News & Previews – on the gulf

On The Gulf NEWS & PREVIEWS The Blues are Back in Bradenton

The 10th anniversary of the Bradenton Blues Festival Weekend will be held at LECOM Park, December 3-5. In addition to featuring a variety of blues styles, the outdoor festival will have local craft beer, wine, and food available.

The music starts Friday afternoon, December 3 at 4pm, ending at 8pm. Saturday’s concert is 11am-8pm. The weekend wraps up with a Bradenton Blues Brunch on Sunday, December 5. The threecourse brunch is 10:30am-2pm at Mattison’s Riverwalk Grille, located at 101 Riverfront Blvd., on the Manatee River, in Bradenton.

schedule FRIDAY 4 pm : Cece Teneal & Soul Kamotion 5:20 pm : Johnny Rawls 6:40 pm : Doug MacLeod SATURDAY 11 am : Terrie Odabi 12:30 pm : Jimmy Carpenter 1:50 pm : James Armstrong 3:15 pm : Dawn Tyler Watson 4:40 pm : Latimore 6:15 pm : Bernard Allison SUNDAY 11am : Annika Chambers

Blankets are permitted, but outside food and drinks are not allowed. There is no smoking. Covid protocols will be followed according to local health guidelines at the time of the event.

Proceeds from the Bradenton Blues Festival support Realize Bradenton’s youth, art, and music programs that are free to the community, including our Blues in the Schools program.

The Bradenton Blues Festival will be held at LECOM Park, located at 1611 9th St. W., in Bradenton.

LEECOM Park is the spring home of the Pittsburgh Pirates and the full time home of their Class-A affiliate, the Bradenton Marauders, in historic downtown Bradenton.Call 941-747-3031 for information.

Dawn Taylor Watson performs Saturday, December 3 at the Bradenton Blues Festival.

Edison & Ford Estates in Fort Myers hosts their 46th annual ‘Holiday Nights’ November 26-January 2.

Edison & Ford Estates Light Up Holiday Nights

Edison & Ford Winter Estates will kick off the 46th annual Holiday Nights celebration with a tree lighting ceremony on November 26. At 6pm, the historic Mysore Fig tree on the Ford property will be lit with thousands of animated lights choreographed to holiday music. Vocal group, The American Sirens, will perform shortly after the tree lighting.

This year’s theme, ‘Holidays Under the Stars’ will incorporate elements of nature and the outdoors. Holiday Nights will be open November 26-January 2, open Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve, but closed Christmas Day. Guided Holiday Tradition Tours will be offered nightly at 6 & 7pm. Guided, Inside-theHomes tours will be offered on December 1, 8 & 15, at 6:30pm, for a up-close look at the homes’ decorated interiors. Visitors can stroll the Children’s Tree Trail, featuring dozens of trees decorated with handmade ornaments from Lee County school children.

Santa & Mrs. Claus will be available for photographs on November 26 and December 5, 12, 19, & 23, 6-8pm. Family science shows with the ‘Wild Wizard’ (Edison’s nickname) will take place on November 28 and December 5, 12, 19, 26 at 6:30 & 7:30pm.

Strolling carolers will sing holiday songs on December 8 & 22; the Fort Myers Symphonic Mastersingers will perform on December 15; a trumpet player will perform on December 18 & 21; and a saxophone player will perform on December 17 & 20. An antique circus car (a Calliope) with a built-in pipe organ will be played several times on December 16, from 5:30-8pm.

Edison & Ford Winter Estates, open 9am-5:30pm, is located at 2350 McGregor Blvd. in Fort Myers. Call 334-7419 for information.

Keith Haring Exhibit at Naples Art

Naples Art opens its season on November 1 with ‘Keith Haring: Radiant Vision,’ the largest solo collection of Haring’s works ever shown in Southwest Florida. The exhibition celebrates the world-renowned artist and his iconography in a show of more than 130 works featuring lithographs, silkscreens, drawings on paper, and posters.

Haring’s art was born in response to the urban street scene of 1980s New York. He took inspiration from the graffiti artists’ markings on the city subway cars and started to draw figures in white chalk over the black paper used to cover vacant advertising panels in the subway stations. Two of these seminal chalk-on-paper subway drawings are included in Keith Haring: Radiant Vision.

The exhibition features examples of Haring’s art which he used to address specific social justice issues. ‘Free South Africa’ is a suite of three aquatints on paper that were Haring’s political response to the conditions of Apartheid that still existed in South Africa at the time. There is also a series of ten silkscreens on view which Haring created for a book entitled ‘Apocalypse,’ which he made in collaboration with famed Beat Generation author, William S. Burroughs.

