New to You art show returns on Longboat Key

Residents donated art to All Angels Episcopal Church, where it will be sold throughout February.

By Nat Kaemmerer
| 1:15 p.m. January 20, 2022

Longboat Key
Neighbors

One person's donation is another person's new living room statement piece. That's what leaders at All Angels by the Sea Episcopal Church hope happens at the second annual New to You art show, which collects donated, secondhand art from Key residents to sell to others. The first art show did much better than the Rev. Dave Marshall expected, and this year is turning out to be the same.

"We have a village of items," Marshall said. "We were worried after the first run that people had given all the art they were going to give, but now we have 110 pieces."

Among the donations are a heavy rooster sculpture that Marshall said weighed more than 10 pounds, tiny, feather-light woven ducks and an octopus lamp. The pool of donors has increased this year; Marshall said about a third of donations came from non-parishioners and several people brought in multiple pieces at once. Interested buyers can visit the gallery during the week or come to a wine-and-cheese reception on Feb. 3.

Linn Torres did research on this heavy rooster sculpture and will post the details alongside it in the gallery.

"Our reception with Pam (Olin, a former Artist of the Month) did so well, we figured we had to do this again," Marshall said. "There's been so much art given by the residents of Longboat Key that we thought we had to have a party."

The goal is to raise at least $2,000 for Habitat for Humanity Manatee County, which will go towards the organization's faith home this year. It's an interfaith project that local churches undertake, and this year's home will go to a working mother who has a 20-year-old son who uses a wheelchair. It will be the first fully ADA-compliant Habitat for Humanity home in the area and will allow him to stay at home and take care of himself while his mom works. The family will choose a few pieces of art from All Angels to decorate their new home, and the pieces that don't sell will be donated to Mothers Helping Mothers' thrift store.

Tiny hand-woven ducks are among the donations.

"The spirit of unity moves through the community and even though it's many different pieces, it's bringing all of the community together to help someone else," Marshall said.