The birth of a festival

Merlin Lickhalter is an unrepentant optimist.

It takes an optimist, who's also a bit of a visionary, to midwife a Spoleto-like festival in the midst of a recession.

But that's just what Lickhalter is doing.

Against all odds, he and others are putting together a week-long extravaganza in May that's expected to bring in $10 million to Collier County and boost Naples' image as a major arts destination.

The story is an interesting one, and so is Lickhalter. An MIT-trained architect, he was a partner in an international architectural firm, headed the American Institute of Architecture's Academy of Architects for Health and cofounded a foundation to research design of healthcare facilities.

Locally, Lickhalter has served on a number of civic boards and is past president of the United Arts Council of Collier County.

While heading the Arts Council, he hit upon the idea of an event modeled after the Spoleto Festival in Charleston, South Carolina. Instead of just another concert, the thought was to go big and offer opera, jazz, the classics, chamber music, ballet, art exhibits. An Olympic Games of the arts.

Stunning? Eight local arts organizations thought so and took a hard look. That was in 2008. But the economy tanked, and the plan was shelved.

But it wouldn't go away. Brian Holley, director of the Naples Botanical Garden, said, "This is too important to drop."

And it wasn't dropped. Along with Doris Sorey and Rose Mary Everett, visionaries in kind, Lickhalter founded the ArtsNaples World Festival in March 2009.

A grant from the Community Foundation of Collier County funded a feasibility study.

Maestro William Noll was brought on board as artistic director in October 2009, and the festival began to take shape. The idea was to focus on different cultural regions of the world -- Russia in 2012, Latin America in 2013, China in 2014.

The Tourist Development Council jumped in with a grant to promote the festival outside of Collier County.

ArtsNaples made a trial run with a concert by the Odessa Philharmonic in March 2010 and followed with a fundraiser featuring pianist Philip Kopachevsky in May 2011.

Then, in a major partnering move, Kathleen van Bergen came on board and brought with her the prestige and resources of the Naples Philharmonic Center for the Arts.

So it's going to happen.

The 2012 ArtsNaples World Festival will run from May 12 to May 18.
- The Russian Ambassador to the U.S. will kick things off at a dinner at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel.
- Concerts will be given by the Naples Philharmonic Orchestra and the St. Petersburg String Quartet.
- Jazz a la Russe will be featured at the Ritz-Carlton.
- A production of "The Inspector General" will be staged at the Sugden.
- The von Liebig will host a Russian art exhibit, as well as chamber music and several piano concerts.

A big deal? Indeed! And a tribute to Merlin Lickhalter and the other optimists who held fast and wouldn't give up on their vision.

To learn more about the ArtsNaples World Festival, contact info@artsnaplesworldfestival.org or call (239) 390-2788.