Signature Haring images, such as Radiant Baby, Barking Dog and Best Buddies, are instantly recognizable as the emblems from the 80s that Haring used to depict universal themes such as love, birth, death, and war.

“This exhibition conveys an energy and spirit that aligns well with our mission,” said Executive Director & Chief Curator, Frank Verpoorten. “Haring’s art transcended the streets to inspire a worldwide audience and to affect positive change. We’re proud to have a role in helping his iconic imagery and social message continue to radiate throughout the world even today. Visitors will enjoy looking back at this 80’s iconography and hopefully we can also introduce Haring to a new generation here in Southwest Florida.”

Keith Haring: Radiant Vision is on display November 1-February 6. Naples Art is located at 585 Park St. in Naples. It is open MonWed, Fri & Sat 10am-6pm and Sun 11am-4pm. Call 262-6517 for information.

Naples Players Plans Major Re-Imagining

The Naples Players has announced a $15 million capital project to renovate and re-imagine their home on 5th Avenue South in downtown Naples. Plans for the revitalized facility include significant improvements to the existing theaters and the creation of an additional theater designed to anchor the organization’s Educational Theatre program, serving students of all ages and abilities.

In 1994, The City of Naples invited The Naples Players to build a theater on 5th Ave. S. as an anchor of a thriving downtown area, as well as providing outstanding theatre and dynamic education programs that serve the local community and beyond.

“The time has come for a renewed facility that will serve the vision of Naples for many more years to come,” said Bryce Alexander, CEO & Executive Artistic Director.

The theater has hired local firm David Corban Architects to lead the project. He has chosen to preserve the iconic facade of the theater as seen from 5th Avenue, even while overhauling the facility’s interior. The theater has also employed Theatre Consultants Collaborative to oversee the design of performance systems.

Plans for the new theater complex include: • Kizzie Theater: A 450-seat proscenium theater with the David Byron and Vicky C. Smith Mezzanine level • Price Studio Theater: A 105seat black box theater for major season programs

The exhibition, ‘Keith Haring: Radiant Vision,’ at Naples Art November 1-February 6, features more than 130 of the iconic artists works.

• Glass Educational Theater: A 105-seat black box educational theater • Three student rehearsal halls and classrooms • New adult rehearsal rooms capable of hosting workshops, readings and showcases • Expanded scene shop for volunteers • State-of-the-art costume shop for volunteers • New green room and volunteer lounge, and six new dressing rooms. • Community atrium, with a café and information center open to the public during the day • John & Joanne Fisher Rooftop Terrace • Brand new acoustics and audio support

For information about donating to The Naples Players’ revitalization capital project, call 434-7340.

Plans for The Naples Players’ new home includes three theaters, three rehearsal spaces, a community atrium and a rooftop terrace.

‘Altar Boyz,’ directed and choreographed by D.J. Salisbury, will be performed thru November 13 at Gulf Coast Symphony’s new Music & Arts Community Center

Off Broadway Musical Hit at New Music & Arts Center

The award-winning musical, ‘Altar Boyz’ is coming to Southwest Florida for a threeweek run, thru November 13 at the Gulf Coast Symphony’s new Music & Arts Community Center.

‘Altar Boyz’ is the 9th longestrunning Off-Broadway musical of all time. A musical comedy about a fictitious Christian boy band on the last night of their national tour, ‘Altar Boyz’ was nominated for seven 2005 Drama Desk Awards, including Outstanding Musical, Book, Lyrics, Music and Orchestration. The production is directed and choreograohed by D.J. Salisbury.

Gulf Coast Symphony’s new Music & Arts Community Center is located at 13411 Shire Lane in Fort Myers. For information, call 277-1700.

Bringing Opera to Lee County

Gulfshore Opera celebrates the holiday season with ‘Holiday Harmony’ on December 9 at St. Leo the Great Catholic Church in Bonita Springs. The concert, a Pops Holiday event featuring traditional carols and favorite holiday tunes, showcases two regional artists: Lauryn Kay, mezzo-soprano and Jonathan Tibbetts, baritone.

Gulfshore Opera’s concert, ‘Opera Meets Broadway,’ on January 27 at the Sidney & Berne Davis Art Center in downtown Fort Myers’ Historic River District features Broadway Artist Glenn Seven Allen, tenor, performing songs from great operas and classic Broadway shows. Joining Allen will be Jacquelynne Fontaine.

Gulfshore Opera’s first formal production of Season 8 will be ‘Bat’s Revenge (Die Fledermaus)’ at Estero High School on February 26. This popular Viennese operetta will be set in the Golden Age of Hollywood with a new English libretto. Director and Librettist, Josh Shaw has moved this light and fun production to Hollywood, where movie magic makes anything possible.

