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Kissimmee Sculpture Experience
Kissimmee - The Kissimmee Sculpture Experience began last weekend during the 40th Annual Osceola Art Festival in Historic Downtown Kissimmee. Festival attendees, downtown merchants and local residents were very excited about the sculptures and the enhancement they bring to the downtown. The 11 sculptures were judged by Kathy O’Meara of Port Orange, Florida, Don Handley of Kissimmee, Florida and Anda Chance of Kissimmee, Florida. Mindy Colton of Orlando, Florida won Best of Show and a prize of $3,000 for her piece “Renewal”. Stefan Alexandres of St Cloud, Florida a prize of $1,500 and was awarded 2nd Place for “Truth and Falsehood”. The Merit award and $1,000 prize went to Frits van Eeden for “Mare with Baby”. The judges also wanted to recognize Frank Joseph Gady for his piece “Chief Iron Horse” and so they created a Judges Award. Travel awards totaling $3,150 were also awarded to selected artists.

Harvest Shoppers Signaled the Holiday Season to Benefit the Historical Museum of Southern Florida
MIAMI - Over ten thousand anxious holiday shoppers turned out this past Saturday and Sunday to the 31st Annual Harvest festival at the Fair Expo Center. Harvest goers enjoyed over 200 juried craft booths, everything from handmade holiday decorations, flutes, quilts, woodcarvings, soaps, clothing, toys, quilts and more. Always the weekend before Thanksgiving, Harvest is a major fundraiser for the Historical Museum of Southern Florida. Proceeds from Harvest support the museum's exhibitions, education programs and general advancement.

Season Decorated with Women Playwrights
ORLANDO - Works by women playwrights are now playing or are imminent at the Annie Russell Theatre, Florida Children?s Repertory Theatre, Ghostlight Theatre Ensemble, Jester Theater Company, Melon Patch Players, Moonlight Players, and Orlando Repertory Theatre. It wasn?t always this way. Although marketing studies show women make most of the choices about what plays to see and are usually the ones buying the tickets, the same studies show women don't expect to see themselves on stage as characters or their words. In the Orlando area, about 14-16% of the produced plays were written by women in the recent past. But for the 2006-07 season, women playwrights and audiences get a new boost from Women Playwrights' Initiative (WPI) through an initiative called Wave of Women Writers (WOWW!). WPI reports that of the plays and musicals programmed for the area's 2006-07 season, 19% are written by women -an encouraging 3-5% increase over two previous seasons.

The Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens Offers Holiday Gift Memberships
Jacksonville– The Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens is pleased to offer an exceptional gift for this holiday season, a one-year membership to The Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens. Packaged in a holiday gift box, The Cummer Membership-To-Go is a great way to share the arts with friends and family. The recipient of the gift membership will receive free admission to the museum and gardens, invitations to Members’ only openings, free or reduced admission to special events, a subscription to The Cummer Magazine, a 10% discount in the museum store and reciprocal privileges to over 60 museums throughout the Southeast. Recipients will also enjoy reduced admission to adult Art Connections programs, reduced admission to children’s Art Connections programs and summer camp (for Family Memberships and higher) and free admission and priority seating for The Cummer Concert Series.

Orlando-UCF Shakespeare Festival Offers Holiday Gift Certificates
Orlando - The Orlando-UCF Shakespeare Festival has announced that it will be offering holiday gift certificates for purchase starting Monday, November 20th. Available in any denomination, they may be purchased at the Lowndes Shakespeare Center Box Office located at 812 East Rollins Street in Orlando’s Loch Haven Park or via telephone at 407.447.1700 ext. 1. Box office hours are Monday through Saturday from 10AM to 5PM. Visa, MasterCard, American Express and cash are accepted.

Photographers Capture Kravis Center In Whole New Light
The Raymond F. Kravis Center for the Performing Arts is proud to present the work of South Florida photographers on the cover of its Playbill programs during the 2006-2007 season. The photographs are the result of a collaboration between the Kravis Center and the Palm Beach Photographic Centre in Delray Beach as a way to commemorate the Kravis Center’s 15th Anniversary Season. With help from the Photographic Centre, the Kravis Center hosted a “photographers’ invitational” in September that produced images of the Kravis Center as it has never been seen before. With its unique architecture, the building has long been an inspiration to photographers and they were invited to paint a picture with their lenses and show the Kravis Center in a whole new light. The Kravis Center received nearly 300 images from more than 25 photographers. Those whose works are being showcased on the Playbill covers this season are: Joel Black of Boynton Beach; Joe Camosy of Lake Worth; Patricia Fallon of Lake Park; Janine Harris of Lake Worth; Jerry Judge of Jupiter; Fred Kenney of Boynton Beach; Jessica Klewicki of Lantana; Allen Lubitz of Palmetto Bay; Diane Mann of Port Salerno; Karen Smith of Jupiter; Arlene Spagna of Greenacres and C.J. Walker of West Palm Beach.

