SRQ Magazine | October 2026, She Roars

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Contents

This page: Fidelity Reels by Rob Tarbell, The Galleries + Exhibitions of Ringling College of Art and Design, Illuminations Exhibit at the Basch Gallery October 26 to December 11, 2026. Cover: Westcoast Black Theatre Troupe’s longtime troupe member Michael MejiaMendez. Asolo Repertory’s David Darrow as Motel, the Tailor in the 2026 production of Fiddler on the Roof and writing music and lyrics for 2027’s new musical, The Day the Circus Came to Town. Sarasota Contemporary Dance’s Sarah Affainie. Sarasota Ballet’s Junior Principal Dancer Sierra Abelardo. Sarasota Orchestra’s Principal Violist Stephanie Block. Sarasota Opera’s Soprano Kathryn Henry. Photography by Wyatt Kostygan, staged at the Something Borrowed, Something New exhibit at the Sarasota Art Museum.

october 2026

season preview 42 From a bird’s eye view, Sarasota and the ensuing suncoast, appears as a beautiful still-life: glittering white sand beaches ring the emerald-lined coastlines. Downtown Sarasota glimmers, a wall of modern glass and steel and historic bungalows and fishing wharfs line the roads from Anna Maria Island down past Siesta Key. But what the bird’s eye view doesn’t show is the cultural history on which this built environment stands. Take a drive down Tamiami Trail, south from Bradenton, through downtown Sarasota and into south Sarasota County and one thing will be unmissable—there is art everywhere you look. Since John Ringling brought his circus down to Sarasota in 1927, the area has become an arts and culture destination. From visually arresting exhibitions at Sarasota Art Museum and The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art to contemporary theater, world-class dance and every variety of classical, chamber and orchestral music, SRQ Magazine gives you the inside eye on this season’s best and brightest arts and cultural events. WRITTEN BY DYLAN CAMPBELL AND MALLORY EVANS.

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contents october 2026

73 ELITE REAL ESTATE AGENTS 83 HOME OF THE YEAR WINNERS SHOWCASE WINNING PROJECTS FROM THE 2026 COMPETITION 103 IN CONVERSATION: INNOVATION IN PHILANTHROPY MANATEE COMMUNITY FOUNDATION AND PEACE RIVER BOTANICAL & SCULPTURE GARDENS 113 BEST OF SRQ LOCAL WINNERS SHOWCASE TRIBUTE TO THE WINNERS

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Mission Green founder Dr. Meg Lowman inspires the next generation of tree conservationists. Renowned architect Lawrence Scarpa’s artistic side shines in an exhibition at Architecture Sarasota. Once a beloved local trailer, The Daily Brew Station is now a popular Palmetto coffee shop. Musician Steve Arvey shares the unique cigar box guitar sound. SCF, Manatee-Sarasota baseball alum Michael Forret is making waves. SPAACES Gallery studio artist Marina Abdo Alcantara weaves pieces of her past and present into her art. South Lido Key played host to the latest Summer Olympic sport this past June. Lauren Marshall paints in her Siesta Key treehouse studio. Nathan Bender-

son Park hosted the USRowing Youth National Championships. Florida-based rider Kevin Kohmann is one of the top names in the sport of dressage.

interview with 36

Ringling College Presidents past and present sit down with SRQ Magazine to discuss the institution’s role in the community.

cargo 79 Fall is in the air.

forage 98

Alma de España brings Spanish favorites to the Hillview District. Reopening the iconic El Greco was a family affair. Sarasota’s matcha moment. Inside Bradenton’s round-the-clock kava club.

wellness 109

Peptides have become one of the fastest-growing trends.

giving coast 106

Benjamin Hanan enjoys making connections that help others.

This page, clockwise: Salmon Bowl from El Greco Kitchen and Market, photo by

Wes Roberts. Ringling College of Art and Design’s Outgoing President Dr. Larry Thompson and Incoming Presdent Dr. Davis Schneiderman, photo by Wyatt Kostygan. US Rowing Youth National Championship, photo by Daniel Wagner.

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OCTOBER 2026 CEO / PRESIDENT / EDITOR IN CHIEF

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STORIES ABOUT THE LOCAL PEOPLE, PLACES AND EXPERIENCES THAT DEFINE OUR HOMETOWN Below: Dr. Meg Lowman created the first treetop walkway in North America at Sarasota's Myakka River State Park. canopymeg.com

SEEING THE WORLD FROM ABOVE Mission Green Founder Dr. Meg Lowman Inspires the Next Generation of Tree Conservationists. Mallory Evans

AS A SHY KID WHO LOVED TO PLAY OUTDOORS, DR. MARGARET (MEG) LOWMAN ALWAYS CONSIDERED HERSELF TO BE A “CAPITAL NERD."

“I just started loving trees; trees don’t bully you and don’t talk back,” Lowman says. “I was also told that girls could never become scientists in my generation, but I kept on pushing.” One day during her time at Williams College in Massachusetts, Lowman realized she wanted to study trees in the college forest. She later received a scholarship to study and research in Australia, where she earned her Ph.D. in Botany at Sydney University. Her time abroad led her to create the world’s first canopy walkway in 1985 in Queensland so people could safely explore life in the treetops, which is considered the eighth continent.

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“Research over the last 40 years reveals that 50% of the land-based plants, insects and animals live in the treetops,” Lowman says. She created the TREE Foundation in 1999 as a non-profit dedicated to the acronym’s principles of tree research, education and exploration. Lowman says she wants to inspire the next generation of researchers and environmentalists— and for kids to feel excited when studying different species from the canopies. The first of these treetop walkways she created in North America was at the Myakka River State Park in Sarasota in 2000. Recently celebrating its 25th anniversary, the Myakka walkway has collected about $30 million in revenue from general visitorship and attracted up to half a million people before the COVID-19 Pandemic. “We just fundraised and gave a renovation to the Myakka walkway,” Lowman says. All of the hardware was redone—if needed—and boards were stained. She says updates on signage around the walkway are currently underway. “Then it dawned on me: what about some of the poorer countries—Ethiopia, Madagascar—who can’t afford tree conservation?” Meg asked. “So we created a nonprofit to help fundraise to save the forests in places that don’t have enough income to give to tree conservation.” Mission Green was launched from this dream in 2020 to help fund and build canopy walkways in the 10 most endangered forests in the world. Lowman’s mission is to conserve endangered forests that are home to rich biodiversity, and she also wants to provide indigenous communities with sustainable economic opportunities. Currently, Mission Green has funded five canopy walkways around the world: Amazonian Peru (1994), Florida’s Myakka River State Park (2000), The Habitat Pinang Hill in Malaysia (2017), Vermont Institute of Natural Science (2019) and Sequoia Park Zoo in Eureka, California (2021). “It’s a global issue—children’s health and welfare— and Mission Green was born out of the Myakka walkway with how ecotourism can give kids health and opportunities,” Lowman says. Plans for other canopy walkway locations include Madagascar, Brazil, India, Bhutan, New York’s Tanglewood Nature Preserve, North Carolina’s Great Smoky Mountains and Mozambique. “We’re amazed that we’ve made a lot of progress, and now we’re going to do the next five,” Lowman says. “India is underway, and also the Great Smoky Mountains—one with the Cherokee Nation and one with the national parks.” Mission Green also helps provide books and backpacks to children who live in the Amazon, and the non-profit trains young girls in villages to be ecotourist guides. “My ultimate goal is to bring kids into nature using the walkway as an inspiration for other programs to get kids outdoors,” Lowman says. SRQ srq magazine_ OCT26 live local | 15

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Below, left to right: The Dreamer” and “Asilomar” by Lawrence Scarpa.

THE BUILDER AND THE PAINTBRUSH Renowned architect Lawrence Scarpa’s artistic side shines in an exhibition at Architecture Sarasota. Dylan Campbell

LAWRENCE SCARPA HAS TWO JOBS. By day he is an award-winning architect, co-founder of the multi-disciplinary firm Brooks Scarpa Huber, operating on the forefront of modernist and green design. By night—or more accurately, very early morning—however, he is an artist, specializing in painting and sculpture. Scarpa’s works range from abstract watercolors to gargantuan public works such as the Florida Holocaust Memorial. His art has made its way to Architecture Sarasota, where his latest exhibition Wide Open: Paintings and Construction by Lawrence Scarpa, is on view until October 1. The wide-ranging collection of landscapes and abstract collages in Wide Open evidence a methodology that Scarpa works from within his artistic practice. “I tend to make things that I know are there than what I actually see,” says Scarpa. “It’s like when you close your eyes and think of someplace special to you—you can see it in your head like it was yesterday—but when you go there it never looks like you remembered it. I try to capture the spirit of a place and leave something behind for the viewer that evokes a more powerful emotion than just visual pleasure.” In both his art and architectural practice, Scarpa is not tied down to one medium or stylistic choice. Watercolor makes up much of the work, but the pieces in Wide Open also include drawings with graphite and paintings with oil as well. “I’m not pure in the sense of using a single medium. Some paintings will include a combination of watercolors, acrylic, tempera and even oil stick,” says Scarpa. “Watercolors are transparent to a degree, so when you layer them, you see one on top of the other—I find that revealing of the strokes you’ve painted quite interesting.” Although Scarpa has been creating art his entire life, his painting began in earnest while studying in Italy. In lieu of payment, he paid off his meal tab to a local restaurateur in paintings—the concept caught on and Scarpa hasn’t put the brush down ever since. For Scarpa, the work is an extension of his mind—disappearing into his studio, a converted four-car garage—is where ideas blossom, extending from painting to blueprint and back again. “It would be kind of hard for me to be someone else,” says Scarpa. “It’s interesting, too—I always thought that since I trained as an architect, I’d paint like an architect, but I don’t at all. I even try to be that way sometimes and I just can’t do it.” SRQ 16 | srq magazine_ OCT26 live local

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IMAGE COURTESY OF LAWRENCE SCARPA.

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MOTHER DAUGHTER DREAM TEAM Once a popular local trailer, The Daily Brew Station is now a popular Palmetto coffee shop. Barbie Heit

Below: Motherdaughter duo Autumn Stosick and Kaliya Taylor built their coffee business from a small trailer to a Palmetto brick and mortar location, with an emphasis on creative drinks and fresh eats. 551 17th St W, Palmetto, 941417-2060

FOR MANY PEOPLE, FINDING A CAREER PATH TAKES YEARS—EVEN AFTER COLLEGE. Kaliya Taylor, however, had a clear vision from a young age. When she was just 14 years old, she already knew she wanted to open a coffee shop of her own. “She came to me with colored pencils and gel pens and had a whole business plan at age 14,” explains her mom Autumn Stosick. “When she was 20, we got a mobile trailer and put her plan into work, selling coffee and breakfast items throughout Sarasota and Manatee County.” The trailer quickly built a loyal following and became a local favorite. Today, 21-year-old Kaliya and Autumn, who moved to Lakewood Ranch from Maryland a few years ago, continue to serve freshly roasted coffee, specialty drinks, fresh breakfast treats and some lunch items from their brick-and-mortar shop, The Daily Brew Station, in Palmetto, which opened in May. Every day, the shop seems to get busier through word of mouth and TikTok, according to Autumn. “Earlier today, there were some ladies who stopped in on their way to the outlets and found us with our five-star reviews,” she says. “We just keep getting busier. I definitely see us growing and expanding in the future.” Dividing responsibilities is effortless for this mother-daughter duo. Drawing from her previous experience at Starbucks, Kaliya manages the coffee program, using beans sourced from Banyan Coffee Co. She notes that the cinnamon roll latte and s'mores latte are probably the most popular drinks. Autumn handles the food preparation, crafting dishes with fresh eggs, Jersey Bagels and Boar's Head meats and cheeses, as well as her signature mini pancakes, which she enjoys cooking in front of customers. “We try to keep everything in-house and fresh as much as possible,” Kaliya says. “All of our food and drinks are made to order.” Although the shop is small, it offers free Wi-Fi for anyone looking to work from there. Looking ahead, Autumn and Kaliya hope to expand within the next year or two, with plans already in the works to host community fundraisers and local events. SRQ 18 | srq magazine_ OCTT26 live local

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PHOTOGRAPHY BY ALEX ALFARO.

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Below: From Sarasota and Bradenton to Scotland and Australia, Steve Arvey plays at cigar box guitar festivals throughout the world. 941-405-8071, stevearvey@aol.com

MAKING BLUES HOMEMADE Musician Steve Arvey shares the unique cigar box guitar sound across Florida—and the world. Mallory Evans

IN THE ’90S, STEVE ARVEY HEARD CHICAGO BLUES MUSICIAN MICROWAVE DAVE play a cigar box guitar and became captivated by the instrument’s snappy, metallic sound. Decades later, Arvey is showcasing this guitar and its techniques not only in Florida, but across the globe. The Chicago native’s musical roots run deep, as Arvey’s jazz-loving father met his mother at a jazz club in Chicago where she was a singer. Arvey began exploring blues music in high school and was heavily influenced by Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf. When Arvey moved to Florida in 1978, he played bass with Bo Diddley and accompanied saxophonist Robert Hunter, before pursuing solo projects with cigar box guitars. While Arvey describes his primary instrument as “a poor man’s guitar,” he says it opens the door for new musical phrasing and distinct melodies. “You make your own guitar instead of a rounded body that takes a lot more work,” he says. These guitars originated in the late 1800s through trade between Cuba and New Orleans to seek out cheaper instruments, Arvey says. Cubans produced guitars made with old cigar boxes for resonators, and Gulf Coast trade prompted deep influences in blues and folk music. “It’s more like a natural, farm-to-table thing—a movement of homemade instruments from all over the world,” Arvey says. He plays a wide variety of music and style on these guitars, citing their unique sound and ability to compose creative melodies with just three strings. Arvey has participated in the Sarasota Cigar Box Guitar Festival for the past 10 years and established Bradenton Cigar Box Guitar Festival in 2018. “You have these builders that follow these bands and events, and they set up their booths,” he says, highlighting the dedicated community work that contributes to successful festivals and turnouts. Aside from the Sarasota Blues Festival, Arvey plays at events all over the world, such as the Dutch Cigar Box Guitar Festival, Swiss Alps Cigar Box Guitar Festival, Edinburgh Fringe Festival and Melbourne Blues Festival. This June, Arvey played concerts in the Czech Republic, Germany and Switzerland as part of his Blues Across Europe tour. While in many small European towns, Arvey says a commonality is how everyone loves hearing and playing American music. “Everybody sings along, and it’s something we take for granted here in the United States,” he says. Arvey would like to see more musicians playing cigar box guitars and that there are ample opportunities across the globe for this type of music. He says although there’s a large niche in Sarasota of mostly cover bands and listeners who want to hear the same songs, Florida’s receptiveness to music encourages a new wave of sound. For example, Arvey brought in blues-rock singer Ghalia Volt from Belgium to Sarasota last year, and she now tours across the U.S. “I’m very happy with how things have played out over the last ten years in Sarasota and Bradenton with the cigar box guitar community,” he says. SRQ

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Below: Michael Forret on the mound for the Durham Bulls, the Triple-A affiliate of the Tampa Bay Rays.

BAYSHORE TO BIG LEAGUES SCF, Manatee-Sarasota baseball alum Michael Forret is making waves as a top prospect in the Tampa Bay Rays organization. Dylan Campbell

THE PERCENTAGE OF CHILDREN WHO WRITE PROFESSIONAL BASEBALL PLAYER ON A PIECE OF PAPER when asked what they want to be when

they grow up is high. The percentage of those who reach that point, however, is not. Michael Forret is one of those select few. This past summer, the 22-year-old right-handed pitcher made waves when he was acquired by the Tampa Bay Rays organization from the Baltimore Orioles as part of a deal for star pitcher Shane Baz. This August, Forret, originally from Matthews, North Carolina, was traded back to the Orioles organization in exchange for right-handed pitcher Tyler Wells. “He had originally signed with East Carolina University,” says Tim Hill II, Head Coach of the State College of Florida, Manatee-Sarasota baseball program (SCF). “When he didn’t get drafted out of high school, he started looking for some junior college options. Michael came down here, was a pretty good pitcher—we enjoyed having him here, he was a good teammate and a good kid from a good family.” Forret played with SCF in the 2023 season with one goal—to get drafted by an MLB organization. In his lone season with the Manatees, Forret helped lead SCF to Suncoast Conference title and a state final four. As a starting pitcher, his 10-3 record with 106 strikeouts and just 18 walks across 86.1 innings pitched was good enough to be named the 2023 Citrus Conference Pitcher of the Year, the 2023 Florida JUCO Pitcher of the Year and a 2023 NJCAA Third Team All-American. His performance was also good enough to achieve his goal—the Orioles selected him with the 421st overall pick in the 14th round of the 2023 MLB Draft. “He was very confident in his abilities. He not only just threw strikes, but could put most of his pitches where he wanted to,” says Hill II. “He was probably sitting 91-93mph with his fastball with us—he’s ticked up a little bit since then—but the change-up was plus and he had a good breaking ball. With his competitiveness, command and confidence, he was quite successful and that’s what made the Orioles want to give him some money.” In the realm of SCF, Manatee-Sarasota baseball, Forret’s journey, while impressive, does not stand alone. Players such as Forret often come to junior colleges such as SCF, Manatee-Sarasota because of a quicker pathway to professional baseball. At a four-year college, players are only eligible once they’ve turned 21 years old or after completing their junior year. Over the last 60 years, SCF, Manatee-Sarasota has become one of the most established pipelines to professional baseball, with over 240 alumni playing professionally. In the 2025 World Series, former Manatee pitchers Brendon Little and Justin Wrobleski squared off against each other for the Toronto Blue Jays and Los Angeles Dodgers, respectively. For Forret in particular, Hill II credits his work ethic and demeanor as key factors to his success. “He gave you a really good chance to win every time he was on the mound,” says Hill II. “He gave you everything that he had. If I could do it all over again, I’d take a thousand Michael Forret’s every time. We’re very proud of him.” SRQ 22 | srq magazine_ OCT26 live local

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PHOTOGRAPHY BY SEAN PHILLIPS.

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Below: Marina Abdo Alcantara uses her “semi-nomadic” upbringing to infuse her artwork with a sense of place and belonging. Marina Abdo Alcantara, Studio Artist at SPAACES Gallery, 2051 Princeton St, Sarasota

NOMADIC SOUL

SPAACES Gallery studio artist Marina Abdo Alcantara weaves pieces of her past and present into her art. Dylan Campbell

WHEN MARINA ABDO ALCANTARA GOES FOR A WALK, it’s never just to get outside or to up her step count on that given day. For the studio artist at SPAACES Gallery in Sarasota, a walk around her neighborhood is evocative of her somewhat “nomadic” upbringing and eclectic practice. “I’m half-American, half-Brazilian, but grew up between Sao Paulo, Columbia and Buenos Aires until I graduated high school in the States,” says Alcantara. “I studied art at college in the U.S. and have bounced around a lot here, so I feel that I’ve lived this nomadic life—it’s a big part of the art that I make. I work with found objects and have been collecting things since I was a little girl; I always bring these materials into my work as a way of not only orienting myself in a new space, but also incorporating the other places that have shaped who I am as a person.” For Alcantara, an interdisciplinary conceptual artist, those materials and mediums can range from needle felting and ceramic sculpture to threading wire through bits of glass, steel and discarded objects. In Refugio: Matriarca de Barro (2026), which translates to Refuge: Clay Matriarch, Alcantara recreated the nest of the joão-de-barro bird of Brazil, a rust-brown bird infamous for its oven-shaped nests formed from mud, dung, clay and straw. In Refugio, the nest is cracked open and populated with tiny lights and hanging ornaments, and the outside is ringed with leaves that seem to swirl in motion. Holes permeate the nest, a nod to the insects found in the real life nests of the birds. “I wanted the piece to feel as if it was alive in a way, with lampshades and chandeliers made from seeds and flowers inside the nest,” says Alcantara. “I actually needle felted the nest underneath the egg out of my own hair—it’s meant to tie into this idea of nature, of nourishment and how these delicate beginning stages of life are critical to our long term development.” At SPAACES Gallery, Alcantara is taking full advantage of her studio space to create a stained glass work centered around the Afro-Brazilian goddess Yemanja. Yemanja, who symbolizes the ocean, fertility and family, is celebrated through the use of a decorated marble sink—which Alcantara found on one of her walks—and the incorporation of a stained glass mirror. “I wanted the piece to be a quiet reflection on the ways that we nurture ourselves. So I had the thought of making a mirror to go on top of the sink, and I’ll run water through the sink so that people can wash their faces, their hands and look at themselves in the mirror,” says Alcantara. “Yemanja has these symbols that pertain to her—a crane, a specific type of fish and a certain flower—the design of the mirror shows a wave becoming a crane and then the crane grabbing a fish from the wave, giving itself the nourishment that it needs.” SRQ 24 | srq magazine_ OCT26 live local

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Below: Athletes compete in the US Rowing National Team Speed Orders and US Rowing Beach Sprint National Championships at South Lido Key.

NOT YOUR REGULAR ROWER

South Lido Key played host to the latest Summer Olympic sport this past June. Dylan Campbell ON THE SURFACE, CHRISTOPHER BAK LOOKS LIKE A REGULAR GUY. Part of it is his stature—at six feet tall and a tick under 200 pounds, he’s muscular, but not massive—his frame hidden by an oversized swim shirt. Another part is his demeanor—relaxed and affable, one would be hard pressed to assume that Bak had just competed for his athletic career hours prior. And yet, he had. On June 17, Bak was stationed at South Lido Key for the US Rowing Beach Sprint National Team Speed Orders. Bak is, by all measurements, the most decorated athlete in the history of beach sprint rowing. A five-time National Team member and four-time Beach Sprint World Champion, Bak had just competed for a chance to go to selection camp for the national team. In typical fashion, he blew the competition out of the water. After the Speed Orders, however, was the US Rowing Beach Sprint Youth National Championships. Set to debut in the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, Beach Sprint Rowing is a dynamic, short-form discipline of coastal rowing. A 500-meter total race, rowers start on land, sprinting out to the water and jumping into a modified skull, before slaloming 250 meters out around buoys and rowing back to shore. Once back on land, each rower sprints from their skull to the finish line. A former lightweight flatwater rower, Bak attests that adaptability is the key to success in Beach Sprints. “Staying flexible and staying dynamic are the two key points,” he says. “In flat water, you try to find the perfect stroke. In coastal rowing, you try to find the stroke that’s good enough to keep the boat moving forward.” What differentiates beach sprints from flatwater rowing is more than just the style of the sport itself. The entire atmosphere of a beach sprint competition is more laid back than that of a traditional regatta. Think X Games skateboarding final as opposed to a track meet. “What I love about it, aside from the format and intensity, is the camaraderie of the athletes,” says Bak. SRQ

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Below: Lauren Marshall at home in her Coconut Treehouse Studio; Marshall’s paintings are full of life, drawn from the environment that she lives in. Lauren Marshall Fine Art and Design, laurenmarshallfineart.com

COASTAL CREATIVITY

Lauren Marshall paints in her distinctive coastal impressionism style from her Siesta Key treehouse studio. Dylan Campbell

AS FAR AS STUDIO SPACES GO, LAUREN MARSHALL’S IS ABOUT AS GOOD AS IT GETS. In her family’s historic home just over Siesta Key North

Bridge, you can find Marshall in her Coconut Treehouse Studio—an airy extension of their house, where the coastal breeze flutters in through shuttered windows and domestic life with her husband and two sons can be sequestered with the slide of a screen door. This is where Marshall, a proud alum of the Ringling College of Art and Design, spends her mornings and as much of her days as she can before her blissfully hectic domestic life pulls her back in. Specializing in “coastal impressionism,” Marshall’s painting unabashedly incorporates who she is and where she comes from. This June, in celebration of the semiquincentennial, Marshall launched her 250 Americana Collection. Abstract takes on American flags, still lifes and vignettes—like To The Ocean’s White With Foam—populate the collection, coalescing Marshall’s colorful palette and unique style with her love for her country. “I’ve had members of my family serve in every war going back to the American Revolution,” says Marshall. “I have immediate family members that still serve today. Our favorite family holiday growing up was always the Fourth of July. I knew that I loved this patriotic theme and that this collection was something in my heart that I needed to share.” Marshall believes that her coastal impressionistic style, in which the environment in which she lives blends with the fine art technique of impressionism, stems partially from her childhood in Kansas. “The entire impressionistic movement was about pushing back against the establishment and the elite upper class. As an artist coming from a small farm town in Kansas, what resonated with me was this concept that although I didn’t grow up around fine art or fancy museums, I still could make something beautiful and had something to say,” she says. Marshall’s work can be seen elsewhere around Sarasota, including at the St. Regis Longboat Key Resort. Based on her painting, The Sarasota Girls, Marshall was commissioned to create The Matriarchs, a depiction of seven, trailblazing Sarasota women: Mable Ringling, Marie Selby, Caroline Astor, Lora Whitney, Eugenie Clark and Katherine Klauber. The Sarasota Girls, which depicts Clark, Ringling, Selby and Bertha Palmer, remains one of Marshall’s favorite works, and helped kickstart her fine art career three years ago. “There was a call for art from the local nonprofit Halo Arts and the theme was pushing limits. I thought of the women that founded Sarasota and were here first, and how they pushed limits of what women were expected to do at the time,” says Marshall. “I asked four of my good friends to dress up in costume and pose on Siesta Key Beach at sunset—I thought that this might be only something I cared about or found inspiring, but it turned out that every other female in the tri-county area did as well.” SRQ 28 | srq magazine_ OCT26 live local

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PHOTOGRAPHY BY WES ROBERTS.

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Below: Members of Sarasota Crew pull with all their might at the US Rowing Youth National Championships at Nathan Benderson Park this past June.

THE LONG PULL

For the ninth year, Nathan Benderson Park hosted the USRowing Youth National Championships. Dylan Campbell THERE IS A FEELING WHEN ROWING ALONGSIDE CREW MATES IN A SCULL THAT CAN ONLY TRULY BE EXPERIENCED TO BE APPRECIATED.

It’s the feeling that every crew aims for every time they take the water, a feeling not necessarily of weightlessness, but of perfect synchronization. It is most similar to that of a motorcycle in a slipstream or an engine slipping into gear, when water feels more like a frictionless surface to glide upon than something to cut through. “When everyone is synchronized and pressing at the same time, the boat just feels so good,” says Tyler Kumar, the two-seat of Sarasota Crew’s U17 quadruple scull. “It’s one of the best feelings that I’ve ever felt.” Kumar and his crewmates Ryan Begala, Nicholas Abellana and Domonic Barnes were just some of the dozens of athletes representing Sarasota Crew at the US Rowing Youth National Championships, held at Nathan Benderson Park from June 11-14. The event, held for the ninth year at Nathan Benderson Park, had over 4,000 more athletes from around the country fighting for glory. Fighting, tooth and nail, to get that same feeling on the smooth, flat water of the park’s 400-acre lake. Age classification was divided into three categories—U20, U17 and U16—with the U20 being the most elite. “This championship is the biggest youth rowing event in the country,” says Sarah McAuliffe, Chief Program Officer for USRowing. “This is the culmination of all of these athletes’ high school careers. They qualify for the National Championships through 12 different regional championships—the fastest youth rowers in the country are competing here.” For the athletes, Nathan Benderson Park provided an unparalleled venue to test their mettle. The lake itself is designed specifically for events just like this, with the water unperturbed by current or wake and visibility bountiful from the surrounding beach and watch tower. Vendors, by the dozen, packed in along the shoreline. For the athletes, the moment could not possibly have been any bigger. “Not only does Sarasota have the premier rowing venue in the country, Nathan Benderson Park is a top three destination in the world,” says McAuliffe. “Many of the athletes competing here will move on and row for collegiate teams as well as be on future high performance teams. We’ll see a lot of these athletes, maybe not at the 2028 Olympics, but the 2032 Brisbane Olympics.” SRQ 30 | srq magazine_ OCT26 live local

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cameo

IN THE SADDLE

Below: Kevin Kohmann competing at TerraNova Equestrian Center in May. Photography by Jessica Buehler Photography.

Florida-based rider Kevin Kohmann is one of the top names in the sport of dressage. Dylan Campbell THE EQUESTRIAN SPORT OF DRESSAGE IS ONE OF POWER, FINESSE AND HARMONY. Evolved from military training in ancient Greece, dressage is a form of horse riding that emphasizes mastery over the horse. In this world, Kevin Kohmann stands alone. Born and raised in Germany, Kohmann emigrated to the United States at 18 to train alongside elite riders. In 2014, Kohmann joined Diamante Farms in Wellington, Florida, as a rider and trainer. Since then, Kohmann has proved to be one of the top riders in the sport, representing both Germany and the United States in FEI Nations Cups and competing in the FEI World Cup Grand Prix Freestyle. On May 2, Kohmann competed at TerraNova Equestrian Center in Myakka City, where he topped the leaderboard in the B&D Builders LLC CDI3* Grand Prix Freestyle. Kohmann sat down with SRQ Magazine to discuss his career, the sport of dressage and his relationship with animals.

SRQ: Where did this all begin for you? kevin kohmann My mother always had horses and is still breeding them today. I started riding as a young child, when I was 12 years old, and when I was 15 I began riding professionally. In Germany, regardless of what career you choose, whether you want to become a hairdresser or car mechanic or horse rider, you first have to work for a master for three years and then you get something equivalent to a bachelor’s degree. 32 | srq magazine_ OCT26 live local

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I became the youngest professional rider in Germany with a degree and in 2006, at the World Equestrian Games in Aachen, Germany, I met somebody who said to me, “Hey, do you want a job in America?” I said, “Sure, I don’t speak any English, but I’ll come over.” After my first three years in the United States, I went back to Germany to get my master’s degree and became the youngest master in Germany. A master’s degree gives you a very well-rounded education—

everything from dressage to jumping to how to build a farm, horse anatomy and psychology and coaching. In 2014, I started my own business and immediately ran it out of Diamante Farms. I ended up marrying Devon Kane, who owns the farm, and also is a professional rider. This industry and all that it entails, is for crazy people. You kind of need to have somebody in the industry—nobody else will understand what it takes. Since then, I’ve competed in the Nations Cup for Europe, for IMAGERY COURTESY OF KEVIN KOHMANN.

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Below: Kohmann credits his relationship with the horse as a key factor to his success, photography by Jessica Buehler Photography.

Germany and for the United States, all over the world. I’ve represented the United States three times in the (FEI) World Cup, which is the top 16 riders in the world competing against each other in a musical freestyle competition.

What does it mean for you to compete at the highest level of the sport? It was always a dream to compete at that level, but it seemed unreachable until I got this one amazing horse. My wife bought this horse when he was three years old and he was supposed to be for her, but he just kept growing and growing. We actually tried to sell the horse, but couldn’t. We called him Denzel. His real name is Dünensee. I took the horse back, competed with him and immediately clicked. We went from a new partnership to World Cup finals within a year.

What does a day of competition look like? It starts by loading your horse and all of the equipment onto the trailer, shipping the horse to the show and setting up the horse’s stall. Normally, you arrive a day before the competition starts. We have a tech room with all of our equipment, including horse food and saddles. Then you have a jog, where you trot the horse in-hand and judges and veterinarians look at the horse and determine if it’s fit to compete. The first day is the Grand Prix test, which is a standardized test, and then people split—some go to the Grand Prix Special and some to the Grand Prix Freestyle. They are two separate classes and competing in them depends on what 34 | srq magazine_ OCT26 live local

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your goal is. For example, at TerraNova, for me to be eligible to go to Europe and qualify for the World Equestrian Games, I needed three Grand Prix scores and one Grand Prix Special score.

