The Beacon 2025 · Dec 31
Erica Sutherlin
Artistic executive director of The Studio@620, nominated by multiple people for the same reason: she shows up.
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Orange Blossom Awards 2026 · Nominations openEvery December, we spend a month on the people Tampa Bay's arts scene runs on — the ones who book the rooms, fix the mics, write the grants and say yes when it would be easier not to. Tell us who should be next.
Why we do thisThe arts don't run on headliners. They run on the people behind them.
Awards usually go to the names on the marquee. But every show that opens, every gallery that hangs a new wall and every festival that pulls it off depends on someone who rarely gets thanked in public: the volunteer coordinator, the board treasurer, the stage manager, the teacher who keeps a program alive on a shoestring.
We started the Orange Blossoms in 2025 to tell those stories, because a healthy arts scene needs its quiet builders as much as its stars. Recognition costs nothing, and it reminds all of us who to thank, who to support, and who to follow.
How it worksNominate.
Tell us who and why, in your own words. Anyone can nominate anyone. No applications, no campaigning, no gala tickets.
We report.
Our team reads every nomination, does the reporting, and picks the honorees. More nominations don't mean better odds — better reasons do.
December.
A new honoree every day in December, ending Dec 31 with The Beacon: one person who pushed the whole field forward.
NominateNominate someone
The best nominations are specific. Skip the résumé — tell us what they did this year, who it helped, and what would have happened if they hadn't.
2025 in reviewThe class of 2025
Last December we handed out 30 Orange Blossoms — to a production photographer, a book-club coordinator, a museum that reopened, a coalition of theaters, a team that tiled 175 feet of downtown, and the grant writers who survived a very bad year. Here's who, and why.
Dec 2
Four theaters backing Dunedin Public Theater
Orange Blossom Award: The Quiet Coalition Behind a Theater Dream
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Dec 4
Fran Powers, Powerstories Theatre
Orange Blossom Award: The Keeper of Women’s Stories
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Dec 5
Margaret Murray, Creative Pinellas
Orange Blossom Award: The Leader Who Let Herself Feel — and Then Got to Work
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Dec 7
José Avilés
Orange Blossom Award: The Educator Who Rebuilt the Room While Standing In It
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Dec 8
Julia Rifino
Orange Blossom Award: The Year Julia Rifino Climbed a Musical Mountain
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Dec 9
Terri Lipsey Scott, Woodson African American Museum of Florida
Orange Blossom Award: The First Phone Call Everyone Makes
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Dec 16
Darcy Schuller, Museum of Fine Arts, St. Pete
Orange Blossom Award: Darcy Schuller, Building What Lasts
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Dec 17
Freddie Hughes, The Studio@620
Orange Blossom Award: Freddie Hughes, Building Where Art Can Breathe
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Dec 19
The Sapphic Sun
Orange Blossom Award: The Sapphic Sun, and Starting Something New
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Dec 21
Alex Kaufman, George Retkes and Miss Crit
Orange Blossom Award: The Sunshine City Mosaic Team
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Dec 22
The Good Peaches (American Stage, The Florida Orchestra, projectALCHEMY)
Orange Blossom Award: The Good Peaches
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Dec 23
Florida Freedom to Read Project
Orange Blossom Award: Florida Freedom to Read Project
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Dec 25
Adam and Natalie Bounds, David DiGioacchino
Orange Blossom Award: The Ones Who Held the Net
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Dec 26
Florida Holocaust Museum
Orange Blossom Award: Keeping the Light On, Florida Holocaust Museum
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Dec 28
Naomi Ardjomand-Kermani, Hypatia Collaborative
Orange Blossom Award: The Work That Makes the Work Possible
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Dec 29
Tracy Kennard, City of St. Petersburg
Orange Blossom Award: Tracy Kennard, How the Arts Actually Happen
Read the storyA month-long series from The Arts Passport celebrating the people and organizations whose quiet, steady work strengthens Tampa Bay's arts ecosystem. No applications. No campaigning. Just community-driven recognition, released daily in December.