Arts In: Recent Episodes
Creative Pinellas
Creative Pinellas is the designated arts agency of Pinellas County. We bring you the stories of artists, performers and creatives through our podcast and in our journal at creativepinellas.org.
Audio producer Jessica Tomlinson is also a keyboard instructor at Girls Rock St Pete – and created a vivid sound portrait of this very cool group empowering "women, girls, and gender-expansive folx through fearless expression, artistic experimentation and collaboration to build confidence and leadership skills to transform ourselves and our communities."https://girlsrockstpete.orgPublished in the Creative Pinellas Arts Coast Onlinephoto by Marissa Rafalski for Girls Rock St Pete
“I’m a nice guy, really!” laughs Gregory Green. The artist and pacifist teaches at The University of South Florida and is internationally known for his 3D installations of realistic bomb-making workshops and nuclear missiles. It’s art with a political edge and educational aim, seeking to spur conversations about violence - and alternatives to violence - and exploring how information and technology are tools of social change. Gregory Green shares the theatricality behind his work, which includes more than a dozen fully-functional pirate radio and TV stations in the US and Europe, his “Gregnik” re-creation of the first Earth satellite and a three-stage booster rocket that’s ready to launch if you’ve got the rocket fuel. Green tells of wrangling with the bomb squad, designing an installation for filmmaker John Waters’ home, and how he was rated one of the Top 100 Artists in the World before 9/11, and how after 9/11 artwork about violence suddenly became much harder. Green’s work is included in major public and private collections, including among others the Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles, the Tate Gallery in London, the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Mori Museum in Tokyo and MAMCO Geneva. Explore Gregory Green’s work here - http://gregory-green.com/home.htmlAnd his incredible resume - http://s3.otherpeoplespixels.com/sites/33374/gregory-green.com-1445104004.pdfArts In is produced by Matt and Sheila Cowley. Executive Producer, Barbara St. Clair for Creative Pinellas.
Eugenie Bondurant is film and TV actor, cabaret singer, teacher, director, international runway model – and part of the heart of St. Pete.At an age when many women actors are struggling to find good roles, she was cast in the pivotal role of Tigris in the last Hunger Games film. In 2019, she started work on a DC comics film called The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It and starred with Harry Connick Jr. in Fear of Rain, a national film that was shot in St. Pete, playing a very scary villain and talking Cole Porter to Connick during breaks.They'd already auditioned over 100 guys for that part and couldn't find anyone they liked. When they let Eugenie audition, they rewrote the villain to be a woman. Then she got a call from the director, who said they'd been doing test runs of the Conjuring film and feedback from audiences was that they wanted much more of her character. So amid the pandemic they actually rewrote and re-shot much of the film to expand Eugenie's character. She got a whole new look, new lair, new backstory, more stunt work – and a DC comic based on her character, with material from scenes she played in the film.Last year she joined the Marvel universe via Werewolf By Night – as an elegant and deadly monster hunter in a fun classic horror film world, in an ensemble with Gael García Bernal and Harriet Sansom Harris directed by multi-Oscar-winning film composer Michael Giacchino.And after 25 years of teaching acting, Eugenie opened up her own acting school – Station 12 Studio. Classes take place in front of the big screen at the intimate Greenlight Cinema. She still appears in and directs local indie films and shorts, and uses her storytelling skills to bring classic songs to life with her piano-playing husband, Paul Wilborn.Eugenie shares these amazing stories – and how as an actor, she works hard to humanize the villains that she plays onscreen.A vibrant 61 years old when this was recorded, as Barbara St. Clair notes, Eugenie Bondurant is "living her best life."Arts In is produced by Sheila CowleyExecutive Producer Barbara St. Clair
Dancer, choreographer, professor – and inventor – Merry Lynn Morris talks with Barbara St. Clair about her work exploring dance and disability, and how dance companies and educators are embracing a diversity of dancing bodies in performance. Published in the Creative Pinellas Arts Coast magazine on May 16, 2023 – https://creativepinellas.org/arts-coast-magazine/Photo by Jim Lennon – Mary Lynn Morris and Dwayne Scheuneman in ML Morris choreography
Members of ThinkTank TYA's Young Artists' Ensemble Edwin Noah Perez, Kaylee Tupper Miller and Jadon Milne share their thoughts on how it feels to sing.Published in the Arts Coast magazine feature "Both Sides of the Bay Cabaret" by Creative PInellas 5/12/23.
Cindy Stovall talks with Helen French, Lauren Slone and Alexander Jones about 2023's Beacon dance celebration at St. Pete's Palladium Theater.Featured in "Beacon 2023" published in the Creative PInellas Arts Coast magazine on April 25, 2023 – https://creativepinellas.org/magazine/beacon-2023/
In a potent conversation ranging through his fascinating career, dancer and educator John Parks talks with Barbara St. Clair about his experiences touring the South with the Jose Limón Company during segregation, his inventive teaching philosophy – and how he helped the undervalued dancers in the movie version of The Wiz go on strike for equal pay and credit. . . and win.Transcript available at https://creativepinellas.org/magazine/arts-in-john-parks/Photo by Tom Kramer
Cindy Stovall of "Beauty & The 'Burg" talks with actor Jennifer Christa Palmer, who plays Susan B. Anthony in freeFall Theatre's 2023 production of "The Agitators" by Mat Smart, and Matthew McGee, freeFall's director of community outreach.
Visual artist and creative activist John Gascot talks with Barbara St. Clair about his exploratory series of self portraits, the powerful human rights installation he created during the pandemic and inventing a Diversity Game to help teach kids that diversity and inclusion matters. He shares the vibrant work of the Pinellas Park arts community and the start of Pinellas Park's PRIDE celebration.gascot.comdiversityartsinc.compinellasartsvillage.com– photo by Laurie Elmer
Christina Bertsos shares her passion for sculpting in stone and marble with host Barbara St. Clair – and how her work with fabric and hand-crafted couture influences her creations now. She guides us through the physical hands-on craft of sculpting, explains how you find marble in Florida, and how she got started in stone through a class at the Dunedin Fine Art Center.
https://www.christinabertsos.com/
Bach's "Toccata Et Fugue En Ré Mineur" performed on the University of Tampa's Ars Sonora Bell Tower – the first in the U.S. and the largest in the world.
Recorded by Kurt Loft, photo by Kurt Loft. Story published in Arts Coast Online on October 7, 2022 – https://creativepinellas.org/arts-coast-magazine/
Cindy Stovall talks with Eric Davis and Matthew McGee about freeFall Theatre's 2022-2023 season and their efforts to create a safe space to gather, to escape and build community.
USF Theatre professor Fanni Green talks with USF English professor Gary Lemons about his aim as the June 2022 guest editor of the Arts Coast magazine – Community Healing through Artistic Transformation.
Published in https://creativepinellas.org/arts-coast-magazine/.
A profile of 13-year-old violinist Eunice Park and the all-volunteer Tampa Bay Symphony, which includes 70 musicians ages 18 to 80 and serves as a platform for people who want to play part-time, but still tackle challenging works. "The beauty of our group lies in the members," says double bass player Paul Kurtz. “It’s a beautiful blend of young, old, Black, white, brown, yellow, straight, gay – basically, come as you are. And to me that is a true reflection of community."
Voiced by Susan Giles Wantuck. Written by Kurt Loft. Originally published in the Creative Pinellas Arts Coast Magazine on May 5, 2022. https://creativepinellas.org/arts-coast-magazine/
An audio version of Kurt Loft's story, "Master Chorale Offers Musical Balm in Times of Stress," voiced and produced by Susan Giles-Wantuck. Published in the Creative Pinellas Arts Coast Magazine on March 23, 2022, https://creativepinellas.org/arts-coast-magazine/. Music by the Master Chorale of Tampa Bay, https://www.masterchorale.com/.
An audio version of Kurt Loft's conversation with pianist Susan Cahill about her performance series "The Future is Female," focused on works for piano written by historic and contemporary women. Voiced and produced by Susan Giles-Wantuck, as published in the Creative Pinellas Arts Coast Magazine – https://creativepinellas.org/arts-coast-magazine/.
Susan Giles Wantuck voices the story she wrote for the Creative Pinellas Arts Coast Magazine, exploring the wonders of Replay Amusement Museum in Tarpon Springs FL – where the visitors and staff are equally passionate about pinball and retro video games.
Published December 17, 2021 in https://creativepinellas.org/arts-coast-magazine/
Public artist Douglas Kornfeld tells the fascinating tale of how he created vibrant public artworks in New Orleans that became symbols of the city, part of parades – and will hopefully save lives if a major storm hits.
Kornfeld talks with Barbara St. Clair about what it truly means to be an artist – and what it means to make work on a monumental scale, along with the logistics of massive installations. He shares how he found his way to large-scale public sculpture and explains how figuring out Photoshop at a time when people barely knew about it revved up his career.
You can explore the work of Douglas Kornfeld at http://www.awaka-inc.com/.
Published in the Creative Pinellas Arts Coast Magazine on November 23, 2021. . . https://creativepinellas.org/arts-coast-magazine/
Abstract artist Kirk Ke Wang teaches at Eckerd College and his work is known internationally. His boldly abstract creations are colorful and striking – moving through painting, sculpture, photography, video, conceptual, performance and installation art. “Although oscillating between them, I intend to weave a tapestry of my vision of the world, led by a consistent thread – the fear of inexorable cataclysm.” Still, Kirk Ke Wang’s work often appears joyous.
He shares the details behind several large-scale installations, and talks with host Barbara St. Clair about how he grew up in China during the cultural revolution – and learned both visual art and music from professors locked up in a labor camp, using water instead of ink to paint, and playing a keyboard drawn on a table while the professors sang the notes.
