The Hermitage Artist Retreat has received a gift of land and property from the Morrison and Steans family with an appraised value approximately $12,000,000, making it one of the largest land gifts of its kind to a nonprofit arts organization.
The Gulf-to-bay property spans 6.5 acres of land and is comprised of five main structures, which will provide additional accommodations for the Hermitage’s artist-in-residence program, in which artists, writers, and performers are invited by nomination for multi-week residencies on Manasota Key in South Sarasota County, where they develop new works of theater, music, visual art, literature, dance and more.
The Morrison and Steans families, comprised of seven siblings and cousins, made the gift in honor of their parents, Harrison I. Steans, Lois M. Steans, Harold M. Morrison and Adeline S. Morrison.
The properties were originally built by the Vanderbilt family, who settled on Manasota Key in the early 1950s; the Steans and Morrisons acquired the properties from Samuel and Lydia Auchincloss in 1987. The properties were officially transferred to the Hermitage in 2025…