“The Most Beautiful Song.” (Photo courtesy Embracing Our Differences)

Embracing Our Differences has celebrated individuality and inclusivity since 2004, when the nonprofit launched its annual art exhibit in Sarasota. More than 5.2 million people have experienced it since.

The exhibition is taking place in Sarasota’s Bayfront Park through April 19 with a simultaneous showing at St. Petersburg’s Poynter Park through April 12. Its St. Petersburg opening celebrated “connection, creativity and compassion,” Embracing Our Differences President and CEO Sarah Wertheimer shared.

“This exhibition reminds us that art has the power to bring people together in ways that feel both hopeful and deeply human,” she said before it opened. “In a world that can feel divided, standing side by side and experiencing these stories matters more than ever.”

The juried exhibition features 50 billboard-sized works of art along with thought-provoking quotations. Entries are paired to “combine a deep understanding of both medium and message.” The prose and art are blindly judged by separate volunteer committees beforehand.

This year’s exhibition received nearly 15,000 entries from 125 countries and 48 states, with over 60% of entries coming from students across 574 schools worldwide. Awards are given for “Best-in-Show Adult” and “Best-in-Show Student,” while exhibit attendees determine “People’s Choice.” Adults receive $2,000 while students receive the same to split with their school’s art or writing programs.

The Best-in-Show Adult Artwork Award went to Istanbul’s Eda Uzunoğlu for “The Power of Love.” It “depicts two hands forming a radiant heart, symbolizing love’s ability to illuminate and unite our shared humanity.”

“The image suggests that even in challenging times, love has the power to illuminate, to heal and to reveal the full spectrum of our shared humanity,” Embracing Our Differences explains. Its student counterpart was awarded to “Equal Booths,” an entry from Siwon Jung. The 11th-grade student attends the Seoul Scholars International Art & Design in Seoul, Republic of Korea.

His piece “portrays a diverse line of voters stepping into identical polling booths to highlight the profound equality of the democratic act.”

“In this thoughtful watercolor, only the lower halves of voters are visible — a person with a cane, someone in a wheelchair, a professional, a parent, a person in heels — while the word ‘VOTE,’ repeated in shifting colors, unites them,” Embracing

Our Differences notes. “By focusing on silhouettes instead of faces, Jung captures the rare democratic moment when differences fall away and everyone stands, or rolls, on equal ground.”

The piece was included in the exhibit’s LGBTQ+-focused tours this month, guided by St. Petersburg LGBTQ+ Liaison Nathan Bruemmer. They highlighted a subset of the work exploring identity, gender expression, belonging, equality, love, family and standing against discrimination.

“At Embracing Our Differences, our guided tours are about more than viewing art, they’re about creating space for dialogue,” says Patrick Arthur Jackson, Vice President of Learning & Engagement.

“Including an LGBTQ+ themed tour this season allowed us to intentionally highlight works that explore identity, belonging, love and the courage it takes to live authentically,” he continues. “These pieces invite visitors to reflect on the ways our differences shape who we are and how empathy can deepen when we listen to stories that may be different from our own.

Our hope is that the exhibition is opportunity for some to see themselves reflected in the artwork and for others, it opens the door to greater understanding.”

Also included in the tour were “Both and Neither” by Kimberley Hnanguie, an 11th grade student from Kyrgyzstan; “Tie Together with a Smile” by 10th-grade student Mikaela Li of California, “True American” by Yolanda Hoskey of New York,

“Our Bones Carry Our Differences” by Larissa Lauret of France; “Like Sardines” by Sara Salazar of Tennessee; “The Most Beautiful Song” by Maytegpon Kapao of Thailand; “Misfit” by 11th-grade student Lucas Chung of New York and “Same __, Different Colors.” Zdravko Barisic’s piece featuring rainbow-colored toilets is from Serbia.

View the pieces below, courtesy of Embracing Our Differences:

“Both and Neither”

“Equal Booths”

“Like Sardines”

“Misfit”

“Our Bones Carry Our Differences”

“Same ___ Different Colors”

“The Most Beautiful Song”

“Tie Together with A Smile”

“True American”

Bruemmer was thankful to lead the LGBTQ+ tour — especially as “conversations around inclusion, diversity and equity” become “increasingly complex here in Florida.” The state legislature passed its “Anti-Diversity in Local Government” bill.

“Opportunities like the Embracing Our Differences LGBTQ+-themed tour are more important than ever,” Bruemmer explains. “I see this exhibition as a powerful, community-centered space where visibility, storytelling and respect come together. Through public art, and as part of an international competition that brings diverse perspectives from around the world, we are reminded that belonging is not a policy trend, but a shared human value.”

This year’s awards for prose have also been announced. Poland’s Yuliya Mitskevich won for the adult entries with “Kindness is the language we all understand, even when our stories are written in different alphabets.”

Its student counterpart was submitted by 10th grader Ingrid Cushman of Pine View School in Osprey. “Dulling someone else’s pencil will not make yours any sharper,” the winning quotation reads.

While the exhibition is “at the heart” of the nonprofit’s work, education initiatives also play a vital role for Embracing Our Differences. Programming includes workshops and retreats for local educators, free bus transportation for students and teachers to visit cultural venues and student docent programs in high schools. More than 694,000 students have participated since 2004.

“These programs are where the heart of our mission lives,” Wertheimer advises. “When students and teachers engage with these lessons — whether in Sarasota, St. Pete or halfway across the world — they’re practicing empathy, respect and curiosity. When students learn to think with compassion, it doesn’t just change classrooms, it changes communities.”

This year’s exhibition is working to do the same. Art enthusiasts can visit Sarasota’s Bayfront Park daily from 7 a.m.-11 p.m. and St. Petersburg’s Poynter Park each day from 30 minutes before sunrise to 11 p.m. Entry is free.

The 2026 Embracing Our Differences exhibit runs through April 12 at Poynter Park at 3rd St. S. and 9th Ave. S. in St. Petersburg and April 19 at Bayfront Park at 5 Bayfront Dr. in Sarasota. For more information, visit EmbracingOurDifferences.com.

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