Sarasota Art Museum’s Day With(out) Art:

Celebrating Felix Gonzalez-Torres Friends & Family Days

About

The Sarasota Art Museum partnered with local performing art collectives and community health organizations that support people affected by HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases to put on free family events coinciding with the display of Felix Gonzalez-Torres’ work. Event activations included an in-gallery dance performance in response to “Untitled (L.A.)” by Sarasota Contemporary Dance, a display of AIDS memorial quilts, and musical performances by local queer artists. The museum focused on using “Untitled (L.A.)” to give contemporary performers and resource providers a public platform to discuss community care. Together, the museum and its collaborators promoted HIV/AIDS awareness as an entry point for visitors to share their own memories of living through the AIDS crisis and COVID.

Intended Outcome

The Sarasota Art Museum aimed to foster new relationships with health services community partners and wanted this roster of programs to highlight the work of the city's LGBTQIA+ creative community—ultimately establishing the museum as a resource and collaborative partner of arts and health services in Sarasota. The museum hoped to welcome 300 people throughout this iterative series.

Actual Outcome

Through a series of collaborative programming, the museum successfully established relationships with health and human services organizations, reached new partners in regional LGBTQIA+ communities, and showcased local performers and new artistic expressions responding to Felix Gonzalez-Torres’ work. Across five programs, the museum welcomed 590 visitors and formed lasting partnerships with several of its collaborators that will continue into future programming.

Advice Post Project

Offering alternative disciplines—such as health, recent history, LGBTQIA+ pride, performance, and music—as entry points can help audiences of all ages engage with challenging, conceptual art forms that they might be less accustomed to interacting with. By activating the AIDS memorial quilts and “Untitled (L.A.)” with dance and leaning into a historical understanding of the AIDS crisis with local public health resources, the Sarasota Art Museum made space for a celebratory reflection of Felix Gonzalez-Torres' life as well as a critically informed understanding of the continuing impact of the AIDS crisis.