Published in the Creative Pinellas Arts Coast Magazine on November 19, 2021. . . https://creativepinellas.org/arts-coast-magazine/
Famed photographer Clyde Butcher tells how he didn't let a water moccasin bite stop him from taking a photo of a Ghost Orchid, for an audience of reporters at the Clearwater Public Library. The free exhibit, "America's Everglades Through the Lens of Clyde Butcher," runs through May 31, 2022.
Featured in "Clyde Butcher’s Photography Inspires Visitors at Clearwater’s Main Library," published November 17, 2021 by the Creative Pinellas Arts Coast Magazine.
https://creativepinellas.org/arts-coast-magazine/
Susan Giles Wantuck reads "Tarpon Springs Oboist Plays on the Need for Reed," a profile of oboe player Amy Collins, written by Kurt Loft and published in the Creative Pinellas Arts Coast Magazine.
Susan Wantuck reads "Keyboard Kinetics," a story by Kurt Loft that was published in the Creative Pinellas Arts Coast Magazine on October 29, 2021. Featuring music by John O'Leary III and Shaun Martin from O'Leary III's upcoming CD produced by Martin.
https://creativepinellas.org/magazine/keyboard-kinetics/
A profile of the Tampa-based Acme Jazz Garage ensemble before their performance at St. Petersburg's Palladium Theater on October 24, 2021. Written by Kurt Loft and published in the Creative Pinellas Arts Coast Magazine. Voiced and produced by Susan Wantuck.
https://creativepinellas.org/arts-coast-magazine/
Bestselling suspense novelist Lisa Unger is based here in Pinellas County. Her new book, Last Girl Ghosted, comes out on October 5 and was named one of the Most Anticipated Books of 2021 by Crimereads.
Unger’s critically-acclaimed thrillers have sold millions of copies and been translated into 30 languages. Her work has been on “Best Book” lists from the Today show, Good Morning America, Entertainment Weekly, Amazon, Goodreads and more. In 2019, she received two Edgar Award nominations, an honor held by only a few authors, including Agatha Christie.
Though she writes dark psychological thrillers, Lisa Unger is a warm and down to Earth working mom. Her conversation with Barbara St. Clair is rich in laughter, as she shares how stories and characters reveal themselves to her, and what she’s driven to explore as she digs deep into stories.
You can explore Lisa Unger’s work at lisaunger.com
Award-winning poet Gloria Muñoz shares a soundscape of her poem “The Romantics” from her forthcoming poetry collection "Danzirly / Dawn’s Early."
The soundscape was created for Nikke Pike’s installation “Totem” which was on tour at the Dunedin Fine Arts Center. The poem was originally published by Cosmonauts Avenue.
Brandie Dziegiel (pronounced “Diesel”) is a young artist embracing the age-old craft of printmaking.
She tells Barbara St. Clair about choosing to get an art degree after serving in the Coast Guard. Brandie shares her passion for the physical craft of cutting away to reveal an image, and how she uses her artwork to process her experiences as a veteran.
Growing up in a military family, Brandie moved around a lot. She talks about returning to Florida’s landscape and how the fragile natural world and Pinellas County’s indigenous heritage finds its way into her work.
Explore Brandie Dziegiel’s work at https://brandiedziegielart.com/
Arts In is produced by Sheila Cowley. Executive Producer, Barbara St. Clair.
Cora Marshall can express herself in almost any medium. That’s thanks to teaching high school art for many years, where she had to show students how to do everything from drawing to throwing pots on a wheel.
In this thoughtful conversation with Barbara St. Clair, Marshall explains how different concepts lend themselves to different artistic mediums. She shares her inspiration for the series she’s created based on newspaper ads hunting for runaway slaves, and another about older people who keep working at difficult jobs on their feet, to survive.
Cora Marshall and Barbara St. Clair discuss the fine lines of political art, and her college years at Howard University during the Black Power Movement. Marshall details the artwork she’s created to explore her family’s heritage and history, and a new series designed to find a way out of our current negativity - artwork inspired by children’s faces.
Explore Cora Marshall’s work here https://www.coramarshall.com/Artist.asp?ArtistID=47105&Akey=X679CJP9&ajx=1#!asset76453
Arts In is produced by Sheila Cowley. Executive Producer, Barbara St. Clair.
Muralist, painter, designer and all-over creative Daniel Barojas talks with Barbara St. Clair about the art of graffiti, the inspiration he draws from indigenous communities and his own Mexican heritage, experiments with Op Art-style patterns and illusions. . . and the stories behind two murals in St. Pete that are helping keep the city safe.
You can explore the work of Daniel Barojas at https://r5imaging.com/ and on Instagram.
This article explores his experiments with Chromadepth 3-D glasses - https://creativepinellas.org/analyzing-chroma-depth-and-geology-with-daniel-barojas/.
St. Petersburg Poet Laureate Helen Pruitt Wallace reads her narrative poem "Pink Streets" and shares her memories of this offbeat neighborhood.
St. Petersburg Poet Laureate Helen Pruitt Wallace talks with Barbara St. Clair about growing up in St. Pete’s “Pink Streets” neighborhood and shares poems inspired by her rollicking childhood, the joys and grief of family, and her mother’s struggle with Alzheimer’s.
With laughter and enthusiasm, she talks about her passion for the sounds of poems, the spark of playing with formal structure and how she’s not afraid to confront politics through poetry.
You can explore Helen Pruitt Wallace’s writing at http://helenwallacepoetry.com/ and follow her on Twitter at @HelenPWallace.
Helen hosts the Dalí Poetry Series - free and open to the public - typically the second Thursday of the month from September through May at The Dalí Museum. Details here.
Tenea Johnson is a writer of speculative fiction, a poet and musician. In this conversation with Barbara St. Clair she talks about her imaginative stories and novels, and how her childhood in Kentucky shaped her views of life.
Tenea shares enticing details from her stories, and how she’s built a sustainable full-time career as a writer. She’s currently bringing printed words to life in multimedia creations. The Knitting Factory, Dixon Place, The Public Theater and others have opened their doors to this new form.
Her work has appeared in Mothership: Tales of Afrofuturism, African Voices, Arise, Humanities in the South, Infinite Matrix, Contemporary American Women Poets, Shades of Blue and Gray, Whispers in the Night: Dark Dreams III and Necrologue, among others. She is the author of a poetry/short prose collection, Starting Friction as well as the novels, Smoketown, R/evolution and Evolution.
Find out more about Tenea Johnson’s work at http://www.teneadjohnson.com
Links to printed and recorded work:
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1204168.Tenea_D_Johnson
http://www.teneadjohnson.com/compositions/
Suzanne Pomerantzeff - or Ms. P, as she’s known to generations of dancers in St. Pete - shares her love of dance with movers of every ability.
For 50 years, dancers of all ages have learned and flourished with Ms. P, sparked by her passion for all of the arts. Many who’ve studied with her at the Academy of Ballet or the Pinellas County Center for the Arts at Gibbs High School have gone on to acclaimed professional careers.
An award-winning teacher and choreographer, Suzanne shares how her own performance career was cut short by injury, which let her find a path to teaching. She tells us how the Academy of Ballet Arts grew from one rented room to their current home, covered in murals - and explains how vital St. Pete’s own “Fame” high school is, as Pinellas County’s arts magnet.
Ms. P talks about how much the classic discipline of ballet and the idea of a ‘perfect body’ has changed and grown. She shares the Academy’s newest success, an adaptive ballet program open to dancers of differing abilities. A seasoned educator, she explains how as a teacher, she never stops learning.
You can hear the joy and passion in her voice, on this inspiring conversation with Barbara St. Clair.
Find out more about the Academy of Ballet at https://www.academyofballetarts.org/.
The Pinellas County Center for the Arts at Gibbs High School serves public school students throughout Pinellas County - https://www.pcsb.org/pcca-gibbs.
- Arts In is produced by Sheila Cowley. Executive Producer, Barbara St. Clair.
As Florida CraftArt gets ready to host artists from around the country at their annual CraftArt Festival, Executive Director Katie Deits guides Barbara St. Clair through the varied landscape of Fine Craft.
Katie shares her favorite experiences at Florida CraftArt - from exhibits inspired by the use of light and poets writing about work inspired by animals, to visiting Tibetan Monks creating, and erasing, a mandala.
Katie talks about her own artistic journey from aerial photographer to curator, and explains the history of downtown St. Pete's vibrant Fine Craft center - a place where everyone is welcome to wander in and look at art.
Find out more about Florida CraftArt at floridacraftart.org.
Saumitra Chandratreya is an adventurous visual artist whose work is political, but beautiful - and often created from unexpected materials.
In this conversation with Barbara St. Clair, he talks about identity, immigration and the inspiration he takes from objects other people overlook or throw away.
As he explains, “If I don’t make challenging work, then I’m letting down anyone who is of brown skin and queer, who might be interested in making their voice heard, but don’t have the tools - because I have the tools.”
Saumitra Chandratreya’s work was chosen this month for the 2019 Visions of Health Equity project sponsored by the Foundation for a Healthy St. Petersburg. His work will be featured at the Chad Mize Gallery in November.
Link to the Foundation For Healthy St. Pete announcement: https://myemail.constantcontact.com/News--Events-and-Resources.html?soid=1120560768999&aid=BfoxUOerk8I
Link to Mize gallery website: http://chadmize.com/exhibits.html
Find out more about Saumitra Chandratreya’s work at https://www.saumitrac.com
Instagram: saumiisawyou
Facebook: Saumitra Chandratreya
Arts In: Don Gialanella
Don Gialanella can make a cow out of children’s toys, that’s the size of a cow. He made the giant twirly moustache in front of The Dalí Museum.
Don creates huge and beautiful sculptures that have personality and humor. From a life-sized metal man tenderly opening his chest to reveal his glowing heart, to a diver arcing exuberantly into a dumpster full of plastic bottles, to remind us to recycle.
In this conversation with Barbara St. Clair, Don Gialanella shares wild and wonderful stories of working with sculptor Louise Bourgeois, new projects involving sound and how he keeps up with more commissions than ever despite Parkinson’s disease. Don explains how he wound up on the cutting-edge of digital design for television and shares his enthusiastic passion for public art.
