
Director’s Tour – November 2025
Monday, November 24, 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 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.
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.

Monday, November 24, 2025 | 1 pm

Saturday, December 6, 2025 | 1 pm

Monday, December 8, 2025 | 1 pm

Saturday, January 10, 2026 | 1-2 pm

Monday, January 12, 2026 | 1 pm

Monday, January 26, 2026 | 1 pm

Wednesday, January 28, 2026 | 5:30 pm-6:30 pm

Saturday, February 7, 2026 | 1-2 pm

Monday, February 9, 2026 | 1 pm

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Wednesdays 10 am-12 pm

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