Celebrating Sarasota's Centennial through Art

Holland King at work on painting
featuring founder of Venice Theatre

The Chalk Festival has been a part of Sarasota's cultural life since 2007. It's one of my favorite events of the year. But with the pandemic still at its height when the organization received a $40K grant funded by tourism dollars, organizer Denise Kowal faced a dilemma. Should the Chalk Festival become a virtual event or could the funds be used in another way? Kowal pivoted to the idea of joining in Sarasota's centennial celebration with the creation of an "Avenue of the Arts." 

Over the new few weeks, 312 sidewalk squares of the Burns Court area of Pineapple Avenue will be converted from bland concrete to visual representations of Sarasota's history. While a Chalk Festival event, the artists are using paint rather than chalk as their medium. Ultimately, the works will have QR codes to identify the slice of history shown and the artist who brought it to life. 

Patience, however, is not my strongest suit. Nor am I one to miss an opportunity to talk with artists about their work. And so I've headed over to Pineapple Avenue a couple of times to check out the work in progress. It's already wonderful, and only a fraction of the 5'x5' "canvases" have been completed. 

Marti Grinberg and Twistee Treat

Tampa-based artist Holland King was at work recreating a photograph from an article about the founding of Venice Theatre in the 1950s. Apologies for not knowing if this painting depicts Muriel Olds-Dundas or Sonia Terry. What I do know is that the theatre's first space was a converted WWII Quonset hut, with the seating provided by a local funeral home on the condition that the chairs would be returned when needed for services. Click here to see the finished work and some of King's other centennial paintings, with more to be done. 

While Kowal has a list of ideas for paintings, artists are invited to come up with their own concepts as well. Marti Grinberg's work fondly recalls a Twistee Treat ice cream shop once located on N. Tamiami Trail. Grinberg said she liked that the architecture told passersby exactly what they'd get if they stopped. And at 28' tall and 20' wide, the structure was hard to miss. Sadly, the Sarasota location is closed, but there are franchises across the state if you have a craving. 

Deb Lawless' sea turtle

Also on site were Punta Gorda artists Erik Schlake and Deb Lawless. Their arsenal of tools included something most artists don't carry -- a broom. One of the downsides of painting in a nice shady area is the falling leaves.  As if bending over a sidewalk and navigating the shadows weren't challenging enough! 

Lawless called herself a "beginner," but her sea turtle belies this characterization. When I asked her about the mosaic style, she laughed and said she was kind of regretting having made that choice. I get it, but it's a great design.

Schlake has found inspiration for his paintings in old travel brochures, labels and other advertising materials. Take, for instance, his recreation of a label from a Phillipe River carton of oranges and grapefruit circa early 1900s. Count Odet Phillipe was the first to plant grapefruit and oranges on the west coast of Florida. Phillipe "discovered" the plants when his ship stopped in the Caribbean on its way from France to Florida. Phillipe was inducted to the Florida Citrus Hall of Fame in 1963 in recognition of his contribution, and the website calls him "undoubtedly one of the [Hall of Fame's] most interesting characters." For more info about Phillipe, click here. He was pretty interesting. 

By Erik Schlake

Speaking of grapefruit, when I chatted with Schlake, he was just getting started on a recreation of a poster promoting baseball's Grapefruit League. The League was (and is) comprised of the pro baseball teams that come to Florida for spring training. You might be wondering how the League got its name. In 1915, aviator Ruth Law had taken to throwing golf balls out of her plane to market a new golf course. Someone suggested that she promote spring training by throwing a baseball out of her plane. But a baseball, unlike a golf ball, really should be caught. And so Wilbert Robinson, manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers, agreed to give it a try when the plane flew over the team's practice location in Daytona. When the time came for the drop, Law couldn't find a baseball and threw a grapefruit instead. Of course Robinson wasn't privy to this change in the plan and was gamely standing on the field wearing his glove and waiting for a ball to drop 525' from the sky.  I can only imagine his shock when a grapefruit landed on his face. 

A representation of St. Armands Circle
by Truman Adams

This is just a sliver of Sarasota's history that the Avenue of Art will celebrate. If you're in the area, I highly recommend heading over to Burns Court to check out the work being done. By July, the work will be complete and the QR codes in place. But why wait until then when you can enjoy the project in progress and hear directly from the artists? 

By the way, if you're an artist interested in participating OR you have an idea about a piece of history that would be fun to highlight, email info@chalkfestival.org. 

Here's to Sarasota!!!