Embracing Our Differences in Southwest Florida holds annual outdoor exhibitions that are at the heart of a year-round program of activities designed to use art as a catalyst to create awareness and promote inclusion, kindness, and respect.
Mission & Vision
Through the transformative power of the arts, we educate and inspire to create a better world. We envision a world that embraces and respects differences and actively rejects hatred and prejudice.
Embracing Our Differences (EOD) is a nonprofit organization based in Southwest Florida that uses the power of art and education to celebrate and promote our individuality and common humanity. We accomplish this through an annual, large-scale, juried exhibition and a comprehensive series of educational initiatives, programs, and resources designed for educators and students.
History
The EOD exhibition began in 2004 as a traveling art exhibit and has now grown into an annual exhibition with locations in Sarasota and St. Petersburg. The exhibition features 50 billboard-sized artworks and quotations created by local, national, and international artists and writers based on our theme “embracing our differences.” To date, the exhibition has been experienced by more than 4.8 million visitors.
Community leaders Dennis McGillicuddy, Carroll Buchanan and Michael Shelton obtained nonprofit status for the organization. The first Embracing Our Differences (EOD) exhibition featuring art submitted by 124 regional artists was held in Bayfront Park. National submissions were accepted for the first time with more than 1,000 entries from 12 states. 100,000 community members and 2,000 students visited the exhibit.
The 2024 Exhibition had an impressive response to the call for artwork and quotations, with 16,604 entries pouring in from 125 countries and 44 states. Students from 584 schools around the world submitted artwork or quotations to the juried exhibit and more than 65% of submissions were from students.
EOD’s education programming is an integral part of our organization. Centered around visual art, literacy, empathy building, and creative writing, our education programming promotes creativity and exploration while developing the skills to analyze and think critically about art.
Link to an overview of the exhibition: https://youtu.be/G1UChLN-vt
Activities
Our year-round education initiatives represent the most important aspect of our efforts – reaching and impacting the lives of thousands of students and educators locally and around the world. Since 2004, more than 642,000 students have participated including 55,357 students and 2,048 educators during the 2023-2024 school year alone.
In addition to exhibition field trips, reading days, and service-learning clubs, Embracing Our Differences initiatives include workshops by nationally recognized educators and lesson plans connected to art appreciation and character building. All lesson plans are created under the supervision of Sarasota County Schools and School District of Manatee County curriculum teams and fully incorporate Florida State Standards.
Specific programs include:
- Annual international art exhibition in Florida’s Cultural Coast at Sarasota’s Bayfront Park and St. Petersburg’s Poynter Park. The juried exhibition consists of 50 billboard-sized works of art, each accompanied by a thought-provoking quotation.
The winning artworks combine a deep understanding of both medium and message. Our art review task force votes on the visual art awards, and the quotation selection committee votes on the quotation awards. They are both groups of approximately 25-30 volunteers. Awards are given for “Best-in-Show Adult,” “Best-in-Show Student,” and “People’s Choice” categories, with the last chosen by visitors to the exhibit. Adult winners each receive $2,000; students receive $2,000 to be split with their school’s art or writing program.
The statements accompanying each artwork are also vital and provide insight into our common humanity—as well as the differences that make us all unique. The artwork and quotations are separate competitions, judged blindly by separate volunteer committees, and matched together for this exhibition. In 2024, 422,576 people visited the exhibition—bringing the total amount of visitors to more than 4.8 million since 2004.
- Exhibition Field Trips: EOD provides transportation free of charge for classrooms to take tours of the exhibition; student docents are available, or tours may be self-guided. We also offer on-demand and live-virtual options for those who are unable to visit the exhibition in person. Through peer-guided conversations with high school aged docents utilizing Visual Thinking Strategies pedagogy, exhibition tours embrace kindness and inclusion while providing connections to art education and curriculum engagement through student-driven exploration.
- Make-A-Day of It!: Classrooms who visit the exhibition are offered the opportunity to visit one of our partner arts organization on a second field trip.
- Coexistence Clubs: These student-driven service clubs help high school students build their art knowledge and leadership skills by acting as guides to the exhibition for younger students at the park.
- Lesson Plans: To further deepen the exhibition experience, lesson plans featuring the year’s current artwork and quotations are available at no cost for educators via our website. Lesson plans are created by local teachers and are linked to the Florida Standards.
- Art Intensive Workshop: In partnership with the Sarasota Art Museum of Ringling College of Art + Design, this training is designed to expose educators to new teaching practices and art techniques, encouraging them to learn new ideas they can pass on to their students.
- Artwork and Quotation Creation: Each year, thousands of students create artworks and quotations for submission to the exhibition. Facilitated by educators, the focus of these lessons is on the creative process and self-expression. The selections of artwork and quotations happen simultaneously and then we match them together at the very end.
Examples:
“Just because people are different doesn’t mean you can’t be their friend.”
“Society tells us how to ‘act,’ ‘exist’ and ‘be.’ We must learn for ourselves how to ‘interact,’ ‘coexist’ and ‘become.’
Learning is Delicious
Riley Manifesting
- Education Ambassadors: Each school year, cohorts of educators and administrators from Manatee and Sarasota Counties participate in a yearlong program focused on fostering resilience, kindness, and respect within learning communities in innovative ways. While completing over eleven hours of professional development, participants work with ‘students on projects that highlight Embracing Our Differences” core values.
