Ringling Museum of Art's video exhibition Real This Time will showcase the work of artists including Bear Witness from April 23 until May 16. During this extraordinary time, video has become the key medium contributing to the public sphere. Video, often captured on cellphones and shared through social media, exposes social justice issues and matters of civic life to a global audience. For Real This Time features video-based works that examine the current state of American society and pose uncomfortable yet vital questions about personal and collective attitudes toward issues of race and inequality. The exhibition is presented in a sequence of individual screenings. Each work brings to light narratives of systemic racism and offers a unique inquiry that evokes historical exchange to illustrate the expansiveness of the issues affecting Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) today. For Real This Time opens up a space for deeper reflection on the common experience of resilience across cultures in order to create a shift in our psyches that inspires tangible and effective change.

Frans Hals: Detecting a Decade will run Feb. 14, 2021 through May 16, 2021. The Ringling's portrait of Pieter Jacobsz. Olycan, by the Dutch Baroque master Frans Hals (1582/83 - 1666), is one of the museum's treasures. Renowned in his own day for his lively brushwork and uncanny ability to capture the vitality of his sitters, Hals continues to be a favorite among art lovers, collectors and artists alike. In this exhibition, organized by the Dallas Museum of Art, The Ringling's painting, which was executed about 1639, will be displayed side-by-side with a second portrait by Hals of Olycan (private collection), painted about 10 years earlier. Through close examination and comparison of these two portraits of the same person, the exhibition will shed light on Hals's revolutionary painting technique, and will explain how his work evolved over the decade of the 1630s. On March 18, at 10:30am, Dr. Sarah Cartwright, Ulla R. Searing Curator of Collections, will present a Virtual Gallery Conversation: Frans Hals: Detecting a Decade.

Also opening February 14 is Larry Rivers: Boston Massacre. In this series of 13 mixed-media prints, Larry Rivers, one of the pioneers of Pop Art, reimagines the tragedy of the Boston Massacre. This event, marking the beginning of the American Revolution, occurred March 5, 1770, when British Army soldiers fired their muskets into a crowd of civilians gathered on the streets of Boston, killing five colonists and galvanizing American sentiment for independence from Great Britain. Two hundred years later, Rivers revisits this moment in a series that disrupts traditional depictions of historical narrative through fragmentary visual references to the past that intermix with imagery from the political unrest of the 1960s. This exhibition presents the Boston Massacre portfolio from The Ringling's permanent collection. The exhibition will run until May 16, 2021. On February 23 at 10:30am, the Ringling will offer a Virtual Conversation: Images of Conflict. Guests will join curators Ola Wlusek and Sarah Cartwright in a conversation about artworks depicting conflict and trauma in The Ringling's collection. While focusing on the exhibition Larry Rivers: Boston Massacre, in consideration with examples of European Renaissance and Baroque art, representations of power and violence across time will be explored and how these images can help us understand conflict and address societal change today.

Sculpture has long been an integral part of Sarasota’s cultural legacy. On this 90-minute trolley or van tour, you visit more than 50 of the city’s public art sculptures, monuments, and murals in charming neighborhoods and downtown Sarasota. Sit back and relax as painter and public art expert Jerome Chesley helps you see the city through new eyes. Get ready to discover beautiful public pieces you may have never noticed before! Admire Jorge Blanco’s “Bravo” on the roundabout at Ringling Boulevard and Orange Avenue. Catch a glimpse of John Henry’s “Complexus,” standing over 60 feet tall. Pass by Seward Johnson’s iconic bayfront sculpture, “Unconditional Surrender,” a larger-than-life recreation of the famous photograph taken on V-J Day in Times Square. Ready to learn more about what makes Sarasota a true arts mecca? See all this and more on this unforgettable public art trolley or van tour. Book your tickets online today. This tour is 90 minutes, open to ages 12 and up, departs from 1826 4th Street, from October to May. Tours with fewer than 10 guests will travel in our comfortably air-conditioned high-top van. Tour ticket includes FREE Parking.

The Pops Orchestra is proud to present a “High Five Pop Up Concert Series” featuring the String Quartet, Woodwind Quintet, and Brass Quintet from The Pops performing in various outdoor settings around the Suncoast region at 5:30pm. Conductor Robyn Bell will lead you through a 60-minute show full of laughs, stories, and, of course, wonderful light classical, Broadway, film, and other popular music performed by the chamber music groups. It’s just what your soul has been seeking. Due to Covid restrictions, you won’t actually be able to give anybody a “high five” See you at the safe show. You have three opportunities to catch the Pops Orchestra's Chamber Groups in concert: on Saturday, March 20 at 5:30pm at Marie Selby Gardens, on Sunday, April 11 at 5:30pm at Historic Spanish Point (and help Robyn celebrate her birthday on this date), and on Saturday, May 15 at 5:30pm at Nathan Benderson Park.

Resilient Retreat Welcomes You To Resilient Rhapsody: Concert Series Featuring the Sarasota Pops on their beautiful 84 acres of conservation land on Mother’s Day, Sunday, May 9 at Resilient Retreat, 13010 Fruitville Road. Proceeds benefit Resilient Retreat and our mission to provide trauma-informed support for abuse survivors and those that witness trauma in the workplace. Gates will open at 4:30pm and the performance will take place from 5:30pm to 7:30pm. Individual tickets are $40 per person and VIP seating is $60 per person. COVID safety protocols will be followed. Sponsorship opportunities are available, for more information please call 9413430039.