Explore Don Gialanella’s work at donsculpture.com
Arts In is produced by Sheila Cowley. Executive Producer, Barbara St. Clair.
Award-winning filmmaker and screenwriter Victoria Johnson creates both narrative and documentary films. In this conversation with Barbara St. Clair, she tells us surprising and humorous tales of learning the craft of analog filmmaking in the adventurous artistic atmosphere of the University of South Florida in the late 1970s.
She explains how her skills evolved through video and digital, and her focus on creating films that change her audience’s views about a subject.
Victoria shares the challenges of suddenly needing to run her family business, and how she brought video to her marketing firm - and surprisingly got hired by the 2012 Republican National Convention, something she still chuckles about. She won the Telly Award for Welcome to Tampa.
Victoria shares her passion for screenwriting, an art she came to after establishing a career as a filmmaker. She reflects on the thriving world of streaming video, and how to find an audience in a world where everyone can make a film on their cell phone.
Victoria’s currently exploring political performance art. You can read about her recent project here - https://www.cltampa.com/arts-entertainment/visual-art/article/21080912/tampa-bay-artist-puts-toy-babies-in-cages-to-protest-trumps-migrant-detention-centers.
And here - https://www.wtsp.com/mobile/article/news/local/ice-ice-baby-local-artist-takes-aim-at-immigration-crisis/67-6bdae07b-a0e9-48dc-a4ed-e8220edaf090.
You can find out more about Victoria Jorgenson’s work at http://amovieproductions.com/.
Bahia Ramos recently spoke at the Art of Marketing and Branding Summit hosted by Creative Pinellas.
She serves as Director of Arts at New York City’s Wallace Foundation, and leads the team responsible for the foundation’s work funding research by arts organizations around the country, as they explore a larger question that affects the entire arts community.
Bahia explains the five-year relationship she has with grantees, as they help create a body of knowledge that can be shared to help arts organizations nationwide.
She shares her thoughts on the crucial business of philanthropy, on growing new audiences and how to change your art as the world around you changes.
Find out more about the Wallace Foundation at https://www.wallacefoundation.org/pages/default.aspx.
Explore their five-year project, Building Audiences for Sustainability - https://www.wallacefoundation.org/knowledge-center/building-audiences-for-the-arts/pages/default.aspx Their research is available for anyone to read. Here’s a selection from many pages of documents you can download. Audience Building and Financial Health for Nonprofit Performing Arts https://www.wallacefoundation.org/knowledge-center/pages/audience-building-and-financial-health-nonprofit-performing-arts.aspx Ballet Austin: Building Audiences for Unfamiliar Works https://www.wallacefoundation.org/knowledge-center/pages/ballet-austin-building-audiences-for-unfamiliar-works--discussion-guide.aspx Change in Audiences in American Theaters https://www.wallacefoundation.org/knowledge-center/pages/change-in-audiences-american-theaters.aspx Arts for All: Connecting New Audiences https://www.wallacefoundation.org/knowledge-center/pages/arts-for-all-connecting-new-audiences.aspx Studies in Building Arts Audiences and Building Deeper Relationships https://www.wallacefoundation.org/knowledge-center/pages/wallace-studies-in-building-arts-audiences-building-deeper-relationships.aspx
Mark Feinman is the drummer for the eclectic jazz trio, La Lucha - and an inventive composer.
Mark tells La Lucha’s origin story of how he and pianist John O’Leary and bassist Alejandro Arenas began their long-term collaboration. And he shares his own journey in jazz, with stops at St Pete’s Pinellas County Center for the Arts at Gibbs High School and the University of South Florida’s cutting-edge School of Music.
He talks with Barbara St. Clair about constantly listening and creating music, and even shares a sneak peek at a future song, recorded on his phone during a dog walk.
Find out more about La Lucha’s music and performance schedule at https://www.laluchamusic.com/.
You can read about Mark Feinman’s work during his tenure as a Creative Pinellas Emerging Artist Fellow at https://creativepinellas.org/mark-feinman/.
Carrie Jadus made a name for herself as a professional artist, after giving up a career as a skilled radio frequency engineer.
Her distinctive, soft and subtly subversive style is seen in paintings, on murals, posters and notecards around St. Petersburg. Working at Soft Water Studios, she’s a mainstay of the Warehouse Arts District and longtime illustrator for St. Pete Preservation.
Carrie shares the turning point that made her decide to choose art over engineering - and how as a working mother, she carefully planned a sustainable artistic career, using the business plan of a Toymaker as a model. She explains how working in several different styles helped her earn a living and fulfill her urges for personal expression.
She tells the story behind her well-known mural of pioneering electrical engineer, Nikola Tesla - and Little Miss Sisyphus, the mural people often miss just around the corner. Carrie shares her passion for ‘grand portraits,’ monumental paintings of figures from Einstein to Nina Simone, and explains in detail two recent, more surrealistic, paintings.
You can explore Carrie Jadus’ work at http://www.carriejadus.com/bio.html.
And follow her new work at https://www.facebook.com/cjadusfineartpage/ and https://www.instagram.com/jadusfineart/.
Soft Water Studios is open during Second Saturday ArtWalk - https://stpeteartsalliance.org/artwalk/ - from 5-9 p.m. on the second Saturday of every month - http://www.softwaterstudios.com/.
Her Tesla mural and Little Miss Sisyphus are featured in the St Pete Arts Alliance’s Virtual Mural Tour - https://stpeteartsalliance.org/carrie-jadus-tesla/ and https://stpeteartsalliance.org/carrie-jadus-little-miss-sisyphus/.
Jason Hackenwerth is an adventurous abstract sculptor who’s medium is thousands of latex balloons. His enormous sculptural inventions can fill a towering museum atrium, or mall.
His sculptures are enormous, and the vivid pictures on his website are only an echo of the overwhelming power of experiencing them up close.
Jason Hackenwerth teaches at St. Pete’s Eckerd College and works all over the world. To his knowledge, he’s the only artist right now doing serious, curated art with balloons. He talks about the challenges of validating a new kind of art when you don’t have a community of artists working in that style.
In this conversation with Barbara St. Clair, Jason shares the moving and “terrifying” story of his early experiments, and how his first big installation went so badly wrong. And how he turned that failure into a new way of working that got him a year-long gig building a sculpture a day on a stage inside FAO Schwarz, and traveling the world creating giant balloon sculptures.
Jason explains his passion for the ephemeral nature of his artistic practice - and his ongoing artistic quest to push this unique medium constantly further. And the challenges of creating artwork that curators expect to look like a birthday party.
Find out more about Jason Hackenwerth’s work at http://www.jasonhackenwerth.com/.
Time-lapse footage of the installation of Pisces at the National Museum of Scotland - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtqPxtSMK9E.
An interview with Jason during the unveiling of Corona at the Abu Dhabi Science Festival - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHv9PMl-Ki8.
The video he mentions of a year of impromptu sculptures created while people watched him at FAO Schwarz - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kg3aE1zytnI
Erin Blankenship is the Curator of Exhibitions & Collections at the Florida Holocaust Museum in St. Petersburg. The Museum is more special than most people realize - it’s a historical museum that maintains a vital collection of contemporary art.
Erin’s seen first-hand how visual art offers another path to understanding the challenging reality of genocide. The Museum’s permanent collection includes work in a range of mediums, created by artists in concentration camps and Holocaust survivors - along with work by “empathizers,” artists who may or may not be Jewish, but are moved to respond to acts of genocide.
She explains the powerful role artists shoulder, telling stories that need to be told. And she shares memories of beloved artist William Pachner, an internationally-known Abstract Expressionist and a longtime, vivid presence in Tampa Bay. In one of the highlights of her curatorial career to date, Erin organized an exhibition where collectors of Pachner’s beautiful and colorful abstractions discovered that his paintings were inspired by the loss of his entire family in the Holocaust - forcing people to rethink their perception of what ‘Holocaust art’ looks like.
Find out more about the Florida Holocaust Museum’s exhibitions and programming at https://www.flholocaustmuseum.org/.
Read a Tampa Bay Times review of the exhibit of William Pachner’s work that Erin talks about - https://www.tampabay.com/things-to-do/visualarts/art-review-william-pachners-powerful-response-to-holocaust-still-resonates/2230372.
A detailed look at the life and work of William Pachner published in Tablet, with a quote from Erin - https://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-arts-and-culture/250423/painter-william-pachner-obit.
- Arts In is produced by Sheila Cowley. Executive Producer, Barbara St. Clair.
Katherine Pill is the Curator of Contemporary Art at the Museum of Fine Arts in downtown St. Petersburg.
In this conversation with Barbara St. Clair, Katherine shares her duties as curator of the growing collection of contemporary art at this classic museum - from exploring cutting-edge new digital works to collaborating with public artists Carol Mickett and Robert Stackhouse on community engagement with their work.
Find out more about the Museum of Fine Arts at mfastpete.org.
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Images 1-2 are from Mickett-Stackhouse’s Irma Reflections at the MFA. Find out more about this participatory installation at mfastpete.org/event/mickett-stackhouse-irma-reflections/all.
Image 3 is by Christian Marclay, a still from Telephones, 1995, video, running time 7:30 minutes. © Christian Marclay. Courtesy Paula Cooper Gallery, New York. Find out more about this pioneering artist at tate.org.uk/art/artists/christian-marclay.
Desiree Moore is a multidisciplinary artist working in video and film, art installations and a unique take on interactive public art.
She shares her creative process, with plenty of action in the editing room, in this conversation with Barbara St. Clair. Along with her engaging collaborative effort, The Barter Boat, traveling the country to trade people’s special objects and stories.
Find out more about Desiree Moore’s work at https://www.desireenicholemoore.com/.
