- Suncoast Black Arts Collaborative is launching its 2025-26 season with an exhibition at the Sarasota Orchestra.
- The show features Tampa artist Donna M. Richardson, whose work is inspired by music and cultural icons.
- The organization’s director noted challenges in securing funding amid shifting political climates.
Suncoast Black Arts Collaborative is kicking off its 2025–26 season with bold color and sound. The organization’s fifth Art Innovation Zone exhibition, “Harmonies of Sound and Vision: A Celebration of the Improvisational Spirit and Classical Elegance,” opens Sept. 28 at Sarasota Orchestra’s Harmony Gallery.
The show marks SBAC’s first collaboration with the orchestra and runs through Oct. 19. A public reception is scheduled for Oct. 9 from 5 to 6:30 p.m. at the Beatrice Friedman Symphony Center.
Michele Redwine, SBAC’s executive director, notes that the exhibition is part of SBAC’s Art Innovation Zone, a yearlong program within the Beyond Regional Boundaries initiative. Supported by partners including Sarasota Opera, Sarasota Orchestra, Manatee Performing Arts Center, WSLR + Fogartyville, Westcoast Black Theatre Troupe and the Van Wezel, the program creates a platform for Black artists to reach wider audiences.
“Suncoast Black Arts Collaborative seeks to foster creativity, promote artistic excellence and bridge community,” says Redwine. “These exhibitions not only provide visibility for historically under-resourced artists but also strengthen our cultural partnerships, offering a meaningful platform to achieve sustainability and enrich the creative landscape of our region.”
The opening exhibition features Tampa-based artist Donna M. Richardson, whose indie pop art style fuses Aboriginal dot painting with vibrant color and portraiture. Her work, inspired by jazz improvisation and classical form, pays homage to cultural icons including Billie Holiday, Miles Davis, Prince and Bob Marley.
A mission under pressure
SBAC’s work comes at a time of heightened challenges for arts nonprofits. “We are a very small organization but we have done some impressionable work in both counties,” said Redwine. She noted that shifting political climates have made funding less certain. “No more federal funding — it’s tight. We didn’t get notice about applying to the state until about two weeks out, and we weren’t encouraged to receive anything.”
Redwine said she’s even heard suggestions to change the organization’s name, a notion she called deeply offensive. “Maybe you should change your name — that’s the biggest insult to people of this county. Not just our lives in this community but in this country. Recognizing not just Black people but all people and all artists and all cultures… recognizing and celebrating culture is what America is about. To be told we are of no value is not easy to hear.”
For Redwine, who marched with Martin Luther King Jr. and lived through the Civil Rights era, today’s climate is a stark reminder that cultural work is inseparable from social justice. “What we are experiencing now is beyond what anyone should experience, and it does, absolutely, impact the arts,” she said.
She believes SBAC’s exhibitions are significant in showing how people of all backgrounds can come together. “This work is significant in understanding how people of all races, religions work together and celebrate each other’s contributions to humanity. Contributions of people working together strengthen this community.”
Richardson’s pop art to be highlighted
Richardson was born in New York to Jamaican parents and is now based in Tampa. The working artist describes her paintings as “visual prayers” that fuse storytelling, music and spirituality. After 30 years as a teaching artist, she now focuses full-time on art, drawing on her African and Native American heritage and global travels.
“Each piece is an energetic offering, a visual prayer for recognition, healing, and celebrating the divine spark in all,” Richardson said.
“Music is the heartbeat of my creative process, with the rhythms and patterns of each song visually represented in my work. I cannot imagine creating without the energy of a musician’s genius to guide my hand. This exhibit showcases a small selection of the icons whose soul has profoundly influenced both my life and my art.”
“Harmonies of Sound and Vision” runs Sept. 28 – Oct. 19 at Sarasota Orchestra’s Harmony Gallery, 709 N. Tamiami Trail. Admission is free and the exhibition is open to the public. SBAC 2025-26 “Beyond Regional Boundaries” series will also share two additional fall exhibitions: “Through His Lens, Her World” by Curtis Anderson Jr., Oct. 15–Nov. 10 at Westcoast Black Theatre Troupe, and “Harmony in Contrast: The Amish Journey Through Today’s America” by Wonda J. Granville, Nov. 11 – Dec 11 at Venice Theatre.
To register for the opening reception on Oct. 9, to donate to SBAC, or for more information, visit the SBAC website at suncoastblackartscollaborative.org.
