Sarasota Art Museum and Hermitage Artist Retreat Announce Plans for New Collaborations

April 7, 2023 – Sarasota

Sarasota Art Museum of Ringling College of Art and Design and the Hermitage Artist Retreat are pleased to announce an expansion of their existing collaboration that will culminate with two full-scale art exhibitions at Sarasota Art Museum in the spring of 2024. While the Hermitage and the Museum have partnered on previous community programs featuring award-winning Hermitage artists across multiple disciplines, these will be the first major exhibitions of Hermitage alumni artists at Sarasota Art Museum.

Dan Cameron has been selected to curate an exhibition of multiple Hermitage artists spanning the past two decades. Cameron is a longtime member of the Hermitage’s National Curatorial Council, and he will work in collaboration with Sarasota Art Museum’s Senior Curator Rangsook Yoon to shape an exhibition of works focused on the impact of 10 Hermitage artists, tracing the trajectory of their artistic journeys — from their residencies at the Hermitage to the return of their work to Sarasota.

The Museum will simultaneously present a solo exhibition featuring new work and a site-specific installation by Hermitage Fellow Anne Patterson (American, born 1960) curated by Yoon. Patterson is a multidisciplinary artist based in Brooklyn. Her body of work consists of paintings, sculptures, and large-scale multimedia installations that combine sculpture, architecture, lighting, video, music, and scent. 

As a synesthete (when she hears sound, she sees color and shape), Patterson seeks to create an experience which can transport audiences to a multisensory realm. Drawing from her background in theater set design, she uses these modalities to create an artistic practice, hovering somewhere between the visual, experiential, and immersive. Following her Hermitage Fellowship, Patterson became known to Sarasota audiences through her Pathless Woods exhibit at The Ringling Museum, and she was subsequently commissioned by the Community Foundation of Sarasota County to create an original, community-based piece that now hangs in their lobby called Circle of Thirds (2017).

Now celebrating its 20^th Anniversary Season, the Hermitage is one of the preeminent arts incubators in the United States and has hosted some of the world’s leading visual artists in residence as Hermitage Fellows, along with artists spanning theater, music, literature, dance, and film. Sarasota Art Museum is a leading contemporary art museum focused on transformative, relevant, and pioneering exhibitions designed to elevate and empower. Both organizations are committed to exhibiting and championing bold and innovative artists with a global perspective. In addition to the two exhibitions spanning the second and third floors of the Museum, additional talks and programming will be scheduled.

“The Hermitage has nurtured and supported hundreds of artists since its inception,” said Sarasota Art Museum Executive Director Virginia Shearer. “It is an honor to highlight the important role the Hermitage plays in advancing creative practice and building a rich network of artists who continue to impact and inform the cultural life of our city, and beyond.”

“We are incredibly excited to be partnering with Sarasota Art Museum as they showcase and celebrate the work of these extraordinary Hermitage visual artists,” said Hermitage Artistic Director and CEO Andy Sandberg. “While all Hermitage Fellows offer our community a ‘sneak peek’ into their work and creative process, these thrilling exhibitions will offer Gulf Coast audiences a more complete look at the expansive talent of these diverse and accomplished visual artists, whose creations often take years to complete.”

Further details about both exhibitions will be announced in the fall of 2023. For more information about either organization, visit HermitageArtistRetreat.org and SarasotaArtMuseum.org.