Explore the online journal she posted during her Creative Pinellas Emerging Artist Fellowship - https://creativepinellas.org/desiree-moore/.
Find out more about the Barter Boat at https://www.facebook.com/BarterBoat/.
Carrie Boucher’s artistic practice is driving a traveling art classroom, providing opportunities for children and adults to create art.
The much-beloved Nomad Art Bus visits art festivals and foster homes, domestic abuse shelters, juvenile detention centers and parks, recreation centers and youth programs in areas of poverty throughout Tampa Bay.
Carrie talks with Barbara St. Clair about her journey from a solo studio practice to this vibrant community art project. She tells the story of the Bus they drove and coaxed and sometimes towed to events - and how their first participants invented what is now the Nomad trademark, that everybody gets to paint the bus.
Carrie explains the joys and challenges of working as an artist with a social practice - and how she uses her training in critiquing art to constantly question her own work, and keep making it better.
You can find out more about the Nomad Art Bus at http://www.nomadartbus.org/.
Susana Weymouth is the Executive Director - and sole employee - of Tampa Bay Businesses for Culture and the Arts. The TBBCA is one of 11 national Business Committees for the Arts, connecting business people with artists and art.
Their work brings business folk to galleries and theatres, and connects artists with offices looking for art. The relationships the TBBCA build help artists and arts organizations find patrons, and help businesses shape creative workplaces as they engage with the arts around them.
Susana talks about the arts as a vital economic force, and how businesses and artists can work together. She explains the TBBCA’s advocacy role in funding for the arts. And for nonprofits struggling to find and develop board members, she shares her tips for building a strong and active board of directors.
The scholarship program the TBBCA provides has helped many young Tampa Bay artists build professional careers. And the annual Impact Awards, honoring artists, arts leaders and arts supporters, shines a light on people who are leading Tampa Bay in a positive and creative direction.
The Charlie Hounchell Art Stars 2019 Scholarship Ceremony is this Wednesday, May 15 - https://www.facebook.com/events/409865836483626/.
Find out more about Tampa Bay Businesses for Culture and the Arts at https://www.tbbca.org.
Find out more about The Charlie Hounchell Art Stars Scholarships Program - https://www.tbbca.org/programs-events/art-stars-scholarships/.
And keep an eye out for the annual Impact Awards every October - https://www.facebook.com/TBBCAorg/.
Get updates on the TBBCA’s Cultural Encounters, where business professionals gather to explore theaters, galleries, concerts and more - https://www.tbbca.org/programs-events/cultural-encounters/.
Painter Nathan Beard found his way to both realistic and abstract new work in the only time he had - when his newborn daughter was napping.
Nathan talks with Barbara St. Clair about creating visual artwork that’s inspired by his other passion, environmental science and endangered species. Nathan shares his path and ongoing goals as a professional artist, and the things art school does not prepare you for.
The work of Nathan Beard, Akiko Kotani and Rob Tarbell is featured in Unexpected: Art By Alternative Means, on display at the Leepa-Rattner Museum in Tarpon Springs through May 19 - leeparattner.org/explore/exhibitions-on-view/unexpected-art-by-alternative-means-featuring-nathan-beard-akiko-kotani-and-rob-tarbell.
Find out more about Nathan’s work at nathanbeardfineart.com.
Follow the online journal he kept during his tenure as a Creative Pinellas Emerging Artist Fellow at creativepinellas.org/nathan-beard.
- Arts In is produced by Matt and Sheila Cowley. Executive Producer, Barbara St. Clair.
As Keep St Pete Lit brings this year’s Writer in Residence to town, we share a conversation with last year’s award-winning author, Ladee Hubbard.
Ladee talks with Barbara St. Clair about her rollicking, imaginative novel, The Talented Ribkins, about a family of African Americans living in the South who have odd and unique superpowers. . . like drawing maps and seeing colors no one else can see.
The inspiration for the book is an essay by W.E.B. DuBois, a story of a strangely-shaped potato and her grandfather defying odds to earn a PhD in chemistry and teach at St Pete College, at a time when that was a rare thing for an African American to do.
Ladee Hubbard talks about deciding to earn an MFA while raising three young children, and how Toni Morrison encouraged all her wild experiments with language as a student.
You can find out more about her work at https://ladeehubbard.com/.
Check out the events around this year’s Keep St Pete Lit Writer in Residence and the annual SunLit Festival, celebrating reading and writing in Tampa Bay - https://keepstpetelit.org.
You might think that Sheryl Oring’s work is about old-fashioned manual typewriters. But her compelling style of public art is about memory, and stories.
Sheryl Oring’s powerful body of work gives voice to writers who were silenced, and helps people share stories and make their voices heard.
In this vibrant conversation, she explains how she developed Writer’s Block to honor the writers, dancers and musicians whose work was banned in Nazi Germany. From the first manual typewriter she bought in Berlin, to the construction crew charmed by her bold request for rebar, to the night she debuted the work where Nazis burned books in the rain in 1933 - and hundreds of people under umbrellas watched dancers and musicians performing in the rain on her monumental sculpture installation, of typewriters trapped in cages.
Dressed like a secretary in the 1950s, Sheryl has created vibrant public art projects that invite people to dictate a postcard to politicians. She asked New Yorkers what they’d like people to remember about 9/11, and gave recent immigrants the opportunity to write a letter to their ancestors.
She’s currently at work on Greetings From Tampa Bay, gathering stories that will become a piece of visual art at the Tampa Airport.
Sheryl Oring talks about public art that engages a community and leaves powerful, lifelong memories, and the life-changing results this kind of art can give.
Find out more about Sheryl Oring’s work at http://www.sheryloring.org.
Writer’s Block is on display at Creative Pinellas through May 30 - https://creativepinellas.org/writersblock/.
Get updates about Greetings From Tampa Bay at http://www.sheryloring.org/greetings-from-tampa-bay
You’ve seen Herb Snitzer’s photographs - on album covers, CD covers and almost every major magazine and newspaper. His images of Louis Armstrong, John Coltrane, Miles Davis and Nina Simone are legendary, a few of the many classic jazz musicians he knew well and loved.
His photographs are striking, and they always tell a story.
Herb Snitzer’s candid photos of the Civil Rights Movement capture moments of electric change. Though he still regrets being backstage with Martin Luther King Jr., Ossie Davis and James Baldwin - without his camera.
In his 80s now, Herb is still creating - and he still chooses black and white film over digital.
Herb shares the stories behind many of his best-known images - revealing where and when, and what’s happening outside the frame.
And he shares the story of the late-lamented Salt Creek Artworks, a vibrant group of artists who broke new ground for St. Petersburg’s now thriving arts community.
Find out more about Herb Snitzer at http://herbsnitzer.com/statement.htm.
Explore Herb Snitzer’s work at http://herbsnitzer.com.
The archive of Salt Creek Artworks is at http://saltcreekartworks.com.
Dancer, choreographer and USF professor Andee Scott says dance is public art as much as performance art.
In her work on Our Town, she turned a walking tour of downtown St. Pete into an exploration of site-specific dance performances. For Our Trail, she brought dance to locations along the Pinellas Trail.
Andee talks with Barbara St. Clair about her changing role in dance as she grows older, and her passion for exploring our humanity through movement, in this exciting conversation on Arts In.
Explore Andee Scott’s work during her time as a 2017 Creative Pinellas Professional Artist Fellow - https://creativepinellas.org/andee-sun-scott/
Find out more about Andee Scott’s work at USF at http://theatreanddance.arts.usf.edu/content/templates/?z=0&a=3132
with links to articles at - http://theatreanddance.arts.usf.edu/content/templates/?z=9&a=4210
A video of Between Here and Now, choreographed by Andee Scott at USF - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_zUBo5CeVAc
Jake Troyli is a young artist working with classical oil painting techniques, and making them his own.
With humor, and inspiration from both Rubens and Richard Pryor, his work explores race, identity and politics, and invites constant conversation.
Jake talks with Barbara St. Clair about his focus on perfecting his technique and why he chooses representational painting. He talks about growing up backstage at St. Pete’s American Stage, and how it’s easier to ask bold questions with art than conversation.
Find out more about Jake Troyli’s work at https://www.jaketroyli.com.
Read Creative Loafing’s article about his 2018 exhibition at the ArtsXchange - https://www.cltampa.com/arts-entertainment/theater/article/20991797/jake-troyli-at-the-arts-xchange-gallery-race-matters-addressed-with-comic-precision.
Explore Jake Troyli’s work during his time as a 2017 Creative Pinellas Emerging Artist at https://creativepinellas.org/jacob-troyli/.
Dolores Coe leads guided drawing sessions with students, caregivers and clinicians - and people who’ve lost language due to strokes or injury. And everyone communicates by making art.
Dolores is the Curator of the University of South Florida’s Art in Health Programs, a creative lab aimed at training health care professionals to carefully observe and decode what they’re seeing, hearing and communicating when they’re trying to heal patients.
In the Art in Health workshops, artists teach drawing, a composer shares tools for creating and understanding sound, a dancer explores how to see and record movement, and actors teach the listening and responding skills of improvisation. All of this is geared toward making medical and health care students better at their future jobs.
The program is part of the Institute for Research in Art that includes the Graphicstudio and USF Contemporary Art Museum.
Dolores shares the methods and focus of the Art in Health team - and the surprising offshoots of this program. Her inspiring stories include helping stroke victims communicate visually, and students developing practical tools now in use in doctors’ offices and trauma centers. She explains how Art in Health is a new career path for artists, one that is distinctly different from Art Therapy. And she shares how working in the Art in Health department changed the abstract paintings she creates.
Find out more about USF’s Art in Health Programs at http://cam.usf.edu/aih/aih_about.html
And the USF Institute for Research in Art at http://www.usfcam.usf.edu/.
Explore Dolores Coe’s artwork at http://dolorescoe.com/.
