 5; Op. 23 No. 2 Beethoven: Sonata, Op. 111 in C minor
GET TICKETS NOW for these upcoming performances Dec. 1 & 2 at 7:30 p.m. Historic Asolo Theater
SPANISH BRASS QUINTET
Tickets and details for all performances online 24/7 at www.artistseriesconcerts.org; in person at the Historic Asolo Theater box office (daily 10-4) – or
CALL 941.360.7399
94636
Dance
The New York Times
In the Historic Asolo Theater at the Ringling Museum of Art 5401 Bay Shore Road
Paid for in part by Sarasota County Tourist Development Tax revenues.
95211
From Searing’s autobiography: “(Me and my husband, Arthur Searing) played a lot of golf and on one lucky day I won a ladies’ golf tournament.”
Ringling Museum $9 million