Sarasota, Manatee program uses art to teach diversity

SARASOTA, Fla. - A Bay Area organization is using the transformational power of art and education to promote cultural diversity. 

The workshops in Manatee and Sarasota counties teach the importance of using art to learn about human diversities. 

"The wonderful thing about art is it speaks to individuals on multiple levels and it allows for a discourse and a debate over different viewpoints because art can mean something to anyone," said Ben Jewell-Plocher, executive director of Embracing Our Differences. "Engaging our community in multiple forms, not only outside in the community in a beautiful public park in downtown Sarasota, but also within our schools by working directly with educators this past year, we were able to provide programming for embracing our differences, experiences, for over 40,000 students across the globe."

The not-for-profit has sponsored a billboard-size art exhibit in Sarasota Bayfront Park for 19 years.

"By looking at a piece of art and talking about it as a group and seeing what each other thinks, because all those thoughts are based on our lived experiences, we not only learn about each other, but we can learn about how to better embrace each other and create a sense of belonging and inclusion in our community," said Plocher. 

The initiative started after a traveling art exhibit from the Museum on the Seam in Jerusalem, Palestine was brought to the area by the Holocaust Museum in St. Pete. 

"And after it was here, some philanthropists in the area said, ‘We want to see this happen in our community every year,’ and they had their first exhibit and had about a hundred entries and now we just had our 19th annual exhibit and we had over 15,000 entries from around the world," Plocher said.