New College Foundation's 47th Annual Clambake - Step back into the Roaring Twenties
In Sarasota, where old Florida glamour and experimental ideas have long shared the same shoreline, a clambake with a 1920s frame of mind feels less like a theme party than a reunion with the region’s
By Edit Sarasota Staff
In Sarasota, where old Florida glamour and experimental ideas have long shared the same shoreline, a clambake with a 1920s frame of mind feels less like a theme party than a reunion with the region’s own restless spirit. The New College Foundation’s 47th Annual Clambake invites guests to step back into the Roaring Twenties for an evening of food, fellowship and support for one of Florida’s most distinctive institutions of higher learning.
The clambake has become a signature occasion on Sarasota’s social calendar, but its significance reaches beyond sequins, jazz-age style and the pleasures of a communal table. For nearly half a century, the event has helped connect New College with the wider community, raising essential support for the college’s students, faculty and educational mission. In a town shaped by philanthropy, the arts and a strong belief in the value of independent thinking, that relationship matters. New College’s small scale and unconventional character have always made it unusually dependent on people willing to invest not only in buildings and programs, but in the kind of intellectual and creative life the institution makes possible.
This year’s Roaring Twenties theme offers a natural invitation to play. Think of the decade’s elegant contradictions: formal clothes and liberated spirits, ballroom polish and bohemian curiosity, the exuberance of a city discovering new rhythms. The setting at New College adds its own layer of atmosphere. The campus, with its bayfront landscape and modernist history, has long provided Sarasota with a place where architecture, nature and ideas meet in unexpected ways. A celebratory evening there carries both local intimacy and a sense of occasion.
The foundation’s clambake also reflects a particularly Sarasota tradition: gathering for a good meal while making room for a larger purpose. It is an opportunity for longtime supporters, alumni, neighbors and newcomers to share in the life of the college and to see philanthropy as something social, pleasurable and deeply communal.
The New College Foundation’s 47th Annual Clambake, themed “Step Back into the Roaring Twenties,” takes place Thursday, November 5, 2026, at New College of Florida in Sarasota. Guests can plan their evening around the foundation’s event details and arrive ready for a little vintage glamour—and a meaningful toast to New College’s future.