There is so much to do in Florida beyond riding rollercoasters and flopping on the beach. For a chance to stimulate your grey cells, why not take the opportunity to explore new cultures and immerse yourself in stage, screen, arts and aliens as you discover the wealth of cultural offerings around Orlando and Miami. Our following guide to what’s new in 2009 is just a small taste of what you could find to immerse yourself in this year:
Art Exhibitions
Crealde School of Art will start off 2009 with three new exhibitions, kicking off with “The Art of Fellowship,” featuring the works of emerging artists, from April 18, 2009. In March, you can catch a retrospective of Aroutiunian’s strange and interesting sculpture work under the title “Displacement: Sculpture and Installation by Gagik Aroutiunian,” starting from the 14th, or later on in the month, you can immerse yourself in “A Decade of Zora! Festival Posters,” which celebrates the 20th year of the area’s Zora Festival, starting from the 28th.
Maitland Art Center opens “The Art of Ganesh,” from 9th January to 22nd February, “The Seminoles, The Reeves Collection,” from 13th March to 26th April, “Florida Craftsmen,” from 15th May to 13th July, “Recent Acquisitions & Gifts,” from 20th July to 28th August, and “30/30, A Compact Juried Competition,” from 11th September to 25th October, so there is always an interesting exhibition running all through 2009, and well worth a look.
The Orlando Museum of Art has several new exhibits opening in 2009 including: “American Portraits and Landscapes,” which runs as a permanent exhibition throughout 2009; “Therman Statom: Stories of the New World,” from 10th January to 10th May, and “Jerry Pinkney: Aesop’s Fables and Other Tails,” from 9th May to 16th August, an engaging look at the morals and meanings behind some of Aesops most beloved children’s tales.
A new art space, The Gallery at Avalon Island, has also newly opened, featuring monthly art exhibits held on the third Thursday of each month. The gallery will also stage the Global Peace Film Festival and the Florida Film Festival in 2009 in its 80-seat movie theatre.
There are plenty of art exhibitions to see, and most of Orlando’s main galleries also house some fantastic permanent exhibitions.
Theatrical Productions
You may feel far from Broadway in Orlando, but you needn’t be, as the talented theatre group Broadway Across America’s Orlando contingent will be putting on some amazing performances in the spring, from March to June, including musical versions of Legally Blonde and Jersey Boys, the epic musical Stomp, and family favorite Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.
Mad Cow Theatre is an independent theatre company showing more contemporary performances, and will kick off its run in 2009 with “Eurydice,” from 23rd January to 22nd February, followed by “The Year of Magical Thinking,” and carrying on throughout the year with modern theatre and musicals such as “Amadeus,” “Fully Committed,”; “Forbidden Broadway: Greatest Hits Volume 1,” “I am My Own Wife,” and “Harvey,” taking you up to the end of August. Check before you go to see what’s on, or simply turn up and trust to chance, these will all be great plays performed by strong, independent casts with a fresh style of acting. “The Orlando Cabaret Festival,” will also be held here from 30th April to 10th May.
There are many stage theatres in Orlando and the surrounding area, including many small, independent production houses, so have a look around and find out what’s on near you.
Science and Technology
Bringing you and your family closer to the strange wonders of the underwater world, The Orlando Science Center’s new film, “Sea Monsters: A Prehistoric Adventure,” will be playing through Spring 2009. Taking in life-forms too odd to even be featured on the Discovery Channel, some of the oddest ocean-dwelling specimens found in our world, from the frightening, vicious, and remarkable, to the downright peculiar!
We may have caught a peek at a few images on the News, but now you can you’re your extra-terrestrial eye opened to so many more incredible images of worlds beyond our own humble blue planet, with the launch of the Kennedy Space Center’s “Eye on the Universe: The Hubble Space Telescope” exhibit, showing some powerful Hubble images of other planetary terrain, and exploring the science of deep space. Visitors can step into the universe and immerse themselves in the examination of ancient stars, nebulas and galaxies beyond our own…the truth is out there!
