SARASOTA, FLA.- Continuing its centennial year celebrations, Art Center Sarasota presents four dynamic exhibitions on view March 5 through April 18, 2026. Exploring themes of family, cultural legacy, belonging, and spectacle, the spring exhibitions reflect both intimate personal narratives and the broader creative forces shaping the Sarasota community today.
Herion Park’s UnBroken presents sculptural family portraits constructed from textiles, repurposed objects, life-cast forms, plaster, and organic materials. Drawing on the conjured muse-spirits of her mother and six sisters — a matriarchal chorus of strength and creativity — Park explores the enduring cycle of love, loss, and renewal. Her abstract, soft forms balance on delicate fulcrums, serving as metaphors for the fragile foundations upon which our lives are built. Ultimately, the work celebrates resilience and the resurrection of love as a continuous act of healing.
Park holds a BFA in Painting and Fashion Design and an M.Des in Fashion, Body, and Garment from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She is the recipient of honors including the HALO Arts Project Fellowship, the Windgate Fellowship for Innovation in Craft, and the Raymond Hudd Millinery Crossover Award. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, and she has completed residencies at Yaddo, The Vermont Studio Center, Hambidge, and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts.
Rooted in Community honors the artistic legacy and ongoing creative leadership of Sarasota’s historically Black Newtown neighborhood — a community whose cultural contributions have profoundly shaped the city’s identity for generations.
Spanning generations and disciplines, the exhibition features Eleanor Merritt, Arthur Dillard, Clifford McDonald, Michael Kinsey, James King Jr. (“JRU”), and Nevtar Navi. Their work reflects innovation, cultural memory, and lived experience deeply rooted in place. These artists have not only documented Sarasota’s evolution — they have actively influenced and defined its creative landscape.
Co-curated by Paul Toliver, the exhibition serves as both recognition and affirmation, highlighting Newtown artists as cultural stewards whose voices continue to resonate across Sarasota’s arts community. Toliver currently serves as chair of the Arts and Culture Committee of the Manasota Chapter of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH). He previously chaired the African American and Caribbean Arts Council at the Seattle Art Museum and served on the Seattle Art Museum Board of Trustees. A former board member of the Suncoast Black Arts Collaborative, Toliver now works as an artist consultant and curator focused on amplifying historically underrepresented voices.
In At Home Anywhere, Bahamian-born artist Kendra Frorup explores belonging as something fluid and continually redefined. Rooted in personal experience and cultural memory, her work becomes a convergence of material and meaning — examining how identity is shaped by migration, history, and adaptability. Engaging with artistic traditions in Africa while drawing from her lived experience, Frorup’s layered compositions reflect the ways memory and movement reshape identity across geography and time.
Frorup is a 2024–2025 Fulbright Scholar and Associate Professor of Art at the University of Tampa. Her work is included in major international collections including the National Art Gallery of The Bahamas, the Venice Biennale – Exposició Art Camp 2012 (Andorra/UNESCO), Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines, and the Baha Mar Art Collection. An Artist Talk will be held April 3.
The juried exhibition Art of the Spectacle explores the drama and theatricality of fashion, circus, and stagecraft, transforming the gallery into a visual celebration of performance through costume, movement, and design. Juror Maria Schaedler-Luera is a Brazilian-born educator, artist, and cultural strategist working at the intersection of theater, mindfulness, and community engagement. She has collaborated with institutions including the Harvard Art Museums, the Sarasota Performing Arts Center Foundation, and The Patterson Foundation. Schaedler-Luera currently serves as co-executive director of Lifeline Productions and program officer at the Arts and Cultural Alliance of Sarasota County.
