Anything But Broke

"On March 14, Evie's Tavern and Grill, in Sarasota, will sponsor the 1st Annual Tavern Toss, to benefit the ABA Academy, a local nonprofit school for children with autism. The free event will feature a cornhole tournament, other activities for children, food and beverages. Music will be provided by Sacred Ghost Records.

The Tavern Toss will be from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Evie's, 4735 Bee Ridge Road.

Preregistration is required to participate in the cornhole tournament, with a cash prize going to the first-place winner. Cost is $30 per team. To register, call Shelly at 896-7431." - Sarasota Herald Tribune

Correct URL: http://trendmag2.trendoffset.com/publication/?i=243903&p=17&search_str=sacred%20ghost%20records

"My new record label Sacred Ghost Records has allowed me to make a tremendous positive impact in the Sarasota community. I became a part of the world-renowed Sarasota Chalk Festival this year by producing the sound and lighting engineering and stage management through out the festival and preferring as the headlining act for the opening gala event. My debut original album The Start EP is available for purchase on www.sacredghostrecords.com iTunes and CDbaby.com. I am trancending electronic popular music by creating 16-note melodies while traditional pop songs use three or four-note melodies. I continue to break the mold of what it means to be an electronic music producer, DJ and CEO of a record label." - SRQ Magazine

"Revelers and supporters gathered at the Venice Community Center for A Faux Feathers, Funs and Fur Affair to celebrate the opening of the 7th Annual Sarasota Chalk Festival, in Venice for the first time. With artists on hand from over 28 different countries, all gathered to donate their time and craft to the festival, it was an opportunity for the community to not only support the festival, but also to meet and mingle with the creators themselves.

Running on this year’s theme – extinct and endangered plants and animals – many of the hundreds attending did so in the garb of their feathered and furry comrades. Many cat ears were to be found, as well as great feathery headdresses and a man who looked to be a bumblebee, but perhaps was just a fan of stripes.

With crowds milling through the wicker tables and chairs, potted plants and chest-high tables, sipping drinks, chowing down and dancing to live renditions of classics such as “Help Me, Rhonda” and “Let’s Stay Together” from doo wop performer Kim Jenkins, the affair took on the alluring air of night-club-meets-sock-hop, hip yet classic.

One particular partygoer, a fan of the festival since its inception, danced through the crowd decked head to toe in vibrant plumage.

“I’ve been coming since the very beginning,” she said, adjusting her feathery blouse, which like her skirt and bird-feet-booties, she made herself. “It’s such a great festival and Venice is a great place for it.”

Although Kim Jenkins eventually left the stage and turned the mic over to local DJ and musician Christopher Wanta, the silent auction ran all night, featuring an array of items from jewelry and wine tastings to paintings and books from local artists, and even a hand-carved wooden iguana from Indonesia. All items were donated by local artists and businesses.

“The Venice community is very enthusiastic and very supportive of the things that happen in their city. They take ownership,” said Denise Kowal, founder and organizer of the Sarasota Chalk Festival, dressed for the night like a bright pink flamingo, with a towering headdress and feathers painted down her arm, likely the work of Chalk Festival regular and renowned body artist Mythica Von Griffyn, who was on hand painting faces and arms for adventurous Venetians.

But as grand as the party was, it’s important to remember that it’s just the beginning. At the airport, the race to make a Guinness World Record continues. And starting tomorrow, the artists and festivalgoers will take to the streets, turning asphalt into canvas and parking lots into murals.

“That’s when we really cover the whole town in art and it becomes a walking museum,” said Kowal. “We’re really excited.”

The Chalk Festival has officially landed and runs until Nov. 17th." - SRQ Magazine

"The Anna Maria Island Art League will present "Sibling Rivalry," featuring brother and sister Brandon Scott and Deeana Atkinson, with Jorde the Artist. The free exhibit will be at the Art League, 5312 Holmes Boulevard in Holes Beach, on Friday, Oct. 10, from 5:30-7:30 p.m. Scott will display his new series of emotional portraits titled "Peple a Juried Emotion." Scott, a Bradenton artist has displayed on numerous occasions and at the Leonardo Da Vinci North American exhibit on loan from Florence, Italy. Atkinson is a Green Earth Friendly artist who uses recycled found objects to compose her work. She resides in the historic district of Palmetto. Jorde the Artist has been featured in the Da Vinci Machines Exhibit, where he displayed his living studio for five months. Enjoy hours d'oeuvres, sponsored by The Chop Shop, and music and entertainment by Sacred Ghost Records." - The Sun

Chris Wanta has established himself as one of Sarasota's most sought after DJs, but you may not even recognize his name. Readers may be more familiar with the name 'Anything But Broke', Wanta's alias and the name he's play under at a variety of venues from Old School Bar and Grill to IceHouse on 10th Art Gallery. He Even disc-jockeyed at the most recent Sarasota Chalk Festival, one of the biggest crowd generations in the in the region each year. Wanta's precision in building suspense and creating a particular mood with the combination of song and synth led him to be a desired voice in the local scene. While many people dabble with sound mixing and sampling, Wanta has mastered the art. Though Wat was born in Milwaukee and considers himself a "Midwesterner at heart," he has fully adapted to the Sarasota scene. He moved to Sarasota at a young age and went to college in Chicago, where he started to learn how to DJ. Now he is back in Sarasota, and while he went to a slew of dance parties and nightclubs, he "decided to stick around to rebuild the music scene along with a large number of unsung heroes in Sarasota." Want's love of music started at a young age thanks to his father. "We would drive in his car and sing all of the songs on the radio," Wanta says. "He introduced me to artists like the Beatles, Frank Zappa and Jimi Hendrix." Though he's experimented with other instruments want really found his calling with spinning, though he still dabbles with other methods of making music. "That's the difference with me and most DJs. I can DJ with turntables, then sit down on a drum set and play drums to the same music I mixed live or jam with a live band." he tells us. That's the beauty of working as a solo artist, as Wanta explains."At the endow the day I have no one to blame or congratulate but myself. If something goes wrong it is my fault, but if something awesome happens I am the one responsible. - SRQ Magazine

