Spring and Summer Naples Style

Claudia Polzin
Consultant to Nonprofits

The other day on the news I heard a newscaster say, “Hurricane season is right around the corner and could be as dangerous as the 2017 season.” My brain asks, “Really? You have to start that now when we still have roofs covered with tarps and people without homes?” So before we head into the official beginning of hurricane season in June, let’s enjoy May in Naples.

As we noted in the April edition, the festival Stay in May, unique to Naples, began in April and will continue through May 12. We will bring the arts to you. During the past six years, the festival organizers have looked at what the audience wants in this time frame and have planned a festival to meet those entertainment desires.

May 1 – enjoy a Moroccan Evening at Sur La Table with artist Cynthia Adams. You will assist in the preparation of the traditional Moroccan meal, while Cynthia paints and talks to you about her adventures in Morocco. The following evening be sure to explore the Art Alive adventure in the Naples art district, with 60-plus galleries located off Shirley Street in North Naples. Visit many of them, enjoy some great dessert treats and register to win tickets to festival events.

One of the interesting things organizers of the festival discovered was that there is a great love of jazz in the year round audience, so a great array of jazz is available to you all at very reasonable ticket prices. Explore their website and find all of the great jazz offerings.

May 4 at the South Regional Branch of the Collier County Library system is “Jazz from New Orleans to New York.” What a great trip with jazz greats Dan Miller, Lew Del Gatto and others. The jazz stylings across our country have evolved and are very different. On this evening, you will get to explore many of them in a friendly setting.

Enjoy a real treat for jazz audiences May 7 when jazz trombonist, Wycliffe Gordon, makes a stop in Naples to perform at the North Naples Church on Goodlette. He is an entertainer and musician you don’t want to miss.
If you have never traveled to the Marco Island Historical Society, this is a good year you for making the trip due to lighter traffic. The Rose Auditorium is a great room to enjoy big band music and see the extraordinary Malenda Trick paint a wonderful art deco work that someone will be able to purchase to benefit the Historical Society.

Two of the last events are fast becoming festival goer favorites. The Organ Crawl on May 10 with host Michael Barone (APM Pipedreams) exploring three of the largest pipe organs in our community: First Presbyterian Church, Moorings Presbyterian and Vanderbilt Presbyterian.

The final evening of the festival is at the Naples Zoo, featuring One Night in Memphis, the famous Golden Quartet. Enjoy the 1950s all over again – on December 4, 1956 four of the biggest names in rock ‘n roll history – Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis and Johnny Cash – met for one impromptu jam session in Memphis.

Prepare to enjoy all of the wonderful art galleries in Naples during June and July; this is a great time to explore the variety of galleries in our region. Beginning at the north end of Naples with the Naples Art District, moving down to Fifth Avenue and Third Street, exploring the Naples Art Association, then moving over to Marco Island and the Marco Island Art Association, now that spring is over and summer is upon us, it is the ideal time to enjoy the art Naples has to offer.