We're calling this week's cover story the Spring Arts Preview, though of course spring seems far off. And when it does arrive, will we know? I ask as a Florida newbie: I'm assuming that the seasonal shift will be more gradual than what I was used to up north, just as the onset of winter here has felt more like a long, extended, beautiful fall day than a brutal descent into the nether regions of the Fahrenheit scale.
We could argue that the Spring 2005 season officially kicks off with Gasparilla – it's nothing if not theatrical – and that's why we're doing an arts preview on Jan. 26. But really, we do two arts preview issues a year because, well, there's too much going on in a whole year of arts events to pack them all into one issue.
As usual, we've asked our critics to choose – to pick from everything happening in the next four months and tell our readers what shows to watch for in theater, dance, music, film and visual art. And, in conjunction with all this futurecasting, we're looking even further ahead. In Allyson Gonzales' feature story, we follow executives from three of the region's top performing arts centers to a conference in New York City, where many of the deals get made for what we'll see in arts seasons for 2006, 2007 and beyond.
We hope they chose wisely. Now it's your turn.
This article appears in Jan 26 – Feb 1, 2005.