The American Watercolor Society began as a group of eleven painters who gathered in New York City in 1866 and began to hold exhibitions of their work. Their annual exhibitions have continued from that day. The annual juried exhibition of the AWS is open to all artists worldwide. The traveling exhibition features 40 paintings from the original 160+ exhibitors each year and travels to three to six locations each year. Admission: $5.
Through February 28, 2025
ArtCenter Manatee 209 9th St West Bradenton, FL 34205
Hot Works is thrilled to announce the return of the Naples Fine Art Show, taking place on January 25-26, 2025, and April 12-13, 2025. This outdoor event will be hosted at the Naples Italian-American Foundation, a prime location at the intersection of Airport-Pulling and Orange Blossom Roads in Naples. Known for its high visibility, the venue also offers ample and convenient parking, making it ideal for both artists and attendees.
Patty Narozny, the show producer, brings over 35 years of expertise in media and event management. Celebrated for her integrity and commitment to excellence, Narozny consistently delivers top-tier, juried art shows. Each participating artist showcases their own handmade, original work.
Narozny works closely with local media to attract a discerning audience with a strong appreciation for fine art. One artist noted, “Hot Works is organized and really brings in high-quality buyers.”
Hot Works has built a stellar reputation with flagship events like the Orchard Lake Fine Art Show in West Bloomfield, Michigan, and notable Florida shows, including the Boca Raton, Sarasota, and St. Pete Fine Art Shows. With this legacy of success, the Naples Fine Art Show is set to become one of the region’s must-attend art events.
Don’t miss Hot Works St. Pete show at Imagine Museum January 18 & 19.•
Naples Italian-American Foundation Naples, FL January 25 & 26, 2025 April 12 & 13, 2025
Since 2013, the Palladium’s audiences have had the opportunity to become intimately acquainted with some of the world’s finest chamber musicians that look forward to returning to the Hough Hall stage each year.
They are welcoming back the renowned The Calidore Quartet performing works from their recently released Beethoven Quartet albums as well as Jessie Montgomery’s Strum. Additionally, many of our core Palladium Chamber artists will be returning to the Palladium, including pianist, Jeewon Park; cellist, Edward Arron; and the Mile-End Trio, (comprised of Jeffrey Multer, violin; Julian Schwarz, cello; and Marika Bournaki, piano) as well as special guest violist, Chauncey Patterson,and the return of violinist, Amy Schwartz Moretti and violist, Che-Yen Chen from the Ehnes Quartet, and the Florida Orchestra’s principal horn, David Smith.
Founded by The Florida Orchestra’s Concertmaster, Jeffrey Multer, and Palladium Executive Director Paul Wilborn, the Palladium Chamber Series showcases a dynamic group of internationally renowned soloists and chamber musicians, bringing vibrant interpretations of the great classical repertoire to St. Petersburg each year. •
Four more concerts in this coming season:
January 15, 2025 February 12, 2025 March 26, 2025 April 30, 2025 (All Wednesday evenings, 7:30pm)
ABOUT THE PALLADIUM
Whether in the main concert hall, Hough Hall with its unsurpassed new sound system, or kicking back in the intimate Side Door Cabaret, the historic Palladium Theater is consistently ranked as one of Tampa Bay’s best, most affordable venues for classical, jazz, blues, theatre, opera, Celtic, comedy, dance, educational, literary, community events, and more. The Palladium, located in downtown St. Petersburg’s cultural center, is part of what makes Tampa Bay great.
The Gulfport Fine Arts Festival celebrates 10 years of fine art & contemporary craft this February 8th – 9th in the intimate setting of Clymer Park. The event is hosted by the Gulfport Merchants Chamber of Commerce (GMC) and lasts from 10 am to 5 pm each day.
This year’s Fine Art Festival was relocated to Clymer Park from its traditional home in Veterans Park due to the recent hurricanes. The event will be the largest in Gulfport since last season’s damaging storms, and the artists and residents in Gulfport are looking forward to celebrating the recovery and rebuilding seen throughout the bayfront town.
