Hermitage Greenfield Prize Weekend Events Revealed

The Hermitage Artist Retreat announced that 2025 Hermitage Greenfield Prize winner Rucyl Mills will have her first public Hermitage program at Marie Selby Botanical Gardens' Historic Spanish Point. Combining jazz, avant-garde R&B, hip-hop, and more through a unique blend of electronics and vocals, Rucyl's sound art is grounded in a belief that humanity can evolve and find new forms of creative expression. Join the Hermitage on Saturday, April 5 at 5:30pm for this free community event: “Meet Rucyl!” – An Hour with 2025 Hermitage Greenfield Prize winner Rucyl Mills, a creative process exploration and sampling of musical work from this artist blazing a trail to the future of music.

Rucyl Mills is an American sound artist and an original member of the politically charged hip-hop group The Goats, performing internationally alongside bands like Bad Brains, Fishbone, and The Beastie Boys. Her creative methodologies deeply lean on punk, early dancehall, lovers rock, black folk, new wave, hip-hop, jazz, and experimental musical genres that celebrate anti-conventional compositional structure and performance as protest. Her preferred palette of electronic instruments and experimental software represents her belief that humanity can gracefully evolve using technology in art by democratizing access and fostering new forms of creative expression and collaboration. Inspired by the experimental jazz musician Sun Ra, Mills co-founded Saturn Never Sleeps, an improvisational futuretronic label and audiovisual group. Mills has created interactive musical experiences, including the "Chakakhantroller," a wearable MIDI controller for solo audiovisual performance; and “Sound Prism,” a solar-powered interactive installation that explores sound as a physical representation of the frequencies of the color spectrum.

The following night, Rucyl Mills will be celebrated at the 17th annual Hermitage Greenfield Prize Dinner on Sunday, April 6, a benefit for the Hermitage Artist Retreat, starting at 6pm at Michael's On East (Sarasota, Florida). The event will feature live musical performances. Past performers have included Tony and Grammy Award winner Rachel Bay Jones, Tony Award nominee Leslie Rodriguez Kritzer, and Tony Award winner Gavin Creel. This elegant annual dinner heralds the jury-selected recipient of this prestigious prize, awarded this season in the discipline of music. The Hermitage Greenfield Prize (HGP) is a distinguished national commission awarded by the Hermitage Artist Retreat in partnership with the Philadelphia-based Greenfield Foundation; the $35,000 award rotates annually among music, theater, and visual art. The 2025 winner's newly commissioned work will have its first public presentation in Sarasota in the spring of 2027. The Hermitage Greenfield Prize Celebration is presented in partnership with the Greenfield Foundation, with Community Foundation of Sarasota County serving as Lead Community Sponsor. Additional sponsors include Gulf Coast Community Foundation, The Herald Tribune, and Sarasota Magazine. Event Co-Chairs for this year's gala dinner are Robyn & Charles Citrin and Arthur Siciliano & B.Aline Blanchard. A full list of this year's sponsors can be found at https://HermitageArtistRetreat.org/HGPDinner2025/.

Sponsorship levels for this Hermitage Greenfield Prize Dinner, the organization's spring benefit, range from $1,500 to $10,000. Tables and sponsorships may be purchased by contacting the Hermitage Development Office at (941) 475-2098, Ext. 2, or by emailing Development@HermitageArtistRetreat.org. The event has extremely limited capacity remaining. 

In addition to the free community event with Rucyl Mills on April 5 and the Hermitage Greenfield Prize Dinner on April 6, the 2025 Hermitage Greenfield Prize Celebration will welcome commission premieres from 2023 HGP recipients Rennie Harris and Sandy Rodriguez at The Ringling.