Sarasota Orchestra's Harmony Gallery to Present Six Exhibitions in New Season

Sarasota Orchestra has announced six exhibitions at the Orchestra's Harmony Gallery to take place during the 2026-2027 season, including special collaborations with the Sarasota African American Cultural Coalition (SAACC) and Booker High School's Visual and Performing Arts program.

In addition to the partnership exhibitions, the Harmony Gallery will feature four local artists showcasing their work in solo exhibitions. Selected by a jury process, this season's featured artists work in mediums including oils, acrylics, watercolor, and ink. Twenty-five percent of all proceeds from the sale of the artwork benefit Sarasota Orchestra. The exhibits invite patrons to explore the collaboration between the visual and performing arts.

Voices of Color: Alicia Brown, Greg Cruz, and Ronnique Hawkins – Presented by the Sarasota African American Cultural Coalition

September 22 – October 30, 2026
Reception: Wednesday, October 7, 2026
Meet & Greet: Thursday, October 15, 2026

Sarasota African American Cultural Coalition mission is to preserve, celebrate, and share the cultural, artistic, and historical heritage of African Americans in Sarasota and beyond.

Alicia Brown is a Jamaican-born artist now living and working in Sarasota, Florida, where she shares life with her wonderful husband and son. She works from her studio at SPAACES and is also a proud member of the Petticoat Artists Collective. Her practice focuses on representational art that explores how people navigate space—past and present—and the strategies they use to adapt and survive. Much of Brown's work is deeply rooted in personal, cultural, and historical reflection.

Greg Cruz is a multidisciplinary artist and educator whose work bridges urban nostalgia, lived experience, and themes of healing and human connection. Born and raised in Brooklyn, Cruz's visual language was shaped by the street art and graffiti that colored his childhood landscape, as well as the vibrant, imaginative world of 1980s cartoons. These influences appear in his work through bold palettes, playful figures, and expressive textures.

Ronnique Hawkins discovered her passion for art at an early age. She is a proud graduate from esteemed institutions such as Weist-Barron, The Sanford Meisner Intensive, the New York School for Film and Television, and the New York Film Academy's Producing Program. Hawkins' experiences in television, modeling, and fashion helped shape her global perspective. She went on to produce an Emmy-nominated film and founded the multicultural youth empowerment organization Learn My History (LMH) Foundation. A lifelong advocate, her work spans and supports various causes including peace initiatives, vulnerable communities, and awareness for both prostate and breast cancer.

Laurie Maves – “Shapes of Resonance”

November 2 – December 14, 2026
Reception: Thursday, November 12, 2026
Meet & Greet: Thursday, December 10, 2026

Laurie Maves has spent more than three decades exploring the emotional language of shape, color, and abstraction. A graduate of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago with a master's degree in art therapy, she brings a unique perspective to painting shaped by a lifelong belief in the transformative power of creativity. Inspired by coastal landscapes, travel, and the natural world, Maves creates richly layered works where the quiet geometry of nature, repeated forms, color, and gesture invite moments of reflection and calm. Her paintings are held in private collections throughout the United States, valued for their ability to evoke serenity, connection, and personal meaning.

Janet Roelle – “Harmony of Realism and Abstraction”

December 15, 2026 – January 18, 2027
Reception: Thursday, December 17, 2026
Meet & Greet: Thursday, January 15, 2027

Janet Roelle utilizes oil, ink, watercolor, acrylic, and cold wax to capture her vision of music and movement. Initially self-taught, she began community classes at the Flint Institute of Arts in 1978 before pausing her practice to dedicate herself to raising her special needs adopted children. Returning to art in 2009, Roelle studied through mentorships with Sterling Edwards, Maxine Masterfield, David Slonim, Ron Hicks, Cat Tesla, and Marianne Mitchell. Inspired by playing orchestral music in her youth, and practicing ballet as an adult, her work creates visual harmony blending the melody of realism with the chords of abstraction.

Pearl Berger – “Strata”

January 20 – February 22, 2027
Reception: Wednesday, February 3, 2027
Meet & Greet: Thursday, February 11, 2027

Pearl Berger is a Sarasota-based abstract painter and psychotherapist who relocated to Florida from New York in 2022. Working primarily in oil and cold wax on birch wood panels she builds her paintings through layering, excavation, and reconstruction. Berger maintains a warehouse studio where she moves between dozens of paintings simultaneously, often as part of a larger series. Strata, her ongoing body of work, explores accumulation, change, and the passage of time. Her background in psychotherapy informs her interest in the ways experience shapes our perceptions.

Pearl's work has been exhibited in regional and national exhibitions and is held in private collections throughout the United States and internationally.

Cheryl Taub – “North and South”

March 1 – April 5, 2027
Reception: Wednesday, March 31, 2027
Meet & Greet: Thursday, March 11, 2027

Cheryl Taub is a Sarasota, Florida based expressionist painter whose work explores the emotional landscape of the human experience through acrylic painting and mixed-media collage. She earned a master's degree in art education and began her career teaching art and as a commercial artist. Taub incorporates vintage photographs from both memory and observation, she creates figurative, landscape and urban compositions that balance expressive color, rich texture and layered storytelling. A longtime member of Sarasota's vibrant arts community, Taub maintains a studio with Creative Liberties Artist Studios and Galleries. She is represented by State of the Arts Gallery in Sarasota. She has exhibited throughout the region, her work is included in numerous private collections, and she has received awards in juried exhibitions.

Booker High School Student Exhibition

April 7 – May 3, 2027
Reception: Wednesday, April 28, 2027
Meet & Greet: Thursday, April 15, 2027

Booker High School, a comprehensive learning facility, is home to the Visual and Performing Arts (VPA) program, which offers rigorous, pre-professional training in the arts in five disciplines: Dance, Digital Film & Motion Design, Music, Theatre, and Visual Art. In collaboration with Sarasota Orchestra, Booker VPA visual art students will present a collection of two-dimensional artwork from various genres.

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