- Examples of Education Ambassador projects: classroom cookbooks highlighting the students’ individual cultures and traditions; kindness rock gardens; unity pathways within their schools; EOD quotations painted throughout the school; “Chalk Talk” – students were responsible for sharing inspirational quotations on a chalkboard hung in the school lobby to generate reflection and conversation.
- Bucket Fillers Reading Day: Using the concept of an invisible bucket to encourage positive behavior, the Bucket Fillers’ book series teaches children how to “fill buckets” through acts of kindness, love, and appreciation for others. EOD provides books to each participating student and classroom. Pre-K through third grade educators have the option of selecting an in-person volunteer reader or a pre-recorded webisode featuring local arts organizations and author, Carol McCloud, for their classroom.
- Embracing Our Differences Reading Day: In partnership with Suncoast Campaign for Grade-Level Reading, Embracing Our Differences Reading Day celebrates literacy through a wide variety of books for pre-K through third grade students. These age-appropriate stories focus on themes of acceptance and belonging. Educators select either an in-person volunteer reader or an on-demand video read along, and all students and classes are provided with activity videos and their own copy of the selected book.
Audiences served
Our year-round education initiatives represent the most important aspect of our efforts – reaching and impacting the lives of thousands of students and educators locally and around the world.
Since 2004, more than 642,000 public, private, and charter school K-12 students, including more than 55,000 students during the 2023-2024 school year, have participated in EOD education programming. Many of the students that participate in our programming attend Title I schools.
In 2023-2024, 2,048 educators participated.
In addition, more than 4.8 million people have viewed EOD exhibitions, including more than 420,000 in 2024. As an organization that presents an outdoor exhibition that is free to the public, we serve the entire community, as well as tourists from around the state, country, and world.
Impact
Students
Students who participate in art education experience a variety of benefits, including development of motor, language, and social skills, decision-making, problem-solving, and creative thinking. They can express themselves through creating and connecting with art which helps with focus and emotional regulation.
Embracing Our Differences the exhibition as a tool to teach students about self-expression and art analysis. We provide comprehensive art appreciation and resiliency education to help students understand and recognize the value of having different perspectives and accepting others. Each child visiting the exhibition and participating in our programming is provided the opportunity to gain valuable cultural awareness, to learn techniques for analyzing and critically thinking about art, and to build their interpersonal skills.
Educators
Our resources are provided to educators free of charge, and we pay stipends for educators who participate in our workshops, allowing them to use their resources elsewhere. With 55,357 students and 2,047 educators participating in our programming during the 2023-2024 school year, we continue to lead as one of the largest education outreach programs in Southwest Florida. Educators have consistently rated our programming as highly engaging for their students via post-event surveys. In addition, teachers have widely reported that our educational materials significantly benefit their students. Specifically:
- Teachers rated the overall Embracing Our Differences field trip educational experience as 4.4 out of 5 stars, and
- 99% of teachers felt the educator lesson plans provided on the Embracing Our Differences website were meaningful and beneficial tools.
“I love listening to my students discuss and talk about the art. I love that it helps my class to be more accepting of others. Thank you for this opportunity and thank you for helping our students embrace our differences.” Middle School Teacher
Community
The exhibition is at the heart of our programming and our community. The theme of the exhibition is intentionally broad so that the artwork and quotations reflect what artists and writers within our community and beyond are feeling toward many current issues. The exhibition adds to the cultural landscape of the community and provides opportunities for residents and visitors to engage with artistic expression free of charge.
The goal of the exhibit is to educate, challenge viewpoints, and promote acceptance of diverse perspectives. By empowering and uplifting marginalized voices, the exhibition draws attention to their achievements and can become a safe space for members of those groups. The 2024 exhibitions attracted 422,576 total visitors. Our 2024 survey results indicate that 99% of visitors felt that the exhibition was a meaningful artistic/cultural experience with 79% strongly agreeing and 20% agreeing. Tourists are encouraged to return to Sarasota and St. Pete after visiting our exhibit and seeing these communities as welcoming, diverse, and inclusive with unique arts experiences. 
Recommendations for Replication and/or Adaptation
Embracing Our Differences has proved to be a wonderful model that acknowledges and values the differences that make each person unique and that diversity can build a better and more inclusive world. Our exhibition, logo, name, etc.. is all trademarked and licensed, and we are currently licensing the exhibition to Embracing Our Differences affiliates in other states We have a brand-book, style guide, and a ton of resources to ensure that everything is done in compliance with our guidelines and does not negatively impact our brand.
Many of our education resources are available online. Lesson plans are posted on our website. Link for lesson plans: https://www.embracingourdifferences.org/Lesson-Plans-listing/ If you are interested in signing up your classroom for a virtual tour of the exhibition, please visit: https://www.embracingourdifferences.org/exhibition-field-trips/
Each year we get many requests from visitors to the exhibition who are interested in bringing the exhibition to their community. We currently offer an affiliate program for interested communities to receive best practices, brand books, and other information that allows them to display the exhibition in their city. Once the exhibition has been established, education programs can be added, beginning with field trips to the exhibition. For information about our affiliate program, please contact Christina Fraser (contact information below).
Contact Information
Website: https://www.embracingourdifferences.org/
Sarah Wertheimer, she/her, President & CEO
(941) 404-5710
sarah@embracingourdifferences.org
Patrick Arthur Jackson, he/they, Vice President, Learning & Engagement
patrick@embracingourdifferences.org
Christina Fraser, she/her
Vice President, Operations
christina@embracingourdifferences.org