Roxanne Fay brings fascinating characters to life onstage. You might see her as Mary Magdalene, or a battered housewife who is suddenly set free. She’s played a wounded grandmother, a young girl hiding in a tree, Coco Chanel - and even wielded stormclouds in The Tempest.
As an actor and a playwright, Roxanne Fay crafted a life in professional theatre, working steadily in classic plays, new plays and her own projects.
In this conversation with Barbara St. Clair, Roxanne shares insights into vivid characters she’s played, and the love of research that drives her work. She talks about becoming a playwright to create compelling roles to play as she’s grown older, and the passion for live theatre that leads her from one project to the next.
Find out more about Roxanne Fay at http://www.roxannefay.com.
Check out her work as a 2017 Creative Pinellas Professional Artist Fellow at https://creativepinellas.org/roxanne-fay/.
Gloria Muñoz thinks about the details she observes in life. Details, feelings, shades of meaning that she observes as closely as a scientist. Gloria explores the environment and nature in her work, the prospect of extinction, the complexities of family and the compression of sound.
Gloria Muñoz is a poet - examining the world and investigating humans through her work.
Gloria shares her passion for eco-poetics and the art of observation, and beautiful poetic structures from around the world.
She’s also a filmmaker and advocate for women in the arts. Gloria talks with Barbara St. Clair about the complicated energies of growing up as a first-generation American, and how she trains her students at Eckerd College to truly see the world.
Find out more about Gloria Muñoz’s work at http://www.gloria-munoz.com
Check out Gloria’s film production company, Pitch Her Productions at https://www.pitchherproductions.org.
(Photo by Devon Moore Curtin)
Marlys Meckler is a docent who gives tours full of stories at the Salvador Dalí Museum, the Chihuly Museum and The James Museum, as well as Mural Tours for Florida CraftArt and tours of St. Pete’s Public Art.
Marlys talks with Barbara St. Clair about the work she does - how Public Art is chosen and the stories behind many of the striking artworks that residents of St. Pete don’t always notice as they go about their day.
She became an expert by getting involved and volunteering after she retired, and by talking with the artists who work here. Listening to her stories will send you out exploring.
Check out the links below for opportunities to find out more, and directions to many of Marlys Meckler’s favorite Public Art pieces.
Docent Tours and Volunteer Opportunities
THE DALI MUSEUM Salvador Dalí Museum Docent Tours https://thedali.org/visit/tours/
Dalí Museum Volunteer Opportunities https://thedali.org/join-and-give/get-involved/become-volunteer/
Dalí Docent Training Program https://thedali.org/join-and-give/get-involved/become-docent/
FLORIDA CRAFTART Florida CraftArt Walking Mural Tours http://www.floridacraftart.org/product/mural-tours/
Florida CraftArt Bicycle Mural Tours http://www.floridacraftart.org/product/mural-tours-bike/
Florida CraftArt Volunteer Opportunities http://www.floridacraftart.org/volunteer/
THE JAMES MUSEUM The James Museum Docent Tours https://thejamesmuseum.org/plan-your-visit/ (scroll down the page)
James Museum Volunteer Opportunities https://thejamesmuseum.org/support/ (scroll down the page)
THE CHIHULY COLLECTION Chihuly Museum Docent Tours http://www.moreanartscenter.org/chihuly/group-tours/
Chihuly Museum / Morean Arts Center Volunteer Opportunities http://www.moreanartscenter.org/volunteer/
Public Art Pieces Mentioned in this Conversation
SHINE Mural Festival https://stpeteartsalliance.org/shine-mural-festival/
St Pete Arts Alliance Descriptive Mural Tour https://stpeteartsalliance.org/virtual-mural-tour/
It Heals Up by Robert Rosenquist http://www.cam.usf.edu/PA/Pages/pa_rosenquist.html
Thrill Hill by Kevin Brady The Old Southeast Neighborhood Bridge at 3rd St S and 18th Ave S http://thrill-hill.blogspot.com a neighborhood partnership with matching grants
Security Lizard Catching Fireflies by Paul Eppling On the roof of the City of St Pete Maintenance Building 1800 7th Ave N - visible on the 5th Ave N northbound entrance to I-275 http://allthingsruffnerian.blogspot.com/2012/11/the-ingenious-sculptures-of-paul-eppling.html
https://www.tampabay.com/news/obituaries/epilogue-paul-eppling-beloved-st-petersburg-metal-sculptor-dies-at-67/2305676
Human Sundial "Vista Point" 17th and Northshore Dr N Eric Higgs - http://erichiggs.com
Heroes of St Pete Police 1st Ave to the water Poem by George Hahn built by corporate and individual sponsors
Millennium Gateway By Alex Klahn Walkway between the Sundial parking garage and Sundial Center 2nd Ave N between 2nd and 1st Streets N Spun metal birds and animals
Fossil Wall Artists Michelle Tuegel and Russ Gustafson 6635 Dr. ML King Jr St N Imprints of actual fossils found in this neighborhood https://www.visitstpeteclearwater.com/profile/willis-s-johns-recreation-center-fossil-park/2260
Dignity by Yamamato North Shore Fire Station 4 2501 4th St N http://www.stpete.org/arts_and_culture/art_collections.php
Find more Public Art in St. Petersburg here - http://www.stpete.org/arts_and_culture/art_collections.php
Elizabeth A. Baker is a composer, a touring toy piano player, a classical guitarist, an experimental performance artist, a recording engineer, a cellist, a collaborator with dancers and visual artists, a computer programmer, a rarely-heard singer, an educator, sound designer. . . so many things that people forget she’s a concert pianist.
Renaissance Artist is the most accurate job description Elizabeth could think of.
No one can describe her work better than herself. “Celebrated for her ‘terrifying dynamic range,’ cleanliness of sound, as well as unique sensitivity and ability to sculpt her performance for the acoustics of a space, Elizabeth A. Baker is a dramatic performer with an honest, near psychic connection to music, which resounds with audiences of all ages and musical backgrounds.
“An active performer highly sought after for her unique concert presentation methods, which break the fourth wall and draw the audience further into the music by asking them to listen beyond the surface through interactive dialogue. . . ”
Elizabeth shares her passion for adventurous music, and why she followed up a degree in cello with a degree in music production. She explains why she's trained in Voice but you’ve probably never heard her sing. . . and the little-known story of her all-girl band.
Find out more about Elizabeth Baker at https://elizabethabaker.com/
Listen to her music at https://elizabethabaker.com/recordings/
Check out Elizabeth’s online blog, when she served as a Creative Pinellas Professional Artist Fellow - https://creativepinellas.org/elizabeth-a-baker/
Amanda Cooper is the longtime Curator of Exhibitions at the Morean Arts Center, the 100+ year mainstay of St. Petersburg’s arts community, with a mission to provide training in the arts for all ages.
Amanda talks with Barbara St. Clair about the process of shaping the Morean’s adventurous themed exhibitions. She explains how the gallery focuses on local artists but places their artwork in a national perspective, and shares what she’s looking for in an emerging artist’s work.
She details the history of the Center, which now includes the Chihuly Collection and glass-blowing Hot Shop, and the Morean Center for Clay - the largest working pottery in the Southeast.
Amanda shares the challenges of keeping on the cutting edge of contemporary art while raising four children, and tells Barbara about the painting she saw as a teenager at the Museum of Fine Arts, that led her toward an arts career.
Find out more about the Morean Arts Center’s classes here, with training available in drawing, painting, welding, pottery, metal, jewelry, fiber arts, photography, digital arts and more - moreanartscenter.org/classes-2
Visit the Morean Arts Center Gallery - moreanartscenter.org.
Watch a glass-blowing demonstration at the Hot Shop - moreanartscenter.org/hot-shop
Visit the Morean Center for Clay - moreanartscenter.org/center-for-clay
And check out the Chihuly Collection, where ticket sales fund the Morean’s education programs - moreanartscenter.org/chihuly
If you’ve seen theatre or opera in Tampa Bay, you’ve probably seen a production Keith Arsenault helped bring to life.
A skilled lighting designer, set designer, theatre tech consultant and arts administrator, Keith is the resident lighting designer of the St Pete Opera, runs HCC Ybor’s beautiful Performing Arts Center, has worked as a voiceover artist, theatrical producer and circus ringmaster, and served on the staff of The Joffrey Ballet, the Opera Company of Boston, Palm Beach Opera and Nacional Ballet de Colombia.
His theatrical work has taken him to 45 states and across Canada and Latin America, and he’s the winner of Creative Loafing Best of the Bay Awards for both Lighting and Scenic Design.
Keith talks with Barbara St. Clair about growing up in a family rooted in theatre and dance. He shares the imaginative work of lighting design and the fascinating details of Tampa’s participation in the Federal Theatre Project in the 1930s, the one city in the U.S. that had both an English and a Spanish language company.
Find out more about Keith Arsenault at - https://www.jobsitetheater.org/portfolio-item/arsenault-keith/
Explore Keith’s Video Portfolio
Check out upcoming shows at the St Pete Opera - stpeteopera.org/home-page
and Dance performances at the HCC Performing Arts Center - facebook.com/hcc.dance
Explore the vibrant history of the Federal Theatre Project -
livingnewdeal.org/glossary/federal-theatre-project-ftp-1935-1939/
ipfs.io/ipfs/QmXoypizjW3WknFiJnKLwHCnL72vedxjQkDDP1mXWo6uco/wiki/Federal_Theatre_Project.html
Theatrical posters and photographs from the Library of Congress - loc.gov/exhibits/federal-theatre-project/slideshow/
Kim Dohrman works in an art studio full of laughter and music. She’s the Executive Director of Creative Clay, St. Pete’s long and much-beloved arts center whose mission is to make the arts accessible for all.
Creative Clay helps people with disabilities find their paths as working artists who actively create, market and sell their artwork.
Kim shares how much she loves her job, the rich artistic programs Creative Clay offers - and the vibrant, expressive artists who work there.