Carnival Center for Performing Arts Appoints Richard G. Miller Vice President of Development and Albert Milano as CEO of Concert Association of Florida
MIAMI-Michael Hardy, president and CEO of Carnival Center for the Performing Arts, announced the appointment of Richard G. Miller to vice president of development. Miller had served as associate director of the Performing Arts Center Foundation since 2002. Reporting directly to Michael Hardy, Miller’s responsibilities as vice president of development include the management of the Center’s fund-raising programs, including the endowment drive, membership program and all other fund-raising activities, as well as the supervision of the Center?s development staff. Carnival Center for the Performing Arts and Concert Association of Florida (CAF) jointly announced the appointment of Albert Milano as chief executive officer of Concert Association of Florida. Milano has worked closely with the Carnival Center Foundation over the past ten years, including the past two years in which he has served full-time as executive director of the Carnival Center Foundation. “Al has been tremendously instrumental in the success of Carnival Center’s capital campaign and recent grand opening,” said Sherwood “Woody” Weiser, chairman of the Foundation’s board. “Now, with the Center successfully launched, we feel this is a wonderful opportunity for him, the Concert Association and the Center.” In his new role at CAF, Milano will work in partnership with Judy Drucker, president and artistic director of CAF, to develop increased support for CAF’s presentations and strengthen the financial health of the organization.

Hollywood 360°™ Magazine Showcases City’s Culture and Events
Hollywood - The 2006-2007 issue of Hollywood 360°™ magazine, which made its debut in late 2005, showcases arts, culture, and entertainment in the South Florida city known as the “City of the Arts.” The 44-page, full-color, glossy publication contains calendars on festivals, events and cultural art programs through December 2007. There are also stories on the city itself, including its ArtsPark project. “Hollywood 360°™ showcases all of Hollywood’s charms and is a wonderful promotional tool for arts agencies and tourists who live outside the South Florida market,” says Art and Culture Center of Hollywood Executive Director and Hollywood 360°™ Publisher Joy Satterlee.

Art museum sells 6 of its paintings at N.Y. auction
Seattle - In a New York auction that brought record prices for paintings by Edward Hopper and Norman Rockwell, the Seattle Art Museum sold six of eight paintings it had offered. SAM deaccessioned the eight paintings to raise money for other acquisitions. The highest-valued painting of SAM's group, John Marin's "New York Abstraction," sold for $688,000, including the buyer's fee. Total sales for the museum came to $1,018,000. Sotheby's spokesman Matthew Weigman said that the amount SAM will net from the sale is confidential.

Look Through Tiffany's Eyes
NYC - More than 250 pieces make up the exhibit "Louis Comfort Tiffany and Laurelton Hall -- An Artist's Country Estate," at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City and continues through May 20, 2007. Of those, about half were contributed by The Charles Hosmer Morse Museum of American Art in Winter Park, FL. The Met exhibit marks the first time so many Tiffany artifacts have been gathered together since his Long Island estate burned in 1957.

Christie's Sets Record With Russian Art Sale, Tops $55 Million
London - Christie's International sold a record 28.2 million pounds ($55.1 million) of Russian art at auction in London, beating the previous record of $46.7 million, set by Sotheby's in New York on April 26. Christie's presale estimate was between 25 million pounds and 38 million pounds. More than 70 percent of the 510 lots sold, and six records were set for painters at auction. Imperial vases and early 20th-century paintings were most popular. About four out of five buyers were Russian, said Alexis de Tiesenhausen, head of Christie's Russian department in London.

Looted, But From Whom?
AMSTERDAM - This is the central theme of a joint exhibition by the Dutch state and the Jewish Historical Museum of art plundered by the Nazis during World War II. During World War II, tens of thousands of art works that belonged to Jews from the Netherlands ended up in Germany through looting, confiscation or because the owners were forced to sell. After 1945 some 4,700 works of art of Dutch provenance found there were returned to the Netherlands and put in the custody of the Dutch state. For more information or to search for artworks, the exhibit has organised its own website: www.geroofdmaarvanwie.nl in Dutch and English. There is also an international website of the agency at www.originsunknown.org.