Hermitage Artist Retreat Receives Grant From Florida Division of Cultural Affairs

[Sarasota County, FL; August 3, 2020] — The State of Florida Division of Cultural Affairs has awarded the Hermitage Artist Retreat a $29,591 grant, which will be directed to help fund the Hermitage’s community arts and cultural programs. The award-winning creators across all artistic disciplines who stay at the Hermitage provide free public programs that attract thousands of residents and tourists every year. These programs take place at the Hermitage and throughout our region in collaboration with leading arts, cultural, and educational institutions. This year, some will also take place via digital and online platforms.

According to Andy Sandberg, Artistic Director and CEO of the Hermitage, these cultural gatherings provide both residents and visitors the rare opportunity to interact with celebrated authors, musicians, poets, playwrights, visual artists, composers, and performers from across the globe. 

“The artists creating work at the Hermitage are shaping the artistic and cultural landscape of the future,” says Sandberg. “The Hermitage has been the birthplace and incubator for significant works that have gone on to leading theaters, museums, and concert halls around the world.” The Hermitage’s audiences get front-row seats to experience brilliant new works-in-progress and participate in conversations with accomplished artists at the top of their respective fields. 

Sandberg adds that this experience will continue for future Hermitage audiences, thanks to essential backing like this grant from the State. “The support from our community and this grant from the DCA are vital to the growth and success of the Hermitage as we forge ahead in our mission to support artists and the creative process. We take enormous pride in being a unique and leading arts organization in the state of Florida, and we are honored to continue sharing the talents of our extraordinary Hermitage Fellows with tourists and residents throughout the region. We are deeply grateful to Division of Cultural Affairs for its continued support of the Hermitage and their commitment to the work we are doing.”

About the Florida Division of Cultural Affairs: 
The Florida Division of Cultural Affairs is Florida’s state arts agency. The Division promotes arts and culture as essential to quality of life for all Floridians. Arts and culture contribute to a vibrant and creative Florida. These diverse resources include arts in education, local arts agency, state service organization, theater, dance, folks arts, literature, media arts, museum, multidisciplinary, music, sponsor/presenter, and visual arts programs and projects.

About the Hermitage Artist Retreat: 
The Hermitage is a nonprofit artist retreat located in Manasota Key, Florida, inviting accomplished artists across multiple disciplines for residencies on its beachfront campus, which is on the National Register of Historic Places. Hermitage artists are invited to interact with the local community, reaching thousands of Gulf Coast residents and visitors each year with unique and inspiring programs. Hermitage Fellows have included nine Pulitzer Prize winners, along with multiple Tony, Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and MacArthur Fellowship award winners. Works created at this beachside retreat by a diverse group of Hermitage alumni have gone on to renowned theatres, concert halls, and galleries throughout the world. Each year, the Hermitage awards the $30,000 Hermitage Greenfield Prize for a new work of art, and the Aspen Music Festival awards the annual Hermitage Prize in Composition. For more information about The Hermitage Artist Retreat, visit HermitageArtistRetreat.org.

The Hermitage is supported by:
Hermitage programs are supported, in part, by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts; by Sarasota County Tourist Development Tax Revenues; and by the Department of State, Division of Cultural Affairs, the Florida Council of Arts and Culture and the State of Florida (Section 286.25 Florida Statutes), as well as the Gulf Coast Community Foundation and the Community Foundation of Sarasota County.