What are the parts of competing that the spectator might not factor into it? How much goes into it. The best rides that you’ve ever seen look very easy, and to make it look easy, it took a lot of time. I know that from the moment a horse is born, so many things can go wrong along the way. To make it to the Grand Prix is a huge accomplishment and to make it to the World Cup finals is insane—only so many people from around the world are going to this competition. To reach that point, you depend heavily on a team—between me and my wife, the farrier, the veterinarian, the massage therapists—so much goes into it. Everybody just sees me in the ring as an individual with my horse, but it’s the teamwork that makes the performance look so easy.

What kind of relationship do you need to have with a horse to be successful in dressage? Because I’ve been working with horses all my life, I’ve had to learn not to get too attached to them. There are lots of times when you have a client’s horse—you don’t own the horse— and the horse is taken away from you, for all sorts of reasons. In the beginning, I try not to get too attached to most horses, but once you start traveling with an animal, even just to a local horse show, you need to establish a certain amount of trust. The

horse needs to trust you. It starts with walking the horse onto a trailer—good luck trying to make a three year old horse trust you enough to walk onto a trailer. These are just the baby steps, however. I’ve traveled so much with my one horse now that after the last World Cup finals, I gave him a month off. The other day, I got on him bareback and rode him out to his paddock. My wife was very concerned about that; she thought he was going to buck me off, but I said, “no, I trust my friend.” He felt that I trusted him not to kill me. That’s the kind of trust you need to have. Everything about dressage was created and based on warfare. Every movement that you do in dressage came out of warfare—when you had to maneuver in battle, you had to move sideways, you had to move from one canter to the other, you had to do pirouettes to spin and find people in different locations—so it began from there, and then when tanks came around, dressage became a royalty sport. Since the sport came from the military, everything about it was very rough and tough, but if the animal doesn’t trust you, then you will never ride a great test. All of the top riders in the sport have learned that and now have started to pay more attention into creating a great partnership with the horse. You can’t do this successfully without that partnership. I’ve always loved horses, but it was this one animal that showed me the way and changed how I am with other horses. I’ve started giving animals a lot more chances, there are lots of horses that are just misunderstood. SRQ

IMAGERY COURTESY OF KEVIN KOHMANN.

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CHANGING OF THE GUARD

Ringling College Presidents Past and Present sat down with SRQ Magazine to discuss the institution’s role in the community and the world. Dylan Campbell AS ONE ERA ENDS, ANOTHER IS SET TO BEGIN. On January 23, the Ringling College of Art and Design announced that Davis Schneiderman, Ph.D., would become the institution’s seventh president. Dr. Schneiderman came to Ringling from Forest College, a nationally-ranked private liberal arts college in Lake Forest, Illinois, where he served in senior leadership for 10 years, including as Provost and Dean of Faculty from 2018 to 2023. Dr. Schneiderman, who assumed office on June 1, represents Ringling College in its current identity as one of the top art and design colleges in the world. He brings a background forged in higher education, working at the nexus of interdisciplinary innovation, artificial intelligence and technology ethics in creative education. What Ringling College intends to build upon, in appointing Dr. Schneiderman, is the legacy created during former president Dr. Larry R. Thompson’s 27-year tenure. Under Dr. Thompson, Ringling College went from a minute, yet locally revered arts school, to an internationally recognized college of art and design. Moreover, Ringling College became in itself an attractor to Sarasota—from its heralded academic programs to professional opportunities to economic drivers, such as the Sarasota Art Museum. SRQ Magazine sat down with Dr. Schneiderman and Dr. Thompson to gauge their perspectives on what Ringling College means to them, its place in the Sarasota community and how to set the institution up for another century of success. SRQ: Dr. Thompson, in a tenure that saw you grow Ringling College from a small arts school to an internationally recognized institution, what are you most proud of? dr. larry r. thompson There are so many things, but to witness the college becoming what it was meant to be—that's probably the biggest accomplishment, and that involves a lot of different areas. Our vision is to become the preeminent art and design college in the world, and that vision is becoming a real reality. Before when people talked about Ringling College, they would say, “Is that like The Ringling Museum?”, they would have no idea what it was, but now they all know it. It has become one of the very top art and design colleges in the world.

What was it about Ringling College that made you believe in it as an agent for change in Sarasota? dr. thompson It was after I’d been here for a few years. One of the things that I kept thinking about was this was an institution with these really passionate students, and the faculty were passionate about what they did, and so what dawned on me is that I know from my past expe-

rience as a leader, I'm going to have to raise a lot of money. For the college, the president's big job is raising money, and I thought, how am I going to do that? Almost all colleges raise money from their alumni. At that time we didn't have very many wealthy alumni—they had jobs working within the entertainment industry and such, but not the kind of money that you needed to make a big difference. I then looked to the community, and tried to think of how I can make this college the thing that everybody wants to pour themselves into? So that the Sarasota community thought of themselves as affiliated with the college, which was a whole other fundraising strategy from the way most colleges operate.

How did you go about doing that? dr. thompson By finding ways to have the community connect with the students and with what was happening here. I did so many tours of the college at that time, I’d take these people from the community to show them what we did and how it was different from most colleges that they were probably familiar with.

Above: Former Ringling College of Art and Design president Dr. Larry R. Thompson walks through the campus he helped create with current president Dr. Davis Schneiderman.

Under your tenure, Ringling College embraced the idea of “the computer being the

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next paintbrush.” What did that mean for the college then, and what does it mean now in 2026? dr. thompson We were the early adopters of technology. The animation program was here when I came. It was in a dingy, ugly building, but regardless, we were at the forefront of the computer becoming the next paintbrush and that’s exactly what has happened. Now it's all digital. We still have the fine arts and painting and the other disciplines—you’ve got to have that ability. There’s a reason why you primarily take classes in art making in your first year. However, it’s all about using that then when you're going to go into any field that involves the computer. PHOTOGRAPHY BY WYATT KOSTYGAN.

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It’s similar with AI—AI is the kind of thing that many people are afraid of. There were people back in the day who were afraid of computers taking away their jobs in respect to being artists and that’s the big concern that artists have in general with AI. Our own students are also very concerned about the use of it. Things change over time, and you have to be out in front of it. Now, we're one of the colleges that's at the forefront of what's happening with AI. We’re not doing it in huge steps, but in a very measured sense, because we know that students are going to have to be able to use it in their future careers.

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Dr. Schneiderman, at Lake Forest College, you worked and taught at the nexus of Artificial Intelligence and education. How do you see the role of AI evolving in creative education at Ringling College? dr. davis schneiderman It's a fraught issue, it is controversial. You don't have to read very many headlines to see the backlash to data centers, so there are real environmental questions. But when people talk about artificial intelligence, are they talking about ChatGPT, are they talking about their GPS? Are they talking about facial recognition technology? The word AI means many different things like the word love means many different things. So I start by disaggregating, and I don't think all AI is bad or all AI is good because those are extreme positions that don't separate what you're actually talking about. For some creative professions, like our graphic design folks, they may be using AI to help iterate and design concepts, not to do the work itself. Computer animators are rightfully more skeptical because they don't want to prompt a movie into existence. They want to make a movie into an existence. I don't think there is one answer. I think the answer is very domain specific, and I always say to students: if you want to hate it, you should learn how to hate it more effectively, and if you want to use it, you should learn how to use it more ethically. It is not a one size fits all, and as the social norms around it change over time, an agile artistic mind can help change with those times. You have to decide if you're using the technology or if the technology is using you. However, there are ways to come up with frameworks of use. Our faculty member Rick Deacon here is a great person for coming up with the 4d fluency framework and has been in partnership with Anthropic and other places to help us figure out how to be ethical users, critical users of a technology that is not going anywhere.

How has the definition of a successful art and design education changed since you first entered academia? How is it defined at Ringling College? dr. schneiderman The history of art and design colleges is like a completely fascinating topic that goes back hundreds of years. Even the programs that Ringling College had in 1931 are not the same programs that we have today. There was no computer animation back in the 1930s. So one of the things that an art and design school needs to do is to be true to what motivated and animated its founding, while being unafraid to be agile and adaptable to new technologies, whether that's artificial intelligence or other things of that nature. If you have no past, you have no future. And if you only live in the past, you also have no future. Understanding where we came from and thinking about what's important to us is the best way to go forward. For artists who come here, often they have the passion. We can help fan the flames of that passion, but by the time they get to us, they're people who know what they want to do. We need to make sure that they come out as professionals. We take your artistic passion and teach you how to make a living with it in the world. 38 | srq magazine_ OCT26 live local

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What do you see as Ringling College’s greatest opportunity over the next decade? dr. schneiderman Ringling College is in year 95, and that's an astounding legacy to build upon. So much of our success in so many different areas comes from all the people who've contributed to that legacy. I think that Dr. Thompson's vision for Ringling College to be the preeminent art and design college in the world is within reach. We have a national and an international reputation, and I believe that my job as president is to build upon that momentum and extend that momentum. There's always room to grow, however. In an increasingly challenging college environment, there are fewer college-going students nationally now than there had been in the past because of the students who weren't born after the 2008 financial crisis. There's a demographic cliff, a birth dearth, so to speak. All colleges are looking to make sure that they can find the students who are best suited, and one of the things I love about Ringling is that it's got a point of view, it's got a perspective. It's not a college that is all things to all people. If you come here, you are working and operating within this band of art and design, and so we want to find you and we want to bring you here. We have to help students and families understand why Ringling compared to one of our competitors, and there are competitor schools, but I think if we were you know to go outside and fight in the parking lot at 3 p.m. Ringling wins, and I want to make sure people know that.

In your tenure as President, what will be the hallmarks of your leadership style? dr. schneiderman I think of colleges as a collective enterprise. I'm not, by nature, a top-down person. I'm a consensus builder, and I seek to find what makes people proud to be here, and to help them grow that pride in the work that we do together. When I'm trying to help determine with the people who work here new directions for things, it is far from a CEO in a boardroom, it is more like a mayor and a council form of government, where you spend a lot of time talking to people and working with them and understanding where they're coming from, what's important to them and then you come up with decisions that have collective buy-in. Because that’s also how people make art. There's a myth that artists operate alone in a silo, in a garret painting, but every painting is the story of how the painting is made. Every book is the story of how the book is made. Lots of people are involved in making a book: printers, publishers, editors, agents. Even if you think well, none of us were born knowing how to paint or knowing how to write, we all learn from other people. So even the solitary myth of the artist is not entirely true. We make art in a community environment, and Ringling is a strong community.

Do you see opportunities for fostering deeper collaboration between Ringling College, local businesses and arts organizations? dr. schneiderman There are a lot of ways that Ringling students work with the community through our INDEX PHOTOGRAPHY BY WYATT KOSTYGAN.

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(Industry Experience) program, which is a way businesses or nonprofits can approach the college to ask for student expertise in their own design projects. Our students have worked at many places: IMG Academy, Planned Parenthood, Art Ovation, the Orioles, Sarasota Police Department, Sarasota African American Cultural Coalition, Smithsonian American Art Institute, the Moffitt Cancer Center, General Motors—not as employees, but they've contributed in some way. We've got students doing internships at Disney. This is separate from all the students who then go on to work for big movie studios—of Oscar-nominated films this year, 66 Ringling alums were involved. The media that is produced to help Americans enjoy art is made in part by Ringling Alums, Ringling Grants. We exist in the Sarasota ecosystem, and do all of those things I just mentioned, and then we bubble out into the larger entertainment industry.

Dr. Thompson, what are you going to miss about being at Ringling College everyday? dr. thompson I'm still in that transition stage. I miss it a lot, because it’s 27 years of solving one problem and then the next, and I’ve got an incredible board of trustees that I’ve worked with. That’s one of the elements of nonprofits, you have a board of trustees that’s usually pretty large and you have to be certain that you get the right people involved. People who are passionate about the institution. So I do miss the excitement, but I’m 78 years old and knew that it was time to retire. I thought that Ringling College may need some new energy and new direction for the future, so while I’m sad about leaving, I’m also happy because I believe that the board selected a great candidate to be the president. SRQ

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new2srq

MAKING SARASOTA STRONG Jeremy Milin. Olivia Fanders

What is your favorite thing about living in Sarasota?? The community and the weather. The people here are just fantastic to be around. I love the community.

Is there anything that surprised you about Sarasota after moving here? The laidback atmosphere. Coming from New Jersey and being in New York City commercial construction for 30 years, everything is so fast-paced. Everything has to be done yesterday. Coming here and everybody being so relaxed was definitely a transition to get used to.

What’s your favorite local spot in Sarasota? Marcello's. It’s phenomenal. I recommend it to everybody who asks.

What’s still on your Sarasota bucket list? I’d like to see more of the sights of Sarasota. I think when you live somewhere, you don’t always take the time to see everything. We haven't had a chance to really take in all the beauty of Sarasota and all the sights that we could see.

Outside of D1, what does a typical day look like? When I’m not in the gym, it’s all family. We like to go out to dinner, get out on a boat if we can and take the kids to sporting events. I’m just being a cheerleader for my kids.

What role did sports play in your life growing up? THREE YEARS AGO, D1 SRQ OWNER AND FORMER PROFESSIONAL SOCCER PLAYER JEREMY MILIN chose Florida’s more laid-back

lifestyle over the fast pace of the tri-state. Raised in Weehawken, New Jersey, Milin spent his childhood immersed in sports. This lifelong passion motivated him to open D1 SRQ, a training facility helping both athletes and everyday people reach their full fitness potential. “Sarasota has given us so much in the last three years,” he says. “If I were going to open a business, I wanted it to be here so my family and I could give back to the community we live in.” 40 | srq magazine_ OCT26 live local

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Sports played a huge role in my life. I played basketball, baseball, and soccer. They helped shape who I am today by giving me discipline, confidence, and helping me grow as a person.

When you were a kid, you dreamed of . . . Being a professional soccer player.

Was there a defining moment that pushed you toward coaching, fitness, or entrepreneurship? Not one specific moment. It goes back to my youth and always being around sports. I'm a licensed U.S. Soccer Federation coach, and I felt there had to be a way to provide affordable workouts for kids and adults. That's what motivated my wife and me to start this business.

What makes Sarasota's athletic community unique? Sarasota is underrated. There are incredible athletes here—some of the best in the country—and the community itself is fantastic.

What’s something people would be surprised to learn about you? I love nature. Our backyard backs up to a cattle ranch, and I love just sitting there staring at the cows and taking it all in. People probably wouldn't expect that.

If you could have dinner with one person? My grandmother.

What is the most spontaneous thing you've ever done? Moving my family to Florida. The decision to move shocked everybody.

If you could instantly become an expert in something, what would it be? Understanding people.

What are you most proud of? My children. When people think of D1 SRQ, what do you hope they think of you as a leader? Inspiring.

If you could describe this chapter of your life in one sentence, what would it be? Incredibly challenging and extremely rewarding.

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SEASON PREVIEW WRITTEN BY DYLAN CAMPBELL+MALLORY EVANS

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From a bird’s eye view, Sarasota and the ensuing suncoast, appears as a beautiful still-life: glittering white sand beaches ring the emerald-lined coastlines. Downtown Sarasota glimmers, a wall of modern glass and steel and historic bungalows and fishing wharfs line the roads from Anna Maria Island down past Siesta Key. But what the bird’s eye view doesn’t show is the cultural history on which this built environment stands. Take a drive down Tamiami Trail, south from Bradenton, through downtown Sarasota and into south Sarasota County and one thing will be unmissable—there is art everywhere you look. Since John Ringling brought his circus down to Sarasota in 1927, the area has become an arts and culture destination. From visually arresting exhibitions at Sarasota Art Museum and The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art to contemporary theater, world-class dance and every variety of classical, chamber and orchestral music, SRQ Magazine gives you the inside eye on this season’s best and brightest arts and cultural events.

Taking Flight This page: Leymis Bolaños Wilmott of Sarasota Contemporary Dance. SCD will perform each of its 2026-27 season shows at a different venue throughout Sarasota. Image courtesy of SCD.

In the 21st season of Sarasota Contemporary Dance (SCD), founder and artistic director Leymis Bolaños Wilmott is taking risks and expanding the breadth of her studio’s artistic community. “For me, this is an opportunity to reset and reflect as an organization,” Wilmott says. “Dance is a tool to love people, empower people and serve our community.” The lineup for SCD’s Raíces y Vuelos (Roots and Flight) 2026-27 season perfectly encapsulates Wilmott’s message. In the past, SCD has organized four productions in one theater. Now, each show will be held at a different venue: Manatee Performing Arts Center, Cook Theatre at the FSU Center for the Performing Arts, Sarasota Opera House and Sarasota Contemporary Dance’s home studio in the Rosemary District. To deepen its connection to the Rosemary District, SCD will host Mural in Motion, a performance series that runs from December 11-13. This outdoor performance series will feature live music and highlight five murals throughout the district. “Let’s activate these spaces,” Wilmott says. “Let’s dance inspired by this artwork.” Wilmott wants to invite audiences to experience SCD’s home turf through movement and sound. Dancers will perform contemporary styles in front of the art. Each mural will serve as a living stage for original choreography. “It’s a way of deepening our connection to our community and adding to the vibrance of our area,” Wilmott says. For Mural in Motion’s three curated performances, over 100 audience members are welcomed for each show, and Wilmott says reservation is encouraged. “For people who have been following us, they know that each performance is different,” Wilmott explains. “You walk in, maybe you have some kind of expectation, but we try to be really intentional about whether a show is more entertaining or will really tug your heart and provoke thought.” Wilmott wanted to emphasize presenting artists of various disciplines this season, from musicians and actors creating pieces for the first time to seasoned choreographers. She believes that dance has a ripple effect to both leave lasting impressions and strengthen connection within community and humanity. “It takes all the dancers in the company to create a masterpiece together,” Wilmott says. “And the audience is part of the artwork.” —M.Evans Sarasota Contemporary Dance, 1400 Blvd of the Arts, Sarasota, 941-260-8485, info@sarasotacontemporarydance.org

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Below, clockwise: Eszter Sziksz Seeking, 2026. Courtesy of the artist, photo by Allegra Bortoni.

Eszter Sziksz: Seeking I Don’t Know What I’m Looking For at Sarasota Art Museum There is a duty that the Sarasota Art Museum (SAM) has as the region’s contemporary art museum. It is to present some of the foremost modern and contemporary art to audiences in Sarasota, enriching the lives of those that walk through its gallery spaces with the works presented in them. At times that art can come from practitioners from all over the world. In other cases, that art can come from the museum’s backyard. Such is the case with SAM’s exhibition Eszter Sziksz: Seeking, I Don’t Know What I’m Looking For (And I Hope I Never Find It). Sziksz is an award-winning and internationally exhibited Hungarian-American artist, specializing in experimental printmaking, installation, sculpture and video. She is also a faculty member at the Ringling College of Art and Design. “We selected Eszter as a featured artist because we find the work she is creating to be incredibly interesting and quite timely,” says Virginia Shearer, Executive Director of SAM. “She is an experimental printmaker who is exploiting the medium of printmaking and is always trying to do something that is different, that’s groundbreaking and stretches her own creative boundaries.” Sziksz’s work in Seeking came as a reaction to a particularly tumultuous time in her life. “Her friend was diagnosed with cancer. Eszter did what artists do, and in a tragic recognition of this life moment, made Seeking as a reaction to that,” says Shearer. “This installation I Don’t Know What I’m Looking For (And I Hope I Never Find It) is her wanting to support her friend, by creating an immersive environment all of us as visitors to navigate the space, but also navigate these big, unanswerable questions that will be printed onto strips of paper hanging from the ceiling.” This interactive installation is set to feature long, semitransculent strips of wax paper that hang from the ceiling. Viewers will wade through the exhibit and, using magnifying glasses suspended throughout the space, read queries based on the writings of different philosophers embossed into the base of the strips of paper. “This sensory experience is further augmented by a soundscape she’s worked on with another artist, Douglas Tewksbury. There will be this sonic immersion within the drifting paper,” says Shearer. “I think that this will be a provocative and emotional experience for people.” —D. Campbell Eszter Sziksz: Seeking, I Don’t Know What I’m Looking For (And I Hope I Never Find It), Sarasota Art Museum, 1001 S. Tamiami Trail, Sarasota, 941-309-4300, sarasotaartmuseum.org

“THIS SENSORY EXPERIENCE IS FURTHER AUGMENTED BY A SOUNDSCAPE SHE’S WORKING ON WITH ANOTHER ARTIST.” — Virginia Shearer, SAM

The Verdi Cycle Lives On In 1989, the Sarasota Opera began a truly unique undertaking— the Verdi Cycle. The goal was to perform the complete works of Giuseppe Verdi and in 2016, under former artistic director Maestro Victor DeRenzi, the Opera did such, becoming the only company in the world to complete such a cycle. In 2027, the Verdi Cycle will return to Sarasota, albeit in a slightly different format—Verdi: Composer and Farmer, Marie Selby Botanical Garden’s 11th annual Jean & Alfred Goldstein Exhibition. The Goldstein Series examines seminal artists through their relationship with nature. As in years past, Verdi: Composer and Farmer will employ every facet of Selby Gardens’ Downtown Sarasota campus to tell the story of Verdi’s lesser-known relationship with the outside world. “Our visitors can expect a truly interdisciplinary immersive experience, combining objects and images connected to Verdi, along with our horticultural interpretation, with immersive plant displays and of course the use of Verdi’s music,” says Jennifer Rominiecki, president and CEO of Selby Gardens. “Maestro DeRenzi is a driving force in what made Sarasota the arts and culture capital of Florida. He’s the only person to ever conduct every note that Verdi wrote and approached me with this idea several years ago in the wake of us featuring George Harrison in one of our exhibitions.” The more Rominiecki examined the life of Verdi, the more the concept for the exhibition made sense. Along with being an iconic composer, Verdi considered himself to be a serious farmer and used the wealth from composing operas to purchase land in his home region in Italy. There, he wrote and worked the land at Villa Verdi, even listing his occupation on official documents as “farmer”. In Verdi: Composer and Farmer, horticultural vignettes will populate the Downtown Sarasota campus, displays will fill the Richard and Ellen Sandor Museum of Botany & the Arts and a special performance series will support the exhibition season. “Until Maestro DeRenzi brought this idea forth, I never knew how intrinsic land, nature and gardening were to Verdi’s life. He viewed the writing and success of his operas as a means of being able to farm and preserve his land,” says Rominiecki. “With this series, we’re revealing the surprising connections that certain artists in different disciplines have with nature and how nature inspires them.” —D. Campbell Verdi: Composer and Farmer, February 7-May 30, Downtown Sarasota Campus, 1534 Mound St., Sarasota.

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Below: This season, The Ringling Art of Performance’s lineup features the work of acclaimed theater collective Agrupacion Señor Serrano.

Live Cinema and Object Theater at The Ringling’s Art of Performance Miniature figures, soundscapes, video projection and live action theater will come together at the Historic Asolo Theater this February for Agrupación Señor Serrano’s performance of Birdie. Part of The Ringling Art of Performance’s diverse season of contemporary musicians, dancers and performers of all mediums, Birdie brings the work of internationally acclaimed theater collective Agrupación Señor Serrano to Sarasota for the first time. “It is this wild collage of something that I would call a mix of live cinema and object theater,” says Elizabeth Doud, The Ringling’s Currie-Kohlman Curator of Performance. Birdie, which pulls from the atmosphere of Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds, is a multi-media performance that incorporates over 2,000 miniature figures set on a green carpet that simulates a golf course, intermixed with live-video projections of the group. “The group is doing live camera work in which they shoot close-ups on the objects and project them onto the screen behind them and then intermixing it with film and video, primarily taken from The Birds,” says Doud. “They mix this feed in with photographic elements such as newspaper clippings and the script starts to take you through different ideas—when you look at something, are you seeing everything that is really there? Birdie is about what is perceived versus what is real and how those two concepts form our opinions about reality.” For the audience, the experience is watching Agrupación Señor Serrano create a story in real time. The dexterity of their storytelling, as they weave collage, projection and object theater, maintains Doud, is something to marvel at. The other thematic tentpole of Birdie is a conversation about borders and immigration. As the miniature figures move about the projection, the lines of borders begin to disintegrate, interrogating the very concept of what it means to be an immigrant. “It is absolutely brilliant and a heavy show because it talks a lot about border crossings,” says Doud. “Birdie is not a new piece, the group has been doing it for years, but it’s shocking in how relevant it continues to be.” —D. Campbell Birdie, Agrupación Señor Serrano, February 10 and 11, Ringling Art of Performance, 5401 Bay Shore Rd, Sarasota.

Asolo Rep Celebrates The Day The Circus Came to Town

“BIRDIE IS ABOUT WHAT IS PRECEIVED VERUS WHAT IS REAL AND HOW THOSE TWO CONCEPTS FORM OUR OPINIONS ABOUT REALITY. ” — Elizabeth Doud

Dates and numbers do not often hold an important context in regards to planning Asolo Repertory Theatre’s season, but in the case of the 2026-27 artistic year, they certainly did. In 1927, Sarasota became home to The Greatest Show On Earth, John Ringling’s iconic circus, setting in motion a century defined by a legacy in the circus and the arts. “1927 was an extraordinary year in American history,” says Peter Rothstein, producing artistic director. “It was a cultural renaissance. The first American musical, Show Boat, premiered on Broadway, the invention of television happened in 1927, the first talking moving picture, The Jazz Singer premiered, Duke Ellington made his Cotton Club debut, Charles Lindbergh and Babe Ruth became the first major celebrity athlete.” Keeping that centennial in mind, the entire 202627 main stage season for Asolo Rep revolves around 1927. One such production is the world premiere of The Day the Circus Came to Town, developed in partnership with The Ringling and the Circus Arts Conservatory. Directed by Rothstein and created by him along with Carla Noack and David Darrow, The Day the Circus Came to Town, “lives somewhere between a documentary, a musical and a circus.” The show draws upon Sarasota’s rich—and living—history of the circus, incorporating actual circus artists such as aerialists and acrobats as well as stories from interviews with dozens of Sarasota-based circus performers, aged primarily from 75 to 100 years old. “Before I did those interviews, I realized that I had a lot to learn. To build trust, to show respect to their art form, I needed to better understand it and some of the realities of what it meant to live a life in the circus—I spent a year or so at The Ringling Museum, some time in Venice, time at the Showmen’s Museum,” says Rothstein. “The challenge is then taking all of these amazing stories from the interviews—of people escaping Nazi Germany, of people losing a parent in an accident—and trying to fit them into one, big evening. The songs that we created for the production emerged out of the overarching themes of these conversations.” The Day the Circus Came to Town will be narrated by a troubadour, an ode to the transient nature of the circus and its performers. Backed by a century’s worth of archival footage from The Ringling, the show aims to give a sense of both the grandeur and the grind of what life was like in the circus. “What does it mean to not have a home that’s four walls, but you’re sharing a train car with 22 other showgirls?” says Rothstein. “It’s been deeply moving to hear about these folks who have dedicated their lives to bringing joy to people they’ve never met before, one city at a time.” —D. Campbell The Day the Circus Came to Town, March 21-April 24, Asolo Repertory Theatre, 5555 N Tamiami Trail, Sarasota, 941-350-8000, asolorep.org

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Connecting the Cultural Coast Incubate, connect, inspire. These are some of the things that Sarasota Rising’s Living Arts Festival hopes to accomplish come November 8. Now in its third year of production, the Living Arts Festival is a weeklong bonanza of all things arts in the Sarasota area. Part of what the Living Arts Festival does is point people towards existing arts and cultural events happening on Florida’s Cultural Coast—shows such as the Sarasota Opera’s Hansel and Gretel, FSU/Asolo Conservatory for Actor Training’s You Will Get Sick and Urbanite Theatre’s Ahoy-Hoy will all be in production that week, along with countless other shows and exhibitions. “We want to enhance and elevate our arts scene in a way that hasn’t been available before,” says Jeffery Kin, executive director of Sarasota. Rising. “During that week, we want people to go to the theater, to the ballet, to an art museum or to an art opening. Since we created Sarasota Rising, it’s been a part of our mission to get people out of their comfort zones. If you’re going to Asolo Repertory Theatre, for example, great, but also check out a show at Urbanite Theatre.” The other component of the Living Arts Festival is its signature events. The festival kicks off on November 8, with Harmony and Hue, an opening night bash at Art Ovation Hotel. “We’ll have singing groups and performance groups as well as live artist paintings,” says Kin. “If an organization doesn’t happen to be performing that week, they can be a part of our events.” Another original event of the Living Art Festival is Rise and Shine Saturday, a family-friendly event replete with vendor booths, live entertainment, arts performances and a newly added talent show. “We’re producing an area-wide, intergenerational talent competition called Sarasota Rising Stars from 10am to 2pm,” says Kin. “It gives kids in the community a chance to see the ballet or part of an opera or a dance group that they may not have witnessed before.”The Living Arts Festival closes with Kaleidoscope: A Colorful World of Entertainment, a closing ceremony held at Sarasota Art Museum. Awards honoring different performers from throughout the week will be given out. —D.Campbell

Below: Jenufa features the Sarasota Opera debut of world renowned soprano Karita Mattila.