Creative Clay’s big fundraiser, Creative Clay Fest, takes place Sunday, November 11 at 3 Daughters Brewing in St. Pete’s Warehouse Arts District, with visual art, music, food and festivity. You can find the details at creativeclay.org/creative-clay-fest.
Find out more about Creative Clay at creativeclay.org.
Visit Creative Clay during ArtWalk, when the gallery is open from 5-9 p.m. with live music, every second Saturday.
Their pay-what-you-can art Thrift Store is a source for art supplies including paint, paper, cloth, craft materials, art books and more. Donations of art supplies are always welcome. Find out more at creativeclay.org/creative-thrift.
Creative Clay’s Gallery is open with original art for sale Monday through Friday 9-5, and during ArtWalk, 5-9 pm every Second Saturday.
If you’re interested in becoming a Teaching Artist at Creative Clay, you can email admin@creativeclay.org for information.
You can lease original, beautiful work by Creative Clay artists through their Art In Offices program - creativeclay.org/art-in-offices.
Creative Clay’s Community Arts Program serves adults with developmental, emotional, and/or physical disabilities. This program provides professional artist mentorship in the performing and visual arts in a vibrant studio environment. If you’re interested in becoming an artist in the Community Arts Program, an application form is here - creativeclay.org/community-arts-application.
Creative Clay is a 501c3 nonprofit. Donations are always welcome - creativeclay.org/donate-cc.
When Helen Hansen French is onstage, it’s hard to keep your eyes on anybody else.
As a dancer, Helen’s every move is purposeful and thoughtful, but seems utterly spontaneous.
As a choreographer, she’s an expert at visual storytelling and often collaborates with composers, writers and visual artists.
Helen is a St. Pete native with a degree from Julliard, who’s danced around the world. After joining NY’s Buglisi Dance Theatre, performing with Karen Reedy Dance, Nilas Martins’ Dance Company, the Guggenheim Works/Process program and at national and international dance festivals, we’re lucky that she came back to St. Petersburg to live and work and raise a family.
Explore Helen Hansen French’s work during her time as a 2016 Creative Pinellas Professional Artist Fellow, including her Motherhood Project film about balancing an artistic career with motherhood. . . rapidreturns.org/helen-hansen-french.
And her extensive resume. . . rapidreturns.org/helen-hansen-french/2016/5/30/helen-hansen-french
See images from Air-Earth-Fire-Water, the collaborative work she was commissioned to create for the 2018 GASP! Festival with playwright Sheila Cowley. . . sdcowley.com/collaborations/air-earth-fire-water/.
Keep an eye out for Helen’s upcoming performances in St Pete's SPF Festival, reprising Air-Earth-Fire-Water on the steps of the Museum of Fine Arts on October 25, 2018 and performing an original duet with Alex Jones as part of St. Pete Shares the Stage! on October 27, 2018.
https://stpeteartsalliance.org/spf-festival/
https://stpeteartsalliance.org/event/air-earth-fire-water-a-creative-collaboration-oct-25/
https://stpeteartsalliance.org/event/st-pete-shares-the-stage/
And don’t miss the amazing Beacon Dance Concert she and dancer Lauren Stone produce each year at The Palladium Theater, coming up in April 2019.
https://www.cltampa.com/arts-entertainment/performance/article/20989521/beacon-2018-dance-palladium-st-petersburg
https://www.mypalladium.org
Imaginative visual artist Kenny Jensen translates fallen branches, lichen and found objects into paintings, sculpture and strikingly beautiful installations.
Trained in the precision of graphic design, Kenny learned to let unpredictable mediums lead him down new artistic paths.
A Creative Pinellas Emerging Artist Grantee, Kenny talks with Barbara St. Clair about the gorgeous piece he created after Hurricane Irma, using hundreds of fallen branches from around his house. He describes how he used a wall with an odd-shaped window to construct a view into a starry universe. And he shares his passion for taking what most people would consider trash, and revealing it to viewers as a thing of beauty.
Check out Kenny Jensen’s June 30 pop-up exhibition, Solar Flare, made possible by a St. Pete Arts Alliance grant - https://www.facebook.com/events/1994945610817068/
Kenny Jensen details his artistic process on the Creative Pinellas blog - http://creativepinellas.org/kenny-jensen/.
Watch a video of the space diorama here - http://www.kennyjensen.com/rhizome-nebulae/.
Read Danny Olda’s article on Kenny’s studio space in the woods - http://creativepinellas.org/magazine-items/dancing-with-a-hurricane-kenny-jensen/.
Find out more about Kenny Jensen’s work at
https://www.patreon.com/kennyjensen https://www.instagram.com/kennyjensenartist/ http://www.kennyjensen.com/
Xavier Cortada is an artist who tackles climate change, endangered species, poverty, homophobia, Florida’s history and hard science with his artwork.
And he’s a funny, engaging, vibrant guy from Miami whose art projects are seen by millions, and get people all over Florida participating. Cortada’s work is featured in school textbooks and publications, on National Geographic TV and the Discovery Channel.
Xavier talks with Barbara St. Clair about marking the 500th anniversary of Florida’s colonization by Spain by working with biologists to find 500 native Florida wildflowers that he got 500 Florida artists to paint, while asking historians for 500 people vital to Florida’s history - who weren’t white men - and getting people around the state to plant 500 native wildflower gardens each dedicated to one of those people. Then he put the whole project and research online, where people could read up and share their own photos of natural Florida.
Xavier Cortada was commissioned to create beautiful artwork exploring the Higgs boson particle experiments at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN. He created art projects at both the North and South Poles to draw attention to climate change and endangered populations, with a project currently in the Antarctic that will take 150,000 years to complete.
His Reclamation Project encourages Floridians to take back nature from developers by planting native trees as an act of performative art. And he offers darkly comic advice for 5 Ways to Stop Sea Level Rise from destroying Florida’s coastline.
Xavier Cortada shares his passion for art as a tool for social change, for sculpting not a sculpture but a thriving community.
90N, a solo exhibition of Xavier Cortada’s work at the North Pole is on display at Creative Pinellas through September 2, 2018. The exhibition opens to a reception with the artist on Friday, June 29 from 6 to 9 p.m. Gallery hours are Friday and Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Sunday 12 p.m. to 4 p.m. and by appointment through September 2, 2018. Details at http://cortada.com/event/2018/90N.
RSVP for the Opening Reception on June 29 at: http://creativepinellas.org/gallery/
Find out more about Xavier Cortada’s art and explore images, writings and more at http://cortada.com.
Hear his TED Talk on the Higgs boson project at http://cortada.com/2013/cern/statement.
Coralette Damme’s distinctive handcrafted printmaking is inspired by trees, birds and the bees, flowers and butterflies in her backyard. . . and colored by Halloween, her Midwestern background and her German heritage.
Keep an eye out for Coralette’s work at Florida CraftArt, St Pete’s Saturday Morning Market and Craft events and workshops around Pinellas County.
Coralette Damme was chosen as a featured artist at American Stage, with a piece that’s inspired by Andrea Lepcio’s play, Straight of Gibraltar.
In her lively conversation with Barbara St. Clair, Coralette shares her hands-on printmaking technique, her hands-on work behind-the-scenes at The Studio@620 - and welcomes you into her magical, imaginative art installations.
Explore Coralette’s artwork at craftyhag.com
Follow her artwork on Instagram - instagram.com/thecraftyhag
@thecraftyhag
and Facebook - facebook.com/craftyhag
Greg Byrd is an award-winning poet with a PhD in Literature, living in Clearwater and teaching at St. Pete College.
He’s a Fulbright Fellow in poetry and literature, winner of the Yellow Jacket Prize and recipient of a Creative Pinellas Professional Artists Fellowship.
Greg explains that, “My poetry is often connected to placeness and to mythology, but is rooted in concrete things and often in working class life. My poems just as often mention Winslow Homer or Bach as they do dovetail joints or rusted pocket knives.”
He talks with Barbara St. Clair about creating poems during cancer treatments and after his father’s death. Greg shares his experiences growing up in the Florida Keys and helping in his family’s appliance store, delivering washers and dryers before becoming the first person in his family to go to college.
Greg Byrd teaches at St. Pete College, where he works with many Iraq War veterans. He’s working right now on a novel set during World War I.
You can find out more about Greg’s work at https://gregorybyrd.wordpress.com/salt-and-iron/.
Kathy White is the Deputy Director of The Salvador Dalí Museum. Peter Tush is the Curator of Education. They met and married at the Dalí and have seen the museum from its early days to its glorious signature home on downtown St. Pete’s waterfront.
You might think that a museum focused on a single artist would only be worth one visit. But the Dalí’s ever-changing offerings range from paintings to sculpture, fashion, photography, mathematics and filmmaking. Along with an array of film, theatre, music, dance, workshops and wide-ranging conversations, The Dalí is not just a destination for international visitors, but a compelling reason for repeat visits by Bay area residents.
Kathy and Peter share the imaginative work behind the scenes at the Dalí, the importance of the volunteer docents and audio tours that invite visitors to deeply explore the exhibits, and the museum’s constant outreach to the local arts community, to local artists and to young creatives.
Find out more about The Salvador Dalí Museum at http://thedali.org.
Explore upcoming events at http://thedali.org/events.
Venture into the Dalí’s Educational offerings, including training for Docents and Teen Docents, Innovation Labs, Avant-Garde Studies, Lesson Plans, Student Exhibits and more at http://thedali.org/programs/apps/.
Pat Blocher is an adventurous artist who uses photography as a jumping-off point for experiments and explorations in the digital and physical worlds.
An MFA candidate at the University of South Florida, Pat was one of the youngest artists featured in last summer’s Skyway exhibit at the Museum of Fine Arts in St. Petersburg.
Pat talks with Barbara St. Clair about building thoughtful portraits of a night shared by two people, making art by making software and hardware “misbehave” - and creating cutting-edge photographic art by mixing vintage processes with new digital techniques.
