Culture Worthy of your Calendar

With a jazz-filled nod to Hispanic Heritage Month, the Neu America Fine Art Festival will be held at Casselberry City Hall on Sept. 23-24. Bring family and friends to the lakefront amphitheater to enjoy an art festival of Florida artists in painting, drawing and mixed media. This year the festival pays tribute to artist Pedro Brull, an award-winning artist born in Puerto Rico. Three monetary prizes will be awarded, and I am pleased to serve as one of the judges for the event. On Saturday, Sept. 24, the festivities begin at 3 p.m. with food vendors, kids’ activities and a free Latin jazz concert (beginning at 4:45 p.m.) with the cool sounds of Matt Shenk. Then get fired up for the hot Latin flavor of Ed Calle and sax sensation Jessy J. The free concert is sponsored by the city of Casselberry and El Sentinel. The beautiful park and galleries of Casselberry City Hall are located at 95 Triplet Lake Drive in Casselberry. Visit nafaf.com or email Edemuel Mora at [email protected]

Soviet propaganda

“Darker Shades of Red: Soviet Propaganda from the Cold War Era” will open the season at the Polasek Museum in Winter Park on Tuesday, Sept. 27. Always bold and strikingly graphic in its socialist agenda, the collection reveals the political ideology of the Soviet Union from the mid 1940s to 1990. Soviet leaders placed a priority on communicating ideas of social responsibility to its citizens through the heroic symbols of Soviet leaders, soldiers, workers and peasants. Caricatures of American and British leaders depicted the West as the enemy of the Soviet people, with this propaganda filtering down to the daily lives of people. The exhibit is an insider’s view into life in a totalitarian society. The exhibit may be viewed from Sept. 27 to Jan. 8 at the Polasek Museum. Call 407-647-6294 or visit Polasek.org

For opera lovers

Imagine an orchestral evening of music and song dedicated to opera’s greatest composers – Giacomo Puccini and Giuseppe Verdi. Now choose overtures, arias, and choruses from those composers’ greatest operas, and you will find them on a not-to-be-missed performance called “Puccini e Verdi”, which will open the Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra’s season on Saturday, Sept. 24, at 8:30 p.m. Under the baton of conductor Christopher Wilkins, soprano Janette Zilioli, tenor Yeghishe Manucharyan and baritone Timothy Mix will join the Philharmonic along with the University of Central Florida Choirs and the Florida Opera Theatre Chorus to perform Puccini and Verdi’s greatest hits at the Bob Carr. Call 407-770-0071 or visit orlandophil.org

Free museum day

Smithsonian Magazine celebrates its seventh annual Museum Day on Saturday, Sept. 24, with more than 1,500 museum and cultural venues across the United States honoring Smithsonian.com’s special free ticket for two. The following Central Florida museums are participating: Albin Polasek Museum, Bok Tower Gardens in Lake Wales, Maitland Art Center, Maitland Historical Museum, the Telephone Museum in Maitland, the Orlando Museum of Art, the Orange County Regional History Center and the Mennello Museum of American Art. On this special day, museums open their doors free of charge to Smithsonian.com visitors who present their free Smithsonian Museum Day admission ticket, good for two, available online at smithsonianmag.com

Food and Wine Festival

The one-of-a-kind, 45-day Epcot International Food and Wine Festival serves up international food tastings, culture and entertainment from six continents, and more than 25 international ‘marketplaces’ featuring tapas-sized portions paired with beer, wine and inventive new cocktails. Scheduled from Friday, Sept. 30, to Nov. 13, the tasting menus offer an adventure in eating for Disney guests as they stroll around the 40-acre World Showcase Lagoon. This season will see the Festival’s first Hawaiian marketplace along with a new Caribbean Islands marketplace. Celebrity chef appearances, HGTV home entertaining seminars, wine seminars, bottle signings, author events and culinary demonstrations are all part of the festival. There is also the “Eat to the Beat” concert series at America Gardens Theatre. Information and schedules are available at disneyworld.com/foodandwine