Alliance for the Arts

The Americans for the Arts’ AEP6 (Arts & Economic Prosperity Study 6) finds that Lee County’s nonprofit arts and culture sector generated more than $135 million in economic activity in 2022 and supported more than 2,500 full time jobs. We explore results of the study, and the case they make for more public support for the arts, in a conversation with Alliance for the Arts Executive Director Molly Rowan-Deckart, Florida Repertory Theatre Producing Artistic Director Greg Longenhagen, and local arts reporter and advocate Tom Hall.

The big, silver StoryCorps Airstream has rolled into Southwest Florida and is ready to get the conversations flowing. StoryCorps has now helped nearly 700,000 people across the country have meaningful conversations about their lives, most of which are collected in the U.S. Library of Congress and in their own online archive.

Pine Island artists Deb Zwetsch and Zan Lombardo have collaborated on a joint exhibition now at the Alliance for the Arts in Fort Myers titled, “We Contain Multitudes.” The artists join us live in studio to talk about the exhibition, their artistic inspirations and their artistic approaches, both collaboratively and as individual artists.

Surface pattern designer turned award-winning expressionist painter Kim McAninch now has an exhibition at the Alliance for the Arts titled “It Makes Me Wonder.” We talk with the Sarasota-based artist about the exhibit, her background, and her creative process.

So many people missed out on the Clown Bar in 2022 that Artistic Director Bill Taylor has decided to revive the show this November (9-26). Once more, Taylor is converting the Foulds Theatre into a seedy night club where burlesque performer Blinky Fatale will try to seduce her ex, Happy Mahoney, if she can just get him to forget about avenging the murder of his little brother Timmy.

A new exhibition of works by Southwest Florida based artist, illustrator, cartoonist, artist and musician Doug McGregor titled “Whimsy & Wonder,” opens Nov. 3 at the Alliance for the Arts. Ahead of next week’s opening reception we get a preview in a conversation with the artist.

The Alliance for the Arts in Fort Myers is marking one-year since Hurricane Ian with an juried exhibition titled “Storm Stories.” In cooperation with the Gulf Coast Writers Association, a book chronicling local experiences with the storm is now also available, and the Alliance is featuring a related exhibition of photography by Kinfay Moroti. We’ll explore the Alliance’s “September to Remember” offerings in a conversation with Executive Director Molly Deckart.

One of the artists participating in the Alliance for the Arts' Storm Stories exhibit in September is photojournalist Kinfay Moroti. Through 11 paired photographs, he presents "Hope: The Other Side of Hurricane Ian." He shares where his inspiration for the exhibition comes from.

Theatre Conspiracy at the Alliance for the Arts in Fort Myers is mounting a production of Pulitzer-winning playwright Martyna Majok’s drama “Sanctuary City” exploring friendship and the plight of DACA DREAMers.

Martyna Majok’s "Sanctuary City" opened Off-Broadway in the Fall of 2019. Before its run was halted just six weeks later by the COVID pandemic, the dense drama garnered a number of awards, including the Edgerton Foundation New Play Award and a Laurents/Hatcher Foundation Theater Development Grant. The play opens locally at the Alliance for the Arts on August 17.