By Gabrielle Reeder. St. Pete City Theatre hosts junior summer productions to promote the passion for live theatre and introduce children to the importance of the arts. On July 15, the organization graced the stage with a group of talented kids between the ages of seven and 14 for Seussical Jr. – illuminating Dr. Seuss’s work and entertaining an audience of over 200…. Read More
Tampa’s 6th annual Fringe Festival gathers 23 bold companies from Tampa Bay and beyond, plus a family-friendly Kids Fringe. “We want to make the indie performing arts popular and accessible for everyone.” Our artists and audiences mingle with those from elsewhere, so we can all benefit from expanded perspectives and artistic developments. We are also one of the few platforms in Tampa Bay where local artists can affordably experiment and take artistic risks…. Read More
By Kurt Loft. The famed French sculptor Rodin, who created the iconic “The Thinker,” takes center stage through the end of October at the Polk Museum of Art at Florida Southern College in Lakeland. The free exhibition, Rodin: Contemplation and Dreams, includes 40 works from the acclaimed B. Gerald Cantor Collections. It marks the largest installation of sculptures in the museum’s history…. Read More
By Jake-ann Jones. Celeste Davis became executive director of Tampa Bay Businesses for Culture and the Arts (TBBCA) in February of 2021, bringing decades of professional design experience along with an insightful curatorial eye. She points to the growing appreciation of both established and contemporary Black artists and their work coming to area museums as “a natural experience for curators, for visitors, for everyone to think more broadly, more diversely, more inclusively…. Read More
By Laura Kepner. “We bring people together,” says Jennifer Malin of Community Foundation Tampa Bay. “We work with philanthropists who invest their money with us and we match them with a community need.” CFTB’s newest space at 110 Central Avenue in downtown St. Pete is dedicated to showcasing local art. Right now their space hosts paintings by Nathan Beard, works by Nick Davis and a permanent mural by Ya La’Ford…. Read More
By Margo Hammond. The Cultured Books Literacy Foundation is a nonprofit, book-promoting organization with an unusual mission. Unlike most literacy programs which look to the needs of individual children, CBLF is interested in fostering literacy throughout an entire community — the Black community of south St. Pete. “It’s not just about focusing on the children,” the foundation says on its website, “It’s about supporting and involving parents as well.” For CBLF, literacy is a lifestyle…. Read More
By Jake-ann Jones. A dynamic display of contemporary Black women artists, including Shannon Elyse Curry, Kendra Frorup, Nneka Jones, Jodi Minnis and Princess Smith, is currently on view at the Tampa Museum of Art (TMA) in Verde: Poetics of Shade. Taking its title from contemplation on the color green and its various emotions and feelings, the exhibit considers several shades and symbolic messages evoked from the color through the mediums of painting, sculpture, ceramics, and embroidery on canvas…. Read More
By Carol Mickett. I knew as soon as I walked into The Visit, the first solo museum exhibition in the U.S. by Uruguayan-Spanish artist Yamandú Canosa, that I was not in the typical Museum show. It’s rare to find a show such as The Visit which quietly and simply creates a place. The entire show itself is generated from Canosa’s visit to the home of Salvador Dalí in Port Lligat, Spain. Canosa uses the home of Dalí and its landscape to construct a place of his own that pays homage to his visit and to his roots in Spanish art history and surrealism…. Read More
By Tom Winchester. The DMG School Project brings the art of glass to students who don’t otherwise have access to this art by offering demonstrations and workshops on-site at local schools. This project is funded, in part, by the Pinellas County Recovers Grant that’s awarded by Creative Pinellas through the National Endowment for the Arts’ American Rescue Plan. The DMG School Project helps to put the power of creativity into the hands of the next generation…. Read More
By Jackie Kaufman. The St. Petersburg Chess Club is a hidden gem close to downtown St. Pete. They have been operating in the same location longer than any other chess club in the United States, 91 years – yes that is right, since 1931 in the same building. Through this NEA/Pinellas Recovers grant project, the members will make their own individual chess pieces out of pewter, and learn the whole creative process.
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