Gulfshore Opera’s season finale will be ‘Tosca,’ April 26 at the Barbara B. Mann Performing Arts Hall. The production will feature the Fort Myers Mastersingers as the Tosca chorus and the Naples Philharmonic as the orchestra. Tosca is a political thriller set in Rome in June of 1800, during the Napoleonic wars and a time of great political unrest. This opera is often listed among the 10 best operas of all time.

For information about Gulfshore Playhouse, call 529-3925.

One of Gulfshore Opera’s concerts this season, ‘Opera Meets Broadway’ on January 27, features tenor, Glenn Seven Allen.

Choral Artistry Celebrates 10th Anniversary

The Symphonic Chorale of SWFL has come out of the pandemic with a new name, Choral Artistry, to celebrate its 10th Anniversary/ Take 2 (11th) season.

“We believe the name Choral Artistry better conveys our vision, our mission, and the diversity of music we perform,” says CA’s Artistic Director Dr. Trent Brown. “We do so much more than symphonic music and we wanted our name to reflect our talent and our versatility,” he added.

Choral Artisty’s annual community choral festival ‘SingOut!’ will return January 28 & 29, featuring Handel’s ‘Messiah,’ to commemorate the Chorale’s inaugural concert ‘Messiah at the Mann’ in 2011. All choral singers 15 years and older are invited to join Choral Artistry for the workshop rehearsal on Saturday, January 28, led by Dr. Brown, at New Hope Presbyterian Church in Fort Myers. The workshop is followed on Sunday, January 9, by a free public Festival Concert, with chamber orchestra. On April 14, Choral Artistry will present the regional premier of a contemporary work, Craig Hella Johnson’s ‘Considering Matthew Shephard,’ with chamber orchestra. The concert is at Faith Presbyterian Church in Cape Coral.

Choral Artistry has weekly rehearsals Tuesdays, 7-9pm at Lamb of God Church, located at 19691 Cypress View Drive in Estero. Rehearsals are ongoing for concerts of Sergie Rachmaninoff’s ‘Vespers,’ January 7-9 in Sanibel, Bonita Springs and Naples. For information, call 560-5695.

Naples Gardens Light Up for the Holidays

Back for its 12th year, Johnsonville Night Lights in the Garden opens at Naples Botanical Garden on November 26. Garden trees will be adorned with thousand of lights and musical acts will entertain visitors as they stroll the Garden grounds. Food and drink specials will be available.

Every aspect of Night Lights is designed to create a tapestry that celebrates the plants of the tropics, from purple and white lights that pay an homage to the blooms that grace the Kapnick Caribbean Garden to the orange, yellow, and blue that recreate an iconic Naples sunset over the water.

Johnsonville Night Lights runs November 26-January 2, except Christmas eve and Christmas Day.

Naples Botanical Garden, open daily 9am-5pm, is located at 4820 Bayshore Drive in Naples. For information, call 643-7275.

Lee County Band Celebrates 136th Year

The legendary Lee County Community Band will begin its 136th year with a free concert on November 14 , 3pm at Cape Coral High School.

In keeping with tradition for the season’s first concert, Director Richard Bradstreet has selected a program featuring spirited and patriotic American music by American composers and a salute to U.S. military veterans. The program includes ‘Hosts of Freedom March,’ ‘Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy,’ ‘American Patrol,’ Irving Berlin’s ‘Songs for America,’ ‘Patriotic Sing-Along,’ ‘The Armed Forces Salute’ and other well-known melodies.

The 50-member adult band will perform six concerts November-April. Programs reflect the band’s reputation for upbeat music and a mix of old favorites, energetic marches, beloved patriotic tunes, hits from Broadway and the movies, and a sing-along with emcee and vocalist, Norman Jones.

Concert dates are December 12, January 9, February 13, March 13 and April 10. All concerts begin at 3pm at Cape Coral High School, 2300 Santa Barbara Blvd. All concerts are free (donations accepted) and open to the public.

Lee County Community Band members are musicians from all walks of life—career musicians, amateurs, and folks renewing skills from years past—who reside in Lee, Collier and Charlotte Counties. The band welcomes new members every year. The band rehearses Thursday evenings at St. Michael Lutheran School in Fort Myers.

Call 239-454-6430 for information.

Naples Botanical Garden features the Johnsonville Night Lights, November 26-January 2.

Orchid Show at Selby Garden

As the only botanical garden in the world dedicated to the display and study of orchids, bromeliads, gesneriads and ferns, epiphytes, and tropical plants, Marie Selby Botanical Gardens hosts an orchid show each fall focusing on different themes and complimented by a variety of special lectures, classes, and events.

