
Curator’s Tour – July 2025
Monday, July 28, 2025 | 1 pm
Come enjoy discussions with specialists and artists covering a variety of topics related to Sarasota Art Museum’s exhibitions, architecture, and areas of interest.
As this talk will be exploring works in the galleries, there will be standing room only.
Meet in the Wendy G. Surkis & Peppi Elona Lobby.
Free for Members
$20 Not-Yet Members (Includes Museum Admission)
Join Melanie Mckenney, Studio Programs Coordinator for Sarasota Art Museum, in a discussion about the exhibition Chris Friday: Where We Never Grow Old.
About Melanie Mckenney
Melanie Mckenney, Studio Programs Coordinator at Sarasota Art Museum, is an experienced ceramic artist, entrepreneur and educator with a passion for bringing art and art-making to the community. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Fine Art from Alfred University’s top-ranking College of Ceramics, with a minor in Education. Since becoming a member of staff in 2024, she has taught ceramics, expanded youth and adult classes offered by the Studios at SAM and, most recently, organized and developed curriculum for the Museum’s annual summer camp.
Free for Members
$20 Not-Yet Members (Includes Museum Admission)
Join Eszter Sziksz, Ringling College of Art and Design Professor of Fine Arts and Printmaking, in a discussion about the exhibition Personal to Political: Celebrating the African American Artists of Paulson Fontaine Press.
About Eszter Sziksz
Eszter Sziksz is a Hungarian artist who has traveled and lived in several countries across Asia and Europe. Her work blends printmaking, installation, and video elements. She has shown at the regional and international level from Tokyo to Budapest.
Her works were recently shown at the Hunderton Art Museum in Clinton, NJ; Santorini Art Biennial Greece; International Artists Collective Museo del Brigantaggio, Itri, Italy; Ice Hotel, Sweden; Krakow International Print Triennial, Poland; IMPACT10 in Spain; IPCNY (International Print Center New York); and featured in Art in Print Magazine. After earning a BA from Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, she completed her MFA in Studio Arts at Memphis College of Art. Eszter recently received a DLA in Fine Arts from Pecsi Tudomany Egyetem in Pecs, Hungary.
Eszter’s prints are included in collections at Pecsi Tudomany University, Hungary; Memphis College of Art’s Presidential Purchase Collection; Szent Istvan Museum, Szekesfehervar, Hungary; University of North Florida; Santorini Biennial of Arts, Greece; and the International Artists Collective Museo del Brigantaggio, Itri, Italy.
Free for Members
$20 Not-Yet Members (Includes Museum Admission)
Join Jillianne Abbott, Art & Accessibility Consultant for Sarasota Art Museum, in a discussion about the exhibition Lillian Blades: Through the Veil.
About Jillianne Abbott
Jillianne Abbott is a dynamic Visual Arts Program Director and Art Instructor at The Haven, whose work centers on the transformative power of inclusive, adaptive art education. With a Master of Arts in Health from the University of Florida, she brings a holistic approach to the classroom, integrating wellness, creativity, and education to support both artistic and emotional growth. Jillianne has extensive experience working with students of all ages and abilities, creating accessible, imaginative learning environments that empower every individual to express themselves meaningfully. Based in Sarasota, Florida, she leads an inclusive visual arts program at The Haven and collaborates with organizations such as the Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall, Sarasota Art Museum, and Sarasota Performing Arts Foundation to foster connection, inclusion, and dialogue through public art. In her role as Art & Accessibility Consultant at Sarasota Art Museum, she uses differentiated strategies to meet diverse learning needs and promotes creativity as a tool for building confidence, encouraging collaboration, and inspiring lifelong appreciation for the arts. Her mission is rooted in the belief that art has the power to heal, transform, and bring communities together.
Free for Members
$20 Not-Yet Members (Includes Museum Admission)
Join Laura Parker Samson, Coordinator of School and Community Programs for Sarasota Art Museum, in a discussion about the exhibition Art Deco: The Golden Age of Illustration.
