Tom Hall

This week, three shows open, five shows continue their runs and there is one limited engagement at Southwest Florida equity and community theaters.

On Monday, Fort Myers Mural Society Executive Director Shari Shifrin learned that the City of Sarasota is planning to remove 200 hand-painted sidewalk panels that line Pineapple and Orange avenues in Sarasota’s historic Burns Court arts and culture district. Read here to find out why Sarasota is taking this action.

“Making a Clear Mark: 1997 to 2025” opens Aug. 29 in the Wasmer Gallery in the Arts Complex at Florida Gulf Coast University. The exhibition is a retrospective of work by FGCU Associate Art Professor and Program Leader Morgan T. Paine, who retires this month. It features work from Paine’s “Life Painting with Drawing” series along with examples of his acrylic gel medium work on a variety of supports, both found and constructed.

"Cabaret" at Belle Theatre ends its run with two shows on Saturday. The performances mark one actor's last show in Florida and another actor's stepping stone to more iconic roles.

On September 28, 2022, Hurricane Ian covered Fort Myers Beach with more than 18 feet of wind-driven surge and wave action. In the process, it obliterated Paradise Tattoo’s studio. Rather than give up or relocate, founder Dawn Webb and her coterie of close-knit artists - Sam Taylor, Alia Alexander, Colin Orion and Victoria Casazza - rebuilt and reopened. Through perseverance and an unyielding passion for their craft, Webb and company restored more than a studio. They reignited their creative spirit.

Firehouse Community Theatre enters its Season 33 with an enticing schedule of comedies and a musical revue featuring the Firehouse Singers. For the LaBelle mainstay, the journey has been marked by resilience, resourcefulness and ingenuity.

On the third floor of the Sarasota Art Museum is an environment that envelops visitors in a world of shimmering Caribbean color and mysterious shadows that creep along the historic schoolhouse’s gray walls and wood floors. Nassau-born, Atlanta-based artist Lillian Blades calls her suspended assemblages veils.

This week, one show closes, three shows continue their runs and there are two limited engagements at Southwest Florida equity and community theaters.

Since it premiered on Broadway in 1966, “Cabaret” has been revamped several times to make the story better reflect the atmosphere prevailing in Germany in 1933. The Belle Theatre in Cape Coral has gone one step further by tasking cast member Cat Turner as the play’s historical advisor or dramaturg.

To celebrate Bob Rauschenberg’s centennial, Bob Rauschenberg Gallery Director Jade Dellinger challenged Brooklyn-based artist Steve Keene to make 100 2-by-2-foot paintings that pay homage to Rauschenberg’s storied life and career.