An Evening of Music & Art in the Gardens honors Gardens Conservancy members and includes the presentation of the Ann Norton Award for Philanthropy. This award is extended annually to individuals who advance the mission of the Ann Norton Sculpture Gardens and embrace Ann Norton’s vision for her legacy to our community.

Organic Abstraction: Contemporary Sculpture by Artist in Residence Kevin Barrett dwells deeply into the materials, processes, and techniques of  this internationally recognized sculptor. The exhibition underscore the artist’s expansive range of scale, process, and aesthetic across a variety of fabricated materials including bronze, stainless steel, and aluminum. Working within a formalist paradigm, the sculptures communicate through the artist’s process, where a balance between malleability and constraint is negotiated in each shape and in each weld; syntax, form, and process become the subject matter of each piece. Artwork that is seemingly void of narrative (or abstract) has historically been celebrated as the purest form of art, as noted by critics such as Clement Greenberg and others. Material, form, and composition engender an unadulterated or “pure” aesthetic experience. With discernible grace and impeccable welding technique, Barrett’s process of abstraction unites complex and dynamic connections that evoke an emotional human response. His forms are rooted in both the human figure and landscape; it is the tension of the two that create the organic rhythms between an evolving cycle of growth, renewal, and spontaneity.

Sylvia Schuster Art: Pathos

Sylvia Schuster’s prolific and brilliant career spans more than six decades of artmaking, beginning at a young age in her hometown of Philadelphia, later in New York City and more recently in the American Midwest. A scholarship student at both the Rhode Island School of Design and the Cranbrook Academy of Art, two of America’s most prestigious colleges of art, she received a BFA and MFA degree respectively. Her innovative work and protean skills, along with her recognition as a master printmaker, have earned her many fellowships, awards and residencies in numerous museums, colleges, and universities, along with an equal number of exhibitions in museums, galleries and cultural institutions. Beginning in her mid ’20s, with a spectacular group of giant heads, rendered in charcoal, multi-media and collage that are often close to six feet in height, they have become a symbolic spearhead of her long and productive career.

Sponsored in part by the State of Florida, Department of State, Division of Arts and Culture, the Florida Council on Arts and Culture, and the National Endowment for the Arts.