About Laura Parker Samson
Laura Parker Samson is an experienced educator, entrepreneur, and teaching artist with a passion for connecting museum visitors personally and profoundly with the art at Sarasota Art Museum. She holds a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Pennsylvania, and a Master of Fine Arts in Acting from Harvard University ART/MXAT Institute for Advanced Theater Training. Since joining the Learning and Engagement team at SAM in 2024, she has grown the School Tour program, expanded Community Outreach programs, implemented new and creative strategies for audience engagement, and served as the Museum liaison for educators, interns, museum guides, and volunteers.
Free for Members
$20 Not-Yet Members (Includes Museum Admission)
Join Dr. Christopher Wilson, Architecture and Design Historian at Ringling College of Art and Design, in a discussion about the exhibition Art Deco: The Golden Age of Illustration.
About Christopher Wilson
Dr. Christopher S. Wilson is an Architecture and Design Historian at Ringling College of Art and Design in Sarasota, Florida, USA. He is also the “Scholar-in Residence” of the non-profit Architecture Sarasota. Dr. Wilson holds a B.Arch from Temple University, Philadelphia/USA; an MA from The Architectural Association, London/UK, and a PhD from Middle East Technical University, Ankara/TURKEY. Before entering the world of academia, Wilson worked as an architect in Philadelphia, Berlin, and London, and is registered with the RIBA.
Free for Members
$20 Not-Yet Members (Includes Museum Admission)
Join Amanda Walters, writer, editor, and multimedia artist, in a discussion about the exhibition Janet Echelman: Radical Softness.
About Amanda Walters
Amanda Walters is a writer, editor, and multimedia artist working primarily with sculptural forms and textiles. Born and raised in Southwest Florida, she is greatly influenced by the landscape and cultural phenomena of the region. Both her written and visual works explore the strange and well-manicured history of her home state, the not inherently visible intersections of landscape and capitalism; death, nature, and the absurd; social ecology; and the fantasies embedded in tourism. She is one half of Feral Fabric, a journal and collaborative social practice textile project. The Feral Fabric Journal is a scholarly periodic journal highlighting radical textile production in art, activism, and countercultural movements. For its collaborative art projects, Feral Fabric works with the community to make textile art, from story quilts with unhoused communities to banners and flags at protests.
Free for Members
$20 Not-Yet Members (Includes Museum Admission)
Join Selina Román, Ringling College of Art and Design Photography and Imaging Coordinator and practicing artist, in a discussion about her exhibition Selina Román: Abstract Corpulence.
About Selina Román
Trained as a print journalist, Florida native Selina Román ferreted out stories of injustice in marginalized communities such as migrant farm workers and the poor. After working in journalism, Roman spent several years at an international security and investigations firm where she became privy to the inner workings of the private-sector intelligence community. That clandestine world, rooted in surveillance, gestures and coded details, rekindled her love of photography.
Tampa-based Roman received her Masters of Fine Arts degree from the University of South Florida in 2013. She has participated in residencies with the Visual Artists Network and Diaspora Vibe Cultural Arts Incubator. Her work is in the collection of the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art in Sarasota; the Leepa-Rattner Museum of Art in Tarpon Springs; the Tampa Museum of Art, Hillsborough Community College, as well as numerous private collections.
Roman has exhibited nationally at institutions such as John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art in Sarasota, Kenyon College in Ohio, and internationally at Edna Manley College of Visual and Performing Arts in Kingston, Jamaica, and Universidad del Sagrado Corazón in San Juan, Puerto Rico. She also exhibited at Brighton Photo Fringe in the United Kingdom during the 2016 Brighton Photo Biennial. In 2017 she received a Hillsborough County Artist Grant, and has been invited to participate in Review Santa Fe and Critical Mass Top 50. Her work has been published twice in the Oxford American magazine, among other publications. She currently teaches photography courses at the Ringling College of Art and Design.
Her work explores ideas of femininity, perception, liminality, memory, place, and how the invisible offers more answers than what’s visible.
