NOW HERE: FINDING OUR WAY IN THE 21ST CENTURY

Framed by the sun’s journey from the Winter Solstice (December 21) to the Vernal Equinox (March 22), NOWHERE explores the emerging aesthetics of the Twenty-first Century through a direct engagement with the creative interpretations of more than one dozen living artists of our time.

Greet The Light Winter Solstice December 21

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 21

6:30 PM —11:00 PM

The Ringling Museum of Art Courtyard

Tickets: $15 / $10 for Members and Students with valid ID

On the second anniversary of the opening of Joseph’s Coat, the Skyspace by James Turrell, we celebrate the onset of the NOW HERE experience by honoring the artist who has devoted his life to helping us see the light. Escape the pressures of the holiday season and Greet the Light with your neighbors and friends. Live entertainment – with food and beverages available for purchase.

HERE: NEW STAGES 2014: Places in the Sky AN EXHIBITION

OF CONTEMPORARY PERFORMANCE

THURSDAYS-SATURDAYS, 7:30 PM

Historic Asolo Theater (exceptions noted)

Tickets: $30 / $25 for Members / $10 for students with valid ID Attend all five productions and save 10%: $135 / $112.50 for Members / $45 for students. Historic Asolo Box Office: 941.360.7399 or ringling.org

“Walk up, walk up straight through the roof. Straight through the hole in the ceiling, take your place in the sky.”

— MEKLIT HADERO, from her song WALK UP

“What James Turrell has done is frame the sky, making its slow metamorphosis visible, in an unprecedented kind of theater that proceeds apart from human intervention.”

(A Dictionary of the Avant-Gardes) It is temporal art that “incites us to pause and probe our inner selves and encourages us to reconsider our own connection to and comprehension of the outside world.” (Sculpture)

Places in the Sky explores the theatrical character of Turrell’s work in the context of stage performances that utilize light, movement, music, and poetry as the materials of imaginative creation.

EXPLORING THE CONTEMPORARY / CONVERSATION WITH THE CURATOR

THURSDAY, JANUARY 16, 7:00 PM

Historic Asolo Theater

Members/Free and General Public/complimentary with Art After 5 admission

Join Curators Matthew McLendon (Modern and Contemporary Art) and Dwight Currie (Performance) for an in-depth exploration of the art and artists you will encounter in the galleries and onstage during the NOWHERE experience.

MEKLIT HADERO, PLACES IN THE SKY

JANUARY 23-25, 7:30 PM

Historic Asolo Theater

“James Turrell’s work is just incredibly inspiring to me,” says singer-songwriter Meklit Hadero, “you have the sense that you’re going up into the sky, as well as sinking into yourself at the same time.”

Taking its title from Hadero’s work, NEW STAGES 2014 opens with performances described by the Seattle Times as, “Soulful, tremulous and strangely cinematic … Close your eyes, listen and dream.” It is music that “paints pictures in your head as you listen,” (NPR).

Lostwax Multimedia Dance

THEATRE, PARTICULAR

FEBRUARY 6-8, 7:30 PM

Historic Asolo Theater

Just as James Turrell empowers the viewer “to be aware of how you are framing the reality you see,” (Smithsonian), choreographer Jamie Jewett illuminates the dynamics of human imagination in the saturating imagery of a digitized world.

By celebrating the idiosyncratic gesture in the midst of the choreographic whole, Particular buoys each discrete, particlelike dancer while all are immersed in a sea of video and sonic compositions by artist R. Luke DuBois. (Mr. DuBois’ work is simultaneously on exhibition in The Ringling’s Searing Wing).

HERE: NEW STAGES 2014: Places in the Sky AN EXHIBITION OF CONTEMPORARY PERFORMANCE continued

THE FOUNDRY, NO HERO

MARCH 6-8, 7:30 PM

Historic Asolo Theater

While James Turrell sculpts light to alter visual perceptions, choreographer Alex Ketley mines the impulse-driven energy of spontaneous movement to reveal a full spectrum of authentic expression in this intimate, yet expansive, dance experience.

Having explored the diversity, confusion, and stratification of the American cultural landscape, Ketley presents a filmed and choreographed affirmation that the rich breadth of human experience is found in loss and frailty as well as in the myths of the heroic and triumphant.

ETHEL & ROBERT MIRABAL, MUSIC OF THE SUN

With a choral ensemble created in partnership with New Music New College

FEBRUARY 20-22, 7:30 PM

FEBRUARY 22, 2:00 PM

Historic Asolo Theater

In Robert Mirabal’s Native American culture, each day begins with “the running to the sun” – a search for the sacred that is akin to the Quaker Meeting where, according to James Turrell, “you go inside to greet the light.”

In concert with ETHEL, the pioneering string quartet, musician and storyteller Robert Mirabal creates musical textures that evoke striated images of a rising sun; “informed by the ceremonial music that I’ve heard all my life, a desire to take care of the spirits of the earth.”

HERE: NEW STAGES 2014: Places in the Sky AN EXHIBITION OF CONTEMPORARY PERFORMANCE continued

Using sound to sculpt space as James Turrell uses light, John Luther Adams’ eighty-minute composition is “an essay in pure sound, a study of how the mind responds to an overwhelming variety of sonic information ... an engulfing, complexly layered noise.” — The New Yorker

SAVE THE DATES!

Plan now to join us for the entire roster of NOWHERE programs and events. Watch for details in your next issue of The Ringling. ringling.org

CELEBRATE THE LIGHT VERNAL EQUINOX MARCH 22

JOHN LUTHER ADAMS , INUKSUIT: IN THE CAPACITY OF THE HUMAN

One performance only: SATURDAY, MARCH 22, 6:30 PM Ringling Museum of Art Courtyard

Inuksuit – the Inuit word meaning “in the capacity of the human” – is an immersive musical work for “nine to ninety-nine percussionists” that will transform The Ringling’s Museum of Art Courtyard as it heightens our awareness of the sights and sounds that surround us on the Vernal Equinox.

Conversations

ON THE CONTEMPORARY

Historic Asolo Theater

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 13 & MARCH 13, 7:00 PM

Collecting Recollections

Historic Asolo Theater

SARASOTA ON THE EDGE

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 11, 25 & MARCH 11 , 10:30 AM

Gallery Performances

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 6:30 PM

Electronic Instrumentalist Lesley Flanigan

THURSDAY, MARCH 20, 6:30 PM

Multi-Instrumentalist Artist Bora Yoon

THURSDAY, APRIL 17, 6:30 PM

Hybrid-Musician Todd Reynolds

GENRE CREATES GHETTO: CONVERSATIONS ABOUT CURATING IN A POST-GENRE WORLD

Mildred Sainer Pavillion, N ew College of Florida

MARCH 21-22

Two days of conversations with artists and curators