Tragedy and Romance at the Sarasota Opera The 2026-27 season is one of firsts—it’s the first season in which General Director Richard Russell leads the opera as Artistic Director, following the departure of longtime leader Maestro Victor DiRenzi in May 2026. “Maestro DiRenzi created something really wonderful here and I’ve been lucky to be part of it for a long time,” says Russell. “I respect what he created and the quality of what we’ve done—he was very generous in the last decade or so, in involving me with planning on the artistic side. In working with my own team this year, I’m very much looking forward to continuing the tradition of strength.” One of the productions that Russell is set to bring to life this season is the signature Czech opera from Leoš Janáček, Jenůfa. The three-act opera, last performed by Sarasota Opera in 1998, is a gritty story of romance and realism. Set in a small village, the opera follows Jenůfa, a young woman who is in love with the fast and loose party animal Steva Buryja. Jenůfa’s stepmother will not let them marry—however, love pervades and Jenůfa becomes pregnant with Steva’s child. In a jealous rage, Steva’s half-brother, Laca— who is also in love with Jenůfa—slices her face with a knife, leading Steva to fall out of love with Jenůfa. “In the meantime, Jenůfa has the baby and her stepmother is trying to come up with a way to salvage her life, which leads to a tragic consequence,” says Russell. “Janáček was immersed in the folk music of Moravia. He tried to write operas using that folk music while having a naturalistic approach to the text.” Making her Sarasota Opera debut as Jenůfa’s stepmother is world renowned soprano Karita Mattila. Long the star of the Metropolitan Opera, Mattila became acquainted with Russell through social media, when he learned that she had a residence in nearby Naples, Florida. When the Opera’s production of Jenůfa came about, Russell contacted Mattila’s team to gauge her interest. “She graciously accepted and is going to spend some time coaching and mentoring our apprentice and studio artists as well. It’s so important for younger artists to observe and work with people who have had success in this career,” says Russell. —D.Campbell Sarasota Opera House, 61 N Pineapple Ave, Sarasota, 941-328-1300, sarasotaopera.org

“JANÁČEK WAS IMMERSED IN THE FOLK MUSIC OF MORAVIA. HE TRIED TO WRITE OPERAS USING THAT FOLK MUSIC WHILE HAVING A NATURALISTIC APPROACH TO THE TEXT.” — Richard Russell

November 8-15, Living Arts Festival Sarasota, sarastotarising.org

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“GEOFFREY SPECIALIZED IN SHAKESPEARE AT YALE UNIVERSITY, SO WE’RE VERY FORTUNATE TO HAVE A SEASONED DIRECTOR FOR THIS SHOW.” — Nate Jacobs

Below: Westcoast Black Theatre Troupe will debut its first-ever Shakespeare production, A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

A Modernized War and Peace Among the many high-energy club productions on Dingbat Theatre Production’s dazzling MainStage this 2026-27 season, the area premiere of Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812 was one of the early highlights for its bold use of storytelling, according to producing artistic director Luke Manual. This electropop opera, which ran from August 14 to September 13, was Dingbat Theatre’s first production with a live band. “While we’ve had band nights and cabarets with live musicians, the theater has never organized a full-scale musical with a live band before,” Manual says. Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812 is based on a 70-page excerpt from War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy. The show takes place during the Napoleonic Wars in Russia and follows the young Natasha Rostova as her fiancé leaves for the war. It explores familial relationships among Moscow’s upper class and how Natasha’s friend Pierre Bezukhov tries to help save her reputation after Natasha’s affair with the married Anatole Kuragin. “We have to look at every show like it’s never been done before,” Manual says, as the immersive space that the theater has resided in since December 2024 has only 70 seats. “We lean into the fact that we don’t have big regional theater or big Broadway money.” Members of the 11-person cast played multiple roles, and some actors even played instruments during the show, running around with clarinets and guitars— similar to the 2016 Broadway version. “There’s a lot of talent on stage and the actors are able to accomplish a lot,” Manual says. Manual says Dingbat Theatre set Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet of 1812 in a modern nightclub with disco balls as comets. As Sarasota’s LGBTQ+ theater, Manual says Dingbat Theatre incorporates gender-inclusive casting and programming. —M.Evans Dingbat Theatre, 7288 S Tamiami Trl, Sarasota, 941-4517706, dingbattheatreproject@gmail.com

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Rhapsodies of Rhythm and Shakespeare In the heart of this year’s “Rhapsodies of Rhythm” season at Westcoast Black Theatre Troupe (WBTT), founder and artistic director Nate Jacobs is featuring a “cutting-edge evolution for the company.” He’s referring to A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the theater’s first-ever Shakespeare production. “It’s a good opportunity for an African American theater to be exposed to not only this type of theater but also to this show,” Jacobs says, as WBTT is known for celebrating R&B, jazz and pop music that showcases African American culture. Now, they’re expanding into comedy. Running from January 14–February 21, this classic play will be directed by Geoffrey Owens, a new director for WBTT from New York. Owens is known for his role as Elvin Tibideaux on The Cosby Show, as well as many endeavors on Broadway, in film and on TV. “Geoffrey specialized in Shakespeare at Yale University, so we’re very fortunate to have a seasoned director for this show,” Jacobs says. Jacobs says this two-act play will be an innovative performance with around 16 actors in the cast. The production is staged in an elemental setting with dazzling costumes and is full of illusion, mischief and enchantment. Aside from A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Jacobs says he’s excited about directing Stevie: A Stevie Wonder Revue in April and May to close the season. This new musical revue celebrates Stevie Wonder’s discography, featuring hits like Superstition, Sir Duke, Isn’t She Lovely and more. “I am so excited about celebrating this iconic singer, songwriter and musician as a part of our season, and for all of our fans and music lovers to remember how wonderful Stevie Wonder is,” Jacobs says. Throughout this season, Jacobs wants to highlight a theater culture that is worthy of celebration and acknowledgment—the same high-spirited, information and celebratory work that WBTT has continued to promote since its 1999 founding. “It is essential that WBTT continues to do the work that we’re doing, because if we don’t celebrate our culture, who will?” he says. —M.Evans Westcoast Black Theatre Troupe, 1012 N Orange Ave, Sarasota, 941-366-1505, westcoastblacktheatre.org. IMAGE COURTESY OF WESTCOAST BLACK THEATRE TROUPE.

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Below, top to bottom: Sarasota Ballet will bring back The Two Pigeons, the first performance Iain Webb directed for the Ballet 20 years ago. Artist Series Concerts of Sarasota brings some of the foremost voices in classical music to the Suncoast including violinist Hyan Jae Lim, image courtesy of the artist.

Revisiting an Old Favorite With the success of Sarasota Ballet’s last season, director Iain Webb says he may have gotten a little carried away with the ambition he’s introduced to this year’s lineup. However, he’s excited for all the old and new ballets in the program as he celebrates his 20th season directing the Ballet. The third of the seven programs, The Two Pigeons, is exceptionally poignant to Webb. Not only was this the first ballet he produced as Sarasota Ballet’s director, but he also performed this piece with his wife, assistant director Margaret Barbieri, in 1982. “In a way, it’s a little bit of an acknowledgement to Margaret, who graduated from the Royal Ballet School as the gypsy girl in The Two Pigeons,” Webb says. “It’s a really special ballet for her.” Coming to Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall from December 18-19, The Two Pigeons features choreography by Sir Frederick Ashton and music by André Messager. This romantic and heartfelt story follows a young artist who leaves his fiancée to travel the world with a gypsy girl. Pigeons serve as a constant motif, as the former lovers—or “two pigeons”—eventually find their way back together and offer forgiveness. “It is the most beautiful ballet,” Webb says. “It probably has the best pas de deux at the end.” Webb says the Sarasota Ballet truly received their national and international recognition by choreographer Ashton, and several programs this season highlight his work. Sarasota Ballet’s dancers were ecstatic when Webb told them they were performing The Two Pigeons. “For us, it’s really important to respect and preserve the history of classic works and also explore new repertoire and invest in the future with new pieces and choreographers,” Webb says. The Two Pigeons will also feature live music by the Sarasota Orchestra; this is one of four programs this season that will include the full Orchestra. “I’m constantly surprised and inspired by the players of the Orchestra, and they’re all so invested in what we do,” he says. “We never take it for granted. I’m continually trying to push the dancers and push the bar.” —M.Evans Sarasota Ballet, 5555 N Tamiami Trl, Sarasota, 941-359-0099, directors@sarasotaballet.org

A Comeback Story for the Ages The mission of the Artist Series Concerts of Sarasota (ASC), first formed in 1996, is to shine a light on the next generation of emerging artists in classical music. Sometimes that means showcasing the talent of fresh-faced, up-and-coming musicians. Other times, such as in this season, that includes championing the work of established stars. On rare occasions, it means catching a once ascendant talent in the midst of a comeback. Against All Odds, part of ASC’s Sunday Best Series, features Korean violinist Hyun Jae Lim paired with Grammy-nominated pianist Robert Koenig. A student at the Curtis Institute of Music and prizewinner at the 2018 Yehudi Mehunin International Competition, Lim was a rising star in the world of classical music—that is until 2020, when a brutal car accident left her with severe injuries, rendering her unable to play. In 2024, Lim finally was able to pick up the bow once again, winning first place at the 2025 Seoul International Music Competition and at the 2026 Elmar Oliviera International Violin Competition. Lim’s win at the 2026 competition brought her into the eyes of Daniel Jordan, Director of Artistic Planning at ASC, who paired her with Koenig for the program. In Against All Odds, Lim and Koenig will perform works from Saint-Saens, Franck, Mozart and Beethoven in a concert both impressive in the quality of music and the power of Lim’s comeback story. “Her journey is nothing short of inspirational,” says Jordan. “The concert is a great program for violin and piano. I’m excited to hear her playing in a full recital—the story combined with great artists will make for a special concert.” —D.Campbell First Presbyterian Church, 2050 Oak Street, Sarasota, 941-306-1200, artistseriesconcerts.org/

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IMAGES COURTESY OF SARASOTA BALLET AND ARTIST SERIES CONCERTS OF SARASOTA.

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Below left to right: 20 soloists will descend upon Sarasota for La Musica’s performance of Bach’s Complete Brandenburg Concertos; Azara Ballet on stage at the Riverview Performing Arts Center.

A Celebration of Artists For virtuosic pianist Wu Han, leading Sarasota’s La Musica Chamber Music Festival is more than just a job. It is a duty, one taken up in 2021 after the passing of the festival’s founder and close friend Derek Han, and one that Han does not take lightly. “I have a very soft spot for La Musica,” says Han, who also co-directs the Chamber Music Society of the Lincoln Center. “I was heartbroken when Derek passed away from Covid-19—an institution such as La Musica and a city like Sarasota needs artistic leadership to allow classical music to continue to flourish. If La Musica were ever to stop, Derek would turn over in his grave, and I just cannot allow that to happen.” While La Musica is known for its week-long chamber music bonanza in April, the organization’s programming runs throughout the year. Kicking off La Musica’s season is Bach’s Complete Brandenburg Concertos, performed at The Sarasota Opera House. What is special about Brandenburg Concertos is the amount of musicians that it takes to pull off—20 in total—and that they feature unique combinations of instruments for every piece. Using Han’s connection at The Lincoln Center, La Musica has brought in some of the industry’s top soloists, rotating them throughout each piece. “The Brandenburg Concertos require multiple soloists to execute at the highest possible level of musicality,” says Han. “The six concertos are joyous, celebratory, ingenious works that nobody has been able to match ever since these concertos were created.” What is so desirable about playing these concertos, at La Musica specifically, is that there is no conductor. All 20 soloists have the freedom to make their own artistic choices whilst playing the Brandenburg Concertos, making for a truly unique display of chamber music. “I have waitlists for these soloist spots for the next three years,” says Han. “You push each other to another level, which is artistically, such a joy and a thrill. Typically, when you play a concerto, you play one or two of them in an orchestral setting. Here, you actually learn all six concertos, making it a huge artistic growing point for everyone involved.” —D.Campbell La Musica, P.O. Box 5442, Sarasota, 941-347-9656

“I HAVE WAITLISTS FOR THESE SOLOIST SPOTS FOR TEH NEXT THREE YEARS.” — Wu Han Unbound at Azara Ballet Sarasota is home to such a diverse and voluminous group of arts organizations that it can be difficult to keep up with all that is happening in a given year. One organization that stands alone, both in Sarasota and the world of ballet entire, is Azara Ballet. Founded in 2022 by Martin and Kate Flowers as a body-positive, professional dance company geared towards providing neurodivergent and autistic communities the chance to experience the art form, Azara has quickly established itself as one of the Suncoast’s preeminent dance organizations. Leading the organization in his second season as artistic director is Joshua Stayton, a choreographer and former soloist at the Cincinnati Ballet. “What I’m looking forward to most is continuing the relationship between Azara Ballet and the community. We’re trying to create a company of artists that reflect and resemble your general audience,” says Stayton. “A lot of the audience wants to see themselves out there, so Azara Ballet stands out in that regard.” One performance from the company’s upcoming slate sure to stand out is the season finale, Unbound, which features three works: The Tides, an original work from dancer/choreographer and board member Leiland Charles new to Azara Ballet; After Hours, a contemporary ballet by Stayton; and The Trial, also a contemporary piece courtesy of Martin Flowers. Both After Hours and The Trial are world premieres. The Tides, Stayton says, will showcase the dancers’ classical technical ability with an emphasis on how waves and water inspire the flow of everyday life. The Trial, which explores the mental turmoil one experiences on the journey toward selfcompassion, is an ode to Mozart. “After Hours is a dedication to my career and the relationships I built during that time,” says Stayton. “It’s going to highlight the essence of releasing your inhibitions when you’re out with your friends—peeling back those layers of that shell we have when you show your true colors and are with the people that you’re most comfortable with.” —D.Campbell Riverview Performing Arts Center, 1 Ram Way, Sarasota, 941-494-9362, azaraballet.org 54 | srq magazine_ OCT26 live local

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Below: The work of seminal pop art icon Keith Haring will be reimagined through the lens of Ringling College students in a standout show at the Ringling College Galleries.

Showcasing a Pop Art Icon

“I THINK THAT THE GALLERY WILL LIKELY BE TURNED INTO A SORT OF SUBWAY PLATFORM . IT SHOULD BE A SPECIAL SHOW.” — Tim Jaeger

The artwork of legendary pop art icon and activist Keith Haring will come to Sarasota this winter at a show at the Ringling College Galleries and Exhibitions titled Keith Haring: Lines in Motion. The exhibition, curated by Ringling College’s Exhibition Design and Management class, brings together over 130 works of Haring’s and is complemented by an auxiliary exhibition, Angel Ortiz (LA II): Collaborative Visions, which showcases over a dozen works by Ortiz, a frequent collaborator of Haring’s. Haring, who passed away at just 31-years-old in 1990 from complications from AIDS, became widely known for his distinctive visual language. Bold, sweeping lines and at times cartoonish imagery made its way from New York City’s street art and graffiti scenes in the early 1980s to the mainstream shortly after, with Haring’s work appearing on vacant lots and subway stations before popping up in mainstream avenues. In addition to creating a plethora of public art works from murals to sculptures, Haring also worked extensively as a commercial artist, illustrating album covers and mass produced objects. “All of these works are going to be seen through the lens of our students and reimagined through the Ringling College of Art and Design,” says Tim Jaeger, director of Ringling College Galleries and Exhibitions. “I think that the gallery will likely be turned into a sort of subway platform—a very temporal experience with big screens, newspapers blowing across the floor and an LED wall with subway cars running across the gallery. It should be a special show.” The message and sentiment behind the works, however, is just as important as the art itself. So much of Haring’s practice was focused around social activism—advocacy for the AIDS Crisis, safe sex practices and gay rights—that Jaeger wants to honor Haring’s mission. The show is more than just the opportunity to display seminal works from a groundbreaking artist, it’s the chance to say something about why Haring’s work still matters today. “Why Keith Haring? It goes into acceptance, accessibility and the political realm as well. Being able to share this work not just with our college students, but with the community’s elementary, middle and high school students is extremely important,” says Jaeger. “The thing that makes this season worth paying attention to and participating in is not just the exhibitions. It’s what the exhibitions do—they bring us together in an environment that is family-friendly, accessible, warm,and educational, and through these exhibitions on view at the same time, it creates a dialog amongst us.” —D. Campbell Ringling College Galleries and Exhibitions, 2700 N Tamiami Trail, Sarasota, 941359-7563, ringlingcollege.gallery.

Dracula at The Sarasota Players Horror, romance and intrigue—all of the makings of spooky October—are coming to Sarasota this fall in The Sarasota Players’ production of Dracula. Adapted from Bram Stoker’s iconic 1897 novel of the same name, Dracula will take place in The Players’ intimate black box theater, making full use of the tighter confines to up the thrills and heighten tensions. “This season, we’re using that black box space more than we ever have in the past,” says Amanda Heisey, Marketing Director at The Players. “Dracula’s running every weekend except for the last weekend in October and it’s leaning more towards the scary. Because it’s such an intimate space, we can do a little bit more with the shadows and the lighting in Dracula. If you’ve seen any versions of Dracula, you’ll see familiar characters, but our adaptation is going to skew a little more towards the novel.” Adapted and directed by Ren Pearson, a box office associate at The Players who is well-versed in gothic plays, Dracula looks to be the spooky start to Halloween season. For the team at The Players, Dracula is their chance to put their own stamp on the story. Adapted into countless forms of media, Stoker’s novel became not only the preeminent vampire story, but one of the most influential works of English literature ever written. In the 21st century alone, vampire stories have dominated media—from television’s The Vampire Diaries to blockbuster novels and movies such as The Twilight Saga to the more recent 2024, critically acclaimed horror film, Nosferatu. “While there is some level of camp when portraying some of these iconic horror movie monsters, our adaptation is leaning more towards the scary, a la Nosferatu,” says Heisey. —D. Campbell. The Sarasota Players, 1400 Blvd of the Arts, Suite 200, Sarasota, 941-552-8879, theplayers.org/ 56 | srq magazine_ OCT26 live local

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Below, left to right: Yoshida Fujio: Secret Gardens will be the first exhibition in the southeastern United States devoted to trailblazing Japanese artist Yoshida Fujio; ensembleNewSRQ will collaborate with Grammy-winning vocal band, Roomful of Teeth, in their season opener.

Beauty in Abstraction at The Ringling Last June, The Ringling exhibited some of the woodblock prints of Japanese master Yoshida Hiroshi, in Yoshida Hiroshi: Journeys Through Light. This season, The Ringling is showing works by another member of the Yoshida family—someone just as important and as much a trailblazer as Hiroshi. Yoshida Fujio: Secret Gardens is the first exhibition in the southeastern United States devoted to Yoshida Fujio, Hiroshi’s wife. Born into the Yoshida family in 1887, Hiroshi became a trailblazer in the Japanese art world as one of the first women to build an international career after being trained in Western-style painting. “At the time, Fujio’s father had no son, so he adopted Yoshida Hiroshi into their family, with the thought that he would eventually marry one of his daughters,” says Rhiannon Paget, The Ringling’s Curator of Asian Art. “For women in that era, you had to either be rich or from an artistic family to pursue a career in the arts. Fujio was extradoninary—she was publicly exhibiting when she was still in her teens—and in 1903, she and Hiroshi traveled to North America and Europe, supporting themselves by holding exhibitions at established venues like the Detroit Museum of Art.” Upon returning to Japan, domestic life took precedence over Fujio’s career. Fujio began focusing her painting on still lifes, particularly of plants in her garden. After the death of Hiroshi in 1950, Fujio’s works became increasingly abstract—plants gave way to swirls of color and biomorphic forms. Secret Gardens takes 26 of Fujio’s works, a series of woodblock prints and one painting, that show the progression from naturalistic depictions of plant life to more abstract works. “They are sort of blown up distortions of plants and flowers. They are almost swirls and are extremely beautiful and arresting,” says Paget. In celebration of Fujio’s influence and impact on the art world, Secret Gardens places Fujio’s work alongside that of women artists in her extended circle. “We have works from her daughter-in-law Chizuko Yoshida, her granddaughter Ayomi Yoshida, who is still a practicing artist and two prints from a Canadian artist who was a student of her eldest son, Yoshida Toshi,” says Paget. “It helps illustrate the challenges that women have had to overcome to become artists at a higher level in Japan throughout the 20th century. Fujio was always overshadowed by the sheer output of her husband, Hiroshida, but she is someone who really deserves to be better known.” —D.Campbell September 12-April 4, 2027, The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, 5401 Bay Shore Rd, Sarasota, 941-359-5700, ringling.org

Roomful of Teeth at ensembleNewSRQ This season, ensembleNewSRQ is returning to its roots. Founded in 2015 by percussionist George Nickson and violinist Samantha Bennett, ensembleNewSRQ celebrated its 10th anniversary last year as a versatile chamber music collective dedicated to championing the works of new and contemporary composers. “We are looking forward to this season, because it’s a little bit smaller than last year’s, but with a couple of big collaborations still,” says Bennett. “It will be a tad smaller in terms of the amount of musicians involved, keeping it more chamber music focused, rather than the two programs we had at the Sarasota Opera House last season, which were paper orchestra-sized.” One such collaboration is the Season 11 opener, Roomful of Teeth. Pairing with the Grammy-winning vocal band, Roomful of Teeth, musicians from ensembleNewSRQ will present five works: Bits Torn from Words by Peter Shin, On Stochastic Wave Behavior by Leilehua Lanzilotti, The Isle by Caroline Shaw, The Ascendant by Wally Gun and This Might Be a Form of Dreaming by Caroline Shaw. “Caroline Shaw is a Pulitzer-Prize winning composer, we’ve done a ton of her works before and she’s all kinds of cool,” attests Bennett. “They’ll be doing a number of acapella works and then we’ll be doing three works in full collaboration with our instrumentalists.” Bits Torn from Words, On Stochastic Wave Behavior and The Isle will all be a cappella performances by Roomful of Teeth. On Gun’s The Ascendant, a six-song set lasting 22 minutes, Nickson will join Roomful of Teeth on the drum kit. This Might Also Be a Form of Dreaming will see Bennett, Natalie Helm (Principal Cellist of the Sarasota Orchestra), Asher Carlson, Nickson and Sam Nelson of ensembleNewSRQ join forces with Roomful of Teeth. For Bennett and the team at ensembleNewSRQ, working with groups such as Roomful of Teeth— contemporary composers continuously pushing the envelope—is critical to their mission as a company. “We need to be the people advocating for composers and artists in this time,” says Bennett. “We have a duty to provide a space and an opportunity for them to get their artistic voice into the community and have it heard.” —D. Campbell ensembleNewSRQ, PO Box 15372, Sarasota, ensemblenewsrq@gmail.com 58 | srq magazine_ OCT26 live local

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This page, left to right: Joseph Lovinsky brings a level of emotional maturity to his horn playing with the Venice Symphony; Sandy Rustin’s “Upgrade” at FST explores what AI can do to human relationships.

Virtuosic Horn Playing at the Venice Symphony Music director and conductor Troy Quinn has led the Venice Symphony for nine seasons. Since coming to south Sarasota County in 2018, Quinn has helped build the Symphony into a nationally recognized brand, growing in size and prominence with every year. Seasons often include guest performances by some of the world’s foremost musicians, at times having traveled from around the globe to participate in a given program. In Strauss and Surprises!, Quinn turns to a musician that he regards as one of the industry’s foremost horn players—the Venice Symphony’s very own Joseph Lovinsky. “Joe went to Julliard and the Curtis Institute of Music; he’s an incredible musician who has played all over the world and happens to be our principal horn player,” says Quinn. “What better way to feature our own incredible talent than showcasing a piece for them?” In Strauss and Surprises!, which Quinn refers to as a “New Year’s Eve concert on steroids,” Lovinsky will be featured as the soloist in a program that includes Strauss’s Die Fledermaus Overture, Emperor Waltz and Haydn’s Symphony no. 4 in G Major (Surprise). “We’re going to have some incredible surprises to go along with this thematic material. Strauss is played a lot in all of the Radetsky Marches and all of that wonderful high-level classical music, but we’re also intertwining the program with other, non-familiar pieces that showcase our soloist,” says Quinn. Part of what makes Lovinsky’s musicality so special is his emotional maturity as a player, relays Quinn. Possessing a dynamic range, Lovinsky’s ability shines in his deft handling of the material, a skill that only comes with experience. “Joe’s one of those rare players where he can play anything,” says Quinn. “He’s played for so long and on so many levels, in many different genres, from symphonies to brass quartets and quintets, that he brings another level of not just artistry, but emotional maturity. He’s a virtuosic horn player.” —D.Campbell Venice Symphony, Venice Performing Arts Center, 1 Indian Ave Building 5, Venice, 941-218-3779, veniceperformingartscenter.com

“JOE’S ONE OF THOSE RARE PLAYERS WHERE HE CAN PLAY ANTHING.” — Troy Quinn

Upgrade at Florida Studio Theatre In an age where audiences seem to feel increasingly disconnected from one another, Florida Studio Theatre (FST) is trying to rectify that. FST’s 2026-27 Winter Mainstage season, Stories That Connect Us: Finding the Light Together, features productions that interrogate the human condition and bring viewers closer together. One such production is Sandy Rustin’s Upgrade. Developed at FST’s 2026 Burdick New Play Festival, Upgrade is a part of a (rolling) world premiere. The comedy follows a couple living in Manhattan’s Upper West Side, who, after becoming empty nesters, turn to artificial intelligence to “upgrade” their marriage. “At its core is a very human issue of why do we want to upgrade everything?” says Richard Hopkins, executive producer of FST. “The play is a great comedy that deals with this important subject of AI. When this happily married couple discovers that if they could have a secret lover or the perfect relationship with a form of AI, what does seeking that out do to them as human beings? They chase everything that they want to be perfect, but then they have to decide what flaws they’re going to accept in each other.” Part of why FST wanted to produce Upgrade is because of how “exquisitely” the play speaks to the modern age. Artificial intelligence has poured into nearly every aspect of life—FST wants to produce stories with these pressing issues that audiences are facing. “We’re all worried about artificial intelligence, but we don’t know what to do with it. Sandy has found a beautiful way into this subject, which is by examining it through a personal relationship,” says Hopkins. “It’s very funny what technology can do to relationships, which makes the play entertaining, but also allows it to point out that there are dangers to us and things we have to be careful about as we enter this age of artificial intelligence.” FST was also keen on producing Upgrade as part of its commitment to manufacturing new works. “We’ve always been highly engaged in new play development,” says Rebecca Hopkins, executive director of FST. “Particularly because we’re a contemporary theater and part of being a contemporary theater is making sure that new work is going out into the different regions of the country. We’ve been working with playwrights for almost half a century—we’re seeing a big need and a big opportunity to speak to our community by developing work that speaks to the issues our region is facing.” —D. Campbell Florida Studio Theatre, 1241 N Palm Ave., Sarasota, 941-366-9000, floridastudiotheatre.org 60 | srq magazine_ OCT26 live local

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Below, top to bottom: The acclaimed Karuna Quarter will come to Sarasota in November as a part of PMP Suncoast’s alumni performances; the Sarasota Design Conference aims to reinvigorate and inspire the minds of those that attend.

Compassion Through Chamber Music The 23rd year of the Perlman Music Program (PMP) Suncoast’s Winter Residency will touch down in Sarasota on December 30. This elite program is a training ground for some of the brightest young musicians in classical music. Led by internationally renowned conductor, Maestro Itzhak Perlman, students at the Winter Residency participate in a holistic learning program, designed to grow their skills as soloists, orchestral and chamber musicians. Last year, this program moved from USF to downtown Sarasota, where all of the events—which are free to the public—are easily accessible due to the location. The alumni of PMP are some of the most internationally celebrated classical musicians, found in orchestras, quartets and ensembles around the world. This winter, audiences in Sarasota get the chance to see these ultra-talented teenagers before they’re famous. “Everything is held at First Presbyterian Church and it has made a world of difference,” says Lisa Berger, executive director of PMP Suncoast. “We have Works in Progress concerts, solo performances, master classes for the public to watch and choral rehearsals all on display each evening. At the end of the Winter Residency, we have a chamber concert in which all of the students, who form chamber quartets during their time here, perform in front of an audience.” Another angle of PMP Suncoast are the alumni programs that occur throughout the year, separate from the Winter Residency. In November, the Karuna Quartet, all alumni of the PMP Suncoast Winter Residency, will come to Sarasota for two nights of performances. Formed at The Julliard School in 2025, the Karunas—Sophia Werner and Nicole Yun (violin), Erin Emi Nishi (viola) and Isabelle Nichols (cello)—take their name from the concept of “karuna” in the Sanskrit, which means compassion. Practicing chamber music as a form of compassion, these four standout string players were Gold Medalists and Composer Prize Winners of 2026 St. Paul String Quartet Competition. —D.Campbell PMP Suncoast Winter Residency, December 30, 2026 - January 11, 2027. Karuna Quartet, November 10, Venice Community Center, 326 Nokomis Ave S, Venice; November 12, First Presbyterian Church, 2050 Oak St, Sarasota

Duality in Design

“THERE’S ALWAYS AN INTERPLAY, NOT ONLY IN ARCHITECTURE, BUT IN LIFE, THERE’S ALWAYS A DUALITY.” — Karl Bernhard

The Sarasota Design Conference returns this November with one main goal: to inspire. The conference, organized by the Florida Gulf Coast Chapter of the American Institute of Architects (AIA), has run every two years since its inception in 1988. This year’s conference is themed Duality: Harmony In Contrast, features four keynote speakers from firms with global reach. “The idea comes from how opposites work together to create the whole,” says Karl Bernhard, President of the AIA Gulf Coast Chapter. “There’s always an interplay, not only in architecture but in life, there’s always a duality, whether it be through religious beliefs, science-based or design.” Over the two-day conference the speakers—Kai-Uwe Bergmann, BIG; Amy Donohue, BORA; Leo Marmol, Marmol Radnizer and Daniel Ralls, Olson Kundig—will share examples of their work, providing insight into the how and why of what they do. Each will speak individually as well as in a paneled discussion on the second day. “I’m going to show a range of work that we’ve done from the smallest projects to the largest,” says Bergmann, a global partner at BIG. “This is for anyone in the room that is a one or two-person design office and doesn’t think that they have the infrastructure to take on and tackle big challenges. I want to prove to them that no matter what scale of project you have, you have the ability to really inspire, to do research, and to truly put forth a vision for what the future might be in your community.” Since it began, the Sarasota Design Conference has always been focused solely on the design element of architecture. “We want to focus on design and the importance of it, how design changes and affects how we live. The idea is to invigorate people and educate them on what it means to practice and experience architecture,” says Bernhard. “For me, personally, past Sarasota Design Conferences have done just that. As you continue to practice architecture, you can fall into your ways and lose touch with the creative, playful aspect of it if you’re not careful. Putting yourself into these situations and conversations within the design world reinvigorates and inspires.” While the Sarasota Design Conference is geared towards architects, Bernhard insists that it is not just for architects, but the general public as well. This year’s Conference is set inside St. Paul Lutheran Church, a Victor Lundy-designed campus, and a shining example of the Sarasota School of Architecture—the regional coastal modernism movement that took the design world by storm in the mid-20th century. Additionally, the Conference also takes place during the same timeframe as Architecture Sarasota’s MOD Weekend, with the hope that the two events can bleed into each other, creating one super weekend for design enthusiasts. —D.Campbell November 12-14, St. Paul Lutheran Church, 2256 Bahia Vista St, Sarasota, srqdesignconference.com.

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A Centennial of Historic Significance This past July, the United States celebrated its 250th birthday, a momentous semi-quincentennial that could be felt from every corner of the country, from Sarasota all the way up to Seattle. In 2026, Sarasota, also celebrated an anniversary of its own. 1927 marked the year that John Ringling brought the Barnum and Bailey Circus to town, as well as the year that Ringling’s historic Mediterraneanrevival residence, the Ca’ d’Zan, was completed. “We use the completion of the Ca’ d’Zan as the beginning of the Sarasota School of Architecture. It’s the project that brought architect Ralph Twitchell to Sarasota, working under Dwight James Baum, and went back and forth between New York/ Connecticut and Sarasota for about 11 years before he moved here permanently,” says Marty Hylton, President of Architecture Sarasota. “In those 11 years, this revolution of modern architecture— specifically European modernism—was being introduced in the United States. Twitchell was one of the first practitioners locally to begin to eschew the traditional approaches to architecture and experiment with what would become known as the modern movement to architecture.” This season, Architecture Sarasota is producing a multilayered initiative, 100 Years of Sarasota School, that includes an exhibition in the organization’s McCulloch Pavillion, guided tours, lectures, special events and educational programs. The Sarasota School, a guiding light of mid-century modernism propounded by superstar architects such as Twitchell and Paul Rudolph, is a movement that not only shaped Sarasota’s built environment, but is still alive today. The use of modern design language, adapted to the unique environment of Florida’s Gulf Coast, set a standard for a wave of regional architecture that has had international influence. 100 Years was made possible in part by a grant from the Florida Division of Historical Resources, that allowed Architecture Sarasota to do an update of a survey of Sarasota School last completed in 1997. “We identified with the survey 1,700 properties affiliated with the Sarasota School of Architecture. We’ve expanded that original list of architects who were members of the Sarasota School to around 180 people—not just the architects, but the patrons, contractors, builders and engineers—that contributed to the movement,” says Hylton. “We’ve also brought it into the present day to include the current designers and architects, the living legacy, of the Sarasota School.” —D.Campbell Architecture Sarasota, 265 S Orange Ave, Sarasota, 941-4249956, architecturesarasota.org

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Below: Sarasota Orchestra welcomes back director Giancarlo Guerrero to direct the Orchestra’s Masterworks series.

