Culture of Sarasota

In 2010, the Sarasota Chalk Festival that is held yearly in the historic area of Burns Square became the first international street painting festival in the United States of America. Celebrating the sixteenth century performance art of Italian street painting, the festival hosted Maestro Madonnaro Edgar Mueller from Germany, who created the first street painting that changed images from day to night. On the weekend, hundreds of children participate in the festival right alongside of the internationally famous street painters. The 2013 festival was extended north intermittently beyond Burns Square along Pineapple Avenue to the area of Five Points Park beyond Main Street, but traffic will continue to flow through the roundabouts at Ringling and Main. The festival has a different theme each year and has introduced new techniques in street art. Other applications of street art such as murals and "cellograff graffiti" have become companion events also produced by Avenida de Colores, Inc. The murals are the only street art forms performed that are not ephemeral, many of their sponsors are committed to preserving them. The murals are part of the "Going Vertical" project and although it sometimes coincides with the chalk festival, it is distinct from it and often continues throughout the year. Except for a few commissioned on public property in the Palm Avenue Parking Garage, the murals are located on private property and they are located in many sections of Sarasota and in Manatee County as well. Tours and maps are being developed.

Sarasota is home to Mote Marine Laboratory, a marine rescue, research facility, and aquarium; Marie Selby Botanical Gardens; G-Wiz Museum; and Sarasota Jungle Gardens, which carries on early tourist attraction traditions. It also has many historic sites and neighborhoods.