The boutique festival welcomes artists in all mediums, with several artists making the annual journey to the event for its intimate gathering, the caliber of the buyers, and the opportunity to show in Gulfport, a town known for its creative expression. The festival has become a haven for art connoisseurs, bringing together a carefully curated selection of juried artists each winter to the largest annual arts event in Gulfport.
Awards are handed out on Sunday, and recent Best in Show winners have represented a wide range of mediums, including sculpture, mixed-media art, painting, and fiber art. The event will include this year’s Rise & Shine Emerging Artist Scholarship winners Anne Lancaster and David Feldman. The annual scholarship is awarded by the GMC to emerging artists who’ve shown the creativity and aptitude of taking their art to the next level.
Over 50 artists will show their works in Clymer Park’s cozy 1.5-acre setting, itself decorated throughout by art crafted by renowned Florida artists. The park is also home to Gulfport’s Food Forest, an artfully decorated wildlife enhancement and community food gathering place. From Clymer Park, it’s only steps to Gulfport’s bustling historic downtown district on Beach Boulevard South, filled with shops, restaurants, and galleries. As with all visits to Gulfport, parking is free throughout the town.
The Gulfport Fine Arts Festival has been the jewel of Gulfport’s blossoming arts scene for a decade, and this year’s event includes expanded offerings to mark the special occasion. While the northern block of Clymer Park serves as the showcase event for artists and visitors, the park’s southern block will feature an array of immersive creative activities for the entire family. Live music will greet visitors to the event on each day, and the nationally acclaimed Gulfport Gecko Amalgamated Marching Band will perform for guests on Sunday. Vendors will be on-hand with refreshments for the crowds and artists throughout the event.
To Alexis Carra, Tampa has always been home. Even as she performed on the New York City Broadway stage, toured the world with award-winning shows, and ventured into a Hollywood career, Alexis always knew she’d return home.
Alexis Carra performing
Her Tampa roots run deep. Alexis is a born-and-raised, fourth-generation “Tampanian” of Spanish, Argentine, and Cuban descent. She comes from a family that’s proud to be a part of Tampa’s rich history. She attributes much of her career success to her education here in Tampa, too. Alexsis’ dance teachers, who started teaching her at just two years old, are still some of her closest mentors.
Through her hard work and studies as a young girl, Alexis was laying the foundation for an incredible career. Growing up, she spent summers studying in dance programs across the country like Alvin Ailey, Princeton Ballet, and Broadway Dance Center in New York City. Alexis eventually made her way to Yale University, where she studied theatre. She credits her education at Yale as a spectacular experience where her artistry grew even more. During her time there, she took a leave of absence to tour the world with the First National Broadway Company of Ann Reinking’s Tony Award-winning musical Fosse. After graduating, she jetted to New York City and launched her Broadway career, performing in shows like Wicked, Sweet Charity, Fame on 42nd Street, and The Pirate Queen.
Alexis Carra Lola
Alexis then transitioned into her television and film career. She landed several guest appearances on shows like Grey’s Anatomy, Anger Management, Castle, NCIS, and CSI. Most recently, she had lead roles in the FX hit series, Fosse Verdon, and a hit Christmas movie on Disney+, Christmas Again.
Alexis Carra white dress
Alexis recently performed at the New Tampa Performing Arts Center for their New Tampa Unplugged series which has been one of their most popular concert series since opening in 2023. They transform their theater into an intimate, living-room-style venue. With cabaret seating and a candlelight ambiance, it’s the perfect setting for an up-close, acoustic concert with some of Tampa Bay’s most notable artists—all at an affordable price, with tickets ranging from just $15 to $20.
Alexis Carra and Charlie Sheen
For more information about NTPAC, visit NewTampaArtsCenter.org. You can stay updated on events and programs by following New Tampa Performing Arts Center on Facebook, Instagram, and X at @NewTampaPAC.
