The Fort Pierce Jazz Market Brings Live Music And The Visual Arts Together Every Saturday Morning. Raffle Of Special Commissioned Glass Artwork By Laura O’Kelly Will Benefit Music Scholarships To Local Students Now Through March 24. Check Out Free Concerts During Jazz Week March 20-24.
What is a “Jazz Market”? At the Fort Pierce Jazz Market you’ll find the perfect piece of handcrafted art, unique housewarming, wedding, or birthday gift and enjoy fabulous music! It is one of the Treasure Coast’s treasures! With high-quality vendors, you won’t find tchotchkes, items ordered-by-catalog or mass-produced in an overseas factory – everything is handcrafted by skilled artisans who are right there to chat with you as you browse. Laura O’Kelly of Fine Art By Laura is a well respected glass artist who has been a fixture of the market. Using translucent glass, color, treasures from the sea, and light, she creates breathtaking wall décor. If you’re lucky, you can take home one of her masterpieces of light and color for just $5/1 ticket or $10/ 3 tickets, with a raffle benefiting the Fort Pierce Jazz Society’s Scholarship Fund. The winner Laura’s artwork will be drawn on Saturday, April 15th at the Market. The Rickie Report shares the Art Raffle info, Jazz and Market details PLUS we encourage more visual artists to apply and be part of this creative venture.
Don Bestor, President of FPJS tells The Rickie Report, “The Fort Pierce Jazz Society, celebrating its 25th Anniversary, manages that Saturday Morning Jazz Market. Taking its mission of quality very seriously and not allowing anything less than the best, FPJ Society certainly makes an effort to be worthy. Twenty-five years is a long time for a volunteer 501 (C) (3) organization to exist and succeed in its mission. Our core are musical performers from our area and those who winter here to avoid the cold. But we are more than that; we are educators, citizens supporters of arts, volunteers and hundreds of members who support the Society financially. We schedule and perform at many venues throughout the year but a major factor in our success is our focus on the future generation, which undoubtedly will take our place”.
Each year the Society awards 10 – 15 $1,000 scholarships
to young performers
entering college with music as a primary or secondary subject.
For more information about support or to apply for a scholarship please visit www.jazzsociety.org
The Power of Music and the Visual Arts
Meet Laura O’Kelly
A dedicated professional and passionate music-lover who fell in love with the Treasure Coast when she relocated here from Albany, New York in 1983, O’Kelly has offered one of her spectacular pieces to help raise funds for a Fort Pierce Jazz Scholarship. Tickets, which are available at www.jazzsociety.org or at any of Fort Pierce Jazz and Blues Society’s many weekly gigs and performances as well as at the Saturday Morning Jazz Market, are just $5 each, and you can even get three tickets for just $10. The value of the piece being raffled off is already priceless, but add to that the knowledge that you’ll also be supporting an aspiring young musician who has chosen to further his or her musical education.
Laura O’Kelly holding “Blue Marlin”, which she is donating to the Fort Pierce Jazz Society to raffle for Scholarships
“Blue Marlin” is framed and ready to hang! Laura O’Kelly has a gift for combining translucent glass, color and light to create an amazing visual effect and a positive energy that will fill the room. She tells The Rickie Report, ” Our coastal wall décor is done in a sensual and calming palette of the sea. Each of my art pieces is uniquely designed with the intention and no two pieces will be exactly alike. All our frames are made of wood and the hardware is attached so your piece is ready to hang! Each piece is personally signed by the me”. Laura began taking weekly private art lessons in 2009 and discovered the Jazz Society Market through a colleague in 2011. She says, ” I wanted a platform for exposure to market my artwork, so I decided to become a weekly, year-round vendor and the rest is history….from the very first day I’ve maintained a level of professionalism and found success selling my artworks. I also take commissions, so if a visitor doesn’t see exactly what strikes their fancy, I work with them and create something totally unique! I have been truly blessed with making my mark in the art community here on the Treasure Coast and the positive result as a professional artist that has followed”.
For more information about Laura’s artistry:
The art raffle winner will be drawn on Saturday, April 15, 2023 at 11:00 AM
You don’t have to be present to win
Whether you’re purchasing tickets for yourself, as a gift for others, or because you want to help support an aspiring young musician through one of the many scholarships provided by Fort Pierce Jazz and Blues Society each year, this is one way for everyone to be a winner here on the Treasure Coast and to help ensure that the soundtrack of our lives will continue for generations to come. To get your tickets today, visit www.jazzsociety.org, stop by the Saturday Morning Jazz Market, or pop into any one of our regular weekly gigs, which you can find out about on the website, too.
Upcoming Concerts/ buy your art raffle tickets:
Jazz Market
March 4, 18
April 1, 15
Port St. Lucie Botanical Gardens
March 8
Special Jazz Week Show – March 22
April 5, 19
2nd Street Bistro
Special Jazz Week Show – March 23
March 30
April 27
American Legion
March 27
The Black Box
March 14
April 11
Kick Off Of Jazz Week – At the Waterfront
Waterside Blues Sunday, March 19
Jazz Week Sunday, March 19 – Friday, March 24, 2023
** See entire schedule by clicking here**
The art raffle winner will be drawn at the Jazz Market on Saturday, April 15 at 11 AM
Inspiring the Next Generation: 127 Scholarships / $130,000.
Don continues, “We share our time and talent with students throughout St. Lucie, Martin, and Indian River County providing master classes in music and performance and we invite student musicians to perform with us every Tuesday evening at the Sunrise Black Box Theatre in historic downtown Fort Pierce, and every other Wednesday evening at the Port St. Lucie Botanical Gardens. We believe in the power of music, and we want to make sure we pass that magic along to the next generation through scholarship, opportunities, and education. There are lots of investments with a much lower return, but we believe in the power of music and the incredible return it gives in the form of education, building teamwork and cooperation, creating and celebrating joy, and creating a legacy of love that will be passed on generation to generation for as long as we are.
Won’t you join us in supporting the power of music and the visual arts?
