Art Center Sarasota’s 2022-23 exhibition season is slated to kick off Oct. 20 with a full slate of shows. Up first: The galleries are filled with a solo exhibition by Mary GrandPre, showcasing her abstract acrylic paintings; a New College curated show featuring artwork from the college’s thesis-level students; a solo exhibit by Elizabeth Barenis, working in acrylic abstract paintings; and the group show The Figure, which Erin Wilson, the assistant curator of the Museum of Fine Arts in St. Petersburg, will jury.

Those shows will be on view starting Oct. 20, with an opening reception set for the evening of Oct. 22 that’s free and open to the public (and timed to coincide with the events centered around the grand opening of The Bay project, 10 Days at The Bay). The season opening shows remain on view through Nov. 26.

Executive director Kinsey Robb and exhibitions coordinator Christina Baril have been at work to present a season that Robb hopes is diverse, “not only in where the artists are from, or their ethnicity or cultural interests, but in their artistic practices.” There’s also an effort to give an opportunity for students, like the New College artists in that curated show, to display what they are doing to a wider audience without incurring heavy expenses.

Robb and her board are also currently at work on a strategic plan for the venerable art center, which has been around almost 100 years now. While providing artists a chance to sell their work (often at prices beginning collectors can afford) and continuing to offer popular education programs and classes are central focuses, Robb also hopes to expand the center’s donor base and encourage more philanthropy.

“There is huge potential for Art Center Sarasota, based on its location” along the bayfront property that is also currently home to the Sarasota Orchestra and the Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall, she says. And, since current class offerings always have a wait list for students, expansion of the facility is very much on her mind for the future. “We are small, but we can be mighty,” she says.

In the meantime, here’s the 2022-23 lineup.

Coming Dec. 8 through Jan. 21: Alexandra Hammond’s solo show Quantum Blue, a series of acrylic paintings; the Holiday Art Shop (where every piece is priced at under $200); the latest abstract paintings from Jason Hackenworth; and the juried show Black & White.

Those are followed Feb. 2 through March 11 by Luca Molnar’s layered paintings and ceramic floor installations; multi-layered ceramic and fabric work, along with sculpture and installation work, by Eugene Ofori Agyei; Marlon Tobias’ We Live on Old Dixie Hwy Too painting series; and the annual juried members’ show.

March 23 through April 29 will feature new mixed-media artwork by Jeanne Guertin-Potoff; sculptural and ceramic vessels by Rebecca Zweibel; documentary photographs by Karen Arango; and the juried show Large-Scale Works.

The center will devote May 9-20 to the North Sarasota County Schools Spring Art Show, as it has done for 25 years. Then comes the Annual Juried Regional Show, filling the entire center space, June 1 through Aug. 5; and the season closer, Aug. 24 through Sept. 30, highlighting the pencil drawings of Lauren Mann; the large, modular, ceramic sculptures of Iren Tete; a display of Ry McCullough’s printmaking, collage and installation work; and the juried show An Abstract View.

Normal gallery hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday and noon to 5 p.m. Saturday. For more information, visit artsarasota.org.