The Baker Museum at Artis-Naples in Collier County recently hired award-winning curator, art historian, museum leader, lecturer and writer Courtney McNeil as its new Museum Director and Chief Curator. McNeil joins us to explore her professional background, her passion for helping people connect art with different perspectives and new ideas, and her vision for the Baker Museum going forward.

Late last year, qward-winning LGBTQ+ advocate Arlene Goldberg released a memoir titled, “Simple Human Dignity: My Life, My Wife, Our Story.”The compelling narratives weaved through this memoir tell the story of Arlene’s life and her 47-year relationship with her wife Carol Goldwasser. In April of 2014, Arlene became a plaintiff in a class action lawsuit brought on by the American Civil Liberties Union that led to U.S. District Court Judge Robert Hinkle ruling that Florida’s ban on same sex-marriage was unconstitutional. The decision came prior to the landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision in the case of Obergefell v. Hodges that struck down same-sex marriage bans throughout the country.Through this case, Arlene and Carol Goldwasser made history by becoming the first same-sex couple to have their marriage legally recognized by the state of Florida. The victory was bitter-sweet, as Carol did not live to see that day.

The Laboratory Theater of Florida in Fort Myers continues its 12th season later this month with the regional premiere of playwright Jordan Tannahill’s award-winning play “Botticelli in the Fire.” The play is an historic re-imagining centered on the life of early Renaissance Italian painter Sandro Botticelli.

Gulfshore Playhouse in Naples will be transformed into a New York-style cabaret club for the month of February with a series of Broadway Cabaret performances featuring comedienne, singer and Ethel Merman enthusiast Klea Blackhurst; multi-award winning cabaret performer and actor Natalie Douglas; and Naples native and Broadway star Lora Lee Gayer!

Chicago-based painter Wanda Hamilton has teamed up with her daughter, Fort Myers-based artist Challen Rivera for a joint exhibition of their work titled, “Seed, Time, and Harvest” in the Grand Atrium the Sidney and Berne Davis Art Center in downtown Fort Myers.Works in the exhibition express the artists’ perspectives on ethnicity, identity, love, and family.We’ll catch up with the artists ahead of the exhibition’s opening reception, Friday, Feb. 5. The exhibition runs through Feb. 26.

Executive Director of the Alliance for the Arts in Fort Myers, Lydia Black, is stepping down after 13 years at the helm of the nonprofit community arts center. Black led the organization through an era of impressive growth, change and expansion based on a vision that a community arts organization should serve the needs of the whole community. Black has also been a tireless advocate for the arts. She spearheaded the first economic impact study providing empirical evidence about the importance of the arts in Lee County. Black joins us to reflect back on her expansive and transformational impact on the Alliance for the Arts.

When businesses shut down and people began to isolate themselves due to the coronavirus back in March, a local musician found a way to keep his peers’ connected and their creativity flowing by creating weekly songwriting challenges. We’ll hear from some of the participants and the songs they made during “Songwriter Quarantine.”

We listen back to our pre-coronavirus pandemic session featuring music performed live in studio by guitarist Max Hatt and vocalist Edda Glass. You can…

Ongoing response to the coronavirus pandemic has largely brought Southwest Florida’s arts and culture offerings to a grinding halt. Still, local artists…

The inaugural season of Players Circle Theatre continues with the company’s upcoming production of the “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the…