“IT’S A PIECE WHERE YOU’RE ON THE EDGE OF YOUR SEAT THE ENTIRE TIME.” — RoseAnne McCabe

The Masteriece of Carmina Burana Seven Masterworks performances grace the stage of Sarasota Orchestra’s upcoming season, ranging from Beethoven concertos to the popular Symphony No. 7 by Dvořák. RoseAnne McCabe, senior vice president of artistic operations at the Orchestra, says each of these large symphonic orchestra concerts are very unique in their delivery of iconic classical pieces. One of the performances, Carmina Burana, is what McCabe describes as this season’s “most spectacular work.” “It’s a piece where you’re on the edge of your seat the entire time you’re listening to it,” she says. As the fourth concert in the Orchestra’s Masterworks series, Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana is under the musical direction of Giancarlo Guerrero, who is celebrating his second year conducting the Sarasota Orchestra. “His attention to detail and way of bringing out different elements of the orchestra at different times is going to make for a really stellar experience for the audience with the way Giancarlo thinks about the work from the inside out,” McCabe says. Guerrero is also the artistic director and principal conductor of the Grant Park Music Festival in Chicago and will bring in the Grant Park Chorus to perform Carmina Burana. “Giancarlo has been so impressed with the Grant Park Symphony Orchestra, so we’re bringing the Grant Park Chorus to Sarasota,” McCabe says. Masterworks 4 will feature soprano Jana McIntyre, countertenor Logan Tanner and baritone Troy Cook. The concert will open with Lutoslawski’s Concerto for Orchestra and will close with the six movement Carmina Burana. Performances run from February 5-7 at Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall. McCabe says a lot of Guerrero’s personality shines through in his artistic direction of Carmina Burana and other Masterworks selections. “We’ve performed Carmina Burana before, but not with the kind of leadership that Giancarlo brings,” McCabe says. With each Masterworks—the Orchestra’s biggest series—McCabe says audience members will leave with something they didn’t expect, even if they’ve heard a melody before. “There really is something for everyone this season,” she says. “I really hope people think of the Orchestra as their Orchestra. When you sit down and the lights go dark, you’re transported into this soundscape—a shared experience with humanity.” —M.Evans Sarasota Orchestra, 709 N Tamiami Trl, Sarasota, 941-953-3434, questions@sarasotaorchestra.org

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Below, left to right: Sarasota Cuban Ballet showcases Dracula on Halloween weekend for a reimagined gothic love story; The Garbologists makes its regional premiere at Urbanite Theatre.

A Hauntingly Beautiful Ballet A new wave of talent is gracing the stage at Sarasota Cuban Ballet this season with a six-person company of youth dancers. According to artistic director Ariel Serrano, this is the biggest group the Ballet has organized since the COVID-19 Pandemic. “The growth that we have has been slow but steady,” Serrano says. “We try to mix different repertoire for younger dancers and give them the opportunities that other companies wouldn’t give them because they’re too young. But we believe they’re ready and we’re looking at the future stars of dance.” This new company will be featured in all of the upcoming season’s performances—one of which has been three years in the making. Dracula, which will premiere from October 30–November 1, will include dramatic original work and choreography that Serrano says has a “beautiful development.” “Dracula has a mix of classic music, and the choreography is classic and neoclassical,” he says. “It also has a bit of contemporary style where some of the movements are on point but still a little off set.” In this dramatic production, an ancient vampire leaves Transylvania for London in search of fresh blood. This gothic love story explores the unlikely pairing of horror and beauty in the world of vampires. As a Halloween weekend production, Serrano says his goal throughout the summer was to finalize the performance to be stage-ready in its 90-minute form. It will be presented in the Sarasota Cuban Ballet Auditorium, and although he says “it’s a small venue, many people have come to see our performances here.” Along with the six company dancers, Dracula will also feature some of the Ballet’s trainee dancers from its award-winning school. “They are younger and still in training, but they look every bit as professional as the company dancers,” Serrano says. Looking ahead to the 2027-28 season and beyond, Serrano hopes to continue growing the company to include about 10 people. “Having this company has been a dream,” he says. “For years, we’ve been planning this company, and it was important to develop these young dancers.” —M.Evans Sarasota Cuban Ballet, 4740 Cattlemen Rd., Sarasota, 941-365-8400, info.sarasotacubanballet@gmail.com

“IT’S ABOUT A FATHER RECONNECTING WITH HIS SON THROUGH PLAYING WITH THE STUFFED ANIMALS OF HIS CHILDHOOD.” — Luke Manual Urbanite Theatre’s Unlikely Pairing There are some occupations that while essential, are often taken for granted. Or least those that perform those select duties are. Take your town’s sanitation department, for example. If those who worked on the back of garbage trucks simply stopped doing their jobs, then neighborhoods would suddenly be a whole lot less pleasant to stroll through. Those workers are the focus of Urbanite Theatre’s production The Garbologists. The play by Lindsay Joelle is making its regional premiere at Urbanite in January and follows two unlikely co-workers: Danny, a white, blue-collar longtime New York City sanitation worker and Marlowe, a Black, Ivy-educated newcomer, who has just been assigned to his route. The Garbologists follows this unlikely pairing throughout their route in the garbage truck, where class and generational divide seems to rule supreme. “They could not be more different in personalities, in style, in how they work and how they function in the world,” says Summer Wallace, producing artistic director of Urbanite. “They spar over everything, from high art to the way that you should drink coffee, but even though their worlds are so different, Danny and Marlowe discover that they do have common bonds and that they can help each other in unexpected ways.” Part of what Wallace loves about The Garbologists is that it’s a story that proves that people can come together, despite being from widely different backgrounds. Danny is going through a divorce—a piece of Marlowe’s past provides an in to helping Danny through this tough time. “It’s similar to if you’ve gotten a speeding ticket and have to go to traffic school and think to yourself, ‘Wow, I would never assemble with these other human beings if I didn’t have to,’” says Wallace. “Because Danny’s blue-collar and Marlowe’s Ivy-educated, the play dives into class structure as well. As a society, we tend to make a lot of assumptions about the human beings who do these jobs.” The other part that excites Wallace about the production is the physical staging of it. With The Garbologists set entirely in the cab and back of a garbage truck, creating that set within the tight confines of Urbanite’s black-box theater is a challenge Wallace is looking forward to. “I imagine that this is going to be more of an abstract version of a garbage truck and cab, which will be quite fun. I went to our master carpenter before putting this show in our season and said, ‘Gene, do you think we could actually do this?’” says Wallace. “He said yes and has been taking a lot of pictures of garbage trucks and studying them—the whole team is looking forward to pulling this one off.” —D.Campbell Urbanite Theatre, 1487 2nd St, Sarasota, 941-321-1397, www.urbanitetheatre.com 66 | srq magazine_ OCT26 live local

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SEASON PREVIEW 2026-27

Below. left to right: Via Nova Chorale collaborates with The Ringling for “If Art Could Sing: The Ringling in Music.” Sarasota’s first look at Dear Evan Hansen reveals a high-tech production with an LED screen wall.

Hearing and Seeing Voices During Via Nova Chorale’s rebranding in 2024, artistic director Steven Phillips chose the Chorale’s Latin title, translating to “new way,” as he envisioned inspiring concerts that bring people together in an uplifting environment. This “new way” drives the Chorale’s program in its 17th season this year as it showcases five concerts to highlight different voices of people and music. “We want our concerts to inspire positive change in the world through art and transformative experiences,” Phillips says, as his team considers the audience experience first when designing each season. Among this season of “Voices,” Phillips is especially excited about the Chorale’s third concert—a collaboration with the Ringling Museum of Art to perform If Art Could Sing: The Ringling in Music. This is the first performance Via Nova Chorale has produced that involves both auditory and visual elements. “We’re aiming for an integration of visual art and musical art,” Phillips says. “Some of the subjects are very touching, from love and family to war and poverty.” On this February 19 performance, the Chorale will perform dialogue alongside projections of art and sculptures from the Ringling’s permanent collection. Phillips says art will be displayed from a variety of periods, ranging from Renaissance to Modern. “Hopefully, our pairings of music will represent the emotional tone and intent of the artist,” he says, emphasizing the impact that simultaneously hearing music and viewing art will have on audiences. This performance will run between 75 and 90 minutes, without an intermission. The 45-50 voice ensemble will also be accompanied by several string instruments and a pipe organ. Phillips wants this performance to be a holistic experience for the audience to see and hear themes that are beautiful, inspiring and powerful. “We aim to be a blend of artistic excellence and humanitarian action,” he says. “We really want to integrate positive change in our community and in our world—and to inspire that through really excellent performances.” —M.Evans Via Nova Chorale, First Presbyterian Church: 2050 Oak St., Sarasota, 941-263-2086, info@vianovachorale.com

“WE WANT OUR CONCERTS TO INSPIRE POSITIVE CHANGE IN THE WORLD.” — Steven Phillips

The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci

Dear Evan Hansen’s Area Premiere

For Joseph Caulkins, artistic director of Key Chorale, the upcoming arts season is all about storytelling. “We chose a number of pieces that really drew on that idea,” Caulkins says. One such piece in the Chorale’s 2026-27 program is The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci, a new composition by Jocelyn Hagen that feeds on multimedia work. Caulkins says the Chorale is very excited to feature Jocelyn Hagen’s 2019 score, which provides a look into Da Vinci’s writing and artwork by weaving them into music to help understand his creative outlets. “The composer takes images from Da Vinci’s notebooks and animates them,” Caulkins explains. “Images are very interesting and engaging.” Notebooks will be an approximately 45-minute piece without an intermission and will be shown on April 24 at Church of the Palms. This large concert hall, which sits about 600-700 guests, is undergoing renovations in December, according to Caulkins. With a blend of orchestra, immersive video projection and the full 100-person Chorale, Notebooks will reveal da Vinci’s reflections on art, science, nature and the human spirit. “You generally have a click track with live music and video, but with The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci, the composer worked with a new software developer who created a new program where an operator is following the hand of the conductor, so everything is perfectly timed in a live performance,” Caulkins says. This production will also feature selections of film music, ranging from Hans Zimmer’s works in The Da Vinci Code and Angels & Demons to Bear McCreary’s Theme from Da Vinci’s Demons. “These inclusions will give us a good wash of all the music that is influenced by Da Vinci,” Caulkins says. Overall, Caulkins wants audience members to embrace the concert experience and leave with music they will never forget. “We want people to remember the music after the standing ovations,” he says. —M.Evans Key Chorale, 1900 Main St., Sarasota, 941-552-8768

With a diverse musical and play lineup this upcoming season, producing artistic director Rick Kerby says the biggest excitement and challenge for Manatee Performing Arts Center lies in the technical aspects of performances. Five out of six shows at the mainstage are brand new for audiences, and Kerby says he’s particularly enthusiastic about Dear Evan Hansen’s area premiere. The musical, showing from October 22 to November 1, follows a shy high school student who becomes entangled in a fabricated friendship after a classmate’s suicide. “It’s got a lot of heart,” Kerby says. “I love the story of it, and it talks about bullying and the whole idea of cyberbullying. This is such a hot topic right now.” Kerby says the center received a special invitation from its licensee to have an advanced opportunity to perform Dear Evan Hansen. “Dear Evan Hansen has an LED screen wall that will be used extensively during the production,” Kerby explains. The show will be a high-tech production with multiple monitors and projections. Kerby says an LED wall amplifies the concept of social media use, a key theme throughout the musical. “It’s a fun musical that has a lot of upbeat, poppy score to it,” Kerby says, adding that the center welcomes this different style of theater. —M.Evans Manatee Performing Arts Center, 502 3rd Ave. W, Bradenton, 941-748-

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IMAGERY COURTESY OF KEY CHORALE AND MANATEE PERFORMING ARTS CENTER.

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SEASON PREVIEW 2026-27

Below: Performing in Shakespearean plays such as Caesar provides a foundational skillset for young actors in the FSU/Asolo Conservatory for Actor Training.

Caesar at the FSU/Asolo Conservatory for Actor Training

“THERE’S ALWAYS SOMETHING THAT AWAKENS SOME CAPACITY AS AN ACTOR.” — Jonathan Epstein

Part of what makes Sarasota such an incubator for the arts is not just the fact that there are a myriad of cultural organizations dedicated to showcasing various art forms, but there is also a push to train the next generation of artists here on the Suncoast. That’s where programs such as the FSU/Asolo Conservatory for Actor Training come into play. A highlycompetitive three-year, Master of Fine Arts graduate program, the Conservatory produces shows that are both entertaining for audiences and informative for the students taking part in them. One such production next year is William Shakespeare’s Caesar, directed by faculty member Jonathan Epstein, who teaches Second Year Acting at the Conservatory. Epstein, who has a long history of performing on and off-Broadway is perhaps best known for his 25-year association with Shakespeare & Company in Lennox, Massachusetts. Second-year acting students at the Conservatory study under Epstein to learn how to ingest and act in the classics. Shakespeare, celebrated as the bard is, wrote in a completely different way than how students speak and act today. Learning how to act in a play such as Caesar, builds foundational skills that are transferable to contemporary scripts and plays. “I always ask our second-year students when starting to work with Shakespeare, ‘What moves you about this text?’” says Epstein. “There’s always something that awakens some capacity in an actor, because the language is so evocative and connotative. Actors who are skilled in the classics are able to get deeper in the modern material.” Part of what excites Epstein about Caesar are the thematic undertones that feel relevant to politics and society today. Epstein argues that Caesar proves that politics are personal and Shakespeare’s tragic play becomes an interrogation about what honor means to three of the main characters—Julius Caesar, Brutus and Caius Cassius. “There’s honor in which the level I’m getting praised and talked about, which is the kind of honor that Caesar’s getting. Then there’s the kind of honor that centers around not being shamed, which is a destructive honor and the type that Cassius is worried about,” says Epstein. “Then there’s a different kind of honor—behaving in alignment with my own ethical principles—doing what I know to be proper, even if it hurts. That is Brutus’s version of honor, which makes him in a way the tragic hero of the play.”—D.Campbell Caesar, February 4-14, 2027, Jane B. Cook Theatre at FSU Center for the Performing Arts, 5555 N Tamiami Trail, Sarasota.

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Adnan Dedic “From escaping war-torn Bosnia to building a successful life in America, my journey has been defined by resilience and an unwavering drive to succeed. My family and I arrived as refugees with little more than hope, and watching my parents work tirelessly to create a better life instilled in me the belief that success is not just an aspiration, but an obligation.”

Starting in real estate ten years ago, I rose to become one of the top 500 brokers nationwide out of 2 million, closing in on $1 billion in sales. My entrepreneurial journey also led me to multiple successful tech startups and recognition in Forbes Magazine, Yahoo Finance, “Young Entrepreneur of the Year” by Buzzprize, and 35 under 35 by SRQ Magazine. Ranked among the top 1% of real estate agents, I take pride in building lasting relationships with clients and empowering others to reach their potential. mission To empower individuals and communities through resilient leadership, innovative entrepreneurship, and exceptional real estate expertise, transforming challenges into opportunities for lasting success and fulfillment, drawing from my own journey of overcoming adversity to inspire others to achieve their highest potential.

Adnan Dedic Compass Real Estate - Sarasota 1575 Main Street | Sarasota, FL 34236 941.726.2917 e: adnan.dedic@compass.com adnandedic.com | instagram: adnandedic

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2026 ELITE AGENTS

“I am genuinely passionate about bringing my client’s dreams to life! As a distinguished recipient of the Five Star Agent Award 5 years in a row, I have also been recognized in Forbes Magazine in 2020 and 2023, and Top Agent Magazine in 2024. I am truly committed to serving each client with exceptional personal, and first class service.”

JUDI TAULBEE

WHEN JUDI TAULBEE STEPPED INTO REAL ESTATE PARTTIME IN 2003, SHE LIKELY DIDN’T IMAGINE SHE WOULD ONE DAY BECOME ONE OF THE TOP-PRODUCING AGENTS IN THE REGION, INCLUDING AT FINE PROPERTIES.

Over the course of her career, Judi has assisted over 700 families in buying or selling their homes, generating $267,264,676 in total sales volume. She is currently ranked in the top 1% locally at #91 among more than 9,000 REALTORS® in Sarasota and Manatee Counties. Her work has been featured multiple times in Forbes and SRQ Magazine, most recently in Fortune magazine’s February/March 2026 issue, and 5 Star professional agent for 8 years, recognizing her as a leading real estate professional. For Judi, success has always been about more than recognition. When reflecting on what fueled her growth, she credits both technology and tenacity. Equally important is her work ethic and ability to manage the many moving parts of a transaction. The relationships she built over decades continue to generate referrals from people who know, like, and trust her. Behind every smooth closing is a team of professionals working in sync. Judi has spent years building a network of trusted vendors who align with her standards for communication, efficiency, and follow-through. By surrounding herself with experts who support both her business and her clients, she ensures that every detail, from inspections to repairs to financing, is handled with care. It’s a collaborative approach that protects her clients’ interests and strengthens the long-term relationships at the heart of her success. A proud Sarasota resident for 50 years, Judi was born in Miami before her family relocated in 1977. After earning a degree in criminology, she worked in mortgages, then obtained her real estate license in 2003. Judi is focused on real estate full-time, building a career rooted in meaningful relationships and results.

Judi Taulbee Fine Properties 5220 Paylor Lane Lakewood Ranch, FL 34240 941.544.6227 e: juditaulbee@gmail.com taulbeerealestate.com

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2026 ELITE AGENTS

HANNAH HERRIG A lifelong equestrian, Hannah Herrig delivers blue-ribbon service as a real estate advisor with the Laughlin Tanner Group at Premier Sotheby’s International Realty. In additionto being a farm and ranch specialist, Hannah’s business focuses on equestrian community development and the equine lifestyle.

Raised in Sarasota, Hannah attended the University of Florida, where

she studied agricultural education with a specialty in communication and leadership development and minored in wildlife ecology. After graduating, she worked as a corporate communications specialist at SUNZ Insurance while building TerraNova Equestrian Center in nearby Myakka City on the side. Eventually, Hannah transitioned to TerraNova full time. The equestrian destination is a world-class facility that hosts prestigious international equestrian competitions, and features The Estates at TerraNova, an exclusive enclave of luxury residences. Since becoming a licensed REALTOR® in 2022, Hannah has focused on building, branding, and marketing the equestrian development. Hannah’s background in communication and marketing, as well as her personal experience as an equestrian athlete, have been invaluable in creating the vision for the lifestyle within The Estates at TerraNova. It is her mission to bring people together to appreciate the beauty of the equine community at TerraNova and the natural splendor of Manatee County’s horse country. She is a member of the National Association of REALTORS®, Florida REALTORS®, and the REALTOR® Association of Sarasota and Manatee. Hannah resides in Myakka City and competes at the international level in dressage. Through The TerraNova Equestrian Foundation, she is involved in bringing a charitable component to the center’s events. Working with several area charities, the foundation helps address needs in the local community related to food insecurity, foster care, natural disaster relief, and therapeutic riding programs. mission: Creating outstanding results and value by delivering the

highest quality of service that exceeds the expectations of our clients —every transaction, every day.

Hannah Herrig Premier Sotheby’s International Realty 50 Central Avenue | Sarasota, FL 34236 941.213.0014 | e: Hannah.herrig@premiersir.com laughlintanner.com

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2026 ELITE AGENTS

Georgia Salaverri and Steven Windsor The Salaverri Windsor Group mission is to deliver unparalleled service, innovative marketing, and results-driven strategies in the Luxury Real Estate Market of Sarasota, Florida. We are committed to creating exceptional opportunities for our clients while building lasting relationships based on trust, integrity, and market knowledge. With our global perspective and local expertise, we connect our clients with the properties that meet their real estate needs and goals. Ranked among the top 1.5% of real estate teams nationwide by Real Trends Verified.

IN A MARKET WHERE TRUST IS THE MOST VALUABLE CURRENCY, Georgia Salaverri, Steven Windsor and their

team are known for informed guidance and enduring client relationships. As founders of the Salaverri Windsor Group at Compass, Georgia and Steven bring more than three decades of combined experience and knowledge of Sarasota’s neighborhoods, architecture, lifestyle and market. Their work includes representing homes West of Trail, Peninsula Sarasota on Golden Gate Point, residences across Sarasota’s barrier islands and other sought-after neighborhoods throughout Sarasota. Clients value their discretion, communication and ability to make complex decisions manageable. Georgia’s background in luxury hospitality with Le Méridien, Shangri-La and Four Seasons shaped her instinct for service, presentation and anticipating what clients need. “Real estate is deeply personal,” Georgia says. “Our clients place their trust in us during important moments, and we never take that responsibility lightly. The relationships we build matter just as much as the result.” Steven brings the discipline of a ballet career, performing in Lisbon, London and Tokyo before joining the Sarasota Ballet in 2010. His experience as a real estate investor gives him a practical perspective on value and long-term decisions. Together with their team, Georgia and Steven provide support from the first conversation through closing. With more than $450 M in career sales, the group earned RealTrends Verified recognition in 2026 and ranked No. 29 on the Tampa Bay Business Journal’s 2026 Who’s Who in Residential Real Estate teams list. They measure success through results, referrals and client relationships that continue long after closing.

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Georgia Salaverri and Steven Windsor REALM Member Compass Real Estate - Sarasota 1575 Main Street | Sarasota, FL 34236 941.260.6429 e: georgia.salaverri@compass.com salaverriwindsorgroup.com @salaverriwindsorgroup

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2026 ELITE AGENTS

“I’ve been selling homes for 16+ years in Manatee and Sarasota Counties, and have been recognized as one of the Top 1.5% of America’s top real estate professionals, RealTrends Verified 2026.”

Rebecca E. Zimmerman, PA Holding an MBA from Florida International University, where she graduated top five of her class, Rebecca

leverages her advanced business education to provide analytical insight, strategic negotiation, and a data-informed approach to every transaction. She is particularly skilled at collaborating with sellers to competitively position their residences for optimal results and guiding buyers through complex purchasing decisions with confidence, and always with some humor. “Integrity, fairness, and clear communication. To navigate challenging negotiations with discretion and professionalism, always grounded in objective market realities.”

MISSION

Rebecca E. Zimmerman, PA Premier Sotheby’s International Realty 8141 Lakewood Main Street, Suite 101 | Lakewood Ranch, FL 34211 | 941.224.4824 e: rebecca.zimmerman@premiersir.com | Instagram: Rebeccazimmerman732

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is to guide you successfully and easily through the contractual investment and emotional decisions involved in the real estate process. They are committed to providing you, your friends and family with superior service and expertise. The SGCH Team has surpassed over $1 Billion in real estate volume and has served over 1,700 families, with over 500 five-star reviews. Overall, the team ranks within America’s top 1.5% of real estate teams. This full-service team strives to modernize the experience of buying and selling real estate. They are your local knowledge brokers.

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forage LOCAL EPICUREAN ADVENTURES AT THE TABLE

A LITTLE SLICE OF SPAIN Alma de España brings Spanish favorites to the Hillview District. Andrew Fabian

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This spread, left to right: The xangurro showcases Chef Rodriguez’s fine dining panache, featuring crab stuffed inside smoky piquillo peppers.

THE AIR ALONG OSPREY AVENUE JUST GOT A WHOLE LOT MORE VIBRANT. Tucked into Sarasota’s bustling Hillview District, Alma de España brings an elevated, soul-stirring take on classic Spanish cuisine to a little commercial district with a big reputation. Co-owned by husband-and-wife duo Executive Chef Elier Rodriguez and Claudia Rodriguez, the restaurant is the culmination of a worldly culinary journey. Chef Rodriguez first learned the rhythm of the kitchen from his grandmother in Cuba—she was originally from Tenerife in Spain’s Canary Islands. He went on to refine his craft at culinary school in Atlanta before stepping onto the national stage.

His impressive résumé includes years at Julian Serrano’s legendary Picasso inside Las Vegas’s Bellagio, helping open Le Grande Boucherie in Miami and cooking at fine-dining staples in Washington, D.C., and California. It was his time at Santa Barbara’s Loquita, however, that inspired the ultimate vision for Alma de España: inventive, approachable Spanish tapas executed with fine-dining precision. The dining experience balances high-end artistry with deep-seated comfort. Most standout dishes come from Alma’s extensive tapas offerings. Like the wagyu beef carpaccio, a masterclass in layered flavors. Unctuous, rare wagyu beef slices are paired with saffron aioli, truffle-infused Manchego cheese PHOTOGRAPHY BY WYATT KOSTYGAN.

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and a pop of caviar. A subtle vinegary bite cuts through the rich umami, yielding a dish that feels both ultraluxurious and down-home satisfying. The croquetas de jamón are pure Spanish comfort. These golden-fried pastry bites are filled with smooth, creamy potato, rich Serrano and savory Ibérico ham, all served over a fragrant, garlicky aioli. Gambas al ajillo arrives piping hot in a mini cast-iron Dutch oven. It features shrimp gently cooked in a spicy, buttery tomato-and-garlic broth. Served with charred ciabatta, it demands to be soaked up to the last drop. Xangurro—the Basque word for a European crab—is an inventive nod to a northern Spanish dish. Instead of the more straightforward baked crab dish famous in San srq magazine_ OCT26 live local | 95

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This page, clockwise: A cool glass of white sangria leans more dry than sweet; Beef carpaccio is an exercise in umami; Garlicky with a bit of kick, the gambas al ajillo will hit the spot on a cool night.Alma de España, 1830 S Osprey Ave Ste 104, Sarasota, 941-365-8426, almatapasandgrill.com

Sebastian, Chef Rodriguez stuffs the flaky, well-seasoned crab meat back into a smoky piquillo pepper. The whole thing is topped with an intricate, lace-like crispy garnish that showcases the chef’s fine-dining flair. And finally, we come to the restaurant’s delightful paella offerings. Paella is both the name of the dish and the shallow, wide pan it’s cooked in. Each region of Spain has its own variation and preference for ingredients, and Alma offers three along with a rotating Chef’s paella of the week. Each one is cooked to order for parties of two or four. The Valenciana—Spain’s most famous variation of paella—is studded with chicken, chorizo, mushrooms and snap peas. The rice 14 | srq magazine_ OCT26 live local

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absorbs a fragrant saffron-and-sofrito base, making it just as prized as the juicy chicken thighs. Best of all, Rodriguez achieves the coveted socarrat—the crispy, caramelized layer of toasted rice at the bottom of the pan that savvy paella lovers will fight over. And while Alma de España is going for a slightly elevated version of these Spanish comfort-food favorites, warmth has not been sacrificed for sophistication. Order up a bottle of Rioja for an intimate date night for two. Or invite a few friends to share some tapas over a couple glasses of sangria (which Alma does especially well). Warm your hands, feed your soul. It’s a little slice of Spain in a little slice of Sarasota. SRQ PHOTOGRAPHY BY WYATT KOSTYGAN.

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THE FAMILY RECIPE When it came to reopening the iconic El Greco, it had to be a family affair. Dylan Campbell

WHEN GEORGE SOUBLIS RAN EL GRECO CAFE ON MAIN STREET FROM 1990 TO 2007, he would routinely work 18-20 hour days. During those hours spent toiling in the kitchen, Soublis, who’d moved to Sarasota from Philadelphia to retire after years in the restaurant business, wouldn’t turn to caffeine or anything else to keep him going. Soublis, who kept a cot in the office for long nights, would simply look at the wall, plastered with pictures of his family. “He would call us his power,” says daughter Patti Soublis Corcoran. “He would look at those pictures when he would get tired or overwhelmed. We were open from 7am to 10pm, which meant he got there at six in the morning and didn’t leave until 1am the next day.”

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This spread, left to right: The bowl with grilled salmon, herb rice, fried chickpeas and an assortment of fresh toppings; the mezze platter features a star in the spicy feta spread; the creamy avgolemono soup is the cure to any bad day; vegetarian dolmades bring a taste of Greece to Sarasota. El Greco Kitchen & Market, 941-373-9630, 4035 Clark Rd, Sarasota, elgrecokitchen.com.

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Soublis’s legacy of El Greco—one of the first three restaurants on downtown’s Main Street—lives on today. In April 2026, Patti Corcoran and her nephew Dimitri Syros, opened El Greco Kitchen and Market, a fastcasual version of the sit-down restaurant that became a Sarasota institution. Corcoran knew that the new El Greco wouldn’t be able to replace the monolithic scale of her father’s place, both in the actual square footage and the

that’s not how I remember the lamb shank.’ We felt confident in our ability to ‘play it safe’ with recipes that we’d tested throughout the years and continue to grow the menu based on people’s preferences.” Recreating the recipes to the original El Greco’s standard, however, was not always the easiest. Soublis, who passed in 2019, did not always leave exact specifications in his recipes. A “big spoonful of salt,” for instance,

One of the sidekick stars that is also offered in the market is the avgolemono soup. The Greek chicken lemon rice soup, Corcoran attests, is the panacea to all ailments. Sick, hungover or just had a bad day? Have some soup. The ingredients are simple—chicken, chicken stock, rice, lemon, black pepper and egg—but the magic comes from the technique. When Corcoran makes it in her own home, she sings a song her father taught her to get

scale of the menu. “Daddy had owned diners in Philadelphia, so in his mind, you had to offer everything at a restaurant,” says Corcoran. Together Corcoran and Syros—co-founder of The Breakfast Company—set about bringing back the El Greco name in a way that worked in 2026. Gone was the extensive menu with offerings that included pizza and cheesesteaks, replaced instead with a concept more akin to a Cava or Chipotle Mexican Grill. Diners choose from three main sections—pitas, bowls or plates—each with a choice of protein, chicken souvlaki, beef souvlaki or grilled salmon. Those proteins can be paired with a variety of sauces, most notably El Greco’s tzatziki, while the plates come with an assortment of Greek sides and bowls with bases such as herb rice and salad greens. In addition to the food offerings, there is also a small market, offering authentic imported Greek goods like soft drinks, beers, feta cheese and olive oil. “We thought to ourselves, what could we do to retain that authenticity that people associated with El Greco?” says Syros. “We wanted a format that would allow us to keep the integrity of the product and scale it up at our own pace. I didn’t want to bite off more than we could chew. I certainly didn’t want people to say, ‘oh that’s not El Greco’s food,

could have been a tablespoon or a ladle’s worth, depending on the scale of the serving. Developing the recipes to Soublis’ criterion, however, was critical, especially when there were certain non-negotiables on the menu. The tzatziki sauce, the house salad dressing—a red-wine vinaigrette based dressing that original customers would line up in droves for—Soublis’ marinades and methodology for preparing the meats all had to be up to snuff. That effort, those countless hours spent trying recipe after recipe, are well worth it upon first bite. Order the “pita” as a classic gyro, replete with the tender pork souvlaki layered with bright, acidic tzatziki sauce, red onion, tomato and cucumber. The souvlaki—a mixture of beef and lamb slow roasted on a rotating spit—is soft, delicate and well-seasoned. Encapsulated in a perfectly chewy pita bread, this Greek street food is a bite worth coming back for. El Greco Kitchen and Market is rife with sides, small plates and a variety of sauces. The horiatiki salad is a testament to what can happen when simple, high-quality ingredients are handled with care. A block of salty, crumbly feta cheese is drizzled with Greek olive oil and perched atop a bed of fresh vegetables such as beet, red onion, green bell pepper, pepperoncini, cucumber and tomato.

the consistency just right. At El Greco, the flavors sing on their own, an extremely bright, citrusy melody followed by a velvety smooth harmony, courtesy of the egg. On the mezze platter, the chicken kebob comes to life with a marinade that yields succulent, zesty meat that tastes of garlic and herbs. The spicy feta spread, especially when paired with bits of pita bread is an irresistible concoction, hot enough to make you second guess the next bite, but just too good to hold off. The vegetarian dolmades, a mixture of herbs and rice, wrapped in grape leaves, are lifted by a squeeze of lemon, making for savory, hearty bites. For those looking for a larger dish, try a bowl topped with flaky grilled salmon. The salmon sits upon a bed of that herb rice and salad greens, adorned with crunchy roasted chickpeas, olives, cucumber, pepperoncini and tomato. It’s a bowl that one can—and should—gorge themselves on, and yet still stay within their diet. Craving something sweet? El Greco’s baklava is downright heavenly. Flaky phyllo dough is baked atop layers of chopped nuts, the entire dish soaked in showers of golden honey. The dessert is decadent, sticky and unabashedly sugary, in the best of ways. SRQ

PHOTOGRAPHY BY WES ROBERTS.