Author – Keith Arsenault is the General Manager of the New Tampa Performing Arts Center (NTPAC). The center was created as a cultural centerpiece where the arts can be enjoyed, celebrated, and taught – enriching the lives of people in the community. NTPAC opened to the public in 2023 and is owned and operated by Hillsborough County as a function of Hillsborough County Parks & Recreation.
The stench of grief, loss and shock are everywhere permeating the area with smells of red tide and salt water that had crept into places that were never meant to know water in that way.
Private areas of people’s lives brutally exposed on their front lawns. Furniture strewn about, floorboards, kitchen cabinets, waterlogged stuffed animals a piano that still had songs left in it.
You can see where the water line came up – a line that was never meant to be formed on such a beautiful white linen chair.
My neighbor said the water came to their front door and then to the back – like an unwanted intruder just as the sun had set and darkness was creeping in.
They ran around trying to save anything they could but it was too late. Water pushed through the walls, dogs on the couch, pure panic.
Time ran out. We never thought it could happen to us. We never thought it could happen to us.
The trees speak of a terrible wind with gusts of up to 100mph. Uprooted and laying on their sides Just like many of us are feeling.
The trees weren’t prepared for this; neither were the people.
We had dodged several bullets in the past and thought the shield, the protection would continue. “Shields up” is a common term on weatherboards for Tampa Bay when there is a threat of a hurricane.
But the shield disappeared, leaving us vulnerable And two storms hit one that brought surge, the other wind.
These streets that I returned to after evacuating, had memories of my childhood woven through them. They had once felt like paradise but now looked like they had been overtaken by some beast with no boundaries.
The stressed looks on people’s faces as they dealt with the mess on their property – The looks that said, I never thought this would be me, I never thought this would be me. The words that I heard continuously repeating on a loop …. I lost everything, I lost everything, I lost everything.
Our houses and our emotional bodies were flooded, full to capacity, overflowing. We needed to wait for the water to recede, in our homes, our neighborhoods and our hearts. We needed time to heal.
Two storms in two weeks. What a mess, what darkness, such deep levels of loss and despair
But isn’t there some beauty to it all as well, a divine order? Some beauty and grace in this level of loss and destruction – the Yin and Yang. The darkness is always close beside the light. We can’t have one without the other – for we enter the storm as one person and come out of the storm as another We have been forever changed, altered.
Could this be an invitation? To feel it all and let the ravages of an inflamed Mother Earth Teach us about the vulnerabilities and depths of the human spirit, The true bond of community.
For if we allow ourselves to truly feel it all during the darkest days, The joys on the other side are that much sweeter. And we remember how precious it is to just breathe a breath, See ourselves in each other And open our hearts to the fragility of the human experience.
I live my signifying, unrhymed, in St. Petersburg, but I am writing this scrambled treatise in Tallahassee, the tall hassle of paradise, the state capitol of Florida, the Sunshine State. I’ve come to escape the wind and water. Milton, the most literary hurricane to date. I am aware of the irony, but I leave it to you to determine which of the two blind figures I speak, the navel or the eye, the writer or the weather. Like the fixed fates of absolute knowledge, anachronism and air mass strengthen both. I do not belong to the Secret Order of Prude Frocks. I plan to ask a favor of the nightingales, to confront the autumn of Apeneck Sweeney’s animalistic materialism, to adjust Prospero’s radio station of operas, the unreal wasteland. Fact checking the pages of yet another failed escape, I ignored Debby and wrote during Helene. A few enjambed evacuation routes, Garamond’s Alexandrines, but nothing worth keeping because, on the way to the last real people, the rural table of contents of North Carolina, a new chapter paraded through paradise like a torus field with a foamy fingerprint.