Find out more about Pat Blocher’s work at - http://patblocher.com
on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/patblocher/
Bob Barancik is an adventurous abstract artist who roams through a range of mediums, from painting and collage to printmaking, digital images, video, and three-dimensional boxes and books full of art.
Bob talks with Barbara St. Clair about working on art inspired by current events, that viewers often aren’t ready for until years later. He’s created gorgeous artwork sparked by climate change, 9/11 and the Deep Water Horizon tragedy, exhibited around the country and has over 100 original works in the Florida Holocaust Museum’s permanent collection.
Bob’s lived and worked in an array of creative communities. . . Portland in the 1970s, Palo Alto as the Silicon Valley boom was just beginning, New York City, Chicago, Maine and Philadelphia. He explains why he chose to live in downtown St. Petersburg, and why this creative community is one of the best.
Explore Bob Barancik’s artwork at http://www.creativeshare.com/exhibits/.
Find out more about his Art Not Hate project at http://www.artnothate.com.
View Bob’s Mundo Caliente series on climate change at http://www.creativeshare.com/exhibits/mundo-caliente.php.
Images from the book he talks about with Barbara, Lamentations and Beyond: Healing Through Art can be found at http://www.creativeshare.com/exhibits/lamentations.php.
Images and a video from his 9/11 series, Visual Ruminations, are at http://www.creativeshare.com/exhibits/visual-ruminations.php.
Creative Compass, Bob Barancik’s online blog, contains a list of recommended books, articles and videos that were sources of inspiration and practical help to him as an artist - http://compass.creativeshare.com
Renee Piechocki
Longtime leader of the Pittsburgh Office of Public Art, Renee Piechocki helped create a city full of vibrant and imaginative, exciting and interactive public art.
Renee talks about the need for temporary public art installations, where artists can make bold and more experimental work that serves a range of changing audiences. She details projects that break new ground - and ways that artists can help neighborhoods find creative ways to tackle community needs.
Take a listen to this conversation full of energy and wonderful ideas, and get inspired by new, exciting possibilities for public art.
Find out more about Renee Piechocki
http://reneepiechocki.com
Trappings: What Do Women Wear That Makes You Feel Powerful? and Taking Stock: What Do Men Do That Makes You Feel Valuable? - http://www.twogirlsworking.com
Explore Vibrant Public Art. . .
Market Square Public Art - http://www.marketsquarepublicart.com/info
Pittsburgh Art Places - http://pittsburghartplaces.org
Conflict Kitchen - https://www.conflictkitchen.org
Fraley's Robot Repair installation - tobyfraley.com/robot-repair
Ann Tarantino, the artist who created the Blue Line from Millvale to the river - http://www.anntarantino.com/statement-bio
John Peña, creating changing sculptures drawn from the words of neighborhood residents - http://www.johnpena.net
4Culture - https://www.4culture.org/public-art/
The Regional Arts and Culture Council of Portland - https://racc.org
Recommended References:
Dialogues in Public Art by Tom Finkelpearl
What We Made: Conversations on Art and Social Cooperation by Tom Finkelpearl
Marlene Rose is a glass artist who doesn’t make vases.
Instead, she creates large sculptural works using the technique of sand casting. Developed in the 1980s, the process involves hours spent carefully carving a mold in sand, then pouring in molten glass heated to 2000 degrees. It takes a week in an oven to cool the finished piece down to room temperature.
Sand casting is a physical and dangerous process, expertly carried out by Marlene and her team. The work she creates is unexpected, and you might not always think it’s glass - until you see the light hit it.
Marlene talks with Barbara St. Clair about the surprises and challenges of practicing a technique so new that there’s no reference manual, and you’re figuring out how to do it as you do it.
But, it’s so new nobody can tell you what’s impossible.
Find out more about Marlene Rose’s work at - marlenerose.com.
Explore St. Petersburg’s new Imagine Museum - imaginemuseum.com.
Fanni Green is an actor, director, playwright, poet and theatre professor. Gary Lemons is a writer, painter, musician and professor of African American literature and womanist studies.
In this lively conversation, Fanni and Gary delve into the passion and activism at the heart of all their work and the joys of a marrying a fellow artist.
They share stories of growing up with parents who weren’t able to go to college - and weren’t convinced that art or acting was a good career choice. And they explore the spirituality that informs their lives and their creative work.
Fanni Green is a versatile actor, the heart of a terrific production of A Raisin in the Sun at American Stage and many of their August Wilson plays.
A native of St. Petersburg and graduate of USF and NYU, Fanni is everyone’s favorite professor at the USF School of Theatre and Dance and has taught on the voice faculties of The Actor's Center in NY, the Yale School of Drama and the Juilliard School.
Her professional work includes Mule Bone (Broadway) with musician Taj Mahal, Antony and Cleopatra (Off- Broadway) with Vanessa Redgrave, and Tony Kushner's Reverse Transcription, in a Humana Festival production directed by Tony Kushner. Local audiences remember her powerful performance in Yellowman, the production of Suzan-Lori Parks’ In the Blood she directed at Stageworks, and Bob Devin Jones’ Voodoo Macbeth at The Studio@620, where she served as the dialect coach.
More on Fanni Green - theatreanddance.arts.usf.edu/content/templates/?z=9&a=615
More on What the Heart Remembers: the Women and Children of Darfur that Fanni Green created with USF Dance Professor Jeanne Travers - theatreanddance.arts.usf.edu/content/templates/?a=2068
Her compelling thoughts on Diversity in Casting - inclusioninthearts.org/projects/national-diversity-forum/opinion-pieces/fanni-green/
Gary Lemons is a Full Professor of African American literature, black feminist and womanist studies in the Department of English at the University of South Florida. He received his Ph.D. in English from New York University.
His books include Black Male Outsider, a Memoir: Teaching as a Pro-Feminist Man (State University of New York Press, 2008), Womanist Forefathers, Frederick Douglass and W.E.B. Du Bois (also published by SUNY Press, 2009), Feminist Solidarity at the Crossroads: Intersectional Women’s Studies for Transracial Alliance (Routledge, 2012, co-edited with Kim Vaz), Caught Up in the Spirit! Teaching for Womanist Liberation (Nova Science Publishers, Inc., 2017), and Building Womanist Coalitions: Creating Bridges, Crossing Borders in the Spirit of Love (University of Illinois Press, forthcoming in 2018).
Gary’s an expressive visual artist with recent exhibitions at the Dr. Carter G. Woodson African American Museum and The Studio@620 - thestudioat620.org/events/myafrika-art
More on Gary’s work at USF- english.usf.edu/faculty/glemons/
“Can a Black Man Be a Feminist?” - news.usf.edu/article/templates/default.aspx?a=3285&template=print-article.htm
Jim Rolston
Jim Rolston’s abstract paintings are ferociously gorgeous explorations of color and form, while his deceptively simple statues are gentle and profound.
Jim was a passionate artist and an energetic leader in St. Petersburg’s arts community. He created art throughout his life, while working a demanding job and raising a family. When Jim approached retirement, he went back to school and earned a degree in Visual Art from Eckerd College, to prepare himself to be a full-time artist. He was a prolific artist working at his peak and constantly exploring.
In this conversation, recorded a few months before Jim Rolston unexpectedly passed away, he shares his thoughts on the energy of abstract art and the opposing tensions balanced in his work. He explains how deeply his artwork is influenced by the concept of yin and yang, and the Tao de Ching.
Jim served on the board of the St. Petersburg Arts Alliance and was co-President of the Professional Association of Visual Artists, a group that Creative Pinellas recently welcomed to our Arts Business Incubator. He talks about the work PAVA is doing, the vital arts community in St. Petersburg and the studios he created in the burgeoning 600 Block and the Warehouse Arts District.
His loss is deeply felt throughout the arts community.
Explore Jim Rolston’s art - http://pava-artists.org/index.php/project/jim-rolston/
and http://pava-artists.org/index.php/2018/01/28/2cool-art-show-jim-rolston/
Find out more about the Tao de Ching, by the Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu - http://www.with.org/tao_te_ching_en.pdf
Keep up with the Professional Association of Visual Artists and their popular juried exhibitions at - http://pava-artists.org
Fight director Dan Granke is a master of physical storytelling and a professional expert on violence.
Dan teaches at the University of South Florida and choreographs stage combat for a range of Bay area and Sarasota theatres, and even the St Pete Opera.
He’s also a Shakespeare expert who helped to found the Tampa Shakespeare Festival’s free outdoor performances.
In a conversation full of laughter and surprising details, Dan explains the art of stage violence, the storytelling skills behind it and how to safely make it look like you just stabbed somebody in the neck.
Dan takes us through the final fight scene in Macbeth - and makes Barbara St. Clair’s day when he analyzes the glorious swordplay in The Princess Bride.
Society of American Fight Directors http://www.safd.org/MemberProfile/Details/31084
University of South Florida School of Theatre and Dance http://theatreanddance.arts.usf.edu/content/templates/?z=0&a=3858
Dan Granke’s theatrical work https://www.jobsitetheater.org/portfolio-item/granke-dan/
Dan Granke’s opera work http://stpeteopera.org/daniel-granke/
Dan’s acting http://www.cltampa.com/arts-entertainment/article/20764112/theater-review-go-west-then-go-further
The Tampa Shakespeare Festival https://www.facebook.com/Tampashakes
While in St. Petersburg to direct the acclaimed production of A Raisin in The Sun at American Stage, the Artistic Director of the African-American Shakespeare Company talks with Barbara St. Clair about the teachers who guided him to a career in the arts and the relevance of Raisin right now. He shares an insightful analysis of the play, and of last year’s production of August Wilson’s Joe Turner’s Come and Gone.
From Peter Callender’s studies at New York’s High School for Performing Arts (honored in the movie, Fame) and Juilliard, a career as a classical actor led him to San Francisco’s African-American Shakespeare Company, where actors of color have the chance to perform works from A Streetcar Named Desire to Richard III. And he’s playing Richard III this year.
