Ringling Museum Exhibits Heart Gallery Portraits

October 13, 2021 – Sarasota

Faces of Foster Care, an exhibit of some of Sarasota’s most well-known photographers, is currently on display at the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art’s Johnson Blalock Education Center through November 2021. The collection includes works by Peter Acker, Barbara Banks, Wendy Dewhurst, Nicole Houser, Michael Fults, Daniel Peralis  and Harry Sayer, who volunteer for the Heart Gallery, the not-for-profit whose photographic exhibits and web portal, heartgallerysarasota.org, recruit foster parents and helps foster youth advocate for themselves.

Many of the children featured are at risk of aging out of the foster care system or are part of a large sibling group that makes them harder to place.  Of the 54 children hosted on Heart Gallery exhibits last year, 24 found families who were inspired by the spirit and character captured by their photographs.  Although COVID delayed scheduling full day shoots by the photographers, scenic backdrops at Sarasota’s Audubon Nature Center and Bradenton’s River Walk offered a playful safe setting after some restrictions lifted.  

The exhibit marks the first by the Heart Gallery since the COVID outbreak.  The organization’s 8 semi-permanent installations in Sarasota and Bradenton libraries, malls and retail venues were taken down due to COVID sanitation requirements and a decline in staff at those locations.  The exhibits are the primary source of foster and adoptive parent recruitment for the Safe Children Coalition, the agency that oversees the placement of every child in the foster care system in Sarasota, Manatee and DeSoto counties. 

The Ringling’s commitment to art and cultural education for children, inspires children through free programs including ROAR, a free story time program that connects art with early literacy and Homeschool Thursdays. Hundreds of families have been served via the Museums for All program through which families with EBT cards can visit the museum free of charge.