Fort Myers Public Art Committee announces 2024 Biennial Grant Show
The City of Fort Myers Public Art Committee will be exhibiting its Biennial Artist Grant Recipient Show during the month of May in the main gallery at the Alliance for the Arts.
Opening Friday, May 3, the exhibition showcases the work of visual artists Linda Benson, Stacey Brown, Martha De La Cruz, Lily Hatchett, Angela Page and Roland Ruocco. In addition, at 6:00 p.m. in the Alliance’s Foulds Theatre, Gulfshore Ballet will perform an excerpt from Tchaikovsky’s renowned Sleeping Beauty ballet specially choreographed by Gulfshore Ballet Artistic Directors (and former Miami City Ballet principal dancers) Iliana Lopez and Franklin Gamero, followed by Lily Hatchett’s Paper Grotto featuring her fabled TechnoDogs.
Each these visual artists and performance groups received an arts & culture grant from the City of Fort Myers in 2022 or 2023, or both grant cycles.
The City of Fort Myers arts and culture grant program is designed to support and foster the arts organizations and individual artists who contribute to the flourishing arts and culture scene that distinguishes the City and thriving nighttime economy. In 2022 alone, the City’s nonprofit art sector drew more than 1.1 million people to the various art exhibitions, theater performances, concerts and other events, generating $98.7 million of economic impact. Over the course of the year, those 1.1 million patrons spent more than $48 million at local restaurants, retail stores and other business establishments before and following the shows and other events they attended, proving that the arts don’t just provide food for the soul; they put food on the table for scores of people who live and work in the City of Fort Myers.
The Alliance for the Arts is a vibrant and welcoming nonprofit visual and performing arts center located on McGregor Boulevard in the heart of Southwest Florida. Since the 1970s, the Alliance has been transforming lives and improving community through the arts. Its year-round schedule of events uniquely enables the local community to connect with each other and to the arts during engaging gallery exhibitions, inspiring art classes and stimulating theatre productions. The Alliance is a creative space that spurs and supports self-expression, imagination and equity.
The opening reception will take place May 3, 2024 from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. with performances beginning the Foulds Theatre at 6:00 p.m. While there is no charge for the performances, seating is limited.
For more information about the exhibition, please contact Fort Myers’ Public Art Consultant, Tom Hall, at 239-691-2292 or tom@artswfl.com or Alliance for the Arts Gallery Director Emily Radomski at 939-2787.
April 10, 2024.
About the Author
Tom Hall is both an amateur artist and aspiring novelist who writes art quest thrillers. He is in the final stages of completing his debut novel titled "Art Detective," a story that fictionalizes the discovery of the fabled billion-dollar Impressionist collection of Parisian art dealer Josse Bernheim-Jeune, thought by many to have perished during World War II when the collection's hiding place, Castle de Rastignac in southern France, was destroyed by the Wehrmacht in reprisal for attacks made by members of the Resistance operating in the area. A former tax attorney, Tom holds a bachelor's degree as well as both a juris doctorate and masters of laws in taxation from the University of Florida. Tom lives in Estero, Florida with his fiancee, Connie, and their four cats.