ABOVE: Eve Burchert, photo by Matthew Dalton and Adam Misiti.
Senior Friendship Centers has worked to meet the needs of Sarasota’s aging adults for nearly five decades, offering services to enhance the quality of life for those 50 and over.
Their efforts have long extended to the area’s thriving LGBTQ community, something strengthened in recent years by Director of Community Outreach Robert Rogers. He first joined the organization as a volunteer, driven by his longtime commitment to the LGBTQ community of which he’s a part.
“I’ve always embraced, supported and advocated for the LGBTQ community as a whole, but I quickly deduced that elders were getting lost in the equation,” Rogers says. “There weren’t really specific resources for older members in our community.”
Both he and the Senior Friendship Centers sought to change that, with the latter employing Rogers to grow their outreach. “I set about doing that with the intention of expanding services and programming for the LGBTQ community,” he says, “and elders in Sarasota reached out to give me the inspiration to prioritize that.”
Those elders had recently lost their partners, leading him to create the nonprofit’s LGBTQ-focused grief and loss support groups in 2016. Meetings continue today and provide a safe space for LGBTQ adults to share their experiences.
“I set out to in earnest to build this substantive, consistent resource for older adults in the LGBTQ community and here we are,” Rogers says. “I’m five years into the work and it’s grown organically.”
That includes through community partnerships. Rogers partnered with Sarasota’s Ringling College of Art + Design – which touts diversity and inclusion among its core principals – to facilitate intergenerational exchanges between LGBTQ youth and elders.
Those conversations evolved into a documentary, set to premiere this Fall. The onset of COVID-19 altered both its trajectory and that of the Senior Friendship Centers’ programming, however, forcing meetings to transition to virtual gatherings.
While that allowed for widespread participation, which he calls a silver lining, he notes that in-person meetings foster a different sort of trust between participants.
“It’s a very different thing to be able to hug one another,” he says. “That really contributes to our well-being. That’s a void that was not filled.”
That isolation is what inspired Rogers’ latest collaboration with Ringling, “The Edge Becomes the Center: A Contemplation on Community.” On view virtually and in-person at the free Community Gallery at the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art until April 30, the exhibit features five photographs of LGBTQ adults, safely captured in their homes during the pandemic.
“As we slipped into quarantine and away from one another, I decided to put something together that could hopefully bring us back together,” Rogers says. “It grew into this exhibit out of the shared experience of quarantine – of the loneliness that was felt by the elders that I work with.”
The exhibit features the work of student photographers Matthew Dalton and Adam Misiti. Rogers facilitated intimate conversations between them and their LGBTQ subjects, which range in age from their 50s to 90s. In creating lasting relationships both in front of and behind their cameras, their art took shape.
The images feature Eve Burchert and Riccardo Didlick, photographed individually – as well as couples Alice D’Souza and Susan Skovronek and Craig Badinger and Jay Poindexter, photographed together. For a fifth image, the students captured Rogers.
“This experience is one I will cherish always,” Misiti reflects. “The connections made through this project are like no other, based solely on our honest and raw conversations together. Each of our participants holds a special place in my heart and I will carry their stories with the greatest care I am capable.”
“Our experiences opened my eyes to a history so unmentioned, yet so relevant, and I’m so grateful for this amazing opportunity,” Dalton adds.
“People rarely step outside of their generation,” Didlick notes. “[Participating] provided a wonderful experience for me during the skepticism of these times to compare people of different age groups through LGTBQ intergenerational dialogues, bringing their personal experiences and perspectives of growth and welfare to light.”
“We so seldom get to interact with young people,” D’Souza explains. “The message of what they are doing is so important to get out to the greater community. Our LGBTQ residents make up a sizable population in Sarasota, especially among the retired.
“Our city is one of the best places for us to live in Florida,” she continues. “What they are doing shows the need for us to make connections.” D’Souza has since seen the exhibit in person with Skovronek, who calls it top notch.
“The opportunity to be seen, heard and deeply listened to is a connector that all humans desire,” Poindexter says of participating. “The youth involved with this project provided a space for human connection to flourish.”
That’s the point of Ringling’s Community Gallery, the perfect home for “The Edge Becomes the Center.” The space “has become a real asset to both the museum and the community,” Head of Education Laura Steefel-Moore says. “We have been thrilled with the diversity and quality of works that we have been able to exhibit.”
“The Edge Becomes the Center” is “a deeply personal experience for the viewer,” Rogers stresses. “In the end, every person represents the ordinary yet profound aspirations for community and connection. Something we all share.”
“The Edge Becomes the Center” is on view at The Ringling until April 30, located at 5401 Bay Shore Rd. in Sarasota. Visit their website and call 941-359-5700 for information about safely visiting or viewing the exhibition virtually. For more information and to learn more about the Senior Friendship Centers’ LGBTQ programming, contact Robert Rogers at RRogers@FriendshipCenters.org and visit their website.
