Enamored by Elephants
A 6-year-old boy walks by a cello in a window and tells his parents, “That is what I want to play for the rest of my life.” At the age of 10, Georgia O’Keefe says she will be a famous…
Author: Marina Brown
Look Around
The Statue of Liberty. Venus di Milo. Abraham Lincoln, pensive in his chair. These are but a few of the statuary that draw millions each year—spectators moved by human figures crafted from metal and stone. The earliest known sculptures are…
Which Way To The Stage?
It’s long been said that expensive Broadway musicals lose up to 80% of their initial investment, alarming dedicated theater fans. Smaller productions don’t always gain the traction to become long-running hits. However, we here in Tallahassee are awash in wonderful…
A Delicious Homecoming
Entering a room that also holds restaurateur Susan Turner is a bit like being in the presence of a strobe light. She surges with fireworks of creative ideas, innovative recipes, plans for social receptions, community good works, and an elegant…
Taking The Baton
Music lovers among the Tallahassee Symphony Orchestra were asked to help get it right. For the full 2024-2025 season of concerts, they listened. And after five performances during which guest conductors brought their best interpretations and most charismatic moves to…
Made For The Stage
In the distance, a piano throbs. Occasionally, someone sporting pink tights, a black leotard, and a tiny chignon runs by the door. Then the voice of a ballet teacher sings out, “And again … this time, higher!” But here, everything…
A League Of Their Own
The quote, “Creativity takes courage,” comes from Henri Matisse, the French artist known for breaking artistic rules into his 80s. And courage is what it took for the Artists’ League of the Big Bend, formerly just The Artists’ League, to…
Oktoberfest! Raise a Mug and spear a Brat
It’s time to dig out the dirndl, locate the lederhosen, and secure the sennerhut. The leaves are turning, and Oktober is in the air. Oktoberfest is that special German party that is celebrated with enough bratwurst, pretzels, and beer to…
Beauty is Pain
Ouch.” For some, the chosen profession of body piercing specialist Zarah Schieve may evoke just such a reaction. For others, her art form is simply one of creativity and self-expression. For many, what begins as an “ouch” later becomes a…
A Braw Day at Maclay
T’was a bonnie day, it was! A spring morning near the lake—with the birds chirpin’ and the pipes pipin’. And the pretty tartans a-flappin’ in the breeze! Oh sorry, Tallahasseeans, for the brogue and the burr. But April 6—known in…
Girl Power Aglow in Gold
Isabella Al-Sharif is an exotic name Tallahassee is getting used to. In just under a year as the programming coordinator and curator of LeMoyne Arts in downtown Tallahassee, she has selected art for a half dozen exhibitions. In addition, Al-Sharif…
Welcoming Words
To get to know poet and Professor James Kimbrell, it may be best to think of an analogy: Picture him as a multicolored quilt made up of educational patches, literary squares, pieces of sadness, and of great joy, love of…
High Marks in Fashion
The art gallery’s ambience seemed turned on “low” as polite viewers wandered by paintings along the walls. They wore mostly grays and browns, were decorous and pleasant, and very possibly a little bored. Then the door opened … and Jane…
The Essence of Blues
This is Tallahassee … not New Orleans. This is Tallahassee … not an ancient dive in the Mississippi Delta. Nor a blusey joint on the old Chitlin’ Circuit. But if you close your eyes and feel the rhythmic pound deep…
Artist Paul Tamanian Takes His Stand in Tallahassee
In Tallahassee, you just never know what lies around the corner. In this case, it is the emergence of something the Capital City has never had before. Something that just might thrust our leafy North Florida metropolis onto the major…
Experiments in Magic
Sitting beneath a sprawling live oak, the figures of artist Beth Appleton and her husband, David Harbaugh, shimmer in the afternoon shadows. They seem a tableau made of many colors, different pieces that merge into form—much like the images that…
When Living And Art Come Together
There’s always a certain anticipation when Dan Taylor is spied from behind at one of the art exhibitions, symphony performances, community volunteer galas … or simply walking in the park. And why is that? It is probably because you’re guessing:…
The Gold Dust Streets
Setting the Stage In 1824, Tallahassee, the halfway point between Pensacola and Jacksonville, must have seemed the perfect place to set up a new capital city. Still a territory, Florida wouldn’t become a state until 21 years later. Yet planters…
Forty Years of Urban Bush Women
FSU professor and founder of famed dance company is still ‘telling the truth’
The Artistic ‘Pollinator’
With the return of Katee Tully, poetry — and more — is in the air
The Art of Style
Kabuya Pamela Bowens-Saffo believes our clothes have something to say
African Flavors Are Closer Than You Think
Railroad Square’s Halisi Africa brings authentic African cuisine to Tallahassee
The Curated Fashion of Ashley Williams
Not all those involved in the arts are “costumed.” For Ashley Williams, curator at the Gadsden Arts Center & Museum, a pretty sweater and a pair of slacks are often perfect for the occasion and the job.
Deep-fried Americana
A few oversized yard birds sat sizzling in hot oil as neighbors Frank Douglas and David Chapman strummed their guitars under the moonlight. Suddenly, the picturesque Washington Street block party fell silent. Douglas and Chapman paused their serenade, stared at…
Masters of Art
FSU’s Master Craftsman Studio works humbly behind the scenes, blending tradition, craftsmanship and education
Fashion Sense, Business Acumen
Calynne Hill, Hettie Spooner and Lindsay Elliott are the eponymous principals of Tallahassee’s Hill Spooner & Elliott real estate agency.
Out of Ethiopia
Originally from Ethipoa, Leon County Judge Nina Ashenafi-Richardson is a woman who displays a briefcase full of titles and responsibilities.
SHINING ONWARD
Psychologist Sharon Ames-Dennard sparkles with entrepreneurism and Ethiopian style
Building a Temple of Celestial Proportions
The dramatic Latter-day Saints Temple is a 29,000-square-foot tower that, with its six tiers that some architects refer to as a “wedding cake” or “ziggurat” design, already appears to glow atop a tree-skirted 46-foot hill.
Partners in icy relationship enjoy Olympic speed skating success
How does a Florida boy become an Olympic ice skater? How does collaboration between that product of the subtropics and his speed skater wife lead to her becoming the most decorated Italian Olympic speed skater in history? Their paths have…
