Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall Reflects On 2020

Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall reflects on one year of operations during a pandemic by taking stock of what the Hall has done to stay connected to the community over the past year.

From March 2020 through the present Van Wezel has enriched the community through various programs and events including:

• Over 3,000 first-dose COVID-19 vaccines were administered in the Hall's parking lot over a two-day, appointment-only drive-thru clinic sponsored by the City of Sarasota. The event was a community volunteer-driven clinic, and the entire theater's staff as well as some City employees worked the events and coordinated the logistics to make the weekend run smoothly. The Hall and City were grateful to have the opportunity to provide the vaccine with the help of the state and Department of Health-Sarasota, and Sarasota County drew from its existing vaccine registration system to facilitate the appointments. The second-dose clinic will be held at the end of this month, and the entire theatre's staff plan to work the events again.

"For us we were so happy to be finally doing something that would help end the pandemic that has devastated our industry and help get people back into our theatre." -Mary Bensel, Executive Director

Here are some of the other ways that the Hall has engaged the community during the past year:

• 3 Virtual Happy Hour Concerts

• 8 limited-capacity LIVE Cabaret by the Bay events, with more coming soon!

• 1 Bay Music Live Concert outdoors, with an additional SOLD OUT event coming up next month and one more to be announced!

• 2 Outdoor High School Graduation Celebrations in 2020 in our parking lot

• 2 Impactful food drives in the parking lot, with more coming soon!

• 20+ virtual offerings - shows, interactive events, family programming - with more coming soon!

• Hundreds of yogis enjoying Bay Park Yoga with Erin Hurter every Saturday, free of charge

• 39,000 plus students, families and educators served through virtual educational programming at no cost thanks to the generous donors of the Van Wezel Foundation

"As a leader, an incredible development that has come out of this tragic year is the strengthening of relationships among arts organizations in our resilient, creative community, as well as with our partners at the Florida Presenters, Florida Venue Managers Association and the Broadway League. While it was easy from an outside perspective to view neighboring arts organizations and venues as competitors, we have grown into a family this year as we launch our #SafeArtsSarasota initiative to keep our audiences safe while putting great shows back on our stages. We are all one, and we are all true believers in the power of the arts." -Mary Bensel, Executive Director

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