Free for Members
$20 Not-Yet Members (Includes Museum Admission)
Join Bill Crouse, entrepreneur, venture capitalist, and art collector, in a discussion about the exhibition Art Deco: The Golden Age of Illustration, which showcases 100 rare posters from the Crouse Collection created by some of the world’s earliest, master graphic designers during the 1920s and 1930s.
About Bill Crouse
Mr. Crouse is the retired Managing Director and a General Partner of Healthcare Ventures, one of the world’s largest venture capital firms specializing in biotechnology. HealthCare Ventures creates, finances, manages and builds high science biopharmaceutical companies. The General Partners have led the strategic development and management of more than 100 companies with a combined market capitalization of greater than $60 billion in important and emerging fields such as genetic therapy, genomic sciences and organ and cellular transplantation. Mr. Crouse maintains extensive contacts with major pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies and has assisted the portfolio companies in initiating and negotiating collaborative agreements which have resulted in more than $3 billion of funding to the portfolio companies. He also led a leveraged buyout of a Johnson & Johnson operating company and served as Chairman until the business was sold to Sybron Corporation.
In addition to his twenty plus years of venture capital experience, he had thirty years of experience in the pharmaceutical and diagnostics industry in general management, international operations, strategic planning, licensing, acquisitions, new product development, and sales and marketing. Prior to joining HealthCare Ventures, he was Worldwide President of Ortho Diagnostic Systems and a Vice President of Johnson & Johnson International from 1987 to 1993.
Before joining Johnson & Johnson, Mr. Crouse was Division Director, DuPont Pharmaceuticals, responsible for all international businesses and worldwide commercial development activities. He previously served as President of Revlon Health Care Group’s companies in Latin America, Canada and Asia/Pacific. He also held various sales, marketing and management positions at E.R. Squibb & Sons and lived and worked in Latin America and Europe for seven years.
Mr. Crouse retired in 2018 from the Board of Directors for The Medicines Company, a publicly traded biotechnology company, where he was Chairman of the Compensation Committee and the Goverance and Nominating Committee. He is currently on the Board of Directors of three private biotechnology companies. Previously he served on the Board of Directors of numerous other biotechnology companies and has recently been involved with the successful sale of EUSA to Jazz Pharmaceuticals, CBR,Inc to GTCR and then to AMAG Pharmaceuticals and Precision Dermatology to Valaent Pharmaceuticals.
Among his community activities, Mr. Crouse served as a Trustee and executive committee member of Lehigh University and is a member of their Business Advisory Board. He is a Trustee and Executive Committee Member Emeritus of the New York Blood Center and served as Chairman of the New Jersey Blood Services Blood Drive. He was a Trustee at Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University. He is a former Board Member of Liberty Science Center and was on the Board of Trustees and the Executive Committee of the United Way of Somerset County and was co-chairman of their annual fund raising campaign. He also served on the Board of Directors of Pace University, Lubin Graduate School of Business Alumni Association. He was active in the Health Industry Manufacturers Association and the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers Association. He received a B.S. in Finance and Economics from Lehigh University and an M.B.A with Distinction in Marketing Management from Pace University.
Free for Members
$20 Not-Yet Members (Includes Museum Admission)
Join Joe Fig, Ringling College of Art and Design Fine Arts and Visual Studies Department Head and practicing artist, in a discussion about the exhibition Janet Echelman: Radical Softness.
About Joe Fig
Joe Fig is an artist known for work that explores the creative process, and the spaces where art is made and contemplated. His diverse body of work encompasses painting, sculpture, photography and drawing, in which he examines the role of the artist, the creative process, and the self-made universe of the Artist’s studio. His work has been exhibited nationally and internationally. He is the author of the acclaimed books Inside the Painter’s Studio and Inside the Artist’s Studio, which share an intimate view inside the studios of today’s leading artists. His work can be found in numerous museums and leading private collections including JP Morgan Chase, Fogg Art Museum, Dayton Art Institute, Chazen Museum of Art, Parrish Art Museum, Norton Museum of Art, The New Museum of Contemporary Art and the Toledo Museum of Art among others. His work has been featured in The New York Times, Boston Globe, Artforum, Art in America, and ArtNews as well as several international magazines. Joe Fig is the Department Chair of both Fine Arts and Visual Studies at Ringling College of Art & Design in Sarasota, FL. He earned his BFA and MFA from the School of Visual Arts, New York. He is represented by Cristin Tierney Gallery in New York.