A Hiroshima haircut for the home of the Rays, I was asleep when Sweeney Todd knifed the Trop. A muckraker of the imagination, I was Icarus. The whole construct fell like a crane from an unfinished high-rise. A cone of spaghetti models, blood around the eye of the sonogram, televised. Because 126 warnings are a preface to the birth of war, a Greek friend in Tarpon Springs helped me stuff tornadoes into a Trojan Horse. Air done in by Ariel, a Barbadian Caliban bugged my ear, “The hurricane does not roar in pentameters.” Interpretation: My verse (the non-traditional oral ruckus, those parts of my tongue that had not been straightened) was not safe. Prettier than darkness, phantom time is a mayhem as made up as the Middle Ages. I’ll be Tea Cake. You, Janie. Time to swim from sea to shining sea, rescue the practitioners of inconvenience and leave behind anyone dressed for Silver Woe. Once there was a bloom who memorized the graveyard, every lost paradise, including the arguments.
Super spreader of tropes and tropical spray days, we are more than oblivious readers, couples walking dogs as they leave arks. We’ve seen the rule breaker of skies, the morning star of Cliff Notes fall like a comet in the great drama of composition. Wrong lens attached; I want to recede. The calm before the storm is a cover story; the chemicals overhead have evolved, their white trails zig zag like broken highways. I’m like a hurler in the belly of Melville’s deep mob, the primate of canonical climate, a four-seam negative cleansing crossing the plate like a sweeper. Water vapor like worry emanates from the loop of the pupil not just the lip of the pool. Way down in the gulf of self, there will always be a torn curtain of fear, a blowout kit of uncertainty streaming like stress. A cyclone path like a psychopath, same war cry as the wind that whistles Dixie. Naples, the mobile home of the tempest, bookmarked twice. Ian and Irma with joint custody of Iago’s driver’s license.
Due to the uppercase fame of FEMA, there are no more epics to be made, no Homeric homers, not here, where Poseidon has no torch key. Closer to my inner Pan, the panhandle of pandemonium, that gate has closed. I’m not so worried about the lending library known as landfall, the harmful hand of Occupation waving like spineless yucca greeting the live oak of sidewalk furniture. I no longer trust the classics. Like the ouch of Okeechobee, one infidel fits all. I am, simply, looking for a great truth to peel. Waiter, bring me oranges. I’ll pass on the boarded windows, contaminated water, and overturned coffee cups. I’ve felt the fatigue of writing in cafes, the fat glue that binds everything to a bagel, the tea spilled by relief funds. In Florida, nature has a habit of ripping pages from her notebook just to edit the coastline. While we were busy looking at our pagan devices, a whole civilization of cathedrals was murdered with a manuscript and several of Old Possums’ practical cats, no sympathy for the victims of her pawed purge. Milton’s litter projected to be a Cat 4 or Cat 5 of surging projectiles; the whole litter box tossed onto the beachfront like clumps of unscented sand.
Passed over, marked safe, same blood above the wetland door as before the flood, our geographical loyalty contains faith-based anxiety, so we prepare and pray, waiting till the end of the seasonal ordeal for one of those “aha moments,” louder than the no in Seminole, to make the whole Closed Mic, sheltered in place, appear anti-literary and alive again. •
The last time you were at the Salvador Dali Museum and you saw the dripping-clock bench in the Avant-Garden or the Rainy Taxi inside the gift shop, did you ever wonder who designed them or who was responsible for creating them? Would it surprise you to know that they were from the mind of an artist who lives right here in St. Petersburg that you have probably never heard of?
Sculptor Kevin Brady flies under the radar on purpose. He rarely ever participates in local art shows or sells through regional galleries. He prefers to work by commission, coming up with creative ideas and pitching them to people and institutions that might profit from his visionary designs.
Kevin Brady – Woody AllenKevin Brady – night_lightKevin Brady – Dali MOSIKevin Brady – WarholKevin Brady – The AceKevin Brady – ConsumedKevin Brady – Dali Bench
Born in a suburb of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Brady grew up in a creative household surrounded by artists of all stripes. From the age of six he began cleaning and helping out at the studio of neighbor and esteemed bronze sculptor Allen Harris. Hired for a dollar a day, this seemed like a fortune to the aspiring artist and started him on s sculptural journey he is still exploring today. After witnessing Harris’ untimely death at the tender age of 12, Brady began apprenticing at the art studio of Charles L. Madden, furthering his introduction to large scale sculpture and public and corporate art. While still in high school Brady also began auditing classes at the then Philadelphia College of Art. In other words, Brady already had extensive experience and education in sculpting before he even reached adulthood.
