Liz Young, executive director of Florida Keys Council of the Arts, joined Good Morning Keys on Keys Talk 96.9/102.5FM this morning to talk about what’s going on in the arts.
There is a lot to do in the Keys when it comes to the arts.
Young said, “As we hit Columbus Day, Indigenous Peoples Day weekend, you can feel the energy coming back into the Florida Keys. Planes are full, I hear, coming into the airport, really starting to hear such good news about the airport, and people really enjoying it. I think we all are reminiscent of walking on the tarmac, but I will say on a rainy day or a really hot, sunny day, it’s great to just get on the plane and get going. People like to have a little room. There’s all sorts of different seating arrangements, which I thought was so smart, and you’re starting to see in these smaller airports. You’re not just like cattle cars all in a row and the same seating, and the colors are beautiful. It’s really interesting. It’s really only phase one. We are deep into phase two. I’m working with the fabulous airport staff and airport director, bringing back a big, beautiful piece that was downstairs that we had to de-install, of the ceramic waves and palm fronds. So I’m getting to sort of see the next phase, which will be a huge new TSA area in the old flyer upstairs. Then the third phase, where we’ll be also doing a lot of new artwork, because people have been asking me, where’s the artwork? I’m like, it’s coming, it’s coming. It will be part of all of the new baggage claim and rental car area, which will be the last phase. I love to say to people, we’re a big little city. I’m also working out at Lower Keys Medical Center. They’re in the process of completely redoing 24 patient rooms. We’re going to be working with local artists out there. The new seaport artwork is finally going in that I’ve been talking about forever. There’s a picture floating around of the artists and me and Commissioner Monica Haskell. I got to see the first phase of the installation, so that’s a new gateway entry to the historic seaport. The fruits of our labor constantly evident everywhere.”
The event schedule is starting to ramp up.
Young said, “Next week will be, believe it or not, Zombie Bike Ride and Goombay Festival and Fantasy Fest feels a little bit early because of the way the Saturdays fall, but we’re ready and getting excited. Lots of costume making. Please, lots of costume making, not just the body painting, but hoping we’re having good weather. The Arts Council has a great event at three o’clock on that Tuesday, which is the 21st where we’ll do poster signing with the poster winner of her artwork. It’s really fabulous. She’s coming down, has vacationed here for decades, loves Fantasy Fest and did a really, really cool poster around the bedtime stories theme. So we’ll be kicking off that on Tuesday at the stunning La Concha Hotel lobby bar, which is so exquisite and gorgeous, sort of a throwback to old Savannah, I’ve been telling people, so we’ll be there, so come and hang out with us. Then, of course, I’m a judge for the parade, so that’s always fun and an honor, always an honor to witness all the creativity and crazy, whimsical fun that we get all involved with.”
The Zombie Bike Ride is really spectacular.
Young said, “We’re such a bike town. The kids have a great time. The parents have a great time. I’m too old to ride a bike, but I certainly agree with you. It’s so fun to watch. Then this weekend, up at the Marathon Community Theater, I think this is the last weekend or second to last weekend of their Rocky Horror. Waterfront Playhouse will be opening their Rocky Horror. I know that the Tropic was showing the film, just lots of good things happening. I just got the great, great schedule at Williams Hall for unity table, wonderful food events there and then the launch party this past week for the Key West Film Festival, which is like the 10 days prior to Thanksgiving. So after power boats and that next week, we’ve got the film festival, very cool films and events, inside, outside, all sorts of great things. They’ll be using Williams Hall, I think, and San Carlos and just the schedule is crazy. I always like to talk about our membership, but we just mailed out the Keys Arts quarterly that we do for the Tourist Development Council, and that’s for the October, November, December season, and pretty outstanding lineup everywhere. So please become a member of the Arts Council. We really need your support. The arts always take a hit, but we are taking an extra big hit this year, and we would really, really appreciate the grassroots support. We offer some amazing programming. We’ll be doing our gather round series. We’re just getting ready and geared up. I had two meetings last week about our Connections Project, a mosaic of Keys’ artists, where we hand out canvases, eight by six canvases, eight inches by six inches, and then we put it together in a mosaic and do pop ups up and down the Keys. We’ll be partnering with the Chambers of Commerce and the galleries to bring art to the different regions of the Keys. A great time to have conversation, too, around the art. So, lot of fun things going on. I have an art in public places meeting for the city and for the county this week, Tuesday and Wednesday. We’ve got a lot of big projects happening.”
The arts really are very important to the Keys.
Young said, “Speaking of growing and expanding, we received four new sculptures yesterday from New York City. We will have now 19 sculptures on the trail along the All American Highway, only in the Keys. I mean, there is no trail that is 100 miles long that I know of around the country, there’s some parks filled with sculpture, but this is really a phenomenal gift to our community. They’re getting the pad ready in Islamorada, the beautiful South Winds Park, which is Oceanside on the highway, got a fabulous new piece actually a little bit about sea level rise and climate change. It’s got an interior rain stick this big, huge, cool, they’re calling it the hour glass. Beautiful work. We dropped off two pieces to Marathon. One piece we got we will have installed at the city hall. We’re hoping to have one in Key Colony Beach. We’re just waiting for final approval there. Then this very cool one called Moon Finder was installed at the coolest, most unique place, the Grimal Grove, in Big Pine and Patrick was very excited. He received a sculpture in the very first installation we did in 2017, so he now has a second sculpture in the rear part of the property where he’s going to be doing a lot of educational events and some foods from around the world events, around all the fruits and things that he grows there. So just incredible expansion. It is very, very exciting to have these new pieces. They’re very different, very cool, and brings attention to the venues and also highlights our importance in the art world. Our student league is celebrating 150 years this year, the oldest art school in the United States. So right across the street from Carnegie Hall, so classic legacy work that we’re partnering with. So it’s an honor.”
For more information, click here: https://keysarts.com/