Free for Members
$20 Not-Yet Members (Includes Museum Admission)
Join Bill Crouse, entrepreneur, venture capitalist, and art collector, in a discussion about the exhibition Art Deco: The Golden Age of Illustration, which showcases 100 rare posters from the Crouse Collection created by some of the world’s earliest, master graphic designers during the 1920s and 1930s.
About Bill Crouse
Mr. Crouse is the retired Managing Director and a General Partner of Healthcare Ventures, one of the world’s largest venture capital firms specializing in biotechnology. HealthCare Ventures creates, finances, manages and builds high science biopharmaceutical companies. The General Partners have led the strategic development and management of more than 100 companies with a combined market capitalization of greater than $60 billion in important and emerging fields such as genetic therapy, genomic sciences and organ and cellular transplantation. Mr. Crouse maintains extensive contacts with major pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies and has assisted the portfolio companies in initiating and negotiating collaborative agreements which have resulted in more than $3 billion of funding to the portfolio companies. He also led a leveraged buyout of a Johnson & Johnson operating company and served as Chairman until the business was sold to Sybron Corporation.
In addition to his twenty plus years of venture capital experience, he had thirty years of experience in the pharmaceutical and diagnostics industry in general management, international operations, strategic planning, licensing, acquisitions, new product development, and sales and marketing. Prior to joining HealthCare Ventures, he was Worldwide President of Ortho Diagnostic Systems and a Vice President of Johnson & Johnson International from 1987 to 1993.
Before joining Johnson & Johnson, Mr. Crouse was Division Director, DuPont Pharmaceuticals, responsible for all international businesses and worldwide commercial development activities. He previously served as President of Revlon Health Care Group’s companies in Latin America, Canada and Asia/Pacific. He also held various sales, marketing and management positions at E.R. Squibb & Sons and lived and worked in Latin America and Europe for seven years.
Mr. Crouse retired in 2018 from the Board of Directors for The Medicines Company, a publicly traded biotechnology company, where he was Chairman of the Compensation Committee and the Goverance and Nominating Committee. He is currently on the Board of Directors of three private biotechnology companies. Previously he served on the Board of Directors of numerous other biotechnology companies and has recently been involved with the successful sale of EUSA to Jazz Pharmaceuticals, CBR,Inc to GTCR and then to AMAG Pharmaceuticals and Precision Dermatology to Valaent Pharmaceuticals.
Among his community activities, Mr. Crouse served as a Trustee and executive committee member of Lehigh University and is a member of their Business Advisory Board. He is a Trustee and Executive Committee Member Emeritus of the New York Blood Center and served as Chairman of the New Jersey Blood Services Blood Drive. He was a Trustee at Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University. He is a former Board Member of Liberty Science Center and was on the Board of Trustees and the Executive Committee of the United Way of Somerset County and was co-chairman of their annual fund raising campaign. He also served on the Board of Directors of Pace University, Lubin Graduate School of Business Alumni Association. He was active in the Health Industry Manufacturers Association and the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers Association. He received a B.S. in Finance and Economics from Lehigh University and an M.B.A with Distinction in Marketing Management from Pace University.
Monday, July 28, 2025 | 1 pm
Saturday, August 2, 2025 | 1-2pm
Monday, August 25, 2025 | 1 pm
Monday, September 29, 2025 | 1 pm
Monday, October 20, 2025 | 1 pm
Monday, November 3, 2025 | 1 pm
Monday, December 8, 2025 | 1 pm
Wednesdays, Fridays, Saturdays at 11 am
Wednesdays 10 am-12 pm
Second Sundays 11 am – 5 pm