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MATCHA, THREE WAYS

A mobile trailer, a strip-mall coffee bar and a gluten-free bakery cafe prove Sarasota’s matcha moment goes beyond your average green latte. Sarah Emily Miano MATCHA IS POWDERED GREEN TEA, STONE-GROUND FROM SHADE-GROWN LEAVES AND WHISKED INTO WATER OR MILK UNTIL IT FOAMS JADE GREEN. Japanese tea masters have prepared it this way since the 12th century, in grades ranging from delicate

to robust. When matcha first showed up on Sarasota coffee menus, it was often a single latte option wedged between the flat white and the chai. Then consumers started rethinking caffeine. Gen Z gravitated toward matcha for its steady lift and discovered that the layered green drinks looked striking on camera. Gen X found the health research compelling. TikTok and Insta took over. U.S. retail sales surged 86 percent between 2021 and 2024. By late 2025, the #matcha had crossed sixteen billion views. Three spots across Sarasota-Lakewood Ranch take matcha seriously, each with a distinct approach. 100 | srq magazine_ OCT26 live local

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PHOTOGRAPHY BY WES ROBERTS.

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Opposite page, clockwise: Kita Matcha’s Blackberry Pie matcha; Root and Seed Bakery’s Double Cream Cinnamon matcha latte and gluten-free matcha cookie; Palma Coffee’s Kokoro Cloud matcha. Palma Coffee, 7362 S. Tamiami Trail, Sarasota, 941-923-9923, palmacoffee.com; Root and Seed, 8209 Natures Way, Suite 107, Lakewood Ranch, 941-362-2006, rootandseed.com; Kita Matcha, Mobile bar, Sat at Sarasota Farmers Market; Wed & Fri at Pacific Rim, kitamatcha.com

YOU COULD DRIVE PAST PALMA COFFEE WITHOUT NOTICING. Co-owners Amanda Govic and Manuel Montenegro describe their own address, tucked inside Coral Cove Mall on South Tamiami Trail, as “obscure.” Inside, tropical-retro decór with mint and orange accents creates a beachy listening lounge. Pale wooden crates hold vinyls from Habibi Funk to Brazilian Samba. Palma sources spring-harvest ceremonial grade from Kagoshima, Japan, through a wholesaler that buys straight from growers. Japanese tencha trading prices across regions climbed 265 percent in the last two years, making that level of sourcing increasingly competitive. “We don’t skimp on our matcha,” Govic says. Order the Kokoro Cloud, which begins with a glass of coconut water. On top: a matcha float made with coconut milk and pineapple salt syrup, pulled through an ISI pressurized whipper, finished with lava salt and toasted coconut flakes. “People love the visuals of just clear, with a green cloud over it,” Govic says. When the Adriatic Summer pops up on the seasonal board, it’s an instant social media hit: a smooth layer of lavender-blueberry sauce beneath matcha, capped with lemon cream. While the matcha has gained traction, the cafe formed its reputation from single-origin espresso and Kyoto cold brew. Montenegro grew up in Colombia. “We drink coffee from very early on,” he says. “It’s part of our identity.” He and Govic met while she was living in Sarasota and he was in Miami, connecting somewhere along I-75 on weekends. They got engaged, moved to California and planned trips around coffeehouses and record stores. Montenegro, an aircraft technician, says, “COVID was a pivoting point. If planes don’t fly, they don’t need parts.” The couple ran an e-commerce coffee business while hunting for a space until opening Palma in 2022. The attention happened organically. “People come here, take a picture,” Montenegro says. The emphasis is not only on tasting good but on looking good. Everything we put out.” ROOT AND SEED BAKERY IN SAN MARCO PLAZA, LAKEWOOD RANCH, OPENED NEARLY TWO YEARS AGO. Earth-toned walls, botanical touches and softly curved seating make the space feel like your stylish friend’s Scandi living room. Owner Irem Meric trained as a veterinarian in Istanbul and later attended culinary school, studying traditional Turkish pastry and bread. Then her undiagnosed celiac disease demanded a new direction. “I had to change my whole lifestyle,” Meric says. She turned to yoga and Ayurvedic eating, and altered how she baked: no gluten; no refined sugar; olive oil instead of butter; dates, maple and fruit paste for sweetness. Online courses from the UK and the US taught her new techniques in plant-based cooking. But, really, her menu grew out of experimentation. “I wanted to make something with clean ingredients that’s also delicious,” Meric says. The kitchen operates plant-based and certified gluten-free. Many regulars come for the avocado toast, served on buckwheat bread that Meric makes from red buckwheat seeds, psyllium husk, water and olive oil. It’s spread with a fresh whipped cashew cream cheese, “just fermented cashew, probiotics, fiber. And salt and lemon.”

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The matcha to order: Double Cream Cinnamon latte made with vanilla cashew cream and cinnamon, poured over oat milk, served hot or iced. Meric sources single-origin matcha from Uji, Japan, through a direct importer. “Many coffee shops choose barista-grade matcha, designed mainly for lattes,” she says. “We use tea-grade ceremonial matcha that is high enough quality to be enjoyed on its own.” For maximum matcha, order the baked version: “a matcha latte that decided to become a cookie,” Meric says. An oven-friendly matcha keeps its green color and intensifies the flavor. Her flour blends are mixed in-house from brown rice, tapioca, sorghum and millet, sweetened with coconut sugar, and made with coconut oil and yogurt. No allergen symbols clutter the menu for guests. “They came here,” Meric says. “So they know they can get anything.” KITA REILLY OF KITA MATCHA STARTED MAKING MATCHA AT HOME FOR HER HUSBAND, BRYAN, AFTER HIS DOCTOR SUGGESTED GREEN TEA FOR ELEVATED TRIGLYCERIDES INSTEAD OF MEDICATION. Studies link matcha’s catechins, particularly one called EGCG, to cardiovascular support. L-theanine, an amino acid, slows caffeine absorption and steadies alertness without the crash. Reilly blended flavored versions to soften the grassiness Bryan didn’t love: strawberry first, then blueberry, then whatever fruit she had on hand. Friends tried some. They wanted more. Bryan suggested a truck, and Kita Matcha was born. “You pop up in different places and people follow you,” says Reilly, who likes the flexibility around parenting. “You set your own hours, time and day.” Kita’s cream-colored mobile bar has retro charm with a single nostalgic color: fittingly, green. But Reilly’s connection to food predates the trailer by decades. Her mom is Lao; her dad, Thai, and her family runs Pacific Rim, where she worked from age 14. Owner and cousin Veth helps at the Sarasota Farmers’ Market on Saturday mornings, while Reilly pops up at the restaurant on Wednesdays and Fridays. The matcha hails from Uji, Japan, an Okumidori cultivar grown by a third-generation organic tea farmer who ships it once a month. The tea comes from the season’s first spring harvest. “Mine is very clean,” she says. “Not as grassy.” She purees real fruit into her syrups with minimal organic raw sugar, skipping gums entirely. Recent collaborations have paired her with Sarasota Honey Company for a blueberry lavender latte made with French lavender honey, and with 5-0 Donuts for a matchaand-cake-donut mashup riffing on the matcha dots trend. Order Kita’s Blackberry Pie Matcha: organic ceremonial matcha combined with a housemade blackberry vanilla pie syrup, finished with your choice of dairy or oat milk. The syrup tastes like cooked blackberries rather than candy, putting matcha at the center. Bryan’s triglyceride levels dropped enough that he never needed medication. “His doctor says it’s because of the matcha,” Reilly says. “But we’re not scientists.” SRQ

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Below: Kava Social Club’s Berry Bombora with kava, strawberry and coconut milk. Kava Social Club, 540 13th Street West, Bradenton, 941-720-8306, thekavasocialclub.com.

ONE MORE SHELL Bradenton’s round-the-clock kava lounge. Sarah Emily Miano SARA LEWIS AND HER PARTNER RYAN BODIE COFOUNDED KAVA SOCIAL CLUB IN DOWNTOWN BRADENTON IN 2019, inspired by St. Petersburg’s

kinetic but under-the-radar kava bar scene. “There were not a whole lot of third space options at night,” Lewis says, who lived there at the time. “It was just bars. Alcohol seemed to be the center. Culturally we use alcohol when we’re celebrating, mourning, meeting casually, when we’re doing business, on dates. It’s ubiquitous.” THE FIRST VISIT TO A KAVA BAR SCRAMBLED LEWIS’S EXPECTATIONS. Among the people chatting were a grandma writing a novel on her laptop, an older man in lingerie who popped in twice a day and a local clergy member. It felt like the setup to a classic joke, says Lewis. “I thought, okay, kava definitely is not like alcohol in that regard, if they’re drinking it all day and coming back later to hang out.” Lewis and Bodie’s venture began as a mobile truck parked wherever people gathered, “demystifying and informing” folks about South Pacific botanicals. Third spaces have grown harder to find locally, even as more people seek them out. “That social connection is something people still crave,” Lewis says, highlighting isolation during lockdown. “To commune and have time to socialize.” Kava Social Club operates 24/7, 365 days a year, in a 5,000-square-foot space. Bodie, the creative director, bypassed sleek minimalism for a laid-back, beachy aesthetic. Outside, a 1,000-square-foot tiki hut opens onto a patio that, as Lewis puts it, “feels like your best friend’s lanai,” with tables, chairs, couches, a pool table, TV and giant Jenga. The atmosphere honors kava’s South Pacific origins, where the root (Piper methysticum) has been prepared for centuries. In Fiji, kava is central to both ceremony and social life, traditionally served in a half-coconut shell called a bilo. At the club’s counter, baristas 102 | srq magazine_ OCT26 live local

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follow the traditional Fijian preparation: kneading raw kava root powder through a fine mesh strainer submerged in cold, purified water. Liquid emerging from the bag “almost looks like crema when you are pulling an espresso shot,” Lewis says, “ever so slightly foamy.” A house rule governs the prep: “You’re not allowed to make the kava if you’re in a bad mood. You’re infusing it with love and good intention.” The first shell—a coconut-shaped bowl—is always on the house. Straight kava tastes earthy and peppery, delivering a signature tongue-tingling numbness from active kavalactones. (“Like a mud puddle looks,” Lewis warns, to cushion newcomers.) For gentler introductions, the bar shakes up island-inspired specialties. The bright pink Berry Bombora adds strawberry and coconut milk to smooth out any bitterness; the Hang Loose with Ghirardelli caramel sips sweet and buttery. Shore Break is the popular chai version, while Dawn Patrol combines kava with sweet cream cold brew. But sooner or later, Lewis says, everybody ends up drinking “OG”—straight kava, no additional flavors. Espresso, locally sourced kombucha and exotic teas fill out the menu for guests who come for the room rather than the root. Like choosing a coffee roast, guests can tailor selections to their intended mindset. The club rotates nine regional kava strains, primarily from Fiji and Vanuatu. Lighter varieties like

Kalo-Kalo offer buoyant worktime focus; heavier ones melt away physical tension after a long day. “Kava is active on GABA receptors,” promoting a sense of comfort and calm, Lewis explains. She brought an insider’s perspective to the menu. As a pharmaceutical formulation scientist, she understood the mechanics of conventional medicine. But navigating that same system as a patient felt like being on a conveyor belt. Disillusioned with prescription meds, she turned to plant remedies to manage stress. “As I got older, I wanted to understand if there were other options for anxiety treatment,” she says. Kava use comes with few of alcohol’s costs—or baggage. “Kava makes you chatty and noticeably more sociable, but you’re not impaired. There’s no recovery, no hangover, no side effects,” according to Lewis. “You remember the names of the friends you met, and you wake up early the next day to go to the beach.” The root gained further domestic standing in December 2025, when the FDA clarified that single-ingredient kava steeped in water qualifies as a conventional food under federal law. “We’re not serving people a dietary supplement anymore,” she says. “We’re serving them a food.” The New Yorker recently asked whether the bar experience could survive without booze. Open around the clock, Bradenton’s liveliest spirit-free lounge offers a compelling answer. SRQ PHOTOGRAPHY BY WES ROBERTS.

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ENGAGING READERS THROUGH STORYTELLING

In

NONPROFIT INNOVATORS GUIDING OUR REGION

Conversation

NONPROFIT INNOVATORS A CONVERSATION WITH YOLANDA MANCHA, MANATEE COMMUNITY FOUNDATION AND ADAM EHLERT, YOLANDA MANCHA Vice President of Philanthropy, Manatee Community Foundation

BOTH OF YOUR ORGANIZATIONS CREATE LASTING COMMUNITY VALUE. WHICH ARE YOU MOST PROUD OF? ADAM EHLERT: Our lasting impact and value is built in the environmental preservation of the grounds. We’re so proud of that and we bolster that with educational programming around horticulture with things like edible education, conservation and some wellness elements like horticulture therapy, yoga and Reiki. We marry those together with art with our 24 pieces in our permanent collection plus a seasonal rotating exhibition. YOLANDA MANCHA: Community foundations by design are created for the long game. From the moment we’re founded, we’re meant to last forever—we’re here for perpetuity. For Manatee Community Foundation (MCF), the longest-lasting impact is that it is now and forever. It’s not just part of our tagline and our mission statement; it really is at the core of everything we do. We’re here to support the community not just for the needs of today, but for whatever should happen in the future.

PEACE RIVER BOTANICAL & SCULPTURE GARDENS

WHAT ARE THE BIGGEST CHALLENGES NONPROFIT ORGANIZATIONS LIKE YOURS ARE FACING TODAY, AND HOW ARE YOU ADAPTING TO MEET THEM? MANCHA: The nonprofit sector right now is challenged by real, perceived or anticipated funding cuts. So it’s really hard for organizations like MCF to plan when there’s so much uncertainty and there are so many shifting dynamics in that space. For us as a foundation to help support our nonprofits, we really are in the space of convening, talking about and acting as a resource in capacity building to help organizations be able to navigate those challenges and those ebbs and flows that happen cyclically. It’s not new to right now. It just happens to be at the moment. EHLERT: Our best asset is also our biggest challenge. We love the fact that we are preserving these nearly 30 acres in Charlotte County, but physically we’re spread across those grounds and our operating and maintenance needs are pretty significant.

ADAM EHLERT Chief Development Officer, Peace River Botanical & Sculpture Gardens

It can also be a bit taxing on our guests, as we park at one end and then try to traverse the 27 acres. Folks want to see it all, of course, but it’s sometimes hot, sometimes rainy, and on the other side of that coin, nobody’s in a hurry when they’re visiting a botanical garden. It’s so much fun to see our guests interacting at their own pace and asking questions or not and just being happy to be there, enjoying the thoughts that are provoked by the sculptures. Similarly, we’re proud that our staff is awfully attentive, as we see guests who may be struggling with the heat and we have a significant contingency who may be seniors, so we’re very well tuned into that. YOLANDA, WHAT CHALLENGES IN MANATEE COUNTY DO YOU SEE AS MOST URGENT RIGHT NOW? MANCHA: Manatee County is the largest growing county in our region. We are growing at a rapid rate and that’s no surprise. It’s been happening for quite a while. Anybody who drives down our streets or travels from the

Lakewood Ranch side to Anna Maria or even Parrish, Palmetto and Ellenton can see what’s happening. With that growth comes a lot of opportunities but also a lot of challenges. Affordable housing continues to be an issue regionwide. Another area that we’ve taken a leadership role in is what we call opportunity youth. These are young people ages 18 to 24 who might be unemployed, underemployed, not furthering their education or in a postgraduate kind of track and are a bit detached from what’s happening in our community—not really optimizing on their potential. We as convenors have really started those conversations with partners to look at how this affects the region, not just those individuals, but what does that do for economic drivers? What does that do for health and safety? What does that do for growth in the community? And how do we start addressing things like this preventively? These are the young people that may be graduating without a plan for what’s next. These might be young

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IN C ON VERSAT I ON YOLANDA MANCHA joined Manatee Community Foundation as the Foundation’s inaugural Vice President of Philanthropy in October of 2024. Before that, she was the Vice President of Advancement for Boys & Girls Clubs of Sarasota and DeSoto Counties, having joined the organization in 2016 as the agency’s Director of Advancement and named Vice President for Advancement in 2019. With over 25 years of professional experience, Mancha has led the execution of resource development strategies, marketing and communications, community engagement, and donor and corporate relations. At MCF, Mancha is part of the Executive Leadership team and leads the Philanthropy team - se ing strategy and priorities for growth and impact. She works closely with donors to discover what inspires them, explores how best they want to invest in the community, and works with stakeholders and partner organizations to amplify their impact. Professional Affiliations Charitable Gi Planners of Southwest Florida, Board Member, 2026 Harwood Institute Public Innovators, 2026 45 over 45, Sarasota Magazine, 2025 CHIEF, 2024 Boys & Girls Clubs of America, National Conference Steering Commi ee, 2023 The Greater Sarasota Chamber of Commerce, Alumni Commi ee, 2022, 2023 Lilly Family School of Philanthropy, Leadership Institute, 2020 Leadership Sarasota, Class of 2016 Sarasota Women’s Alliance. Member Association of Fundraising Professionals Southwest Florida Chapter, Member Charitable Gi Planners of Southwest Florida, Member

SRQ MAGAZINE | TRENDS IN NONPROFIT INNOVATORS GUIDING OUR REGION

people who are aging out of the foster care system, where when one service stops and the next one starts, there are gaps, and when there are gaps, things fall through. For us, it’s an important thing to be that community convenor and to be in that leadership space. It’s looking at the longevity and the tentacles that really are the fabric of the community. We bring partners together so that we can address these things preventatively, holistically and in the right sense of partnership, as opposed to solving problems that are already here. ADAM, TELL US ABOUT THE VISION OF INCLUDING SCULPTURES WITHIN THE GARDENS AND HOW THE TWO COMBINE TO ENHANCE THE BEAUTY OF THE PROPERTY. EHLERT: I’m still amazed at Roger and Linda Tetrault’s vision so many years ago in how it works, one for the guest experience and two, how it keeps us unique and ever-changing. We’ve had some world-class exhibitions like ZimSculpt, which brought a troop of sculptors from Zimbabwe over. They were on site creating, and it provided a neat interaction and really helped position us relative to our mission of world-class art. From that, we had a seasonal exhibition of the Charley Harper Gallery. Then again last year, Origami in the Gardens and this year with Jerzy Kędziora. It really helps that the botanicals keep changing each day and these sculptures keep changing each season. That provides a new experience for our guests, and programmatically we try to reinforce that and provide a new experience each time. It’s such fun to walk the grounds and see people smiling and recognizing a new plant or sculpture or seeing a new bird perched on a new sculpture. It’s just ever-changing. CAN YOU SHARE AN EXAMPLE OF A PARTNERSHIP THAT SIGNIFICANTLY EXPANDED YOUR ORGANIZATION’S IMPACT? EHLERT: We’ve got a beautiful boardwalk that juts out into the Peace River, about a hundred

yards and we’ve got a beautiful gazebo on that boardwalk. We have a new partnership with Advent Health and that gazebo is now called the Advent Health Tranquility Gazebo. It’s designed to reinforce that calm, safe space. The concept’s inception was to work with Advent’s ministerial staff for families going through tough transitions. We want to be able to provide a tranquil place for reflection and we have a beautiful new bench that’s being designed for that gazebo. Also, in February we had a fun partnership event at our first-ever Art in Bloom, which connected the floral and botanical garden with the sculpture element of our space. We reached out to local garden clubs and local florists and invited them to participate. They were each assigned a sculpture and then built or created a floral arrangement around that sculpture. We had about a dozen of those scattered throughout the gardens and we made a day of it. We added a fashion show with dresses designed with flowers or botanical elements and we had a wine walk where folks could purchase a cup and drink a glass of wine as they looked at the sculptures throughout. It was really a neat combination of what we do. It was totally mission-aligned, and we look forward to building upon this first one for the next year. And although this is more donorrelated, rather than a partnership, we also have a couple of capital projects underway. We received our first two $1 million gifts and those are funding an education center and a conservatory, which is coming online before that. That’s in the design stage right now—we hope to break ground in the next several months and that’s really helped in putting us on the map. MANCHA: Yes, it’s actually part of our origin story and every community foundation is always very proud of their origin story. For Manatee Community Foundation, it was through a partnership with the Knight Foundation. We were founded by the three Bobs— Bob Blalock, Bob Beall and Bob Christopher, who we lost this

:: OCTOBER 2026

year—together with Dot Ridings, who was the publisher of The Bradenton Herald. They all came together and thought that Manatee needed its own foundation, and they were invested in making it happen. Together with the Knight Foundation from the sale of the papers—Bradenton was one of the original 26 U.S. cities where the Knight brothers owned newspapers—there was an investment that really catapulted the whole idea, and that is how we came to be. We remain very close partners and friends with the Knight Foundation, which continues to support the work in this community. AS LEADERS, HOW DO YOU BALANCE PRESERVING YOUR ORGANIZATION’S LONG-TERM VISION WITH RESPONDING TO IMMEDIATE COMMUNITY NEEDS AND UNEXPECTED CHALLENGES? EHLERT: We’re an outside venue and we are ensconced in the environment, and that’s also kind of a liability. After hurricanes Ian and then Helene and Milton, we were hit really hard. We were flooded and lost thousands of plants and a whole bunch of infrastructure. But through, frankly, our ability to conduct events, we were able to rally and we opened the gardens as a local avenue for food, for medical care and for hygiene and we did it because it was necessary and because it was the right thing at the right time. We couldn’t even think about rehabbing our gardens yet. We made it accessible and folks could come in and through the course of those events we served almost 10,000 meals and provided resources that Punta Gorda didn’t have and so we were really proud of that. After each recovery, we then pivoted to replacing and replanting our plants and then launching fundraising drives to ensure our viability. That was three and four years ago and we were even younger then. I think it helped establish us further as a good community asset. MANCHA: MCF is exactly positioned to support current needs, but also to have the

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IN C ON VERSAT I O N

ADAM EHLERT is Peace River Botanical & Sculpture Gardens’ Chief Development Officer. A er two decades in minor league baseball (as an owner, not an athlete), he’s combined his community engagement and small business promotion affinities toward philanthropy. He has vacationed in southwest Florida all his life and made the full-time move from the Midwest last year. Ehlert joined The Gardens on the cusp of a strong growth curve and enjoys continuing to improve the nonprofit’s donor processes and engagement. The author of two books, Ehlert appreciates the storytelling arc of The Gardens’ vision, inception and growth. Fulfilling Peace River Botanical & Sculpture Gardens’ mission through working with the board, volunteers and donors and the rest of the dedicated staff is his reward every day in this beautiful se ing.

SRQ MAGAZINE | TRENDS IN NONPROFIT INNOVATORS GUIDING OUR REGION

nimbleness and the flexibility to address uncertainty, and that’s really just built into the way that we do our work. We make grants for immediate needs when those happen. We really fill in that space of if not us, then who? We try to address community challenges that affect the region, that affect all the sectors, or a combination of sectors. That’s really the space that we’re meant to be playing in and that we’re uniquely positioned to do. Our nonprofit partners have to stay true to their mission. They need to continue to do the work that they are chartered to do, and our work is to support those things. So, we’re able to be flexible by design so that we can let them do the work that they need to do. HAVE YOU NOTICED A CHANGE IN LOCAL DONOR AND GENERAL GIVING DIRECTLY RELATED TO WORLD EVENTS? MANCHA: Absolutely. There’s an immediate need, an immediate concern and folks who are philanthropic and who are mindful of that will double down on support for things that are emerging and timely. I will share that we just recently surveyed our fund holders, and overwhelmingly, there’s a very solid commitment to those enduring things that really enhance quality of life. Our fund holders are prioritizing youth and education, animal and wildlife protection, our environment and health and human services. Those are the things that, regardless of what emerging issue happens, are the mainstays, and our fund holders are very well committed to ensuring that those things still receive the support that they need. They also know how human quality is at the core of anything that can happen. So if you take care of children, animals, the environment and the vulnerable with food and housing, then all the other things can be addressed. But if you shift too much too fast and just address the immediate need, then those other things start to suffer and crumble. EHLERT: We see more affinity with donors about the conservation issue and that helps reinforce our message. I think

we’re seeing a growing constituency of our donors who are committed to that, and then the additional fundraising opportunity really comes from the unique marriage of conservation with art. We’re able to tap into two different groups. We have some members and some donors who are art lovers and we have some members and donors who are conservationists. And it’s really fun to be able to identify those folks and hit their needs and meet them where they are. ARE TRADITIONAL FUNDRAISING EVENTS STILL EFFECTIVE? EHLERT: We are blessed to be able to conduct our two principal fundraising events on site each year. It keeps us out of the boring hotel ballroom gala events business. One of our two signature events takes place in the fall or early winter and that’s called an Orchid Ovation. It’s a luncheon right there on the lawn in front of our building and it’s a lovely event. We themed both events surrounding our rotating seasonal exhibition. Last year, that was called Origami in the Gardens, and we had 13 pieces of giant aluminum or steel origami pieces spread throughout. This year, the exhibition is called Elevate, and it’s by a Polish artist named Jerzy Kędziora and we will have 30 pieces. We’re just gushing as we talk about this because they are literally 30 pieces elevated on high wires. So it looks like they’re tailored to be in a botanical garden juxtaposed against the trees, the botanicals, the sky and the water. They are like circus or trapeze artists, athletes or just everyday people set in a unique position. Our theme for both Orchid Ovation and then our soirée in March, which is an evening event built around that. I wish I could say the name but we’ve got a significant local headliner committed for the March soirée, which will be moving, inspiring and thrilling all at the same time. MANCHA: Our local community is so socially philanthropic. I think it’s a beautiful thing. People love to celebrate their missions. People love to gather for good causes and it’s really in-

:: OCTOBER 2026

spiring. Some fundraising events have become really creative and innovative and it’s quite exciting to see, and it certainly builds a lot of momentum and buzz. But when we work with our nonprofit partners on capacity building and diversifying their revenue and making sure that they’re sustainable and strategic, it’s always a reminder that a fundraising event is not for the event, but it really is an opportunity to showcase a mission. It’s an opportunity to introduce people to who you are and what you’re doing and how important it is, but it’s what happens after the event that’s most important. It’s that follow up with those folks that came and showed interest. It’s the invitation to come learn more, come for a tour or a visit if appropriate. The fundraising event itself is awesome. It’s a great intro, but it’s what happens after that’s really where the magic happens. WHAT NEW TOOLS OR INNOVATIVE PROGRAMS ARE YOU EMPLOYING TO ENGAGE AND DEEPEN RELATIONSHIPS WITH DONORS? MANCHA: One of the things that MCF has launched this year that we’re excited about and getting wonderful feedback from our fund holders is The Giving Gallery. It’s an online catalog of opportunities and projects available for investment. It features nonprofit partners, capital projects, program related requests, and a variety of different things that are already vetted by MCF. These are things we’re investing in through competitive grants. We’re putting it out to our fund holders and also to the public at large to allow them to see the things that are happening in our community, not just needs-based, but some of them also very innovative in their approach, things that people might get excited about investing in and come alongside of us. We’ve vetted it. We know these are projects that are qualified, sustainable, important and impactful. We’re investing in it ourselves so it gives it the credibility to come alongside us and make these things happen for our community. We talk a lot

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IN C ON VERSAT I ON about co-investing because we know that the needs are far greater than anyone’s asset ability. If we come together—foundations with donors with fund holders—we can really start checking some of these projects off and move on to the next thing, the next exciting, innovative and necessary thing to be able to sustain. Our giving gallery is really one of the things we’re proud of this year. Every quarter we’ll be updating the projects that are listed on there and we’ll have a rotation. We called it the gallery for that reason because we’re thinking of it as a rotating exhibit of opportunities for investment. EHLERT: Our best stewardship touch happens in early January. We create an annual impact report, and we celebrate our donors by describing how their gifts have helped impact the gardens or the community. For instance, subsidizing free field trips, but my favorite part of that is we don’t just mail that. We place it with a plant that we’ve created in the gardens and we hand-deliver it. It’s mission-oriented and it fosters conversations. We’re able to sit down with these donors, thank them for what they’ve done this past year and then, just as importantly, talk about our plans for the coming year. When donors are already invested to that level and love our mission, they want to hear what’s coming. They want to hear how they can help. I can’t tell you how many new projects or points of inspiration have come up from those conversations. It clicks with a donor and they say, “That’s something I’d like to be a part of. Let’s make it happen.” It’s meaningful, it’s fun and logistically, it’s a lot of work, but it’s absolutely invaluable for what we do. LOOKING AHEAD FIVE TO TEN YEARS, WHAT DO YOU HOPE YOUR ORGANIZATION WILL HAVE ACCOMPLISHED FOR THE COMMUNITIES YOU SERVE? EHLERT: We’d like to reinforce our position as being known for our botanicals. Beyond that, we hope to grow our educational programming, especially field trips. We’re really proud that we serve about

SRQ MAGAZINE | TRENDS IN NONPROFIT INNOVATORS GUIDING OUR REGION

3,000 students annually on field trips and we create programming for each built around our themes of ecology and/or art. In Charlotte County and neighboring DeSoto County, we’ve got a whole bunch of students who are Title I, and we are proud to be able to offer those field trips and programs and, hopefully, moving forward, summer camps and Christmas break camps that are built around such. We want to be the resource for that in the area. MANCHA: In five or ten years we would love to see our endowment continue to grow and that we are continuously able to address the current needs, and have the flexibility and nimbleness and possibility to address the things that come online. We want to continue to build that foundation for the future together with our donors and our fund holders and our nonprofit partners. ARE YOU UTILIZING AI TECHNOLOGY IN YOUR DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMS AND IF SO, WHAT HAS BEEN YOUR ROI? IF NOT, WHAT TECH ARE YOU EMPLOYING AND WHY? MANCHA: I think realistically, everybody’s using AI whether they intentionally mean to or not. So, yes, we have embraced AI. We are using AI in terms of efficiency and processes—things that help us automate the way that we do our work, calendar things, those kinds of technical pieces. AI also allows us to have more time outward-facing with our donors, fund holders, community partners and our nonprofits. It allows us to maintain transparency and compliance and it also allows us to get out and do the work that we really want to do and not be tied down to tasks. We encourage responsible, informed use of AI across all of our platforms, even with our nonprofit partners—being safe with the information they’re putting out. One of the things that we do for capacity building for our nonprofit partners is a learning series called Manatee Connects; using AI and amplifying the tools in your toolkit are definitely one of the sessions in that series. EHLERT: Not really in

programs, but we do use a significant amount of AI internally for structure and communications and capacity building, but really all of our programming and all of our external donor cultivation communications are 100% human-driven. We want to maintain that connection, and I think people can tell the difference. YOLANDA, HOW DO YOU MEASURE THE SUCCESS OR IMPACT OF THE PROGRAMS YOU FUND? MANCHA: As we continue to promote grant opportunities for our nonprofits and invest in their projects, ideas and mission, we really look at the trends of what we’re seeing. For example, we look at the issues that we’re trying to address. Different nonprofits are going to approach it in different ways, but collectively, are we moving the needle? Collectively, or are we making an impact? Several organizations may address literacy. They approach it differently, but if we’re collectively looking at reading outcomes and what the improvements are and what difference it makes, then we can say collectively, we’re moving the needle in the right direction. Funding and grant-making for us is much more than just the one time. It’s really looking at where all those cohorts are together. Where is that impact happening together? How it inspires further philanthropy, which is very important to us. We want to make sure that we continue to educate and inspire on philanthropy. HOW IS SOCIAL MEDIA IMPACTING YOUR ORGANIZATION AND IN WHAT WAYS ARE YOU EMPLOYING IT TO EXPAND YOUR DONOR BASE? EHLERT: We do use social media. Of course it’s growing and we’re trying to do a better job of engaging that. We have countless opportunities for world-class photography in our environment and we’ve got a really talented photographer on staff, and he makes a pointed effort to walk the grounds each day and he can produce museum-quality art, and that bolsters our social media quite a

:: OCTOBER 2026

bit. Everyday things like programming pictures, volunteers working in the gardens, pictures of kids on field trips, pictures of painters and sculptors working on the grounds—it’s just fun to be able to engage that way. MANCHA: We use social media just to make sure that people are aware of the impactful work that we’re doing and that our partners are doing, mostly to share stories about our fund holders who have left endowed funds and how their legacy lives on and how we are so honored and fortunate to be able to execute that on their behalf. We use it to share stories of our nonprofit partners and some of the things that we are really proud to invest in and help bring to fruition. We use it to invite our community partners to those learning sessions with Manatee Connects. Finally, we really use it as a way to invite people to understand who we are, to see the impact and to come and hang out with us and do this with us because it’s fun. ADAM, WHAT IS THE MOST IMPORTANT THING YOU’D LIKE VISITORS TO THE PEACE RIVER BOTANICAL & SCULPTURE GARDENS TO TAKE HOME WITH THEM FOLLOWING THE EXPERIENCE? EHLERT: We were founded by Roger and Linda Tetrault, and we are blessed to see their commitment to conserving the grounds in Charlotte County and also marrying their love of world travel and worldclass art into our experience. Part of their vision was that they wanted each guest to come away with five wow moments upon each visit and so our staff is committed to being able to showcase that, whether it’s a weekly member who visits or a first-timer coming from Naples or from Sarasota. Dayto-day, something new is always blooming here.

