Arts & Culture

The $115.5 billion budget signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis includes more than $18 million for 184 arts organizations. Most Southwest Florida arts and culture organizations remain on the outside looking in.

The Florida Division of Arts & Culture announced on Tuesday that the arts & culture grant cycle for 2025-2026 is now open. But don’t blink. Submissions are due by Monday, July 14.

Players Circle Theater is mounting a production of the hilarious and irreverent play “The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged)” through July 13. The two-act play has three actors covering all of Shakespeare’s 37 plays in just 97 minutes. We take a deeper diver into the show in a conversation with director Ted Wioncek III, and actors AJ Mendini and Steven Kennedy.

Naples-based artist Muffy Clark Gill has a solo exhibition of works at the Alliance for the Arts titled, “Portraits of Perception.” Works in the exhibit highlight the artist’s work in the ancient Indonesian batik process and are inspired by her passion for travel.

The Baker Museum has received a major gift to the museum’s permanent collection. Longtime Naples residents and passionate collectors Dr. Laurence and Rita Sibrack have donated 74 works of contemporary glass and ceramics to the museum. The gift, which the museum calls “transformational,” includes works by 60 key figures in the studio glass movement, including Dale Chihuly, Amber Cowan, Preston Singletary, Judith Schaechter and Lucio Bubacco.

The Alliance for the Arts is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. Another milestone for the community-based arts nonprofit came in March with the selection of Neil Volz as its new executive director. Volz brings more than a quarter century of experience as an advocate, organizer, and nonprofit leader to the role. We talk with Volz about his background and the challenges and opportunities he will lead the organization through going forward.

We listen back to our April show featuring Emmy-nominated jazz trumpeter, vocalist and composer Benny Benack III performing live in studio with the Florida Gulf Coast University Jazz Combo.

Alternative music showcase returns with 8th annual Babefest. The concert on June 13 at Nice Guys Pizza in Cape Coral aims to elevate femme-presenting individuals, people of color and members of the LGBTQ+ community,

The third annual Fringe Fort Myers runs May 29 – June 1, 2025. Ahead of the opening “Flamingle with the Artists” at the Alliance for the Arts, we talk with one of this year’s nine featured performers, Dawn Truax, about her one-woman show “Genius, Madness and Murder: Tales of the Scandalous Family of John Wilkes Booth.”

For decades, Tito Puente was “The King of Timbales”. His Latin music vibes garnered legions of fans and a music style that was often replicated but never duplicated.