SARASOTA – “I know that our community is better than this, and I want us to strive to be better than this,” said Executive Director of Embracing Our Differences, Sarah Wertheimer.
One out of 50 pieces of art work on display at Sarasota’s Bayfront Park was vandalized this week
“I was saddened to see that there was what looked like a knife mark going through the entire bottom of the banner. They actually took the knife back and went through the quotation of the artwork again, so it was definitely intentional which was the most disheartening,” said Wertheimer.
The piece vandalized, named “Colors of Change” shows a woman holding up a peace sign
“And she has a mask on and the mask has all different words, that are words of 2020, words of change, words of hope, but also words of frustration, and the quotation that is paired with this piece of artwork is talking about ending the pandemic of racism, discrimination and prejudice and that was what was more upsetting to me,” said Wertheimer.
Wertheimer says over the 18 years of the exhibit being on display at the park, this is the first time something like this has happened.
“We really do not have a way of finding out who it was unless of course someone saw someone in the act but we’re guessing it could have been done at night, there really is no way of knowing,” said Wertheimer.
Embracing our Differences is an arts and education non-profit based in Sarasota County working primarily with students and teachers on the Suncoast.
“And our entire goal and mission is to teach kids the importance of treating one another with kindness and respect, compassion, empathy so for something like this to happen going against everything we believe in, and everything we’re trying to promote was just very very upsetting,” said Wertheimer.
Wertheimer says the piece will need to be completely replaced. It should up sometime next week.
Anyone with information is asked to reach out to Embracing our Differences at 941-404-5710.
The Embracing Our Differences Exhibit has been on display since January 20th, and will run through April 1st at Sarasota’s Bayfront Park.