This year, Selby Gardens’ annual Orchid Show brings together two of Sarasota, Florida’s most renowned legacies—orchids and the circus. Presented in collaboration with the John & Mable Ringling Museum of Art, ‘The Orchid Show 2021: Aerialists from the Tree Top to the Big Top!’ celebrates the beauty of orchids in tree-top canopies high above the forest floor with the artistry and spectacle of circus aerialists who perform high above captivated crowds. Pairing astonishing air plants with amazing aerial acts enables a fascinating exploration of the intersection of nature and entertainment.

‘The Orchid Show 2021: Aerialists from the Tree Top to the Big Top!’ Is on view thru November 28.

Selby Gardens possesses the world’s best scientifically documented collection of orchids, highlighting the diversity and richness of the Orchidaceae family, one of the largest families of flowering plants on earth.

Marie Selby Botanical Gardens is located at 1534 Mound St. in downtown Sarasota. The Gardens are open daily 10am-5pm. For information, call 941-366-5731.

Environmental Installation at Naples Garden

Over the course of three weeks, North Carolina-based sculptor and environmental artist Patrick Dougherty, his son and local volunteers will transform approximately 30,000 lbs of willow saplings into an immersive structure on Naples Botanical Garden’s Kapnick Caribbean Garden lawn. The installation, ‘Stickwork,’ will remain at the Garden for approximately two years.

Stickwork is the site-specific sculptural installation of environmental artist, Patrick Dougherty, who has created these site-specific, interactive community art installations all over the world. They are instantly recognizable by their organic, twisting forms made of sticks and whimsical silhouettes. Dougherty’s unique works of art become part of the landscape. He often uses materials native to the surroundings to create his transitory works of art, each unique to its location.

Over the past thirty years internationally acclaimed environmental sculptor Patrick Dougherty has produced a body of work that includes more than 310 large-scale ‘Stickwork’ sculptures, assembled onsite from Scotland to Japan to Australia, and all over the United States.

Dougherty will give a lecture discussing his journey from a childhood affinity for sticks to decades spent creating largerthan-life woven structures on November 3 at the U. Tobe Recital Hall at Florida Gulf Coast University. The lecture starts at 6pm and is free and open to the public. There is a light reception afterwards in the nearby Arts Complex Lobby.

Construction for Stickwork will take place on November 1-12 & 15-19. The installation will be on view until 2023. Naples Botanical Garden, open daily 9am-5pm, is located at 4820 Bayshore Drive in Naples. Call 643-7275 for information

Patrick Dougherty’s sculptural installation is being constructed on Naples Botanical Garden’s Kapnick Caribbean Garden lawn, November 1-12 & 5-19.

Bob Dylan Art Exhibit in Miami

The Patricia & Phillip Frost Art Museum in Miami will debut the first comprehensive exhibition of Bob Dylan’s visual art seen in the United States on November 30, at the opening of Miami Art Week.

The exhibition, ‘Retrospectrum’ features nearly 200 paintings, drawings and ironwork sculptures by Dylan, spanning six decades of Dylan’s art. ‘Retrospectrum’ showcases the development and diversity of Dylan’s visual art and interactive displays illuminating the context of his artistic evolution in tandem with Dylan’s musical and literary works.

The exhibition will feature ‘Deep Focus,’ a new series of more than 40 paintings by Dylan, derived from selected scenes from his favorite films.

‘Retrospectrum’ is on view November 30-April 17. The Patricia & Phillip Frost Art Museum is located on Florida International University’s Modesto Maidique Campus, 10975 SW 17 St. in Miami. The museum is open Tue-Sun 11am-5pm. For information, call 305-348-2762.

The Frost Museum in Miami hosts an exhibition of Bob Dylan’s paintings, drawings and sculptures, November 30-April 17.

Lee Library Hosts Fandom Fest

The Lee County Library System’s annual Fandom Fest, a free, allages celebration of geek and pop culture, returns December 11, from 12-4pm, at the Fort Myers Regional Library outdoor plaza, 2450 First St., in downtown Fort Myers. Festivalgoers are encouraged to attend in costume.

The festival will offer a mixture of activities and games for a variety of ages and interests, including: Space, Sword & Sorcery, Superheroes & Villains, and Asian Culture.

There will be live entertainment at the outdoor Cornog Plaza Amphitheater, a virtual reality tech hub, gaming and Star Wars, Disney, Minions and Marvel characters. To cap off the event, a cosplay costume contest will be held at 3pm.

Fort Myers Regional Library outdoor plaza is located at 2450 First St. in downtown Fort Myers. Call 826-4606 for information.