We Are SPARC!

SPARC352 to host free community event celebrating creativity and arts

GAINESVILLE, Fla., May 16, 2022 – The SPARC352 Initiative is thrilled to announce the "We Are SPARC!" event taking place Saturday, May 21 from 4:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m. at the Rosa B. Williams Center: 524 NW 1st St, Gainesville, FL 32601.

The event will feature performances by Alachua County, Florida’s Poet Laureate and the Founder/Director of ARTSPEAKSgnv Inc., E. Stanley Richardson, spoken word artist and UF Center for Arts in Medicine Lecturer, Alana Jackson, and a participatory arts experience facilitated by Founding Executive Director of Star Center Theatre, Rhonda Wilson.

The event also includes hands-on art making for all ages and additional live entertainment from local storytellers and artists! This fun, family-friendly gathering offers an opportunity to connect with neighbors in the community, meet the SPARC352 team, and contribute to a work of art that will not only be featured at future SPARC352 events, but will bond the community together in our shared vision for a better Gainesville.

We Are SPARC! is free and open to the public, and an opportunity for attendees to learn about and get involved in SPARC352! The evening will be an active representation of SPARC352’s desire to engage in art making as a form of reconciliation. Make your way to We Are SPARC! at the Rosa B. Williams Center on Saturday, May 21 at 4:00pm, and let’s move one step closer to creating the Gainesville that we want to see!

For more information about SPARC352 or the event, contact SPARC352@arts.ufl.edu or visit www.arts.ufl.edu/sites/sparc352/overview/

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SPARC352 is rooted in creating a safe space for People, Arts, Research, and Creative Collaboration in the community. In association with local artists, entrepreneurs and activators, the city of Gainesville, and UF’s Center for Arts in Medicine, Center for Arts, Migration, and Entrepreneurship, and UF Health Shands Arts in Medicine, SPARC352 hopes to heal the well-known cultural divide between UF, local officials, and the city’s historic, Black community.

After many years of this thriving community’s demand to be seen and heard, this collaborative partnership aims to join in the work to unite the people of Gainesville. SPARC352 will hold events throughout the year that offer resources that promote personal and professional advancement, as well as provide exposure to the city’s wealth of local artistry to the citizens of Gainesville.

SPARC352 aims to call in our community by making safe spaces to engage in honest conversations about the historic hurt that has been ignored for far too long. 

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