One of the lessons Brady learned early at the side of so many gifted artists was that talent does not necessarily correlate directly to the price an artist can command. He has shaped his career accordingly, preferring to control his own work and expectations. He is mostly drawn to artists like Man Ray, Marcel Duchamp, and Isamu Noguchi who fought against being pigeon-holed; instead choosing to follow their own instincts.
Brady has worked with innumerable artists throughout his career, assisting on major sculptures with the likes of Raymond Kaskey, Timothy Duffield, and Zenos Frudakis, and sculpting jewelry for Tiffany and Co. And while he states that he has never actually applied for a job, his experience has brought him into such positions as Art Director at the Holography International in Pennsylvania where he created sculpture for holograms and a stint as an enlargement sculptor at the Laran bronze Foundry, also in PA. Other positions include Senior Sculptor at A.C. Coin & Slot Co. in New Jersey, Creative Director at Creative Arts Unlimited in Pinellas Park, and researching patented inventions as Patent Assessment Officer at Equitable IP Corporation in PA.
But it is his personal work that really reveals his visionary genius. The Dali bench was something he just dreamed up and pitched to the Dali Museum. It was voted one of the Top 10 Best Designed Benches in the World, by design/curial.
Kevin Brady – Rainy Rolls Salvador Dali MuseumKevin Brady – Rainy Rolls Salvador Dali MuseumKevin Brady – Rainy Rolls Salvador Dali MuseumKevin Brady – Rainy Rolls Salvador Dali MuseumKevin Brady LennonKevin Brady – HendrixBrady StatueKevin Brady – John Lennon
Rainy Taxi was a little more complicated. Salvador Dali had created multiple taxis where it rained inside a car. Brady thought an homage would make a great addition to the Dali Museum and made the pitch. Brady ended up overseeing a collaborative project that involved the Cerf family of the Tampa Bay Automobile Museum and a team of mechanics and engineers. And while Dali’s version did indeed make it “rain” inside a car, Brady and team improved on the technology so that the irreplaceable 1933 Rolls Royce was not damaged in the effort.
Other public commissions include The Ace sculpture fountain at the Phillie’s stadium in Clearwater. In typical Brady style, he made a cold call to the league and pitched them on the idea and they agreed it was a perfect fit. Brady designed the uniform to be a combination of 100 years of Philadelphia Phillie’s uniforms.
Kevin is married to fellow artist, Susan Supper. Together they moved to St. Petersburg in 2000 after having made holiday visits to family living in St. Pete Beach. Kevin is a captivating story teller and his tales of adventures and the artists he has worked with and caroused with sounds almost implausible. But he has an infectious joyous spirit and an evening drinking wine on the porch can turn into a fun–top this!–kind of experience. Suddenly, it all makes perfect sense. Until recently, Kevin and Susan also had a home in Chadd’s Ford, Pennsylvania where they befriended and worked on creative projects with family and close associates of beloved artist Andrew Wyeth.
His newest series of sculptures is the one that could shoot him to fame, if people only knew about it. He calls them Foreshadow Sculptures. Brady creates sculptures that evoke or honor a person visually. The kicker, though, is that when light is directed through the sculpture, a perfect shadow portrait is projected on the wall behind. It is unexpected and quite honestly, a bit mind-blowing. It seems like a parlor trick, until you realize that Brady has designed the sculpture so perfectly, it just works. For example, a sculpture of a musical treble cleff projects a shadow of legendary musician John Lennon, or a sculpture of a baby bird being plucked out of its nest projects a perfect portrait of Woody Allen. How about a tomato soup can that projects Andy Warhol? Other works feature Salvador Dali, Jimi Hendrix, and The Beatles, among others. Works from this series already are in select museums and collections. He has even been known to create a personal Foreshadow Sculpture on commission.
