Greater Naples Leadership held its Annual Cultural Arts Day on Wednesday, November 14th. This year’s agenda, developed and presented by Class XXII, focused on community education and engagement. Leaders from a variety of Naples’ sixty-two art based programs shared who they are and how members of Class XXIII may get involved.
The program was divided into two sessions. The morning event was held at Naples Art Association and concentrated on visual creative arts. The program featured an interactive panel discussion that included: Cynthia Adams, President Naples Art District; Laura Burns, Executive Director, United Arts Council of Collier County and Aimee Schlehr, Executive Direct of Naples Art Association.
Following a tour of the Watson Gallery, members observed individual art studios for demonstration and discussion with four premiere local artists who included: Paul Arsenault, Oil Painting; Dennis Goodman, Photography; Jim Rice, Pottery and Micki Ravitz, Jewelry.
The venue for the afternoon session was held at Artis-Naples and focused on engaging with the performing arts. It began with “Lunch in the Boardroom” and an introduction to the Artis Team which included: Kathleen Van Bergen, CEO & President of Artis-Naples; David Filner, Vice President of Artistic Operations; Ashley Mirakian, Vice President of Marketing & Patron Engagement and Frank Verpoorten, Director & Chief Curator of The Baker Museum.
Docent lead tours of Hayes Hall and Philip Haas’ “Four Seasons”, an exciting outdoor sculpture collection on loan to the Baker Museum, preceded a discussion of “Engaging with Drama in Collier County”. Panelist for this event included: Bryce Alexander, Managing Artistic Director of The Naples Players; Kristen Coury, Founder & Producing Artistic Director of Gulfshore Playhouse and Mark Danni, Founder & Artistic Director of TheatreZone.
The “curtain came down” on a full and productive day with live performances from local talented artists that featured: Judith Evans’ MusicScores! violinists, TheatreZone’s ensemble of performing student artists from FGCU, and dancers Andriy Panasenko and Anastasiia Baikova of The Fred Astaire Dance Studio of Naples.
Bravo to Class of XXII: Julie Wade, Chairperson; Jayne Bennett, Beth Grossman and Pat Mullin, team members.