Misha Eli Rubenstein, sporting a goatee, sandals, black-rimmed glasses and loose-fitting African-print pants, blows into a long tube of polished wood, sending forth a deep, bass tone that sounds like an extended and indiscrete bodily emission. The group of pre-teens around him collapse into giggles at the eruption, amused but equally absorbed.

“Anybody know what this is?” says Rubenstein. “It’s called a digeridoo. In Australia, they use them to communicate from village to village. We can take its sound and put it into our technology and show you what we can do with music now.”

Alish Turner, one of the students in the summer program at Newtown Community Center, had previously experienced a dance class. She shows her skills during a contemporary dance class.

Alish Turner, one of the students in the summer program at Newtown Community Center, had previously experienced a dance class. She shows her skills during a contemporary dance class.

That's just what he does, with the help of Christopher Wanta, a mixologist standing behind a computerized sound panel, and Haile Burke, a hip hop musician with hair in Rastafarian dreads piled on his head in a cone a foot tall. Soon they’ve turned the single note into an amplified, warbling, techno-soundtrack.

“Now it’s your turn,” says Rubenstein, pointing the students toward a table piled with “parts” – empty cans, balloons, bobby pins, straws, beans, straws, string – for making their own instruments.

Within half an hour, the students are tooting and plucking, strumming and shaking their original creations in front of the microphone, recording tracks that will be combined to create a multi-layered (if slightly discordant) symphony they can listen to later on the Internet.

Rubenstein’s workshop is but one example of the creative fare being served to students, pre-K through middle school, during an 8-week summer pilot project funded by the Johnson/Singer Foundation and Allstate Foundation and taught by professionals from the Association of Florida Teaching Artists. For two months, from the beginning of June to the end of July, more than 150 children at Newtown Estates Community Center – and a smaller group at the Salvation Army – are being introduced to everything from beat box music to Latin dance, drama to drumming, in an effort to broaden their artistic horizons, stimulate their creativity and make summer learning palatable.

One day, it’s hip hop with Rick “Kid Kinetic” Levine from Fuzion Dance Artists. The next, it’s percussionist Scott Blum, with an arsenal of instruments he’s made from found objects. One group is cutting photos from magazines to personalize “I am” bags that illustrate their unique qualities, while another is decorating African masks with symbols of strength, courage and wisdom.

“We’re working to enhance the learning experience of the kids, but in a fun, easy-going way,” says Judy Levine, co-director of the association, who is teaching visual arts to the youngest students.

Omarion Patterson takes a dance class. STAFF PHOTO / NICK ADAMS
Omarion Patterson takes a dance class. STAFF PHOTO / NICK ADAMS

Mary Kelly, the executive director, says the goal of the program is meant to provide “not just art projects, but the art process.”

“It’s not just cutting and coloring,” she says. “When they make their instruments, they learn about the cultural background of where the instruments came from and technological aspects of music making,” she says. “It works as long as it’s enjoyable, but it can’t be too much like school. They are definitely not into writing.”

Kelly and Levine originally applied for a grant for an after-school arts integration program, but received only enough funding for a trial summer pilot project, using the services of 12 teaching artists who work as independent contractors.

The idea is to reach homeless and underserved children, whose families may not have access to or an appreciation of the arts. But at the same time, it is also an avenue toward building the confidence and connections of Association of Florida Teaching Artists members -- fine arts, literary arts and performing arts professionals who are trained to amplify and integrate arts content in school curriculums.

“What we believe is that if you can’t take care of the artists, you can’t take care of the kids,” says Kelly, an arts integration specialist who founded the teaching artists association with Levine and Andrew Salgado to create a supportive community among independent artists. “This program allows us to encourage our younger artists to become part of our organization and for us to mentor them as teaching artists – how to break down a project, how to present it, what supplies they’ll need.”

It also helps with the continuity of student learning over the long summer vacation, says Liz Jones, facility program coordinator at Newtown Estates, who has been involved with the summer program there for 27 years.

“The program has always been here, but it was mostly recreational before this,” says Jones. “The older ones, they like to dance, to express themselves. The little ones like the art part. We’re trying to kind of bridge that summer gap.”

Kelly’s hope is that the success of the project, which ends July 31, will inspire the additional funding necessary – about $80,000 – to keep it going as an after-school program at Booker Middle School during the coming school year.

“This is my passion and my heart,” she says. “Because I feel every child deserves quality art experiences.”

Teaching Artists
The Association of Florida Teaching Artists is a non-profit organization of freelance fine arts, literary arts and performing arts professionals, trained to integrate the arts into school curriculums. The association has 54 members, including dancers, actors, directors, visual artists, writers, poets, videographers, filmmakers, photographers, storytellers and musicians. Artists and their specialties are listed at EdExplore (www.edexploresrq.com), an online resource connecting teaching artists with educators and parents, and at www.floridateachingartists.org. - Sarasota Herald Tribune