MICHAEL SAUNDERS

Some projects are about more than deliverables. This was one of them.

Michael Saunders & Company, one of the Gulf Coast's most respected real estate brokerages celebrating its 50th anniversary, wanted to honor the city they have called home for decades. The vision was a public installation telling the story of the Sarasota Artist Colony of 1945 to 1965, the era that gave Sarasota its identity as a serious arts destination and put it on the national map.

We partnered with Tim Jaeger, Director and Chief Curator at Ringling College of Art and Design, to bring that story to life on film. The documentary traces the full arc of a remarkable creative era. WWII veterans arriving on the GI Bill. A post-war art school boom that grew to thirteen schools serving an estimated 1,500 aspiring artists by 1956. The founding of the Sarasota Art Association. The rise of the Petticoat Painters. The artists who chose Sarasota not just as a place to work but a place to build a life.

The film was produced specifically to accompany a public mural wall installation at Michael Saunders & Company's downtown headquarters at 1605 Main Street, where it played alongside archival photography, historical timelines, and artwork from the period. The full experience, including the video, lives online at sarasotalegacy.art.

For a company celebrating 50 years in a city with this kind of creative legacy, it was exactly the right story to tell. We were proud to help tell it.