Sarasota Festival of the Arts serves up variety for attendees to browse

By Ian Swaby
| 9:50 p.m. February 28, 2026

Gideon Demetrious, 6, Hani Demetrious and Jude Demetrious, 10, look through a series of prints.

Sarasota
Neighbors

Sarasota's Rachel Wu creates ocean artwork using resin, but also local sand and local shells, through her business Crafted by Rachel.

For her, the Sarasota Festival of the Arts, held Feb. 28 to March 1, was a chance to get some attention on her work in the community as visitors browsed the various tents and their unique items on the first day of the event.

"I really enjoy doing Paragon's live Fine Art Show events," she said. "They've been really successful for me, and I'm local in Sarasota, so it's always a good time. I really enjoy the crowd that they draw."

Held by Paragon Festivals, the event showcased and sold the work of more than 70 artists from across the state and country.

Works on display included paintings, sculptures, jewelry, photography, glass, ceramics, fiber, metalwork, woodworking and other art forms.

Nancy Magee checks out some stained glass artwork.

Ryan Fowler and his girlfriend Courtney Dietch browse photographs.

Disha Webb, Julia Bernadsky, and Jonathan Pittman stand in the booth of Untamed Hearts, a jewelry company that Bernadsky, a Sarasota resident, founded to support Ukraine, her native country.

Karla Engel and her husband Fred Sowers discuss a piece of artwork.

Pebbles, a Great Dane, and his owners Jeff and Jill Tabak, take a walk through the festival.

The event featured a wide variety of art items, including crafts.

Dylan Pallas, husband of artist Morgan Pallas, takes their 3-year-old daughter, Celia, for a ride in a cart used to transport artwork.

Trees from Carol Gingrich Designs are on display.

Rachel Wu of Crafted by Rachel poses with her resin artwork.

Pamela Kurpiewski, Julie Irving and Benjamin Noto explore the artwork.

author

Ian Swaby

Ian Swaby is the Sarasota neighbors writer for the Observer. Ian is a Florida State University graduate of Editing, Writing, and Media and previously worked in the publishing industry in the Cayman Islands.