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LOCAL PERSPECTIVES ON HEALTH AND WELLNESS

This page: Katherine Hermes, owner of SRQ Med Spa.

wellness

A NEW APPROACH TO HEALING

Peptides have become one of the fastest-growing trends in health and longevity—not just weight loss. Olivia Fanders

PHOTOGRAPHY BY WYATT KOSTYGAN.

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wellness

This spread, left to right: Meka Schurr serves as the wellness specialist at Wellness Realm. Peptides treatment at Reveal Vitality

Peptides have become increasingly popular in the Sarasota area for more than just weight loss and anti-aging. The process uses short chains of amino acids to restore and speed up certain biological processes, such as tissue repair and collagen production. Many clinicians and doctors warn against using unregulated substances bought on the market, but a wide variety of locations in the Sarasota area offer peptide treatments in a safe and approved manner. One such place is Wellness Realm, a functional medicine clinic specializing in peptide therapy. The clinic’s trained nurses all came from traditional medicine backgrounds, but now focus on finding the root cause of illness. That search led them to peptide therapy. “What fascinated us about them is their ability to shapeshift and act as signaling 110 | srq magazine_ OCT26 live local

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molecules in the body to help support healing, recovery, metabolism, immune function and overall resilience,” Meka Schurr, Wellness Realm’s wellness specialist, explains. “We really saw it as another tool that we could use to help bridge that gap between feeling unwell and truly thriving.” Schurr highlights that peptide therapy is incredibly effective for improving sleep, inflammation, and nervous system regulation. “Many peptides work to encourage the body's own natural process rather than forcing a specific outcome,” she says. “I have seen people's inflammatory markers come down tremendously—when you reduce inflammation, neurotransmitters can make connections faster and hormones can respond properly.” However, rather than prescribing the same treatment to every

patient, Wellness Realm clinicians are careful to find the peptides that their clients really need. They start with a comprehensive intake process, with questionnaires, consultations and sometimes testing. Then, they find the best treatment to reach the patient’s goals. “There’s no one-size-fits-all,” Schurr emphasizes. “We really look at every person as an individual.” She says that most clients come in for weight loss, motivated by trends they have seen on social media, but Schurr also works with patients focused on muscle restoration, injury recovery and anti-aging. However, she stresses that patients have to watch their nutrition, sleep and most importantly, their chronic stress, along with their peptide treatment plan. “Peptides are not a quick fix,” Schurr says. “It's a powerful tool, but they work best when they're paired PHOTOGRAPHY BY WYATT KOSTYGAN.

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wellness with a larger health strategy.” She explains that many people spend their lives operating in an environment of constant pressure, creating harmful stress responses in the body. Peptides can be incredibly effective at regulating these responses, but “it is just an added helper,” Schurr explains. At Reveal Vitality, Drs. Victoria Andarcia and Angela Jordan both use peptides in their treatment plans. “I had my own telehealth business and what I found interesting was the healing potential,” Andarcia explains. “Peptides enhance processes that our bodies are already doing.” Andarcia specializes in women’s hormone health—an area where peptides can be used to increase hormone production and rebalance hormones. “Kisspeptin helps with hormone production, so that is a good peptide for both men and women,” Andarcia says. She also highlights how peptides like GHK-Cu can help improve hair and skin. Dr. Angela Jordan emphasizes that peptides can be used for much more, though. “I have a Lyme disease and cancer population,” she explains. “I use BPC-157 and NAD mostly to help with cognition and mitochondrial fatigue.” Both Jordan and Andarcia stress that deciding on a treatment plan is a meticulous process. “I introduce peptides after I already have all their testing back,” Jordan says. “I identify which symptoms stand out and then pick the peptides from there.” Andarcia has a similar process. “Sometimes, a woman will come to me and say, ‘My hair is falling out, my skin does not look the way I want it to look and I'm really tired,’ so I'll order testing to see why,” she explains. Andarcia highlights that testing is important when selecting peptides because of certain contraindications or family histories. “There are some peptides that you can not use if you have a family history of certain cancers,” she says. Jordan and Andarcia agree that those interested in peptides should be careful where they get them from. “There are a lot of online places that are selling peptides that you may have to mix yourself or give yourself the proper dose,” Andarcia explains. “That can be pretty dangerous if you are not administering it correctly.” Katherine Hermes, founder of SRQ Med Spa, has watched peptide therapy grow drastically over the last few years. Hermes has a long history with peptides, especially

sermorelin—a peptide used to stimulate the production of growth hormones. She highlights that the way peptides work is different than traditional medicine. “Medicine comes in from the outside and overrides your body's natural systems,” she says. Peptides, instead, tell the body’s systems to simply pay more attention to certain functions. “Your cells are like computers and something has to tell them to actually take action—that's what peptides do,” she explains. Some peptides can promote healing, while others can support focus, energy or hormone production. Hermes argues that the current peptide industry is like the “Wild West” with so many options, but she explains that clients have to be careful not to have unrealistic expectations. “Many clients think that if they try a peptide for a month, their problem should be solved,” she says. “Your red blood cells are replaced every 90 days, so you should try each peptide for 90 days.” Aven Clinic’s Dr. Karolina Baker believes that peptides are part of a much larger healthcare puzzle. She started incorporating them in her practice to see how they would complement her integrative medicine

approach. “Integrative medicine uses different modalities that complement one another to improve outcomes and address health from multiple angles,” Baker explains. “Peptides offered a more targeted and effective way to support healing and optimize function through different mechanisms of action.” When someone comes in, her first step is to identify what the patient wants to achieve. Baker works to understand the patient’s medical history, lifestyle habits, nutrition and stress levels. Then, she uses combinations of peptides that work together to address concerns. “For example, if a patient’s goal is weight loss, we may use a peptide that supports fat reduction while also adding peptides that help preserve or build muscle mass and improve mitochondrial function and energy production,” she says. As peptide therapy becomes more popular, providers agree that health and wellness is becoming increasingly personalized. Peptides are not a miracle cure, but they are a step toward supporting the body’s natural ability to heal. SRQ wellnessrealmsrq.com, revealvitality.com, srqmedspa.com, avenclinic.com

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SHOWCASE OF WINNERS IN SRQ MAGAZINE’S 2026 BEST OF SRQ LOCAL READERS COMPETITION

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Since opening in 2023, the vision has stayed the same: to offer an elevated, unhurried experience where every patient feels seen, understood, and cared for at the highest level, the way a five-star wellness destination cares for a guest. Being recognized by the SRQ community is a meaningful honor, and one that reflects a standing commitment to the newest technology, continued education, and a patient experience that keeps rising to meet it, visit after visit. At Allure, care goes beyond the teeth. It reaches the whole person, so when oral health, facial wellness, and confidence align, patients don’t just smile more. They live more fully, feel more confident, and carry themselves differently, inside and out, every single day.

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BRIDGE A LIFE B R O N Z E W I N N E R | B E S T LO C A L C H I L D R E N ’ S N O N P R O F I T | 2 0 2 6 AT BRIDGE A LIFE, WE BELIEVE EVERY CHILD DESERVES A FAMILY AND EVERY FAMILY DESERVES SUPPORT. That belief is at the heart of our work—and it is especially meaningful to see it reflected in the recognition we have received from our community. We’re particularly grateful to be named the 2026 Bronze winner of SRQ Magazine’s Best Local Children’s Nonprofit, a recognition made possible by the readers of SRQ Magazine. This honor joins other milestones that affirm the power of collaborative, community-centered care: the 2025 Champion for Children Award from the Safe Children Coalition and the 2023 CarePortal National Community of the Year. For nearly two decades, Bridge a Life has connected people who want to help with families facing some of life’s greatest challenges. Through partnerships with churches, businesses, schools, nonprofits, and volunteers, we connect resources, relationships, and hope to foster, adoptive, kinship, and vulnerable families, locally in Sarasota, Manatee, and DeSoto Counties, and globally in Mpongo, Uganda. Our work takes many forms—from equipping caregivers through trauma-informed training and mobilizing volunteers, to delivering meals to families in need, completing home improvement projects, organizing family events and service projects, and bringing community partners together to address gaps in the child welfare system. Beyond the Suncoast, our global outreach in Uganda supports extended families caring for children by helping provide the basic resources they need to create safe, stable homes. Whether locally or globally, each effort reflects a simple belief: families are stronger when they don’t have to walk alone. These milestones are only made possible through our compassionate community. Every volunteer, donor, partner, church, business, and advocate plays a part in creating a stronger network of care. We are grateful for the recognition, proud of what we have accomplished together, and excited for what comes next: continuing to build communities where every child is valued, every family is supported, and hope has a place to grow.

“Not everyone is called to personall y foster or adopt, but everyone can do somet hing to support kids who have experienced challenging family dynamics. Through advocacy, chari table giving, and voluntee rism, our communi ty shows up in impact ful ways to strengt hen children and families. We are not all called to do t he same t hing, but we can all do somet hing! We’re incredibly grateful for every person who voted for Bridge a Life as one of our communi ty’s best children’s nonprofi ts. The awareness raised by your vote helps improve outcomes for kids from hard places.” — Jody Jester, Executive Director

395 Interstate Blvd., FL 34240 941.306.8628 | bridgealife.com

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facebook.com/BridgeALife1/ instagram.com/bridge.a.life/

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CAT DEPOT P L AT I N U M W I N N E R | B E S T L O C A L V E T E R I N A R I A N | 20 2 6 OTHER 2026 RECOGNITION SILVER BEST LOCAL ANIMAL NONPROFIT BRONZE BEST LOCAL PET SUPPLIES STORE HONORABLE MENTION BEST LOCAL NONPROFIT

Through community support, we are: • Keeping cats in loving homes through pet food assistance, resources, and support that help prevent unnecessary surrenders. • Helping cats stay healthy through affordable, accessible veterinary care. • Giving cats a second chance through compassionate rescue, foster care, and specialized medical treatment tailored to their individual needs. • Creating a more compassionate community through education, out reach, and resources that strengthen the bond between cats and the people who love them.

EVERY TIME A CAT FINDS A LOVING HOME, a frightened kitten receives lifesaving medical care, or a family gets the support they need to keep their beloved pet, it’s because a compassionate community made it possible. At Cat Depot, we’re proud to be Sarasota’s trusted resource for cats and the people who love them. Our greatest strength isn’t our state-of-the-art building or our innovative programs—it’s the people who make our mission possible. Together, we’re rescuing more than 1,300 cats and kittens each year, providing affordable veterinary care to more than 3,000 pet cats, expanding foster care, and helping families keep 1,500 cats fed every month through our Food Bank.

For more than 20 years, Cat Depot has been a place where compassion becomes action. Each success is made possible by neighbors, volunteers, donors, fosters, and partners who believe every cat deserves a chance. Every cat who comes through our doors receives individualized care. Every adopter receives personal guidance. Every client is treated with compassion and respect. We create connections that last a lifetime—for cats and the people who love them. Thank you for supporting our mission to save lives, find loving homes, and improve the destiny of cats in need. The truth is, we don’t just save cats. They save us right back— bringing a little more joy, comfort, and connection into our lives.

“Saving 300 more lives this year, celebrating record-breaking adoptions, and expanding our foster program are milestones we’re incredibly proud of—but the real achievement is what those numbers represent: more cats receiving the care, second chances, and loving homes they deserve. None of it happens without our incredible Sarasota community. —Anna Gonce, Executive Director

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2542 17th St. | Sarasota, FL 34234 | 941.366.2404 | catdepot.org facebook.com/CatDepot

instagram.com/catdepot

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CHAPPIE’S CARPET & FLOORS H O N O R A B L E M E N T I O N | B E S T LO C A L F LO O R I N G | 2026

FAMILY OWNED & OPERATED A family tradition since 1957, Chappie’s Carpet & Floors Inc. is the oldest floor covering store in Sarasota. This third-generation family business gets the majority of their sales through word of mouth and referrals from the hundreds of satisfied customers served through the years. Even after all this time, our commitment to quality products and great customer service is second to none. We offer competitive prices, outstanding products, and friendly service for all our residential and commercial flooring customers. Being the flooring specialists in the Sarasota area, Chappie’s Carpet & Floors Inc. buys directly from the factory to ensure that you’re getting the lowest prices.

AUTHORIZED DEALER FOR TOP-BRAND FLOORING PRODUCTS Chappie’s Carpet & Floors Inc. has been providing quality floors to local area households for more than 68 years. Get wood floors, laminate floors, carpeting, tile, vinyl, and more! Our professional team is licensed and insured, so you can expect high-quality installations and workmanship. Our staff uses the latest equipment, such as our dustless machines, for clean installations at your request. You can also have formaldehyde-free options available for your flooring project. Ask us about our installation GUARANTEES, as well as the manufacturers’ WARRANTIES on specificbrand-name flooring products.

“I t is an honor to be recognized as Best of SRQ and appreciate the support from the community. Being a small family-owned business, we focus on building relationships with our customers and care about the outcome of their home decor. The Chappies team has a passion in what t hey do and enjoy passing on t heir expertise to each customer. Thank you again!” — Ken Chapman, Owner of Chappie’s Carpet and Floors Inc.

Why should you choose us? Family owned & operated Licensed installers Highest quality service Knowledgeable staff Excellent relationships with suppliers Highest quality products

3913 Clark Rd Sarasota, FL 34233 941.923.5499 chappiescarpetandfloors.com

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facebook.com/chappies.carpets

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CINDE CARROLL PILATES & GYROTONIC STUDIO ®

B R O N Z E W I N N E R | B E S T LO C A L P I L AT E S S T U D I O | 2026

“We’re honored to be recognized by t he SRQ community. This award reflects our shared belief t hat mindful movement has t he power to create lasting heal t h, connection, and joy.”

2886 Ringling Blvd, Suite D (2nd floor) Sarasota, FL 34237 gyrotonicsrq@gmail.com 941.203.8156 @gyrotonicSRQ Cinde Carroll Cinde Carroll Pilates & GYROTONIC® Studio

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WALKING THROUGH OUR DOORS, YOU’LL IMMEDIATELY FEEL WHAT MAKES OUR STUDIO DIFFERENT. It’s more than a place to exercise—it’s a space where your nervous system can exhale, your mind becomes quiet, and you feel truly at home. Every detail has been thoughtfully created to provide a warm, welcoming environment where you are supported exactly as you are. For several decades, founder Cinde Carroll has dedicated her career to helping people move, breathe, and live with greater ease. Her passion for mindful movement and wholebody wellness has shaped the philosophy of the studio and continues to inspire our team of highly trained instructors. We believe everybody is unique—each person has different posture, movement patterns, strengths, and challenges, which is why no two lessons are ever the same. Our certified instructors teach intuitively, meeting each client where they are with thoughtful guidance and individualized support. We welcome clients of all ages and abilities, from those recovering from injuries to athletes, dancers, and anyone seeking greater strength, mobility, balance, and confidence. What truly sets our studio apart is our commitment to education. More than a movement studio, our group classes, private sessions, and workshops provide practical tools that clients carry into everyday life, helping restore the body toward its natural balance and supporting lifelong wellbeing. As part of this commitment, we welcome guest practitioners, licensed nutritionists, and wellness pro-fessionals for special events in sound healing, meditation, women’s health, nutrition, foot fitness, and other restorative experiences that nurture the body, mind, and spirit. Being recognized as one of SRQ’s Best is an incredible honor and a reflection of the trust, relationships, and community we’ve built together. Thank you to our clients, families, and community for making our studio a place where movement becomes healing, education becomes empowerment, and everyone feels like they belong.

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FOOD + BEER P L AT I N U M W I N N E R | B E S T L O C A L B U R G E R | 2 0 2 6

OTHER 2026 RECOGNITION PLATINUM BEST LOCAL FRENCH FRIES GOLD BEST LOCAL CHICKEN WINGS HONORABLE MENTION BEST LOCAL FRIED CHICKEN

AT FOOD + BEER, WE KEEP IT SIMPLE: serve food people crave, pour drinks they love, and make sure everyone leaves happier than they came. Turns out, Sarasota and Bradenton agree - big time. This year, you voted us Platinum for Best Local Burger and Best French Fries, Bronze for Best Brunch, and gave us Honorable Mentions for Best Salad and Best Fried Chicken in SRQ’s Best of Local. Our burgers? Juicy, stacked, and downright legendary. Fries? Crispy golden perfection. Brunch? A weekend essential. And while we’re proud of every plate we send out, it’s our community that makes it all matter. From cheering on local teams to hosting fundraisers, from neighborhood events to spontaneous celebrations, Food + Beer has always been more than a menu—it’s a hangout, a game-day headquarters, and a place where locals and visitors feel like regulars. We’re here to keep the good times rolling: fresh ideas in the kitchen, ice-cold pints behind the bar, and plenty of reasons to pull up a chair. Thanks for making us part of your weekends, your wins, and your “why not?” nights out. Here’s to more flavor, more fun, and maybe a few more fries on the table.

“These awards mean so much because t hey come direct ly from t he people we serve every day. Our guests aren’ t just customers t hey’re our neighbors, our cheerleaders, and our friends. This recognition is reall y a win for our entire community.” facebook.com/FoodandBeerRestaurants instagram.com/foodand.beer eatfooddrinkbeer.com

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FREEMAN ORTHODONTICS P L AT I N U M W I N N E R | B E S T O R T H O D O N T I S T F O R K I D S | 2 0 2 6

CELEBRATING OVER 20 YEARS OF EXCELLENCE Freeman Orthodontics is trusted and well known throughout the community for quality care, treatment results and community involvement. Dr. David Freeman, a Board Certified Orthodontist, has proudly been providing personalized comprehensive orthodontic care to children, teens and adults in Sarasota for over 20 years. Freeman Orthodontics is a family owned, established orthodontic office supported by a talented, professional, enthusiastic and committed team focused on excellence. Their highly skilled, certified orthodontic assistants are welcoming and gentle. Their devoted administrative team is friendly, professional, efficient and organized. The entire team of Freeman Orthodontics loves smile transformations and cherishes the relationships they build with patients and their families. Dr. Freeman passionately supports schools and not for profit organizations that serve children of all ages, animals and those in need. Dr. Freeman and his wife, Tiffany, have three adorable sons and two rescue dogs. They look forward to continuing to actively support the Sarasota community for the years to come. Freeman Orthodontics is humbled and honored to be recognized again by SRQ readers as Best Orthodontist!

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“Dr. Freeman and his team are honored to be recognized again by t he Best of SRQ Local. They look forward to serving Sarasota for t he years to come bot h professionall y as well as actively supporting t he community.”

• Personalized Care • Convenient Office Hours • Affordable Monthly Payments • Clear Aligners • Clear Braces • Custom Braces

2050 Proctor Rd., Unit A Sarasota, FL 34231 941.953.7500 info@freemanorthodontics.com freemanorthodontics.com facebook.com/freemanorthosarasota instagram.com/freemanorthodonticssrq youtube.com/channel/UCkq7d6ynjnDRB6qruL82HvQ

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HENSLEY LAW OFFICES H O N O R A B L E M E N T I O N | B E S T LO C A L L E G A L F I R M | 2026

“We want to thank everyone who voted for us and every client who has trusted us with their legal matters. Our passion is to protect what matters most to individuals, families, and their businesses. We look forward to many more years serving our community.”

AT HENSLEY LAW OFFICES, helping our clients protect what matters most isn’t just our profession, it’s our purpose. We are proud to have been named SRQ Magazine’s Best Legal Firm 2025 for Wills and Estates, a milestone that reflects our deep commitment to legal excellence and genuine care for the Sarasota community. Our approach is rooted in empathy. Estate planning, probate, and trust administration often come at life’s most emotional moments. We take the time to guide each client with clarity, compassion, and the experience needed to provide both legal protection and peace of mind. Over the years, we’ve built more than a law firm; we’ve built lasting relationships. Through community outreach, educational seminars, and local partnerships, we’re proud to support the people and families who trust us with their most personal decisions.

This award is a shared achievement. To everyone who has walked through our doors, referred a friend, or voted for us, thank you. You inspire us to continue raising the standard of legal care and serving with integrity. Here’s to many more years of protecting legacies, strengthening families, and standing by our community, one client at a time.

941.755.8583 | Fax: 941.753.8479 Firm@jenhensleylaw.com Google my Business Profile: maps.app.goo.gl/CGrgLK425JpteDyi9

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facebook.com/jenhensleylaw instagram.com/hensleylawoffices linkedin.com/company/hensley-law

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LIVE WELL DPC H O N O R A B L E M E N T I O N | B E S T LO C A L N U R S E P R A C T I T I O N E R | 2026 PRIMARY CARE THE WAY IT WAS MEANT TO BE. At Live Well DPC, we practice medicine the way it used to be— just the provider and the patient, without insurance red tape or rushed visits. Our membership-based model allows us to keep a limited patient panel so we can offer longer appointments, same-day or next-day access, and care that is truly personalized. This approach helps us get to know our patients well, be proactive with their health, and be readily available in times of need. We believe strongly in the power of patient advocacy. Healthcare has become increasingly complex, and patients need someone in their corner. Navigating lab work, securing affordable medications, managing prior authorizations, coordinating with trusted specialists, or delivering personalized nutrition guidance—this is what we do every day. With decades of experience and deep roots in the Sarasota community, we know what works, what doesn’t, and how to help patients avoid unnecessary costs, delays, and frustration. Our extensive background in multiple areas of medicine gives us a clear understanding of what happens when prevention is overlooked—and we use that insight to guide our patients toward long-term wellness. Longevity means little without quality of life. Practicing in such a vibrant, active, and beautiful community like Sarasota is a gift—and helping our patients live their healthiest, fullest lives here is our greatest reward.

“We want our patients not only to live long lives, but to live well—free from frailty and chronic disease.” — Rachel Martinez Franzen, APRN

“Life can be overwhelming—healthcare shouldn’ t add to the stress. We aim to give you confidence and clarity in your healthcare, not confusion and stress.” — Julie Dooley, APRN

1528 S. Tuttle Ave Sarasota, FL 34239 P: 941.529.7770 | F: 941.529.7775 LiveWellSRQ.com

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facebook.com/livewellsrq instagram.com/livewellsrq

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MI PUEBLO P L AT I N U M W I N N E R | B E S T L O C A L M E X I C A N F O O D | 2 0 2 6 OTHER 2026 RECOGNITION PLATINUM BEST LOCAL TACOS

“Thank you for supporting our family all t hese years. We’re proud to still be here, serving yours.” — With love and gratitude, The Caro Family

Sarasota / Palm Plaza 4436 Bee Ridge Road, Sarasota FL 34233 941.379.2880 mipueblomexican.com

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FROM OUR FAMILY TO YOURS, THANK YOU! Since opening our first Mi Pueblo on Bee Ridge Road in 1999, we’ve been lucky enough to be part of so many of your family moments — birthdays, weddings, graduations, anniversaries, and plenty of ordinary nights out that turned into traditions. Over the years, we’ve watched kids grow up, come back with families of their own, and keep choosing Mi Pueblo. For a small, family-owned business, that means more to us than we can really put into words. Your support is what keeps us going and motivates us to keep doing what we love. We know there are many places you could choose to dine, and we never take for granted that you continue to choose us. We look forward to welcoming you for many years to come — with plenty of cold margaritas, sizzling fajitas, mariachi music, celebrations, and good times around the table.

North Sarasota / University Walk 8405 Tuttle Avenue, Sarasota FL 34243 941.359.9303

Venice / Brickyard Plaza 530 US-41 Bypass South, Venice FL 34285 941.486.0005

instagram: @mipueblorestaurante

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NEAL COMMUNITIES SI LV ER WI NNE R | B E ST LOC AL NE W H OME COMMU NI T Y | 2 0 2 6 OTHER 2026 RECOGNITION BRONZE BEST LOCAL HOME BUILDER HONORABLE MENTION BEST LOCAL PLACE TO WORK

“At Neal Communities, building in Sarasota means more t han constructing homes—it ’s about creating vibrant neighborhoods, fostering connections, and giving back to t he community we love. We’re proud to be recognized as t he Best Local Place to Work and one of t he Best Local Home Builders, and we remain committed to shaping Sarasota’s future wit h quality, care, and heart.”

Neal Communities Headquarters 5800 Lakewood Ranch Blvd North Sarasota, Florida 34240 | Toll Free: 888.720.4429 facebook.com/NealCommunities youtube: @NealCommunitiesFLA instagram: @nealcommunities twitter (X): @NealCommunities

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BUILDING MORE THAN HOMES—BUILDING COMMUNITY For over five decades, Neal Communities has been more than just a homebuilder in Sarasota—we’ve been a committed neighbor, partner, and advocate for the vibrant community we call home. With a legacy built on quality craftsmanship and thoughtful design, our mission extends far beyond building houses. We believe in creating places where people truly love to live, work, and connect. Our roots run deep in Sarasota, and our dedication to the area is reflected in the many ways we give back—whether through local philanthropic efforts, partnerships with area nonprofits, or active participation in community events that strengthen the bonds between neighbors. We understand that the heart of a thriving community lies in the people who call it home, and we’re proud to play a role in shaping that story. This year, Neal Communities was honored to be recognized in several “Best of SRQ” categories—proof that our commitment to excellence resonates with both homebuyers and our team members. We’re proud to be named the Best Local Place to Work, reflecting our belief that a strong internal culture translates into exceptional customer experiences. We also celebrated the honor of being chosen as one of the Best Local Home Builders, a testament to the trust our neighbors place in us to deliver homes that meet the highest standards of design, durability, and comfort. We’re honored to be part of Sarasota’s continued growth and success, and we look forward to shaping its future— one home, one neighborhood, and one connection at a time.

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NORTH STAR FINE JEWELRY G O L D W I N N E R | B E S T LO C A L J E W E L E R | 2026

“We’re grateful every day to call Sarasota home and honored to be part of t he moments, milestones, and memories t hat make t his community so special.” —With heartfelt thanks, Susan & the North Star Fine Jewelry Team

OTHER 2026 RECOGNITION HONORABLE MENTION BEST LOCAL GIFT STORE

THANK YOU, SARASOTA! We are deeply honored and incredibly grateful to be voted Best Fine Jewelry Store in Sarasota! North Star is more than a jewelry store. We strive to create an experience where every guest feels welcomed, pampered, and inspired—from complimentary jewelry cleaning and refreshments to discovering extraordinary designers and creating one-of-a-kind treasures. But what means the most to us are the relationships we have built with our Sarasota community. You have trusted us with your celebrations, your milestones, your family heirlooms, and your stories. It is our greatest privilege to be a small part of your lives. Mark Sarasota, “Inside” the Breezeway 107 S. Pineapple Ave, Sarasota, FL 34236 northstarfinejewelry.com

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PARENT AND CHILD PSYCHOLOGICAL SERVICES PLLC G O L D W I N N E R | B E S T LO C A L M E N TA L H E A LT H S E R V I C E S | 2 0 2 6 PARENT AND CHILD PSYCHOLOGICAL SERVICES WAS FOUNDED IN SARASOTA IN 2014 BY DR. KATE GIBSON. We are passionate about supporting children and teens in our community to reach their full potential. Our mission is to bring well-researched and empirically supported treatments to children, teens and their families. We apply these approaches flexibly to meet each family’s needs. We specialize in treating anxiety, Body-Focused Repetitive Behaviors (like hair pulling and skin picking), OCD, PANS/ PANDAS, Selective Mutism (SM), trauma, supporting adjustment to life changes, and live coaching of parents for behavioral challenges in young children ages 2-10. Parents are actively involved in their child or teen’s care. In addition to therapy, we provide gifted, psychoeducational and comprehensive diagnostic testing. One thing that sets us apart is our OCD, SM and Social Anxiety summer camps to help kids and teens make progress in these areas more quickly. Though out of network with insurance, we aim to reach a wider range of families than a typical private-pay practice by offering a sliding scale and accepting Step-Up for Students scholarship funds. We share our knowledge by providing talks in person to parents, schools and programs within Sarasota, and over telehealth to communities near and far.

“We care deeply about the work we do. We work hard and play hard. Our team is like a family and we are dedicated to each and every family we see. We feel so grateful to do what we love and for the families in our community who trust us with their care.” Our staff includes clinicians from various mental health disciplines, including psychologists, mental health counselors, school psychologists, and graduate school trainees. Our owner Dr. Gibson is a Regional Trainer for Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT) and PCIT for Selective Mutism so is able to train others in these models, and is co-author of the PCIT-SM Coding Manual and “Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT) Adapted for Older Children: A Research Development Manual.” We are very excited to share that we just published “Brave Talker”, a workbook for children with SM. 5250 17th Street, Ste 204, Sarasota, FL 34235 Phone: 941.357.4090 SMS Text: 941-877.6683 Fax: 727-304-3619 childtherapysrq.com

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facebook.com/kate.gibsonpsyd @childtherapysrq linkedin.com/company/parent-andchild-psychological-services-of-sarasota

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REGION SOLAR + ELECTRIC P L AT I N U M W I N N E R | B E S T L O C A L S O L A R C O N T R A C T O R S | 2 0 2 6

LOCAL ENERGY EXPERTISE. Region Solar + Electric is honored to be named the Platinum Winner for Best Solar Contractor in the 2026 Best of SRQ Magazine — for the second year in a row! Since 2007, we’ve been helping homeowners and businesses across Southwest Florida take control of their energy with expert design, premium products, and unmatched service. OUR SERVICES SOLAR Custom-designed solar systems to lower your energy bills and power your future. BATTERY BACKUP Reliable backup power to keep your home running when the grid goes down. EV CHARGING Convenient, fast, and safe charging solutions for your electric vehicle. ELECTRICAL SERVICES Panel upgrades, rewiring, lighting, and more — backed by licensed professionals.

