National Scrollathon
Sarasota Art Museum
Sarasota, Florida 2022

You and Me, Me and You, All of Us Together, 2022, fiber, rubber bands, pins, glue, wood, paint, approximately 96 x 96 x 3 1/2 inches

Steven and William Ladd were proud to launch the National Scrollathon at the Ringling College of Art and Design’s Sarasota Art Museum in 2022. This engagement with the Sarasota community represents Florida’s contribution to the National Scrollathon in 2026, where America’s story will be told through multiple regional collaborations producing world-class art. From October 10-14, 2023, over 500 participants from the Sarasota region toured the exhibition “Steven and William Ladd: Lead With a Laugh,” created personal artworks to keep, contributed hand-made components to a Collaborative Masterwork, and had their photographs created for a Portrait Mural to document their experience. To conclude and celebrate the week, the Collaborative Masterwork, You and Me, Me and You, All of Us Together, was installed as part of the Museum’s exhibition showcasing Scrollathon’s history along with the Signature Plate, and the Portrait Mural of all Community Artists.

The catalyst for Scrollathon was artist-brothers Steven and William Ladd’s belief in the creative capacity of every human being and in the magnified power of community. Partnering with hundreds of stakeholders and institutions, Scrollathon has reached thousands of people since 2006. Our National Scrollathon expansion is our most ambitious effort yet—a nationwide initiative offering meaningful engagement to over 33,000 people of diverse ages, backgrounds, and abilities through the creation and presentation of monumental Collaborative Masterworks from all 50 states, Washington, D.C., 5 U.S. Territories, and Native Community Regional Centers—all in celebration of America’s 250th Birthday in 2026.

Walter’s Story

“You look at this scroll, it’s black and white. It’s not separate, it’s together.

I grew up here in Sarasota, Florida, in a segregated school system up until the point I was in tenth grade. At that point they closed down the local black school, and they integrated the two high schools here in Sarasota. And one of them was in this building…. 

I’m emotional because I know what we went through, and it wasn’t easy. That emotion came out so raw and so unexpected. I don’t even know where it was coming from. As I think back, I know why it came out, because it needed to come out.”

Community Groups
All Star Children’s Foundation
ALSO Youth
Alzheimer’s Association, Florida Gulf Coast Chapter
CreArte Latino Cultural Center
Easterseals Southwest Florida
Girls Inc. Sarasota
Gulf Coast Latin Chamber of Commerce
IMPACT Theatre
Indigenous in Music and Arts Inc.
JFCS of the Suncoast
Kutya Major SAM Teen Arts Council + Family
Manasota B.U.D.S. (Bringing Up Down Syndrome)
Memory Disorder Clinic at Sarasota
Memorial Hospital
Neuro Challenge Foundation for Parkinson’s
New College of Florida
Planned Parenthood of Southwest and
Central Florida
Ringling College of Art and Design
Sarasota Art Museum
Sarasota County Health and Human Services
Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office,
Second Heart Homes, Inc.
Senior Friendship Center Sarasota
Southside School Foundation for the Arts
Streets of Paradise Sarasota