Inventive, visionary, and ingenious, Kevin Brady lives and works in a series of storefronts in the Grand Central district, bought in the early 2000’s when such a thing was still do-able to the common man. He and Susan were clearly visionary in that way too. But you won’t see a sign or any kind of advertising on their building. The artists prefer it that way; flying below the radar is what they prefer. The next time you pass some outdoor installation, give a little thought to how such a thing came to be. The creator might actually be closer than you think.
Robin O’Dell – How long have you been in St. Pete? I have known you in passing for a long time, but I don’t really know that much about you. I assume others may not either.
Leslie Curran – I was born and raised in St Pete. My father was also a native. When people ask me where I was raised I jokingly say “Munch’s” because we went there almost every day as a kid. As a matter of fact, the candy stand they have there is still the same one as when I was a kid. [Munch’s is an “old school” diner on 6th St. S.]
Edited with Afterlight
I am a St. Pete native too, but only first generation. What inspired you to open a gallery?
Well, actually, my uncle was an artist. I always thought that was very cool. One thing he used to say when he finished a painting, “Wait ‘til you get the furniture on it. The frame.” I thought that was a good way to look at it. I thought being a picture framer was a good idea. When I was 23 I had saved some money and asked someone in the business what was needed to open a frame shop. I was given a list, and purchased everything on it, along with a book on how to custom picture frame. I taught myself how to frame. Then, thank God, I went to work for a real master framer and really learned the trade.
That’s fascinating, what is your uncle’s name?
My uncle’s name is Graham Ingles. He was a fine-art artist, but was really known as an illustrator for Mad Magazine and EC Comics. [Notable works include The Haunt of Fear and Tales from the Crypt.)
So you started your own framing business at 23?
Yes, around that time, out of my house! I then went to work for Homer Schwartz at Homer’s Picture Framing & Gallery. He was a phenomenal craftsman, and I found out later that he and Gilbert (Poor Richards Gallery and Framing) had worked together in Houston. During that time I decided to run for City Council, and continued framing with Homer for a few years.
How many times did you serve on City Council?
I was on the Council for four terms, a total of 16 years.
And then, because you were framing, you met artists and started hanging things on the wall?
Basically, I was working for another gallery with a friend of mine. We’d leave artwork by B.C. Woo and Marc Levasseur on the floor and when people came in and inquired, we’d let them know they were for sale. One thing led to another and my friend who I was working with, Linda Gregoire, decided it was time to open our own place and we started Interior Motives on Central Avenue (where Enigma is now).
I remember that.
From that point, it just kept changing and evolving. As financial times changed, and people’s needs changed, and corporations took different directions with their art, it just kept evolving to what it is today.
Do you sell online too, or is the 9th Street gallery the only thing?
We sell online, and expanded our online gallery during the pandemic to include “pre-loved” consigned artwork.
You have the framing and art gallery, do you provide other services too?
ARTicles provides full concierge service, offering pick up and delivery, as well as installation services. We do consultations for residential and commercial sites. Assisting people with their collections, whether adding new work or just beginning to start collecting, is a favorite. If you have $20 you have enough to start collecting! We showcase art from $20 to $20,000- plus. Allowing the client to take a piece home and try it is much appreciated.
Are you an artist?
No! I dabbled in painting for a while, and I guess you could call my frame designs artistic, but not as far as an artist by trade.
Well clearly, you have a great eye. How do you decide what goes in the gallery?
I work with Robin Perry who’s a great curator. We look for artists that are different, who have a good resume, that have a body of work, and that are dedicated to their trade.
How has the business been doing, now that there are new high rises everywhere? It always blows my mind when they announce a new high rise and prices start at 1.2 million.
Business is great! It’s not all because of the new high rises, we have built a great clientele over the years. You would think that the million dollar condos would all have great art, but they don’t! We work with a number of designers, and recommend that they put a line item in their budget for art. It’s just as important as the furniture. Too many times we hear that “we’re at the end of the project, and we’ve gone a little over budget.” Don’t treat art as an afterthought.
Edited with Afterlight
What do you consider your biggest personal achievement?
