Sarasota Livin'

I attended the first annual New College Under the Radar arts series.

It was "cool" (actually the weather was perfect on the bay) what an interesting place. Here is the news article. It's great to see them trying to break the stereotype that the students are hippies ... except they are (it seems) and so what ... embrace what works.

Spotlighting the school's "underground" artists is not the only goal of the event, said co-organizer and student Heather Normandale.

"A lot of times students get trapped in this bubble; inside this happy world of New College," said Normandale, a 23-year-old senior whose band, Stone Soup, will be performing at the festival.

"I think it's important to be involved in the community that you're in," she said. "This festival is bridging something that needs to be bridged between the college and community."

Creating an event that would shatter the image of New College as being an island unto itself wasn't a hard sell for college president Gordon Michalson.

"We're sort of hidden away, but once people visit, it demystifies things," he said. "I think in the past, there has been this notion that New College is a hippie school ... but it's a progressive school."

Under the Radar is a result of the university's continued insistence on student initiative, cooperation and creative expression, Michalson said.

"It's an outgrowth of New College's emphasis on students' having to assume responsibility for their education," he said. "We don't have a football team, so all we've got to do is kick ideas around."

We saw some really good art and heard great music. I didn't get to see Stone Soup again but "Good Greaff" really had a sound that gets under your skin. Too hard to classify but I like it.

New College / USF is a real neighborhood that is an important part of Sarasota. Maybe we are a "University City" maybe we are a "Cultural City" but we have lots of both and we should embrace both and the cross pollination we get from that.