Arts: Alive and Well
by Kemp Brinson
I’m a huge fan of the arts. My wife and I sometimes lament that we moved from a larger, culturally diverse city to come to Polk County, but then I get to thinking. A week or so ago, I attended a staged reading of the musical HAIR at Theatre Winter Haven, this past weekend I perused art at the Central Park Arts Festival and even picked up a few nice prints for the house (one from a local artist and three from a Florida photographer), and I have a play to go check out this weekend. And that’s without even leaving the bustling metropolis of Winter Haven. There are things like this to do almost all year.
The reality is that if I lived in a big city, the opportunities to do things like this would be more “gentrified” = I couldn’t afford it. Here, an enriching and engaging experience with the arts is available to anyone of modest means. And there are even opportunities to get directly involved in making projects like this happen.
One of the things art does is bring communities together, and that’s what I like most about our local arts scene: these are my neighbors, colleages, and friends (sometimes all three at the same time) putting themselves out there and making our world more interesting, beautiful, and thought-provoking. Case in point: one of the exhibiting photographers at CPAF was a local attorney I know – I had no idea she was a photographer.
And if I want to see marquee acts and shows for real $$$, Tampa’s right down the road. This is a good place to live.
(Full disclosure: I am actively involved in several organizations sponsoring the events mentioned above.)
