It may have been a longer and more difficult journey than he anticipated, but for Jeffery Kin, the first-ever Living Arts Festival, which takes place Nov. 10-17, is finally a hard-won reality. The festival is a grand collaboration that brings together more than 60 arts groups, about a dozen schools and studios, 30-plus businesses and roughly 10 foundations and funders. Produced by Sarasota Rising, a nonprofit led by Kin, the event is a celebration of the area’s many art forms, from live performances to visual exhibits and more.

As with any first-time event, it’s been a major effort to pull together and has been nearly three years in the making. And even Kin, the former artistic director of community theater The Players, who is known for his buoyant personality, admits that, “About a year ago, anybody else would have given up. I wasn’t getting the communication or funding I needed. But I had people who believed in me, and there was no way I would give up and let all those people down.”

Kin signed on with Sarasota Rising when the idea for a regional arts festival was just a gleam in the eye of developer Dr. Mark Kauffman, who first proposed the notion, with $100,000 in seed money from the Downtown Improvement District (DID) to explore it further. For nearly two decades, the Arts and Cultural Alliance of Sarasota had presented what it called Arts Day, during which organizations promoted themselves and produced entertainment at Five Points Park, but that wasn’t what Kin or his backers had in mind.

“We started from scratch with the DID funding and aligning ourselves with the Arts and Cultural Alliance,” says Kin. “They became my parent company. Then I had to figure out what to do next—what a festival is, what it is to different regions. We always knew the festival would be in the fall; that’s what the organizations wanted.” The rest was a blank slate.

“We sat around the conference table, with Post-It Notes and a dry erase board,” Kin recalls, “thinking of what a festival would look like, where it should be, how to do the unique thing.” Some well-known arts festivals, like Spoleto, which is held each year in Charleston, South Carolina, bring in artists and performers from around the world. Sarasota Rising’s goal is to highlight the talent in our own backyard. “Our early funders were like, ‘We have everything here. We just want to emphasize and promote it,’” says Kin.

He sent out a lengthy questionnaire to local arts groups to take stock of their wants and needs. Kin says those behind Sarasota Rising decided early on not to ask organizations to create anything special just for the festival and that participation should be free for arts groups. The more Kin engaged with arts groups, the more he learned, he says.

“A lot of it was a surprise to me, even though I’ve been here since 1993,” says Kin. “You ask for a tea—I have drunk lots of tea—and it’s a great way to sit down and talk with people and get to know them.” “Them” includes the staff at Visit Sarasota, who quickly found the idea of a festival that promotes cultural tourism attractive.

Kin says that as development continued, Sarasota Rising got away from the idea that the Living Arts Festival—Sarasota would center only on theater, or only on the bigger cultural organizations. “This is really going to be a true slice of who we are,” he says. “We found ways to allow everyone who wants to participate to participate.”

Some highlights from the week include Asolo Rep opening its season with Beautiful: The Carole King Musical, while Westcoast Black Theatre Troupe celebrates 25 years with a show at the Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall. Sarasota Rising is also hosting pre-festival events: The Living Arts Festival Fête at the Art Ovation Hotel on Nov. 8, a free family-focused arts expo on the greens at Sarasota Municipal Auditorium on Nov. 9, an opening party on Nov. 10 and more.

The goal is for the festival to bring new patrons to local arts organizations. Kin hopes that will translate into new collaborations and new work for next year’s festival. “As time goes by, arts groups will begin thinking ahead and collaborating more,” he says. “Knowing they have an influx of new patrons, they will begin taking creative chances and perhaps showcasing original works.”

For more info, visit sarasotarising.org.