Probably just what I have done in the city, and I guess my continued work in the city. No matter how hard I try to not get involved, I still do.
RKO – I find that anytime there’s talk about the 600 block of Central Avenue your name always comes up. A lot of people don’t even know about that.
[In 2008, the 600 block of Central Avenue was slated to be demolished and replaced by a 15 story mixed-use development. Leslie was instrumental in persuading the investor to save the buildings including the historic Crislip Arcade and rent out the storefronts to artists at reduced rates.]
600. I am proud of that. I’m also proud of my time serving on the City Council. I feel that I was able to have a positive impact in the neighborhoods, with small business, and the overall direction of the City.
Yes, and that’s a legacy that’s still there.
The fortunate thing is that I got to work with Tom Gaffney, who owned the 600 block property and was absolutely wonderful. It is a good example of what can be done; what should be done.
I was one of the many volunteers who came and helped clean out the old shops.
Every storefront was filled with “stuff” that needed to be removed. The city was a huge help with providing roll off dumpsters to get rid of the trash, fixing the street lighting, and cleaning the sidewalks. We then had a yard sale to raise money for marketing the vacant spaces to artists. I believe that the 600 block led the way for the changes we see today. Most of the artist galleries are gone now, but for 5 years they enjoyed a minimal rent for a prime downtown location, and it was good for the community.
It was good! It’s difficult to even remember what downtown St. Pete was like back then.
Oh, I remember! Downtown was asleep and not kept up.
It was always charming, though. I used to ride my bike downtown, even when I was in middle school, and the downtown was mostly abandoned and full of elderly people, but it was still charming. Which leads us to…where do you see St. Pete and the arts scene in the next 5 years? What do you think is going to happen?
I think this city needs to take it up a notch. I would definitely like to see more arts funding at the city and county level. The percentage for the arts/public art needs to be increased. There needs to be a concerted effort to place more art throughout the entire city. Art needs to be accessible for all. More sculptures! I remember years ago Lance Rodgers had an idea for a sculpture walk. Maybe it’s time to revisit that. Milwaukee just did something along that line. Some people like it, some people don’t, which is always the case, and that’s ok. We have our beloved Mainsail Arts Festival and other local art fairs, but maybe it’s time to introduce an International art show into the city. We have a plethora of artists in St Pete, so it’s time to focus on marketing this “Arts City.” Artists can not survive without BUYERS. This is where city/county support would help. We need to grow up. I think we are getting there, slowly.
I agree with that. Slowly. It’s encouraging that big spaces like The Fairgrounds and The ArtsXchange are including spaces for artists to sell their work and have a public presence, which I think only raises everyone up a little more.
I think another addition to the arts scene in St Pete could be an arts school. When we were working on the 600 block, we had discussions with Ringling opening a satellite. At one point the city met with SCAD about doing something at Mirror Lake; maybe not the right time or location, but a start. Again, we need to bring buyers here. St. Pete needs to be a stop for people looking for art.
Well, that’s a difficult thing. How do you attract those people, other than having a reputation as an art town and it becoming an arts destination?
I don’t think it is that difficult of a task. It just has to be made a priority. I think it’s something that the city and county can work together on with Tourist Development – Bed Tax – dollars. We need to start marketing for people to come to this town and buy art. We need to elevate our stature. And, our public art…we pat ourselves on the back for acquiring the sculpture at the Pier by Janet Echelman, yet the grounds underneath are now worn and tired. Many studies have shown the positive effects that the Arts has on people. This city is in the position to elevate the arts. We have great arts programs in schools, arts centers and museums for viewing and learning, and incredible projects like the NOMAD art and SPACECRAFT that take art into neighborhoods. We need more of that, especially during these difficult times.
You have been such a great supporter of St. Pete. What makes you happy?
I am very fortunate that I have a career that makes me happy! My kids (grown) make me happy! Anything outdoors makes me happy!
Thanks for all you do. •
Leslie Curran is the owner and proprietor of ARTicles Gallery 1234 MLK, Jr. St. N., St. Petersburg
