artsHOP

THIRD ANNUAL artsHOP GALLERY WALK TO BE HELD ON FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2009
Anna Maria Island's winter season kicks off with the third annual artsHOP Gallery Walk on Friday, November 13 from 5-9 PM. Eight of the Island's art galleries and numerous other businesses will be in party mode that evening to welcome visitors with an appetite for local original art and fine food.

Come for the art, stay for dinner!
Each gallery will host an open house with complimentary refreshments and features such as live music, art demonstrations and prizes. Start at any participating gallery to pick up an artsHOP "passport" which maps out the artsHOP galleries on Anna Maria Island. Visitors who get their passport stamped at six or more of the eight artsHOP galleries will win a valuable coupon worth 20 percent off dinner at any one of the three popular local Chiles Restaurants, The Sandbar, Beach House or Mar Vista. Additionally qualifying visitors will be eligible for a $150-value arts supply basket courtesy of Keeton's Art Supply of Bradenton, FL -- just by turning in their stamped passport to one of the eight galleries before 8:45 p.m.

Friday evening's festivities also include a performance at the Island Players theater, a one-woman show: Kelly Wynn Woodland in "The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe."

More artsHOP weekend
The artsHOP weekend continues on Saturday, November 14 with an arts and crafts festival at Holmes Beach City Hall Field, a palm frond weaving demonstration and Jail House Rock Sock Hop at the Anna Maria Island Historical Society Museum, another performance of the Island Players' "The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe" and a drum circle on Manatee Public Beach. On Sunday, November 15, the weekend concludes with a second day of the Holmes Beach arts and crafts festival, a performance by the Anna Maria Island Community Chorus and Orchestra and a silent auction of locally hand-painted doors. Proceeds from the doors auction will benefit the Manatee Players Building Fund and Cultural Connections.

ArtsHOP is presented by Cultural Connections (http://www.culturalconnections.info/), a coalition of Anna Maria Island's nine cultural venues with a shared mission to promote Anna Maria Island as a cultural destination. For further information on artsHOP 2009, visit www.islandartshop.com which will be regularly updated through artsHOP weekend.