Sarasota Art Museum is proud to be a Blue Star Museum
Beginning on Armed Forces Day, Saturday, May 20, 2023, and ends on Labor Day, Monday, September 4, 2023, Sarasota Art Museum will be offering free admission to Active Military (With ID) and family as part of the Blue Star Museum Program
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FREE SECOND SUNDAYS AT SAM
Bring your friends and family to explore new art and thought-provoking exhibitions, and participate in our fun activities.

Support for Second Sundays at Sam is provided by the Charles & Margery Barancik Foundation.

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ART FOR ALL, EVERY DAY
OPEN 7 DAYS A WEEK
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JAZZ THURSDAYS AT SAM
Join us Second Thursdays from 5:30 pm – 8 pm for music and drinks on the Marcy & Michael Klein Plaza, and art in the galleries.
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The New Black Vanguard:
Photography between Art and Fashion
May 28 - September 17. 2023
View the Exhibition
Stephanie J. Woods
my papa used to play checkers
May 28 - September 17, 2023
View the Exhibition
A Beautiful Mess
Weavers & Knotters of the Vanguard
February 25 - June 25, 2023
View the Exhibition
Sara Berman's Closet
February 5 - September 17, 2023
View the Exhibition
Sarasota Art Museum

Photo: Ryan Gamma

Hank Willis Thomas
Ernest and Ruth (Exuberant Pink)
Learn more about this exhibition
Barbara Banks : Worker
View the exhibition online
Marcy & Michael Klein Plaza

Photo: Ryan Gamma

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Bistro

Open Daily 9 am – 3 pm
Saturday and Sunday Brunch

Bistro offers a gourmet selection of light fares, including sandwiches, soups, specialty coffees, and desserts.

SHOP

Open Daily 10 am – 5 pm

Museum Members receive a 10% discount in the Shop and invitations to exclusive events. Your purchases support the Museum’s programs and exhibitions.

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Tyler Mitchell (American, born 1995), Untitled (Hijab Couture), New York, 2019.
Photo print, 40 x 30 in. © Tyler Mitchell. Courtesy of Aperture.

The NEW BLACK VANGUARD
PHOTOGRAPHY between ART and FASHION

May 28 – September 17, 2023
The New Black Vanguard: Photography between Art and Fashion presents artists whose vibrant portraits and conceptual images fuse the genres of art and fashion photography in ways that break down long-established boundaries.
Stephanie J. Woods (American). my papa used to play checkers, 2022. Framed archival ink-jet print (watermelon, hand dyed cotton fabric, hair beads, barrette bows, and afro hair), 37 x 25 x 1.5 in. Courtesy of the artist.
Stephanie J. Woods (American). my papa used to play checkers, 2022.
Framed archival ink-jet print (watermelon, hand dyed cotton fabric, hair beads, barrette bows, and afro hair), 37 x 25 x 1.5 in. Courtesy of the artist.

Stephanie J. Woods: my papa used to play checkers​

May 28 – September 17, 2023
For her solo exhibition, my papa used to play checkers, titled after her eponymous photograph (2022), Woods presents a body of her recent work created after her life-changing artist residency at Black Rock Senegal in Dakar, Senegal in 2021. During her sojourn, she witnessed firsthand how much African culture and tradition has survived and continues to thrive in Black American communities.
Kirsten Hassenfeld, (American, born 1971) Millefleur (detail), 2019, salvaged textiles with mixed media, 78 inches diameter, (c) Kirsten Hassenfeld
Kirsten Hassenfeld, (American, born 1971), Millefleur (detail), 2019.
Salvaged textiles with mixed media. 78 inches diameter. (c) Kirsten Hassenfeld

A Beautiful Mess:
Weavers & Knotters of the Vanguard

February 25 – June 25, 2023

From micro artworks the size of your hand to mammoth room-sized installations, the national roster of women artists in A Beautiful Mess push the boundaries of their textile-based medium. Using rope, yarn, clay and wire, this group of conceptual artists knot and twist their media into sculptures that range from minimal and hyper-organized to utter pandemonium.
Sara ironed everything, including her socks. From the exhibition, Sara Berman’s Closet. Courtesy of the artists, Maira Kalman & Alex Kalman.
Maira Kalman (American, born 1949) and Alex Kalman (American, born 1985), Installation detail of socks, with Maira Kalman’s handwritten label, “Sara ironed everything, including her socks,” from Sara Berman’s Closet at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2017. Courtesy of the artists.

Sara Berman's Closet

February 5 – September 17, 2023

Sara Berman’s Closet is a rumination on the essential meaning of life. A recreation of a humble closet. A visual essay on the search we all engage in. For beauty, order and meaning. This faithfully presented archive serves not only to demonstrate the care Sara Berman took in organizing her personal belongings, but also the freedom she experienced in crafting her own private yet magnificent life.

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Chakaia Booker: Surface Pressure

July 16 – October 29, 2023

Chakaia Booker: Surface Pressure celebrates the diverse work of multimedia artist Chakaia Booker. Booker is renowned for her expert manipulation of unconventional materials, transforming perceived visual tensions into compellingly unified compositions. Her complex body of work challenges viewers to consider the nature of their relationships with one another and the world at large.
Chakaia Booker (American, born 1953). Handle with Care, 2010. Rubber tires, wood, and steel, 34 1/2 x 98 x 11 in. Courtesy of the artist © Chakaia Booker.
Chakaia Booker (American, born 1953). Handle with Care, 2010.
Rubber tires, wood, and steel, 34 ½ x 98 x 11 in. Courtesy of the artist © Chakaia Booker.

Reassembling Spilt Light: An Immersive Installation by Carlos Bunga

July 23 – October 29, 2023

For this solo exhibition, Carlos Bunga will create a temporary structure with common materials such as cardboard and masking tape that deploys light as his primary conceptual basis. Bunga’s transformative installation and poetic images will invite visitors to consider how we shape and are shaped by our surroundings, to contemplate their ephemerality, and to attend to light in a time of darkness.
Carlos Bunga, Photograph by Bruno Lopes, 2019. Courtesy of EDP Foundation.
Carlos Bunga. Photograph by Bruno Lopes, 2019.
Courtesy of EDP Foundation.

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Programs

Join us this season for programs that invite you to experience art and engage your senses.

P-12 School Visits

Kids love art! And we love kids! Learn more about opportunities for P-12 students to learn about the art at Sarasota Art Museum.

The Memory Project

Sarasota Art Museum has taken on stewardship of the history of the former Sarasota High School building. Learn about the history of the site and help keep the memory of the site—prior to recent transformation—alive.

About the Museum

Sarasota High School, M. Leo Elliott Building

M. Leo Elliott – Former Sarasota High School
Photo: Dick Dickinson

Marcy & Michael Klein Plaza, Photo: Ryan Gamma

Marcy & Michael Klein Plaza
Photo: Ryan Gamma

Anchoring the Ringling College Museum Campus, the Museum has 15,000 square feet of dedicated exhibition gallery space, Bistro, Shop, auditorium for educational events, performance and film, a sculpture courtyard and extensive grounds and facilities where one can engage with site-specific and site-responsive art experiences.