PREMIUM PRODUCTS. CUSTOM SOLUTIONS. We install a wide range of industry-leading products to custom fit your home and your goals. From solar panels and inverters to batteries, generators, EV chargers, and electrical solutions, we partner with the best so you have the freedom to choose what’s right for you. We proudly install products from:

Tesla | Enphase | EcoFlow | FranklinWH | Generac SolarEdge | SPAN | and more BUILT ON TRUST. DRIVEN BY COMMUNITY. As a locally owned and operated company, we believe in doing things the right way — with integrity, craftsmanship, and a long-term commitment to our customers and community. Thank you to all who voted for us. We’re incredibly grateful for your trust and continued support.

“Region Solar + Electric prov ides more t han just systems — t hey deliver peace of mind, backed by honesty, quali ty, and a genuine commi tment to t heir clients.” — Michael Cocozza, Owner at Trinity Custom Homes

info@regionsolarandelectric.com | 941.355.6565 facebook.com/profile.php?id=100064267622124# instagram.com/regionsolarllc linkedin.com/company/region-solar

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RICHARD’S PLUMBING & ELECTRIC PLATINUM | BEST LOCAL ELECTRICIAN / ELECTRICAL COMPANY | 2026

OTHER 2026 RECOGNITION PLATINUM BEST LOCAL PLUMBING COMPANY

RICHARD’S PLUMBING & ELECTRIC—BEST OF SRQ LOCAL HONOREE SINCE 1980. For more than 45 years, Richard’s Plumbing & Electric has had the privilege of serving families and businesses throughout Manatee and Sarasota Counties. Being voted SRQ Magazine’s Platinum Award Winner for Best Plumbing Company and Best Electrical Company is an incredible honor because it comes directly from the people we serve. This recognition belongs to our loyal customers, dedicated team members, and community partners who have trusted us, supported us, and recommended us to friends and family over the years. We are truly grateful.

As our company has grown, so has our ability to serve our customers. That’s why we’re excited to announce that Richard’s Plumbing & Electric is now Richard’s Home Services. While our name is changing, everything you’ve come to expect remains the same—the same family ownership, the same trusted team, and the same commitment to exceptional workmanship and customer service. The difference is that we can now serve even more of your home’s needs by adding professional air conditioning service and installation. From all of us at Richard’s Home Services, thank you for making this possible.

“Winning Platinum is an incredible honor because i t comes from t he people who matter most— our customers and our communi ty. Your trust has allowed us to grow from Richard’s Plumbing & Electric into Richard’s Home Services, and while our name has changed, our commi tment hasn’ t. We’re still t he same family-owned company t hat ’s been serving our neighbors since 1980—just wi t h even more ways to take care of your home. Thank you for believing in us.” — Richard L Krause Jr. – President / Owner

4614 26th St W, Bradenton, FL 34207 941.557.2275 RichardsPlumbingRepair.com

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Richards Plumbing & Electric Richardsplumbingandelectric RPRPlumbers

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SHACK YOGA + FITNESS P L AT I N U M W I N N E R | B E S T Y O G A S T U D I O | 2 0 2 6

“Being recognized in t he BOSRQ Readers Competition is an honor we share wit h our entire SHACK family. Every drop of sweat, every laugh,and every connection made here is proof of t he power of community.” — Courtenay Smith, Owner & ERYT 500

SINCE OPENING IN 2012, SHACK YOGA + FITNESS HAS GROWN FROM A SMALL STUDIO in Sarasota’s Rosemary District into a thriving, two-location community hub. Our classes are where sweat meets strength, and movement meets meaning—offering 45+ weekly sessions across our signature formats: SHACK Sweat (heated power yoga), SHACK Sculpt (strength meets yoga), restorative practices, kids yoga, and specialty workshops. More than a workout, SHACK is about connection. It’s the high-five after class, the friend who holds you accountable, and the energy of a room full of people moving together. Our seasonal challenges—like the Summer of Sweat—and wellness experiences, including sound baths and the Mindful Tri, keep our community engaged, inspired, and coming back for more. Locally owned and deeply rooted in Sarasota’s vibrant spirit, SHACK has weathered challenges, evolved through change, and continued to grow thanks to our talented instructors and fiercely loyal members. Being recognized in the BOSRQ Readers Competition is a celebration we share with every person who has ever unrolled a mat here. This recognition isn’t just about us—it’s about the people who make SHACK a place to move, breathe, and belong.

941.203.5146 shackyogafitness.com facebook.com/share/1CNnCSSNfF/?mibextid=wwXIfr instagram: the.shack.life

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SMILE BY FAULKNER H O N O R A B L E M E N T I O N | B E S T LO C A L C O S M E T I C D E N T I S T | 2026 AT SMILE BY FAULKNER, EXCEPTIONAL DENTAL CARE STARTS WITH SOMETHING SIMPLE: TRUST. Dr. Wayne Faulkner has spent more than 35 years caring for patients, and the reputation he has built comes from being not only an experienced dentist, but an honest man who truly cares about the people sitting in his chair. Patients know they will receive straightforward recommendations, thoughtful treatment, and never feel pressured into something they do not need. That same commitment to quality can be seen throughout the practice. Smile by Faulkner has invested in modern dental technology and high-quality equipment that allows the team to provide comfortable, precise, and efficient care. We believe our patients deserve the best experience possible, from the technology we use to the time we take explaining treatment and answering questions. But even with advancements in dentistry, Dr. Faulkner believes the most important part of the practice will always be the relationship with the patient. Our team takes pride in knowing our patients personally, listening to their concerns, and making them feel comfortable from the moment they walk through the door. Many have trusted Dr. Faulkner with their smiles for years, and that loyalty is something we never take for granted. Smile by Faulkner is proud to be part of the Sarasota community and even prouder that our reputation has been built largely through the experiences and recommendations of the people we serve. Being recognized by Best of SRQ is meaningful because it reflects what we work toward every day: exceptional care, modern dentistry, an incredible team, and a doctor whose honesty and integrity have remained at the heart of his practice for more than three decades. For us, a beautiful smile is important, but earning a patient’s trust is everything.

“After more than 35 years in dentistry, I still believe the most important thing I can give a patient is my honesty. We have incredible technology and a great team, but exceptional care starts with listening to people, treating them the way I would want my own family treated, and doing what is truly best for them.” — Dr. Wayne Faulkner

Wayne L. Faulkner DDS 8592 Potter Park Dr. | #150 | Sarasota, FL 34238 941. 298.0198 | Smilebyfaulkner.com

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Instagram: @SmilebyFaulkner TikTok: @SmilebyFaulkner2

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TAKE CARE HOME HEALTH P L AT I N U M W I N N E R | B E S T LO C A L H O M E H E A LT H C A R E | 2 0 2 6 OTHER 2026 RECOGNITION HONORABLE MENTION BEST LOCAL BUSINESS LEADER BEST LOCAL FAMILY-OWNED BUSINESS BEST LOCAL PLACE TO WORK TOP 10 BEST LOCAL WOMEN-OWNED BUSINESS

TAKE CARE IS A LOCAL, FAMILY-OWNED AND OPERATED HOME HEALTH CARE AGENCY committed to providing personalized care and nursing services since 1995. The award-winning team provides all levels of care in any setting. PERSONALIZED SERVICES INCLUDE: In 2026, Take Care was proud to be recognized by SRQ readers as the best ‘Home Health Care’ agency in the Best of SRQ Local and a Top 10 Women-Owned Business. Take Care was also honored with the 2026 Employer Choice Award by Keiser University Sarasota, recognizing Take Care’s ongoing mentorship initiatives and the Emerging Nursing Leaders Scholarships, which Take Care presented during the 2025-26 academic year in honor of the agency’s 30th anniversary.

~ Flexible Support: Companionship, meal preparation, grocery shopping, laundry, and assistance with daily activities ~ Skilled Nursing & Post-Operative Care: Professional nursing support during recovery and changing health needs ~ RN Care Management: Care coordination, advocacy, and support navigating chronic conditions and complex healthcare needs ~ Home Health Care: From a few hours a week up to 24/7 around-the-clock nursing care All services are tailored to meet each client’s individual needs and preferences, with a focus on promoting independence and enhancing comfort, safety, health, well-being, and peace of mind.

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Founded by Susanne S. Wise, RN, MBA, Sue continues to serve as CEO alongside her daughters, Take Care President Courtney Wise Snyder, MSG, CMC, and Vice President Erika Wise Borland, MA. Together with an exceptional team of hundreds of caregivers and nurses supporting clients throughout Sarasota and Manatee Counties, the trusted team serves with purpose, polish, professionalism, kindness, composure, and, above all, immense care. Celebrating 31 years of caring, Take Care’s commitment to the community remains woven into the fabric of its culture of caring. Philanthropic efforts have supported organizations including Girls Incorporated of Sarasota County, Forty Carrots Family Center, Neuro Challenge Foundation for Parkinson’s, and Sarasota Memorial Healthcare Foundation, as well as numerous local schools and community initiatives. Take Care’s experienced and compassionate team helps clients and their families navigate the complexities of aging and changing health needs in any home setting. Whether you are looking for a trusted partner to provide support today or planning for future care needs, the nurses on Take Care’s New Services team are always available to answer questions, discuss options, and help you determine the right level of care for your family.

941.927.2292 | TakeCareHomeHealth.com Lic. # HHA 21657096 & 299991405 facebook.com/takecarehomehealthcare

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THE GREATER SARASOTA CHAMBER OF COMMERCE PLATINUM WI NNER | BE ST LO C AL C H AMB E R | 2 0 2 6

RECEIVING PLATINUM FOR BEST LOCAL CHAMBER for the third consecutive year is an incredible honor, and one we proudly share with our members. This recognition reflects the businesses, entrepreneurs, and community leaders who make Sarasota such a vibrant place to live, work, and do business. Thank you to everyone who voted for us and continues to believe in the work we do. For more than a century, the Greater Sarasota Chamber of Commerce has been a catalyst for business success and community progress. We bring people together to build meaningful relationships, advocate for a strong business climate, develop leaders, strengthen our local workforce, and create opportunities that help businesses grow. Whether someone is launching a new venture, expanding an established company, or looking to become more engaged in the community, the Chamber provides the

connections, resources, and support to help them succeed. What makes the Chamber special isn’t just the programs we offer or the events we host. It’s the people behind them. Every introduction has the potential to spark a new partnership. Every leadership program helps shape the future of our region. Every conversation creates another opportunity to move Sarasota forward. That’s the power of a connected business community, and we’re proud to bring it to life every day. This award is a reflection of the remarkable members, volunteers, investors, and community partners we have the privilege to serve. Your success is our success, and we’re honored to celebrate another year as SRQ’s Platinum Best Local Chamber. Your business belongs here. Your ideas belong here. Your voice belongs here. Your future belongs here.

“Every business has a place in shaping Sarasota’s future. We are honored t hat so many have chosen to make t he Sarasota Chamber part of t hat journey, and we’re grateful to be recognized by t he communi ty we proudly serve.” — Heather Kasten, President & CEO 1945 Fruitville Rd, Sarasota, FL 34236 941.955.8187 sarasotachamber.com

@Greater Sarasota Chamber @greatersarasotachamber @The Greater Sarasota Chamber of Commerce

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EVENTS BY BB G O L D W I N N E R | B E S T N E W LO C A L B U S I N E S S | 2026 EVENTS BY BB STARTED BECAUSE I WANTED TO BUILD SOMETHING MEANINGFUL FOR MY FAMILY. Becoming a mom changed the way I looked at my future, and my son, Alijah, became my biggest inspiration to take a chance on myself and create something of my own. What happened next was bigger than I ever imagined. Within our first year, Events By BB completed more than 70 events and built an incredible reputation throughout the community, earning over 65 five-star reviews. In 2026, we were honored to receive Best of SRQ Gold for Best New Local Business. We’ve been trusted with Chamber of Commerce business award ceremonies, the SRQ Women’s Expo and events for the Women’s Council of Realtors. Our work has also taken us inside some of Sarasota’s most recognized venues, including The Ritz-Carlton, Marie Selby Botanical Gardens, New College of Florida and Sarasota Memorial Hospital. To be trusted by respected organizations, venues and families so early in our journey is something I will never take lightly. But what I’m most proud of is what we’ve been trusted to be a part of. We’ve created the setting for proposals, weddings, birthdays, baby and bridal showers, quinceañeras, corporate events and milestones families will remember forever. We’ve intentionally built Events By BB to be a one-stop shop, offering everything from balloon decor, custom backdrops and florals to photo booths, marquee letters, rentals, luxury picnics, custom event details and coordination. Our goal is simple. We want to take the stress off our clients so they can be present, enjoy the people they love and trust us to handle the rest. Behind the scenes, this has also been a family journey. My fiancé, Aaron, has supported this dream from the beginning and has spent countless hours helping bring our events and some of my craziest ideas to life. I’m incredibly grateful to have him beside me as we continue building this company. None of this exists without our clients. Every person who took a chance on us, recommended us, shared our work or invited us back helped build Events By BB. We genuinely love our clients, and being trusted with moments they will remember for the rest of their lives means more to me than any award ever could.

As the company has grown, women from far beyond Sarasota have also begun following my journey and reaching out to learn how they can build businesses of their own. Being able to share what I’ve learned and help other women create something meaningful for themselves and their families has given this journey an entirely new purpose. I cannot wait to see where Events By BB goes next. I’m incredibly grateful for how Sarasota has embraced us, and it truly feels like we’re only getting started.

Sarasota, FL 34239 | eventsbybbllc@gmail.com 941.993.2494 | eventsbybb.co Events-by-BB-LLC @eventsbybbllc

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“To receive this recognition from my own community so early in my journey is something I’ll never take for granted. Sarasota gave me the opportunity to turn something I love into a business I’m incredibly proud of. The greatest honor, though, is knowing how many people have trusted me to be part of some of the biggest moments of their lives.”

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STORIES FROM OUR PHILANTHROPIC COMMUNITY

giving coast JUST DO IT Benjamin Hanan enjoys making connections that help others. Barbie Heit

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BENJAMIN R. HANAN HAS BEEN CALLED A CONNECTOR, MENTOR AND CHANGEMAKER. While he doesn’t necessarily strive to be any

of these things, he does always try to give people the benefit of the doubt. “Not everyone has had the same opportunity or had the same wonderful upbringing I have had, so if there are ways that I can help other individuals or organizations, I am pleased to do so,” he says. Born and raised in Sarasota, Hanan attended Phillipi Shores Elementary School, transferred to Pineview in 4th grade and graduated in 1988. His undergrad and grad school education were both obtained from the University of Texas at Austin, where he received a Master’s Degree in Public Accounting before becoming a CPA and later went on to attend law school at George Washington University. Hanan attributes his positive upbringing to his loving family. His parents, Lewis and Sandra Hanan, were married for over six decades before his mother’s passing in 2019. The youngest of four, he has fond memories of his mother running a jewelry store situated on the ground floor of the former Hyatt hotel. Her lifelong ambition, however, was to become a nurse, so when her youngest son left for college, she returned to school at age 50 to fulfill her dream. His father continues to reside in Sarasota, having moved there from Alabama in 1967 with his wife and three children. A practicing periodontist for more than 50 years, he remains active at 88, playing pickleball, walking and following University of Alabama sports. After law school and a short period in Tampa, Hanan, his wife Stacy (whom he met at UT) and their six-week-old twins returned to Sarasota in 1997. He joined the law firm of Abel Band, where he became a partner and served on the executive committee. In 2009, Abel Band merged with Shumaker, becoming its fifth office. Hanan served on Shumaker’s management committee for over nine years, co-chairing it for four. He now serves as the firm’s Corporate, Tax and Transactions National Service Line Leader. Beyond his professional career, Hanan plays a critical role as a Board Member of the Charles & Margery Barancik Foundation. His insightful governance and ability to bridge business, nonprofit and civic sectors have driven significant, systemic community impact. Those who know him describe his influence as stemming from his character: humility, strategic insight and a firm belief that giving back is both a duty and a privilege. Whether addressing food insecurity, fostering economic growth or guiding philanthropy, he is noted for leading with compassion and a long-term vision. “The work has been very rewarding,” says Hanan. “I had the great fortune of knowing Chuck and Margie prior to their passing and it is truly an honor to work with the staff, other board members and members of the Barancik family to continue fulfilling the legacy that Chuck and Margie created. The Barancik Foundation is not just a grantmaking organization. It truly has the opportunity to develop initiatives and partner with local nonprofits to improve the lives of those in our community.” The Hanans have wonderful daughters, Sydney, Samantha and Alex, all of whom went through Sarasota County Public Schools and have since graduated from college. Two are in Nashville and one is in Manhattan, and in May, they became grandparents for the first time.

Stacy is a successful realtor with Michael Saunders & Co. and is very active in the community, formerly serving on the Boards of Girls, Inc. and the Jewish Federation of Sarasota/Manatee. She currently serves on a National Women’s Philanthropic Board. “I think we all have an obligation to give back to the communities in which we live. Providing others with opportunities to better themselves, whether that is through nutrition, healthcare, economic opportunities or otherwise, not only provides benefits to the endrecipient but provides immense benefits to the community as a whole,” says Hanan. “Earlier on in my career, we were not in a position to contribute financially, but we could always contribute our time. So, whatever opportunity someone has to get involved in a cause or organization that they are passionate about, or to give someone support in any particular way, I would encourage them to do so. It sounds cliché but, when it comes to helping out, I say ‘just do it’. If there is an organization or cause you are passionate about or just interested in learning more about, reach out, volunteer, get to know the particular organization or the organizations in town that are doing the work that you’d like to be affiliated with and inquire about how to get involved. You don’t need a checkbook, you just need a heart.” Despite the region’s tremendous growth since his childhood, Hanan appreciates that Sarasota maintains a small-town feel. “I still run into people that I grew up with. I enjoy seeing old friends and forming new friendships and relationships here,” he says. “One of the things I enjoy most about being involved in our community is that you get to know the staff and the executives that are doing the heavy-lifting day-to-day. They are truly what makes our nonprofit community tick and hearing their stories of why they are involved and witnessing first-hand the impact that they have in our community every day is inspiring.” Hanan does not take the Good Hero honor lightly. “I definitely have not been involved in the community for the recognition but I think it is a testament to SRQ Media Group’s care and compassion for our community that they take a moment each year to recognize those who are trying to make a difference for all of us. I am honored to be considered among the esteemed group of heroes this year.” SRQ Benjamin Hanan was honored as a Good Hero by SRQ Magazine in December 2025.

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SHEROARS SHE ROARS

TM

PUBLISHED BY SRQ MAGAZINE

WE ROAR

LEADING WOMEN SHARE THEIR STORIES

BLAZING TRAILS

ANNUAL 2026 EDITION

ELYCE ARONS

FROM FARM GIRL TO FASHION ICON, ELYCE ARONS HAS ACHIEVED HER DREAMS THROUGH DETERMINATION, POSITIVITY AND A SPLASH OF SERENDIPITY.

MEET THE RECIPIENT OF THE WOMEN WHO ROAR TRAILBLAZER AWARD

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2026 IMPORTANT DATES AND OPPORTUNITIES

JOIN US FOR MENTORING Engage elementary and middle school young women in Sarasota, Manatee, and Desoto Counties in a program designed to help them imagine careers and the tools they need to succeed through mentorship, soft skills training, and hands-on workshops.

JOIN US TO SHARE YOUR WISDOM The Women Who Roar program is heading to the Downtown Sarasota Farmers Market for a special interactive pop-up! We invite you to visit our booth to learn how you can be a part of SRQ Magazine’s Women Who Roar program.

JOIN US TO SHARE YOUR SUPPORT Join the SRQ MEDIA Women Who Roar team for the American Cancer Society’s Making Strides Against Breast Cancer walk. Together, we’ll celebrate courage, honor hope, and raise funds for lifesaving research and support programs.

JOIN US FOR THE AWARDS LUNCHEON Secure your spot at SRQ Magazine’s 11th Annual Women Who Roar Leadership Awards Luncheon! Celebrate the newest Leadership Circle inductees, build meaningful connections and walk away with fresh inspiration to fuel your journey.

FOR MORE INFO, VISIT SRQMAG.COM/ENGAGEWWR

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RECIPE FOR AN UNCOMMON FASHION ENTREPRENEUR: Start with a Midwest childhood far from the hustle of Seventh Avenue, add the inspiration of a 1970s girlboss TV show and the transformative power of a sister-like friendship. Finish off the whole thing with liberal doses of grit, grace and a sprinkle of serendipity. No MBA, no fancy fashion school. No New York connections. Atypical? Absolutely. But Elyce Arons, the 2026 SRQ Trailblazer Honoree, recognized for pursuing her dreams in spite of the odds, is the least “typical” entrepreneur you’ve ever met. The co-founder of Kate Spade and CEO of Frances Valentine, Elyce builds iconic brands leading with passion, gut instinct, innate kindness and an insurmountable optimism that laughs at challenges. From a young woman wrangling steers to a fashion mogul rocking kitten heels, bringing her special mix of joyful possibility to whatever she touches, Elyce is in a category by herself and proof that authenticity beats business-as-usual every time. Three major influences early in life inspired Elyce’s path, not least of which was her down-to-earth childhood. she grew up on an Angus cattle farm in Kansas as the youngest of four daughters born to Dana and Lou Cox. Her parents instilled in their children an entrepreneurial spirit and the reality that hard work was nonnegotiable. She says, “Growing up on a farm teaches one a lot of responsibility because it is 24/7. On Christmas morning, we’d get up to open our presents and my mother would say, ‘Go feed the cattle first. They don’t know it’s Christmas.’ It was always, take care of your chores first, and then you can have fun. The cattle could get out at 2 o’clock in the morning and dad would wake us up saying, ‘Get your horses saddled. We’ve got to get the cattle off the wheat.’ An irrigation pipe would burst and we’d have to go out and put a new pipe in. It was always something. Turns out, almost everything I needed to know about business I learned on a farm.” While responsibility was necessary, Elyce’s mother Lou inspired her daughters to dream big despite the odds. A creative powerhouse, she worked as an illustrator for local retailers and newspapers in Wichita and designed costumes for local community theatre. She also happened to be a fabulous cook, and once her children left the nest, Lou flew to New York, enrolled in the Culinary Institute of America and interned for the legendary Le Bernardin before returning to the farm and starting a new career from scratch. Elyce says, “She decided to turn the whole first floor of our farmhouse into a restaurant. It’s in the middle of nowhere, 25 minutes from Wichita, some of it on dirt roads. It looked like a farmhouse on the outside, but inside, it was very beautiful with antiques and Persian rugs because my mother’s taste is exquisite. It was a huge success and I watched her do that from nothing. She had an idea and she did it.” When Elyce was 8 years old, she discovered a vision of her career path watching TV. The 1970s were a time of huge change, particularly for women and nothing captured the essence of that era better than The Mary Tyler Moore Show, a CBS sitcom featuring actress Moore as Mary Richards, an unmarried, independent woman focused on her associate producer career on a news show in Minneapolis. Women aspired to be like Mary, and little girls idolized her. Elyce decided she was going to be Mary Richards when she grew up. She says, “When I was a young girl in the 1970s, women couldn’t go and open their own bank account or get a credit card without their father or their husband’s permission. When I think back about the fact that I was living during those times, it’s just insane. Mary became this icon to me, and I think all women of our generation, by showing that you can be single, move to a big city, and make it in a man’s career because she did it.”

ROAROFAN ENTREPRENE INTERVIEWED AND WRITTEN BY ASHLEY GRANT

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Trailblazer Award Recipient From farm girl to fashion icon, Elyce Arons has achieved her dreams through determination, positivity and a splash of serendipity.

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ROAR OF AN ENTREPRENEUR But perhaps the most impactful factor in Elyce’s life was friendship. Specifically, a sister-like friendship with Kate Brosnahan, a young student she met on her first day of college at the University of Kansas. In many ways, they were polar opposites. Kate was brunette, preppy and a “citified” girl, the product of private catholic schools and social niceties, compared to blonde Elyce, a selfdescribed homebody who sported trendy styles she gleaned from fashion magazines, who could also brand a steer, drive a tractor and once brought a freezer-full of beef from home to their college apartment. But they had more in common than they realized. A

After temping and working various jobs, Elyce secured a position at J.G. Hook, then Girbaud, both iconic fashion houses in the ’80s and ’90s. Kate went to Mademoiselle Magazine as an accessories editor and Andy dove into advertising. The trio worked their way up the corporate ladder. It was exhilarating but stressful, and the shine of their coveted jobs soon wore off. Elyce says, “The glamorous world of fashion was not always so glamorous. I was probably 23 or 24 working the 9-to-6 at J.G. Hook and not always happy because as an assistant, you’re working for somebody and being told what to do every second of the day. People in the

Right: Now 63-years-old, fashion icon Elyce Arons feels that she is in “the best time of her life.” Photo by Adam Ward.

“the glamorous world of fashion was not always glamorous. i was probably 23 or 24, working the 9-6 at J.G. Hook and not always happy.” — Elyce Arons dry and sometimes absurd sense of humor, affinity for pulling pranks on each other and getting into sitcom-worthy escapades—in particular, one painfully unfortunate incident involving poison ivy and another featuring an exploding hot dog stand. Ultimately, it was the discovery that they shared a deep admiration for Mary Richards and her independent journey, in which they recognized a kindred spirit. Elyce says, “We had both been inspired by Mary to dream bigger.” Together, they navigated the maze of managing financial aid and working to pay for college. The girls transferred to Arizona State University, where they met Kate’s future husband, Andy Spade, and the three friends formed a tight-knit three musketeers friendship which would be the foundation for their future business. Post-college, Elyce, Kate and Andy made it to New York City. The trio experienced the joys of starting out in what could be a rough city with the ’80s requisite experiences of pinching pennies to make rent, cramming several roommates into shoebox-sized flats in sketchy neighborhoods, walking over broken needles and crack pipes on the way to work and stuffing steel wool in the holes in apartment walls to keep the rats out. But there were also free concerts in the park, happy hour buffets and the excitement of being in the most vibrant city where anything could happen and typically did. And Elyce adored it. She says, “I fell in love with New York. It was just like the top of the world and everyone was so chic and fascinating and beautiful.”

fashion industry aren’t always the nicest people or their reputations are not that nice. I just remember going home one night thinking, ‘My God, I’m going to have to do this the rest of my life to support myself. This is life. This is what it is.’ The reality struck me at that point.” Elyce craved independence, and to truly have that, she would need to create it. She says, “Katy and I had always talked about having a business together when we were in college. We didn’t know what it was going to be. We kind of thought, ‘We’ll open a store and have certain designers that we love, vintage plus modern.’ But we had no money and we had no experience aside from bartending and waiting tables and that kind of thing.” Kate was feeling the same frustrations as Elyce. She decided to leave Mademoiselle, take a breather and figure out what to do next. Elyce remembers, “Katy felt something was missing in the handbag market. There were really beautiful expensive European bags with a lot of hardware, and then there was the canvas L.L.Bean bag. There wasn’t a whole lot in between. Katy’s taste level was so good. She knew what was missing and that there was a need for a product that was luxury but accessible and functional. It also needed to serve a purpose in women’s lives and have that chic, simple appeal to it.” So, in 1993, Elyce, Kate Brosnahan, Andy Spade and their partner Pamela Bell started Kate Spade, combining Kate’s first name with Andy’s last, and a brand was born. They

started with the Sam bag, a simple, boxy nylon tote with clean, classic lines, with a label on the outside rather than inside the bag, a design detail that was revolutionary at the time. Elyce remembers, “I saw the first samples and said I am so in.” Andy withdrew $35K from his 401K to fund production, with each partner contributing to ongoing costs as the company grew. The Sam bag quickly became the “it” accessory of the ’90s. It was an aspirational design with an accessible price point and perfect for women on a limited budget who wanted to carry something beautiful and practical. Early on, they realized they had to assign each member of the team a specific area of focus. Elyce says, “We all were good at different things. At the beginning we were all kind of doing everything, falling all over each other and getting into arguments about different ways to get the same task done. So we decided to divide and conquer. Katy would take design, Pamela would take production, and I would take sales and marketing. And it ended up really working well because we tried not to second-guess the other person. I think what motivated us a lot was just to not lose our shirts the whole process. And that’s when

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it took off. We worked 24/7 for years. I mean, honestly, there wasn’t a moment to catch our breath the whole time. It was crazy.” Kate Spade was an outlier in the fashion world, with its founder’s Midwest sensibility and work ethic, grassroots funding, unconventional approach and not least the friendship between the partners. Elyce says, “We were so close. We felt like family. I knew we were going to be together forever, no matter what, as best friends. So our friendship was always the rock that kept everything else going. I think part of that is we respected each other. There was a lot of loyalty among the four of us to really keep it going. It was all trust and loyalty and respect, and that’s what it comes down to with a lot of humor mixed in. You have to laugh at things all the time.” The company grew exponentially, expanding internationally and growing their product offerings and staff while preserving the family-vibe at the office. Elyce and her partners were adamant that anyone involved in the brand had a certain sensibility, not fashion know-how necessarily, but instead kindness. There was a huge focus on the type of people they wanted to work on their team. Elyce says, “We took out a ‘want-ad’ IMAGE S COURTESY OF ELYCE ARONS.

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in the back of Women’s Wear Daily and the very last sentence was “must be polite.” It was intentional. I hate the word intentional now because AI uses it so much, but it was really there for a reason. We wanted people to know that this is the kind of company we’re running.” To underscore the point, they gave their staff copies of Emily Post’s Etiquette, the authoritative book on manners, underscoring the principles of consideration, respect and honesty. Elyce says of Etiquette, “I love it. I grew up with it. I still have one at my house here. It’s something we did because you have to pick the right people to fill those roles. They have to be good managers and they have to know their business but they have to do it all in a way that really nurtures the staff and the company.” Kate Spade expanded internationally and into licensing, and the momentum just seemed to grow. They received Council of Fashion Designers of America Awards in 1996 and 1998, and the fashion world was buzzing with excitement about this bright new design house. But the crowning moment of personal achievement for Elyce and Kate happened a couple of years into their business when they received a call from Mary Tyler Moore’s

manager who said Mary wanted to come by and look at their handbags. Elyce and Kate were able to share with Mary how much her example impacted them and how she had inspired their journey and success. In 2006, after all the hard work and hustle, the team decided to sell the company and focus on raising their families. Elyce says, “I remember when we sold Kate Spade, I was like, ‘Yay, we never have to work!’ She spent the summer with her children, but when she dropped them off at school in September, she thought, “I don’t know where to go. I’d never not worked a day in my life. I didn’t have an office to go to. Nobody was waiting for me. No job. Nothing. I didn’t really know what to do with myself.” So she decided to throw her energy into volunteering for her children’s school. She ran events, became the president of the Parents Association and Chair of the school board. She notes, “I got really involved, which was terrific and so rewarding. I’d never worked for a nonprofit before, and it was a whole different kind of thing. I learned patience and listening to other people’s ideas and worked with amazing people from all different walks of life. I learned so much.” But Elyce and Kate soon realized they missed fashion. They wanted to create. So, in 2013, they started talking about starting another company, just the two of them. Elyce remembers, “Andy had started his own branding agency. Pamela had started her own company. So, they gave us their blessings and said, ‘We know how much you guys love working together. Just do it.’ And Katy really only ever wanted to design accessories. She loved shoes and handbags. That’s all she ever wanted to do.” So they launched Frances Valentine, an accessory business, in 2016. Then the unthinkable happened. In 2018, Kate died by suicide. The noise surrounding her death was deafening as the media turned the tragedy into a spectacle. Elyce was consumed by grief over losing her best friend and bewildered about how this could happen. She says, “It was a shock to me as it was to the rest of the world. Honestly, the first thing her husband and I said was, ‘My God, she said she would never do anything like this. She told us all the time, ‘I would never do that.’ I haven’t had depression myself, but people who suffer with depression experience the depths that you can sink to. I can’t rationalize it. I can’t explain it to anybody because I don’t know. I think she was alone and lost hope in a moment.”

