“An Encore with Patti Smith Dedicated to Georgia O’Keeffe”
Scheduled for February 15, 2024
January 3, 2024 | Sarasota, FL. – Global icon and Artist in Residence at Selby Gardens, Patti Smith returns with a special encore performance at the Downtown Sarasota campus on February 15, 2024, at 7:00 p.m.
The one-hour performance, An Encore with Patti Smith Dedicated to Georgia O’Keeffe, commemorates Selby Gardens’ eighth iteration of the 2024 Jean and Alfred Goldstein Exhibition, Yayoi Kusama: A Letter to Georgia O’Keeffe, on view February 11 through June 30, 2024.
Advance tickets for Selby Gardens Members will go on sale Thursday, January 18. The remaining tickets will go on sale to the general public on Friday, January 19, and can be purchased at selby.org
This is Smith’s fourth visit to Selby Gardens. Her visits have combined public activities such as readings and performances with private time drawing creative inspiration from the organization’s two bayfront campuses and world-renowned collections. In addition, Smith’s iconic voice will also be heard at the soon-to-open Welcome Center, a key element of Selby Gardens’ Master Plan, where she narrates a visitor orientation video in the new Theater. Phase One of Selby Gardens’ transformational downtown campus opens to the public on January 11, 2024.
Jennifer Rominiecki, president and CEO of Marie Selby Botanical Gardens stated, “We are honored to have Artist in Residence Patti Smith return to Selby Gardens for a fourth visit. Her performances have been inspiring, magical, and in demand. This is a testament to the profound and vivid artistry Patti’s performances bring to Selby Gardens, which resonates with our organization on many levels as we continue to develop interdisciplinary programming.”
Smith’s blossoming relationship with Selby Gardens stems from the Gardens’ 2022 Jean & Alfred Goldstein Exhibition, Robert Mapplethorpe and Patti Smith: Flowers, Poetry, and Light. The show explored Mapplethorpe’s flower photography and Smith’s lyrics and poetry about flowers and nature, in dialogue with original horticultural installations inspired by their art.
Smith first visited Selby Gardens in February 2022 to tour Flowers, Poetry, and Light and perform songs and readings she selected to complement the exhibition. She called the interdisciplinary show “a beguiling exhibition” and said she “was very moved to be asked to be a part of it.” Smith returned in April 2022 for a second live performance, at which the new residency was announced. In November of 2023, Smith returned with An Evening with Patti Smith Dedicated to Georgia O’Keeffe, as a prelude to the Jean & Alfred Goldstein Exhibition, Yayoi Kusama: A Letter to Georgia O’Keeffe.
Smith’s visits and performances to date have been sponsored by Selby Gardens Trustee Marianne McComb and her husband, William.