Gulf Coast Community Foundation Awards $40,000 Grant to the Hermitage Artist Retreat With Support from Flora Major

The $40,000 grant will be directed to expand community programing and to launch a Heritage North program.

The Hermitage Artist Retreat recently received a $40,000 grant from
the Gulf Coast Community Foundation, which is celebrating its 25th anniversary. These funds will be used to expand community programming, visibility, and engagement as the Hermitage launches its Hermitage North programs.

“We are so grateful for Gulf Coast’s continued partnership and unwavering
support for the Hermitage mission. These resources will allow us to capitalize on our extraordinary talent base of artists and our invaluable partnerships to establish more visible, meaningful, and consistent Hermitage programming throughout the region,” says Andy Sandberg, the Hermitage’s Artistic Director and CEO. The Hermitage is uniquely positioned to do this by virtue of the caliber of Hermitage artists, which include nine Pulitzer Prize winners, seven MacArthur Genius Grant recipients, and multiple Oscar, Tony, Emmy, and Grammy winners and nominees.

This is being supported with an additional $45,000 given by Flora Major and
the Kutya Major Foundation.

“I have known Andy Sandberg for many years, and his vision for the
Hermitage is incredibly exciting,” says Flora Major. “The Hermitage is poised to become a true leader in the Sarasota arts community, and I am thrilled to see the wave of support rallying behind this special, one-of-a-kind organization. I am honored to play a role in seeing the Hermitage reach new heights in Sarasota and beyond.”

“Thanks to this monumental grant from Gulf Coast and Flora Major’s
extraordinary gift of support, we can move forward with planning our Hermitage North programs, formalizing institutional partnerships with our invaluable arts and education partners in the region, and furthering the engagement of our artists and alumni with our community,” adds Sandberg. “We are deeply grateful to Gulf Coast Community Foundation and to Flora Major for their generous support of these programs and their continued commitment to our mission.”

The Hermitage hosts artists on its Gulf Coast Manasota Key campus for multi-week residencies, where artists from around the world and across multiple disciplines create and develop new works of visual art, theater, music, literature, and more. As part of their residencies, Hermitage Fellows are asked to participate in community programs, affording audiences in our region the unique opportunity to engage with some of the world’s leading artists and to get a “sneak peek” into extraordinary projects and artistic minds before their works go on to major galleries, concert halls, theaters, and museums around the world. These free programs include performances, lectures, interactive experiences, open studios, school programs, teacher workshops, and more, serving thousands in our regional community each year.

The Hermitage is in the final days of its spring fundraising campaign. Through June 30 th , every gift made to the Hermitage Artist Retreat will be matched, dollar-for- dollar, thanks to a generous $100,000 contribution room the Cook family on Manasota Key and an additional $50,000 in support from additional friends of the Hermitage, for a total match challenge of $150,000.

For more information about the Hermitage, visit www.HermitageArtistRetreat.org.