The BloodMobile parked at the entrance to Tom Varn Park and the signs stating “Urgent need for blood” was somber reminders that the 36th Annual Art in the Park sponsored by the Hernando County Fine Arts Council was much different from ones in the past. The popular event took place on March 14 and 15, 2020.
By MEGAN HUSSEY
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When the Nature Coast Art League appears at the Hernando County Fine Arts Council's “Art in the Park,” Saturday, March 14th, and Sunday, March 15th, at Tom Varn Park in Brooksville, the league will bring a beautiful, large-scale art display; hundreds of dollars in prize money for student artists; and the spirit of a member who--even in death--continues to help and inspire through her art.
By Megan Hussey
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For 37 years, the Hernando Symphony Orchestra has brought an exquisite variety of live popular music to the people of Hernando County. And with the help of a $300 Community Arts Grant from the Hernando County Fine Arts Council (https://www.hernandoarts.org/community-arts-grants), they are one step--and one note--closer to finding a permanent home.
by SARAH NACHIN
On Sunday, March 1, Temple Beth David in Spring Hill hosted its fifth annual Nature Coast Art Show. The event featured twenty-one exhibitors and a wide variety of genres, including watercolors, ceramics, sculpture, fabric crafts, jewelry and illustration.
By MEGAN HUSSEY
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An ethereal mermaid floats gracefully in the sea, holding a bowl of tangerines as she gestures lithely toward signposts leading the way to five Hernando communities. This portrait, Weeki Wachee Mermaid, captures life in Hernando County--and has been named the inaugural winner of the Hernando County Fine Arts Council Art in the Park Artist Contest.
As a retired school band director with 40 years of experience in the Chicago suburban area and a performer in the Suncoast Symphony Orchestra and Nature Coast Concert Band, Weeki Wachee resident Mark Hengesh had a single goal in mind: to bring the music home.
"You might have to go as far as Clearwater and Crystal River to find a community concert band," said Hengesh. "There was no concert band in Hernando."
By MEGAN HUSSEY
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They are nearly 50 in number, both male and female, ranging in age from 11 to 90 and hailing from Hernando, Pasco and Citrus counties. They come to the community with only one mission in mind: To entertain those who listen with the time-honored magic of barbershop music. They are the Hernando Harmonizers.
As a student in Esprit Herbert's improv class at Live Oak Conservatory, 15-year-old Christopher Alexander feels that he has learned a lot more than acting skills from his experience in the class, which teaches the art of improv; a dramatic artform described in a Live Oak press release as "the activity of making or doing something not planned beforehand, using whatever can be found. Improvisation in the performing arts is a very spontaneous performance without specific or scripted preparation."
As the year draws to a close, many Hernando schools are singing the praises of their band programs--all of whom played, marched and sang their way to an impressive collection of awards and honors in a myriad of competitions.
At Weeki Wachee High School, the Sound of the Hornets band won first place in division 2A, second place overall, and best color guard at the Panther Pride Invitational Marching Band Festival.
