2025 marked the launch of a new nonprofit arts and culture organization in Southwest Florida called the Bridging the Gap Center for the Arts. The organization’s mission is to provide “an imaginative space for BIPOC (Black, indigenous and people of color) artists to learn, grow, and explore the creative arts through live performance, education, place making, storytelling, and community connectivity.”
Southwest Florida has many robust arts institutions, but relatively few that center artists of color or explicitly address equity in the arts, and that’s the “gap” this nonprofit is addressing by prioritizing representation, offering accessible entry points for beginners, and framing art as a vehicle for identity, storytelling, and empowerment.
Bridging the Gap will hold a murder mystery dinner theater fundraising event on Saturday, April 25, 2026, in the Franklin Park Elementary School auditorium.
The event will feature live music from singer Blou Note, live art painting, great food provided by Southern Charm Bistro, and the first public performance of a hilarious play titled “Devil Ain’t Got No Tail in Grandma’s House.”
The play was written by Veronica Barber, who is the mother of Bridging the Gap Center for the Arts founder and Executive Director Sonya McCarter.
Both Barber and McCarter join us to talk about the play, the murder mystery dinner theater event, and how the Bridging the Gap Center for the Arts is growing and expanding its mission.