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ROAR OF AN ENTREPRENEUR Elyce struggled to process the shock and grief. She decided that the best way to face the darkness was to focus on celebrating Kate’s life instead of the circumstances of her death. She decided to put all the good things she remembered about Kate down on paper. It wasn’t easy. Elyce says, “It took me a while to even get to a point where I could write about it because so many emotions would come flooding back. But I tried to look at all the positive things her life brought to everybody and to shine a light on her legacy and who she really was. She was a

for so long and to still have that same feeling about them all those years later is the luckiest thing in the world.” The book was cathartic for Elyce, and after publishing it, she learned it also provided comfort for scores of others. “It helped me with my grief a lot and when I went to book signings, women would come up to me and say, ‘My gosh, I lost my best friend that way or I lost my sister that way,’ and we would hug. That made me feel less alone, and I think the book gave them hope to reflect on all of the good times

“it took me a while to even get to a point where i could write about it because so many emotions would come flooding back.” — Elyce Arons on Kate Spade’s unexpected death private person, but she was the funniest person I’ve ever met in my life. We played pranks on each other all the time and had a blast together. I wanted to show that person I knew, not just the creative design person that everybody knew, but the real person,the loyal, wonderful, funny friend I knew from the time we met when we were 18 years old until we were 55 and all of the different periods of friendship we went through.” We Might Just Make It After All, a tribute to Elyce’s best friend and business partner, is a poignant, funny and kismet-laden coming of age story about the road to success. Elyce paid homage to the Mary Tyler Moore Show with the eponymous title, referencing the sitcom’s theme song of hope and optimism. It is a delicious must-read magical memory tour through a special era in New York with descriptions so on point you feel the rumble of the subways below your feet, the smell of street vendors, the buzz of excitement in the air and the faint sounds of Fine Young Cannibals in the background. Elyce notes, “A lot of people love the book because it was about New York in the ’90s. It was gritty and full of opportunity and just crazy fun. Others love the part about entrepreneurship and starting two businesses together as friends and how we did it. But I think the most important thing for me is the best friendship. And I think that’s what people walk away from this book with is, ‘My gosh, I have a best friend like that and I should really call them and tell them I love them today.’ Because those friendships are extremely special in our lives. To know someone

and joy that person brought in life and to concentrate on those things instead of that one moment in time when they were lost. So it has really helped me get through the whole thing, focus on the good things in life and what we can do today to make it better for so many other people,” she says. On top of losing her best friend, Elyce still had a new business to run, and trying to hold up the fort without a founder presented additional challenges to the new start-up. “Losing Katy was a huge setback because we had to readjust everything,” Elyce says. They did not have a designer and they had a lot of decisions to make to keep the company running. She continues, “All these things were coming at us. But we decided that we were just going to do it. Our team was made up of all female employees and we got it together and we did it together.” And in their efforts to pick up the pieces after tragedy, Elyce and her team created a renewed focus and expanded their offerings. “After we lost Katy, I wanted to do something as a tribute to her that wasn’t a handbag. We had been huge vintage shoppers. So we remade two of her favorite vintage pieces. One was a caftan that she’d worn on every vacation we’d ever taken together and the other was this embroidered floral sweater that she wore backwards all the time and looked adorable. So we remade those two pieces and we called it the Love, Katy collection. Of course, it sold out immediately. We reordered it and it sold out again and again and again, and people started asking for all of the vintage pieces that we had collected over the years that we

were using in our campaigns. Our inspiration comes from mostly mid-century pieces from the ’50s, the ’60s and the ’70s. So, we started making swing coats and cigarette pants and sweaters and jackets and skirts. Cut to 18 months later, and we had a full apparel collection all based on vintage,” Elyce says. In a world that can feel increasingly monochrome, techno grey, Frances Valentine embodies the colorful, optimistic spirit of possibility and hope. The clothing and accessories are unapologetically happy. Classic silhouettes with effervescent jewel colors garnished with flowers, saucy cutouts and whimsical trims feel like a reclaiming of joy with sprinkles on top. And as with everything else she does, this quality is intentional for Elyce, creating something in the world that makes women feel good in uncertain times. Her motto is “Wear what makes you happy.” She says, “It is so rewarding. Everywhere I go, the brand just resonates with people so much. There’s so much craziness and chaos going on in the world that we see all around us. I just think it’s happy and I think if you can dress that way, it changes your whole day.” With no formal art or fashion training, Elyce says she creates with an intuitive sense for what shapes and colors work. She says, “It’s really all instinct. It’s what we love. For me, the quality has to be there because we want things to last in people’s closets. The design is already classic. So, you’re not going to say, ‘What was I thinking?’ when you look back at something two years from now. Katy used to say, ‘If you’re not on trend, you’re never off trend,’ so we follow our own drum, make what we love and we don’t really follow trends. Of course the color palettes in prints and the fabrications we’re looking at are going to be similar to what’s happening in the market because that’s what all of the fabric houses are doing. But we have our pink that we always use and we have our green that we always use. So there are things that we know that are traditionally Francis Valentine that we’ll always have.” Elyce says the joyful quality of her brand is reflected throughout the company. “There’s a real optimism in our team here and they help make it all happen. It can’t just be in a print or a piece of a dress. It’s got to be across the board in the people who are talking to you and the marketing campaign and our social media. It’s the ethos that you live by. And we choose joy; we choose to be happy and to solve problems in a really nice way and not get upset about things.

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ROAR OF AN ENTREPRENEUR I have been lucky twice in my life to work with a team of people who are magnificent. I’m knocking on wood. I feel so lucky to work with the team I work with here today because our old financial advisor said, ‘You better be careful because lightning doesn’t strike twice.’ I feel like it has because I’ve gotten lucky again in working with this group of people. So it’s just just good things all the time which is really, really nice. I feel like if you give good you get good,” she says. In addition to the hard work and perseverance Elyce has invested in her goals, there have been many serendipities on her path, and she believes she has two very special invisible partners cheering her on. She says, “I feel like I have angels around me because opportunities just come to us. We don’t even have to search them out.” As was the case when The Mary Tyler Moore Vision Initiative (MTM Vision) recently called and said they would love to partner with Frances Valentine. Elyce asked if they had reached out because of her book title referencing the Mary Tyler Moore theme song. Nope, they hadn’t even

closet, Dr. Levine called her again and asked if she could come and pick up all Mary’s clothes and store them during his move. Of course, Elyce agreed, and drove out with someone from her office to pack up all the items when Dr. Levine walked in the room and gave her a huge surprise. She says, “We’re packing up the clothes and he walks up with an envelope and says, ‘I can’t give this to you for good, but I’m giving it to you for safekeeping.’ Can you imagine what was in that envelope? It’s the hat she threw up in the air on the show. Yeah, I have the hat. It’s right here. Isn’t that fantastic?” And then something magical happened. Frances Valentine started talking about how they could support MTM Vision and decided to design a whole collection around Mary Richards, recreating all the iconic pieces from her shows with 20% of the net sales from the collection going to benefit MTM Vision helping advance research and advocacy to end vision loss from diabetic retinal disease. Elyce says, “We’re doing her peacoats, the hat, we’re doing a whole bunch of Mary pieces.

“i’m up in her closet and i didn’t even want to touch anything because i’m thinking the oil on my fingers is going to wreck her clothing.” — Elyce Arons on visiting Mary Tyler Moore’s closet. seen the book. Total kismet. But the story just gets better. Dr. S. Robert Levine, Mary Tyler Moore’s husband and CEO of MTM Vision, started the foundation in his late wife’s honor to help prevent vision loss in people with diabetes, something Moore suffered from. He invited Elyce and the Frances Valentine team to his Connecticut farm before he put it on the market. Elyce remembers, “He said, ‘you have to see Mary’s closet before we auction off all the stuff and we sell the farm.’ So, she packed her creative team into a van and drove out to the farm where Dr. Levine gave them a full tour of the house. And when they reached Mary’s closet, the holy grail for Elyce, she says, “I’m up in her closet and I didn’t even want to touch anything because I’m thinking the oil on my fingers is going to wreck her clothing and he reaches over my shoulder, pulls out a dress and says, ‘Try this on and try this on and try this on.’ So, I got to try on all of Mary’s clothes, which was just a pinch-me moment.” A bigger “pinch-me” moment was just around the corner for Elyce. Two weeks after she had full run of Mary Tyler Moore’s

She wore turtlenecks all the time. She wore plaid. We’re doing these beautiful wool plaid jackets, and then we’re working on the spring collection right now. But I’m so excited about it because it just came to us out of the blue. They said, ‘We called you because we loved what you were doing and it reminded us of Mary.’ How crazy is that?” Another synchronicity happened when Elyce was attending a conference in Sea Island, Georgia, and a woman let her know that the daughter of iconic photographer Slim Aarons, famous for his photos capturing the mid-20th century jet set, was looking for her. Elyce says, “So this woman connected us and I talked to Mary Aarons on the phone. She said, ‘I just got the rights to my father’s name and I would love nothing more than to do a collaboration with Francis Valentine because it feels more like my father’s style than anybody else’s.’ So now we’re working on a Slim Aaron’s collaboration for next summer. It’s another dream come true. I think Mary and Katy are up there making things happen for us and

that they’re still really involved.” Elyce says she is relishing this era of her life and has a word of encouragement for women who think it’s too late to achieve your dreams. She says, “It’s so easy to get caught in that cycle of ‘I’m too old’ or ‘there’s nothing for me, I’m not valued, I don’t know what I could do.’ It’s hard because you’re looking at a menu of a gajillion things you could do and it’s like going to a Greek diner hungry. Do you have the lobster thermidor? Or do you have the eggs benedict? What do you feel like? And having to go after one of those with such force, it scares people. It’s a lot because you feel like you’re committing to this one thing and thinking do I want this the rest of my life kind of thing. But it doesn’t have to be that way. I believe you can do anything you set your mind to. There was a guy named Earl Nightingale who was an executive coach way back before they even had executive coaches. His mantra was, ‘We become what we think about.’ So if you think about something all the time and your mind is constantly working on how you go about doing it, you can become that thing. Think about what you want to do, even if it’s in a small way, and have confidence in what you already know because, especially if you’re a mom, you know more than most men do about anything because you’re a multitasker. So, you’ve already got one leg up on a lot of people. Just have confidence in your dream and figure out the ways to get there. If you can’t jump over the mountain, go around the mountain. There are ways to get anything done and so many ways to research, whether it’s a product or a service you’re providing, so you can see what’s out there already. Do it better. Offer more than they do.” After a lifetime of reaching for the stars, Elyce notes her dreams have come true and she made it after all. She says, “This is the best time in my life. I’m 63 years old. I feel free. I feel like I am experienced. I don’t know everything, but I learn every day. I think women of our age have this opportunity for this right now to be the most productive time in our lives and it’s terrific. My kids are adults. I’m through a bunch of different things that plagued me in my 40s and 50s. Now I am free and it’s my time. I love it and I’m enjoying every minute of it.” SHE ROARS JOIN US ELYCE ARONS WILL BE RECOGNIZED AT THE SRQ WOMEN WHO ROAR LEADERSHIP AND

AWARDS

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NOVEMBER 6, 2026. RESERVE YOUR TICKETS AND TABLES: SRQMAG.COM/WWR

8 | srq magazine_ OCT26 | SHE ROARS MAGAZINE live local

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STEPHANIE BRONZINO REALTOR® | KELLER WILLIAMS COASTAL LIVING III

WHAT IS YOUR STORY OF SUCCESS? My story of success began with the courage to start over. As a first-generation American, I was raised by immigrant parents who taught me that opportunity is something you honor through hard work. When I relocated to Florida, I rebuilt my career in a new community without an established network. That experience taught me that success isn’t defined only by what you achieve, but by the trust you earn, the relationships you build, and the impact you make. Today, I measure success not only by how far I’ve come, but by how I can help others move forward, too. WHAT IS YOUR SINGLE, MOST SIGNIFICANT STRENGTH AND HOW HAVE YOU UTILIZED IT TO MAKE A POSITIVE IMPACT WITHIN AN ORGANIZATIONAL OR COMMUNITY LEADERSHIP ROLE? The ability to bring clarity and confidence to moments of uncertainty has become one of the most important strengths I bring to both my work and leadership. I learned early in my career that leadership isn’t always about having the loudest voice. Often, it is about listening closely, remaining steady, and helping someone see a path forward. That perspective guides the way I mentor new real estate agents as they build their businesses and find confidence in their own abilities. I believe the best leaders help others recognize what they are capable of and give them the tools and encouragement to succeed on their own. WHAT IS YOUR “SECRET SAUCE?” My secret sauce is the combination of strategy, intuition, and consistency. I listen closely, read the room, anticipate what people need, and bring clarity when things feel complicated. People remember how you show up for them, especially when the stakes are high. I believe trust is earned in those moments, and that trust has become the foundation of both my business and my leadership. DESCRIBE YOUR OUTLOOK ON LIFE IN SIX WORDS: Trust yourself. Work hard. Keep becoming. EVERY DAY I AM THANKFUL FOR the people I love, the opportunities I’ve been given, and the chance to keep growing while making a difference in the lives of others. MY WORK & IMPACT Real estate, to me, has never been simply about buying or selling a home. It is about understanding what that decision represents for the person making it. Serving Sarasota and Manatee counties, I have built my business around thoughtful strategy, strong communication, and an unwavering commitment to my clients. I am honored to have been recognized as a Five Star Professional for three consecutive years, 2024, 2025, and 2026. My background in education continues through mentoring new agents. Whether serving a client or supporting a colleague, my goal remains the same: create confidence, provide clarity, and deliver results.

“Success is not only what you build, but who you become and who you lift along the way.” KELLER WILLIAMS COASTAL LIVING III 2001 Siesta Drive, Suite 202, Sarasota, FL 34239 | 586.489.3791 sbronzino@kw.com | Instagram: sbronzino_realtor gulfcoasthomessearch.com/team/stephanie-bronzino/

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ERIN BROSIOUS

HARDBALL LAW - KALLINS, LITTLE & BROSIOUS WHAT IS YOUR STORY OF SUCCESS? My story of success is really a story of being willing to begin again. I spent over a decade as a public-school teacher before making the decision to pursue a completely different path in law. Starting over was intimidating, but it taught me that the years behind you are never wasted—they become part of what you bring with you. Teaching gave me patience, empathy and the ability to meet people where they are. Law gave me another way to advocate for people when they need someone in their corner. Today, as an attorney and business owner, I define success less by titles and more by whether the work I do makes a meaningful difference in someone else’s life.

“A lit tle grit, a lot of grace, and just enough Namaste.”

WHAT IS YOUR SINGLE, MOST SIGNIFICANT STRENGTH AND HOW HAVE YOU UTILIZED IT TO MAKE A POSITIVE IMPACT WITHIN AN ORGANIZATIONAL OR COMMUNITY LEADERSHIP ROLE? My greatest strength is my willingness to take the lead. When I see something that needs to be done, I don’t wait for someone else to step forward—I take initiative, bring people together, and work toward a solution. Throughout my career, from education to law and now as a business owner, I’ve learned that leadership isn’t about having the loudest voice in the room. It’s about being willing to take responsibility, make difficult decisions, and help others move forward with you. I strive to lead with grace while remaining decisive and action-oriented. I believe good leaders don’t simply identify what could be better; they step up and help make it better. HOW HAS AN EXPERIENCE IN YOUR PERSONAL LIFE MOTIVATED YOU? Becoming a mother has changed the way I think about success, leadership and the example I want to set. I want my child to grow up knowing that they are never confined to one path or one definition of who they should be. She will watch me balance family, career and building a business, and I hope what she ultimately sees is that meaningful things require hard work, courage and sometimes a willingness to take a completely new direction. She motivates me to work hard, but she also reminds me why being present, compassionate and intentional matters just as much. WHAT IS YOUR “SECRET SAUCE?” Yoga. It keeps me grounded, clears my mind and reminds me that strength requires balance. DESCRIBE YOUR OUTLOOK ON LIFE IN SIX WORDS: Stay curious, keep learning, embrace growth. EVERY DAY I AM THANKFUL FOR my family, the people who have believed in me, and the opportunity to do work that matters. TELL US ABOUT YOUR BUSINESS/ORGANIZATION OR PHILANTHROPIC WORK. As a partner at HardBall Law, I have the privilege of advocating for people during some of the most difficult moments of their lives. We built our firm around something simple: people deserve to feel heard, informed and genuinely cared for while receiving strong legal representation. That same philosophy guides my firm’s involvement in our community. From supporting local schools and teachers to sponsoring youth and community initiatives, I believe a business should invest in the community that invests in it. My years as an educator taught me the power of showing up for people, and that lesson continues to shape how I practice law.

KALLINS, LITTLE & BROSIOUS - HARDBALL LAW 433 8th Ave West, Palmetto, FL, 34210 941.807.7555 | HardBallLaw.com Facebook: HardBallLaw

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9/15/26 11:59 AM

TERRI KLAUBER

DIRECTOR OF COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT | MICHAEL’S ON EAST

TELL US ABOUT YOURSELF I have always believed that leadership begins with caring for people. Whether through philanthropy, community involvement, mentoring, or simply creating meaningful connections, my life has centered around bringing people together and helping others feel seen, supported, and valued. Over the years, I’ve been fortunate to work alongside many remarkable organizations throughout the Sarasota community, particularly in areas involving children, families, healthcare, education, and the arts. Much of my work has focused on relationship-building, fundraising, advocacy, and helping create opportunities that make a lasting impact. I’m deeply inspired by the power of community and by the idea that small acts of kindness and consistency can truly change lives. I also believe leadership does not always happen from a podium—often it happens quietly, through showing up, listening, encouraging others, and helping people move forward. Family has always been at the center of my life and values. Some of my greatest joy comes from being a wife, mother, grandmother, friend, and mentor. Those relationships have shaped the way I approach both life and leadership—with empathy, gratitude, optimism, and a strong sense of responsibility to give back. SHARE THE SINGLE ACCOMPLISHMENT FOR WHICH YOU ARE MOST PROUD? I am especially proud of the work my husband Michael and I have done supporting organizations that improve the lives of children and families in our region. Watching programs grow, seeing communities rally together around important causes, and knowing that our efforts have helped provide hope and opportunity to others has been deeply fulfilling. HOW HAS AN EXPERIENCE IN YOUR PERSONAL LIFE MOTIVATED AND INSPIRED YOU IN YOUR PROFESSIONAL LIFE? As a mother and grandmother, I’ve also become deeply aware of how much influence we have through example. The values we model— kindness, resilience, generosity, integrity, and grace under pressure—often leave the greatest impact. Professionally and within the community, I try to lead with warmth and authenticity. I believe people respond most strongly to sincerity and to those who genuinely care about others. That perspective has influenced everything from fundraising and volunteer work to mentoring relationships and community partnerships. Life has also taught me gratitude. Even difficult experiences can become opportunities for growth, perspective, and deeper understanding. Those experiences have ultimately strengthened both my sense of purpose and my commitment to helping others. WHAT MOVIE OR TV CHARACTER WOULD YOU LIKE TO PLAY IN REAL LIFE AND WHY? I would probably choose someone like Mary Poppins. she balances grace with strength and brings joy wherever she goes—qualities I deeply admire and aspire to reflect in my own life.

“Trust yourself more. Don’t spend so much time worrying about trying to please everyone.” MICHAEL’S ON EAST 1212 S. East Avenue, Sarasota, FL 34239 941.366.0007 | bestfood.com Instagram: @michaels.on.east

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SALLY DAISOMONT

VP-COMMERCIAL LOAN OFFICER | LIBERTY SAVINGS BANK

“If you happen to see someone without a smile, give them one of yours.” WHAT IS YOUR SINGLE, MOST SIGNIFICANT STRENGTH AND HOW HAVE YOU UTILIZED IT TO MAKE A POSITIVE IMPACT WITHIN AN ORGANIZATIONAL OR COMMUNITY LEADERSHIP ROLE? My greatest strength is building trusted relationships. I listen carefully, understand each person’s goals, and connect them with practical financial solutions. Throughout more than three decades in banking, I have used this strength to grow portfolios, lead teams, support local businesses, and strengthen community partnerships across SarasotaManatee while creating lasting results for everyone involved. WHAT IS YOUR “SECRET SAUCE?” Focus on solutions, work around obstacles. EVERY DAY I AM THANKFUL FOR the opportunity to serve others, support my community, and help people move confidently toward their goals, both professionally and personally. TELL US ABOUT YOUR BUSINESS/ORGANIZATION OR PHILANTHROPIC WORK. I help business owners achieve their financial goals through personal guidance, relationship management, and listening to their needs and providing viable financing options for their businesses. I try to help the community by participating with local organizations. I am currently on the board of the Girl Scouts of Gulf Coast Florida and have previously participated with The Players of Sarasota, The United Way, Women’s Resource Center of Sarasota, and several local chambers and business groups.

SALLY DAISOMONT

TRACY WOLFE

TRACY WOLFE

VP-TREASURY MANAGEMENT SALES OFFICER | LIBERTY SAVINGS BANK

“Your reputation is earned one relationship at a time.” WHAT IS YOUR SINGLE, MOST SIGNIFICANT STRENGTH AND HOW HAVE YOU UTILIZED IT TO MAKE A POSITIVE IMPACT WITHIN AN ORGANIZATIONAL OR COMMUNITY LEADERSHIP ROLE? People bank with people. That belief has guided my 25-year career in community banking. My greatest strength is building trusted relationships through a concierge-style approach to treasury management. I believe every business is different, so I take the time to understand each client’s goals before recommending the treasury products and services that best fit their unique needs. WHAT IS YOUR “SECRET SAUCE?” Service beyond expectations earns client loyalty. EVERY DAY I AM THANKFUL FOR every opportunity that has challenged me, strengthened me, and shaped the leader I am today. I truly believe there’s no greater reward than earning someone’s trust and knowing you’ve made a difference. TELL US ABOUT YOUR BUSINESS/ ORGANIZATION OR PHILANTHROPIC WORK. I believe community banking is about making a difference. It’s helping local businesses grow, supporting the organizations that strengthen our community, and working together to make our communities even stronger. When businesses thrive, our communities thrive.

LIBERTY SAVINGS BANK 6230 University Pkwy, Ste. 101 Lakewood Ranch, FL 34240 | Sally Daisomont: 941.209.4565 | Tracy Wolfe: 941.465.1022

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MAUREEN E. O’NELL

CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER | SUNCOAST HUMANE SOCIETY WHAT IS YOUR SINGLE, MOST SIGNIFICANT STRENGTH AND HOW HAVE YOU UTILIZED IT TO MAKE A POSITIVE IMPACT WITHIN AN ORGANIZATIONAL OR COMMUNITY LEADERSHIP ROLE? Dynamic decision-making guided by vision. Concretely, you can see it in the animal welfare campus we built. The greater community was in critical need for myriad services to address unfulfilled support for pets and the people who love them. The dilapidated shelter and rudimentary clinic didn’t meet the growing needs of an expanding population, more animals at risk statewide and a means to promote the humananimal bond through lifetime learning and engagement. The advancement from a small rundown shelter to a future leaning human-animal bond institution required dynamism in thought and action. What we built can be viewed in bricks and mortar. What has been created is fluid, expansive and designed for possibilities.

“Show up every single day for what you love.”

HOW HAS AN EXPERIENCE IN YOUR PERSONAL LIFE MOTIVATED YOU? Bearing witness to suffering. If we pay attention, we see there is much to be done. This has created in me an unrelenting drive to do something to make our world better with purposeful and sustainable solutions. Animal suffering is a human problem. It is ours to fix. WHAT IS YOUR “SECRET SAUCE?” Tenacity. There will always be obstacles, but there will also always be heroes. Keep going. DESCRIBE YOUR OWN OUTLOOK ON LIFE IN SIX WORDS. We are responsible for this world. EVERY DAY I AM THANKFUL FOR kindness. I am perpetually looking at the big picture and putting effort into solving complex problems. What takes my breath away are the warm and gentle, often tiny acts of kindness people bestow on each other, a child, an animal. They are done not for others to see but for the recipient to feel. TELL US ABOUT YOUR BUSINESS/ ORGANIZATION OR PHILANTHROPIC WORK. Founded in 1971, Suncoast Humane Society is a nonprofit, no-kill animal welfare organization dedicated to helping pets and people live happier, healthier lives together. Serving as a regional resource across Southwest Florida, we provide lifesaving sheltering, adoption, foster care, behavioral enrichment, high-quality, low-cost preventative veterinary services, spay/neuter programs, pet food assistance, humane education, pet therapy and compassionate end-of-life support. Through our three pillars of Sheltering, Prevention, and Community Outreach, we reduce pet overpopulation, keep pets and families together, and build stronger, more compassionate communities. Together, we help animals walk into bright new futures. No matter what, love them all.

SUNCOAST HUMANE SOCIETY 2620 Worth Ave. Englewood, FL 34224 EIN# 23-7174193

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“I had to stop believing I could solve every problem JENNIFER LOCKWOOD FOUNDER + BOARD MEMBER | ORENDA HEALTH & WELLNESS by working longer hours.” WHAT IS YOUR SINGLE, MOST SIGNIFICANT STRENGTH AND HOW HAVE YOU UTILIZED IT TO MAKE A POSITIVE IMPACT WITHIN AN ORGANIZATIONAL OR COMMUNITY LEADERSHIP ROLE? I am a builder; drawn to the problems other people avoid. Give me a complicated challenge, a mission worth pursuing, and a folding card table, and I will build something that lasts. Ravin Consultants started that way in 2017, followed by Orenda Health & Wellness less than a year later. I had seen too many organizations with extraordinary missions struggle because they lacked the structure to sustain them, and I built both with that lesson in mind. HOW HAS AN EXPERIENCE IN YOUR PERSONAL LIFE MOTIVATED YOU? Working in healthcare taught me how the system works. Becoming a patient taught me how it feels. My own health challenges showed me how frustrating it is when there is no quick answer, and how much of our health exists outside a prescription bottle. That experience shaped Orenda’s approach to listen first, look at the whole person, and help people become active participants in their own health. WHAT IS YOUR “SECRET SAUCE?” People. That is my secret sauce. I see potential in people and then refuse to let them play small. I want the people around me to grow, take ownership, and eventually become better at things than I am. I also want them to have a life. You should be able to build an incredible career and still show up for the people you love. DESCRIBE YOUR OWN OUTLOOK ON LIFE IN SIX WORDS. See what’s possible. Then build it. EVERY DAY I AM THANKFUL FOR my two boys, the people I get to work alongside, and the fact that I’m still excited about what’s ahead.

ORENDA HEALTH & WELLNESS 1961 Floyd St STE C | Sarasota, FL 34239 | 941.424.0388 | orendahealth.org Instagram: orenda_health_wellness | Facebook: orendahealthfl

COURTENAY SMITH

FOUNDER + OWNER | SHACK YOGA + FITNESS

“Success, to me, is building somet hing t hat grows wit hout losing t he hear t of why you star ted.”

WHAT IS YOUR STORY OF SUCCESS? My story really started with a love of yoga. I began practicing in 2008, teaching in 2011, and opened the original Yoga Shack in Sarasota in 2012—quite literally, in a little tin shack. I didn’t have a grand plan. I just knew how yoga made me feel, and I wanted to create a place where other people could experience that same sense of connection and belonging. Fourteen years later, SHACK has grown in ways I never could have imagined—and so has my life. I became a mother of two along the way, and motherhood has probably changed my definition of success more than anything. I still love to dream big, create and grow, but I’ve learned that success isn’t doing everything perfectly. It’s building something I’m proud of, being present for the people I love, and giving myself permission to let that balance look different in different seasons. TELL US ABOUT YOUR BUSINESS. SHACK yoga + fitness is a Sarasota-born yoga and fitness community with studios in Downtown Sarasota and Waterside Place, and our next location coming to Hyde Park Village in Tampa. We offer heated yoga, sculpt, strength and restorative practices, but SHACK has always been about more than a workout. I want our studios to feel welcoming, fun and full of energy—a place where people can challenge themselves, connect with others, slow down when they need to, and leave feeling a little better than when they walked in. WHAT IS YOUR “SECRET SAUCE?” Staying curious. I still practice. I still teach. I still learn. I pay attention to what is changing in wellness and fitness, but I’m equally interested in the traditions and philosophy that made me fall in love with yoga in the first place.

SHACK YOGA + FITNESS Waterside Lakewood Ranch 1561 Lakefront Dr. Suite 210, FL, 34240

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Downtown Sarasota 514 Central Ave., FL, 34236 941.203.5146 shackyogafitness.com

Facebook: SHACK yoga + fitness instagram: the.shack.life

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LAURIE MCCRACKEN

FOUNDER & EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR | BABY FOX ACADEMY

“I built Baby Fox to make a difference for t he children in front of me. I found my voice so I could make a difference for t he children I may never meet.” WHAT IS YOUR STORY OF SUCCESS? I never set out to become a business owner or an advocate. I was a teacher who believed childhood should be magical—and that the people entrusted with children’s earliest years should be valued like the professionals they are. I opened Baby Fox Academy in my home with four children and a big idea about what early learning should be. Ten years later, my definition of success has changed. It isn’t how big Baby Fox grows; it’s how much good I can do with what I’ve built. Today, I use my experience, platform and voice to fight for children, families and the early childhood professionals who make every other workforce possible. WHAT IS YOUR SINGLE, MOST SIGNIFICANT STRENGTH AND HOW HAVE YOU UTILIZED IT TO MAKE A POSITIVE IMPACT WITHIN AN ORGANIZATIONAL OR COMMUNITY LEADERSHIP ROLE? Passion. And I’m not very good at being quiet about things that matter. I’ve learned that when you pair lived experience with the courage to speak up, people listen. I’ve spent more than 30 years in education—as a teacher, early learning provider, director and business owner—and now I bring that experience into rooms where decisions are made. I advocate for early childhood education as what it truly is: workforce infrastructure. We are the workforce behind the workforce, while also building the brains, skills and humans who become every other workforce that follows. My goal isn’t just to have a seat at the table. It’s to make sure our entire profession has one. WHAT IS YOUR “SECRET SAUCE?” A big heart, a loud voice and absolutely no fear of asking, “Why not?”

BABY FOX ACADEMY OF FLORIDA 7041 Professional Pkwy E., Lakewood Ranch, FL 34240 | 941.359.(FOXY) BabyFoxAcademy.com | Facebook: BabyFoxAcademy

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