Andy Sandberg News

Five Florida public school arts teachers will spend part of their summer on Manasota Key while working on their own artistic endeavors.

Andy Sandberg, Artistic Director and CEO of the Hermitage Artist Retreat, announced today that accomplished theater artist and director Shariffa Ali has been selected as the 2022 recipient of the Hermitage Major Theater Award (HMTA).

 The Hermitage Artist Retreat announces new community programs in June with Hermitage Fellows spanning music, visual art, and theater. These newly added programs are presented at outdoor venues throughout Sarasota County as part of the Hermitage’s partnerships with local organizations, including Marie Selby Botanical Gardens, the Van Wezel Foundation, and Art Center Sarasota.

Nominations for the 2022 Chita Rivera Awards were announced today. In keeping with the mission of the Chita Rivera Awards, nominators considered shows and films that opened during the 2019-2022 theater season. See the full list.

The Hermitage Artist Retreat has announced the launch of the new Ruby E. Crosby Alumni Music Series at the Hermitage. The premiere event, “Soulful Strings: An Evening of Harp Music,” will be presented on Tuesday, June 7 at 8pm at Marie Selby Botanical Gardens, featuring acclaimed harpist and returning Hermitage Fellow Ashley Jackson. The outdoor event is free and open to the public with a $5/person registration fee.

The fourteenth annual Hermitage Greenfield Prize (HGP) Dinner on April 10 celebrated composer, multi-instrumentalist, and 2022 HGP winner Angélica Negrón, featuring inspiring performances by Tony Award winner and Hermitage Fellow Gavin Creel, and Grammy Award-winning cellist Nick Photinos.

The Hermitage Artist Retreat has announced four new community programs in May with Hermitage Fellows specializing in music, writing, multimedia, and theater, including an event with Tony Award-nominated playwright Bess Wohl (Grand Horizons, Small Mouth Sounds).

Award-winning vocalist, composer, and educator Kavita Shah will present a free Hermitage community program, “Music Around the World,” at The John & Mable Ringling Museum of Art on Thursday, April 21 at 6pm. Shah will share stripped-down selections from her beautiful and transporting works set against the beautiful banyan trees on The Ringling's magnificent grounds.

The Hermitage Artist Retreat, in collaboration with the Greenfield Foundation, will present the 14th annual Hermitage Greenfield Prize Celebration Weekend, April 8-10, 2022, culminating in the Hermitage Greenfield Prize Dinner on Sunday, April 10.

The Hermitage Artist Retreat and Sarasota Contemporary Dance will partner to participate in the biennial National Water Dance (NWD) event, with new work inspired by gratitude for water and the urgent need to preserve local water resources as part of this year's NWD theme, “Dancing Out of Time,” on Saturday, April 23 at 3:30pm.

Tony Award-winning stage and film composer Jeanine Tesori will present a free Hermitage community program, “Musical Storytelling: A Conversation with Jeanine Tesori,” at the Hermitage Artist Retreat on Friday, March 25 at 6pm.

 A 2022 Hermitage Fellow and the most recent recipient of the prestigious Kleban Prize for “Most Promising Musical Theater Lyricist,” songwriter and theater-maker César Alvarez will present a free community program — “Reimagining the Musical: Past, Present, & Futurity” — on Wednesday, March 23 at 6pm at Marie Selby Botanical Gardens (Downtown Sarasota Campus).

Three recent Hermitage Greenfield Prize (HGP) winners – Martyna Majok (2018), Helga Davis (2019), and Aleshea Harris (2021) return to Sarasota this spring to present their work and speak about their creative process.

Hermitage Fellow & Tony Award Winner Gavin Creel did an event at Hermitage Artist Retreat to a sold-out beach audience called 'Walk on Through'.

The Hermitage Artist Retreat and the Van Wezel Foundation present the first program in the “UNSCRIPTED 2.0” series with poet, storyteller, and master teaching artist Hannah Hasan on Wednesday, February 16th at 5:30pm, outdoors and socially distanced on the lawn of the Van Wezel Hall.

The Hermitage Artist Retreat (Andy Sandberg, Artistic Director and CEO), in collaboration with the Philadelphia-based Greenfield Foundation, has selected innovative composer and multi-instrumentalist Angélica Negrón as the winner of the 2022 Hermitage Greenfield Prize (HGP), awarded this year in the artistic discipline of music.

The Hermitage Artist Retreat brings the next installment of its “Artists & Thinkers” series to Longboat Key with “Theater Today: Process & Production,” a conversation with Tony Award-winning Broadway producer Tom Kirdahy (Hadestown; The Inheritance; Little Shop of Horrors). This event will be held outdoors on Friday, February 25th at 5:30pm, at the Town Center of Longboat Key, 501 Bay Isles Road, Longboat Key, FL 34228.

Andy Sandberg, Artistic Director and CEO of the Hermitage Artist Retreat, announced today that playwright and director Radha Blank has been selected as the inaugural recipient of the Hermitage Major Theater Award.

The Hermitage Artist Retreat announced today a full slate of early 2022 programs featuring new and returning Hermitage Fellows, from Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Paula Vogel and Avery Fisher Prize-winning flutist Claire Chase to Beyonce collaborator and soloing band member Lady Jess and interdisciplinary artist Ni'Ja Whitson.

Andy Sandberg, Artistic Director and CEO of the Hermitage Artist Retreat, announced today that the Hermitage will present new public programs in January with acclaimed theater artists and Hermitage Fellows Gavin Creel and Michael R. Jackson.