For a generation or more, freedom-seeking people built lives in hamlets from the Manatee River to Sarasota Bay. From Legend to History traces the research process, shows the archaeological and archival evidence, and seeks to inspire hope from unsettled times.

Since Neolithic times, craftspeople across East Asia have used the sap of the lacquer tree to coat and bond together wood, bamboo, textiles, and ceramics to make articles for daily and ritual use. Since the late 1980s, a small circle of lacquer artists have pushed the medium in entirely new and dynamic directions.

Located in the Pavilion Gallery, Ting Tsung and Wei Fong Chao Center for Asian Art, this double-bill exhibition features modern and contemporary works on paper, glass, and ceramic sculpture from The Ringling and private collections.

Dancer/choreographer Rhodnie Désir explores the dances and rhythms that enslaved people produced, understanding these dances as a means of surviving enslavement, evading cultural genocide, and cultivating strategies that would lead to liberty and emancipation.

Tampa-based Ya Levy La’ford’s art practice explores journeys, pathways, space, and the metaphysical complexities therein. La’ford’s work seeks to communicate humanity’s unseen experiences within the intricacies of geometric laden layers united through interconnecting lines.