As Peter explains, the works of August Wilson and Tennessee Williams aren’t “black” plays or “white” plays - these are American plays.
Find out more about L. Peter Callender’s work at - http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0130458/bio?ref_=nm_ov_bio_sm
Explore the African-American Shakespeare Company here - http://www.african-americanshakes.org
Take a look at visual artist Romare Bearden, who Peter explains was a great inspiration to playwright August Wilson - https://www.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/aug15.ela.lit.bearden/writing-from-art-august-wilson-and-romare-bearden/
“I’m a nice guy, really!” laughs Gregory Green. The artist and pacifist teaches at The University of South Florida and is internationally known for his 3D installations of realistic bomb-making workshops and nuclear missiles.
It’s art with a political edge and educational aim, seeking to spur conversations about violence - and alternatives to violence - and exploring how information and technology are tools of social change.
Gregory Green shares the theatricality behind his work, which includes more than a dozen fully-functional pirate radio and TV stations in the US and Europe, his “Gregnik” re-creation of the first Earth satellite and a three-stage booster rocket that’s ready to launch if you’ve got the rocket fuel.
Green tells of wrangling with the bomb squad, designing an installation for filmmaker John Waters’ home, and how he was rated one of the Top 100 Artists in the World before 9/11, and how after 9/11 artwork about violence suddenly became much harder.
Green’s work is included in major public and private collections, including among others the Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles, the Tate Gallery in London, the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Mori Museum in Tokyo and MAMCO Geneva.
Explore Gregory Green’s work here - http://gregory-green.com/home.html
And his incredible resume - http://s3.otherpeoplespixels.com/sites/33374/gregory-green.com-1445104004.pdf
Steven Kenny’s paintings are startling and beautiful, and utterly unique. He’s an internationally-known Surrealist, and an anchor of the St. Pete arts community.
His exquisite skill with oil paints may remind you of Old Masters, or Salvador Dalí. But the characters who look directly at you from his works are wholly original, set in worlds and costumes that blend the natural world with the very personal.
In this engaging conversation, Steven Kenny talks with Barbara St. Clair about the surreal images he coaxes from his subconscious, his use of found photographs and his training as an illustrator.
Find out more about Steven Kenny’s work at http://www.stevenkenny.com
Don’t miss your chance to see “Internal Landscapes: The Mysterious World of Steven Kenny,” a rare exhibit of 50 of his paintings at the Leepa-Rattner Museum through April 15, 2018. . . https://www.leeparattner.org/explore/exhibitions-on-view/
Steven Kenny will also be leading a workshop titled "From Buyers to Collectors: Cultivating Relationships with your Audience" You can find more information at creativepinellas.org/workshop
Bob Devin Jones is the heart of St. Petersburg. The St Pete arts community revolves around The Studio@620, an imaginative arts space that is home to a wide range of visual arts, dance, jazz, kites, gospel, quilts, opera, boating, theatre, film, photography, workshops and lectures, poetry, puppetry and pretty much anything established and emerging artists can come up with.
Bob’s a gifted director, actor, writer, artistic director and enabler of creative projects that bring life and joyous surprises to downtown St. Pete.
Enjoy this exploration of The Studio’s community engagement and Bob’s passion for Shakespeare and storytelling.
Find out more about The Studio@620 - http://www.thestudioat620.org
Letters to the Future - https://www.cltampa.com/news-views/article/20763771/letters-to-the-future-bob-devin-jones
In the Beginning: The Future of Stories (TEDx Talk) - http://www.vidinfo.org/video/709529/in-the-beginning-bob-devin-jones-at-tedxtampa
Zev Buffman runs Clearwater’s Ruth Eckerd Hall. With hundreds of major concerts in multiple venues each year, and an education arm that works with public schools and trains teenagers that Zev books to open for bands like Chicago.
Zev spent his own teen years carrying a machine gun in the Israeli army. He invented dinner theatre in L.A. when he was in his 20s, owned a network of theatres in Florida and produced dozens of hit Broadway shows.
Zev reworked Andrew Lloyd Webber’s only flop and turned it into a hit, and used his producer’s skills to create the Miami Heat basketball team. He wrangled with Lillian Hellman and spent years working with Elizabeth Taylor, and probably saved her life when he drove her to the Betty Ford Clinic.
Listen to an amazing conversation with a true theatrical legend, who now calls Pinellas County home.
Find out more about Ruth Eckerd Hall - https://www.rutheckerdhall.com
Ruth Eckerd Hall’s Education programs - https://www.rutheckerdhall.com/hoffman-school-of-arts
Music Revolution program for Teens - https://www.rutheckerdhall.com/marcia-p-hoffman-school-arts/arts-education/grammy-museumrs-music-revolution-projectr
Zev Buffman’s many productions and awards - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zev_Buffman
Arts In is produced by Matt and Sheila Cowley. Executive Producer, Barbara St. Clair for Creative Pinellas.
The detailed and imaginative paintings of Carol Dameron focus on allegories, unspoken stories and turning points. Her visual style echoes European masters, seen through American eyes.
In this conversation, Carol talks about her European training, new techniques she’s using to re-energize old canvases and the discipline of working as a full-time artist. She details the visceral pleasure of painting on wood, and the allure of creating luminous colors in oils.
She also tells us about a thriving studio shared by 42 artists that paved the way for the Warehouse Arts District, the late lamented Salt Creek Artworks.
Find out more about Carol Dameron’s work at http://caroldameron.com.
A look at Salt Creek Artworks - http://www.tampabay.com/opinion/columns/st-petersburg-artists-displaced-as-salt-creek-artworks-sale-nears/1229621.
http://saltcreekartworks.com
Arts In is produced by Matt and Sheila Cowley. Executive Producer, Barbara St. Clair for Creative Pinellas.
Allen Loyd spends more than a year every year, putting together St. Petersburg’s biggest New Year’s Eve celebration.
First Night is a family-friendly celebration of the arts, a way to roll out the old year and swing in the new with music, dance, visual art, theatre, fireworks and even fire sculptures, now on its 25th year.
It’s aimed at letting people of all ages play, and create art themselves. And it’s where Allen’s creative genius has sparked artistic collaborations for decades.
Allen wrangled the parade that led The Dalí Museum from their old location to their beautiful new building. He organizes the St. Pete Science Festival every fall and is the longtime House Manager for American Stage in the Park. He’s an experienced set and prop designer whose busy schedule rarely permits theatre work these days, but he found time to design an imaginative set for Tampa Rep’s recent production of Flying.
Allen has seen St. Pete change and grow since he started out as American Stage’s first intern. Hear how this annual First Night celebration has helped St. Petersburg become a city of the arts.
Find out more about First Night, every December 31 - http://www.firstnightstpete.com
Check out Allen’s theatrical designs - https://sites.google.com/site/allenloyd/
Explore the St Pete Science Festival - http://www.stpetescifest.org/?
See what’s scheduled for American Stage in the Park - http://americanstage.org/park/
Arts In is produced by Matt and Sheila Cowley. Executive Producer, Barbara St. Clair for Creative Pinellas.
Akiko Kotani’s art embodies the surprising power and attraction of simplicity.
Imagination and a sense of play infuse her work, ranging from miniatures to the striking “Soft Walls” many viewers remember from the recent Skyway Exhibit at the Museum of Fine Art in St. Petersburg. Her work contains a depth of feeling within an economy of means.
Kotani’s work is in private, corporate and museum collections including the Metropolitan Museum of Art. We’re grateful that after a teaching career up North, Pittsburgh’s Artist of the Year is now living and creating art in Gulfport.
Enjoy this joyful conversation where Akiko explains the surprising inspiration behind “Soft Walls,” the beauty of creating landscapes from memory, and how and why traditional women’s work is part of her very non-traditional creations.
Find out more about Akiko Kotani at - http://akikokotani.com/?page_id=2
Akiko’s new “Floating Cubes” are on display at the Art Center Sarasota through January 19, 2018 - http://artsarasota.org/currentexhibitions
Arts In is produced by Matt and Sheila Cowley. Executive Producer, Barbara St. Clair for Creative Pinellas.
Mark Aeling is a master sculptor, a lifelong craftsman and, as he calls himself, a maker. His artistic practice is translating ideas into tangible, physical - and often very large - objects.
Mark’s MGA Sculpture Studio is a mainstay of St. Petersburg’s Warehouse Arts District. Through his work with the Warehouse Arts Association, Mark’s helping to create the new ArtsXchange, with affordable studio space for working artists.
His sculptures are created in a traditional artisan studio, with apprentices learning the craft and assisting on Mark’s large-scale public art projects. He creates works inspired by shapes in the nature, and is adventurous in exploring new techniques.
You’ll enjoy this fascinating conversation with an artist who thrives on the challenge of problem-solving and gets inspiration from constantly asking, how can I build that?
Find out more about Mark Aeling’s work and the Warehouse Arts District:
MGA Sculpture Studio - http://www.mgasculpture.com
Warehouse District Arts Association - http://www.warehouseartsdistrictstpete.com
The Arts XChange - http://www.warehouseartsdistrictstpete.com/ArtsXchange
Soft Water Studios - http://www.softwaterstudios.com
Fibonacci Numbers - https://www.mathsisfun.com/numbers/fibonacci-sequence.html
Photo of Mark Aeling by Steven Le-Thee Photo Ninja
Master artisan and printmaker Holly Bird is working in the Arts & Crafts Revival, creating art through hands-on methods that haven’t changed for hundreds of years.
She worked on the cutting-edge of digital design as those techniques were developing. And storyboarded the classic movie “Caddyshack.”
Holly’s lifelong love of sailing and Florida’s waterways give her work a unique look in the Arts & Crafts Movement. She explains how homeowners renovating historic bungalows are keeping the work of skilled artisans in demand.
Holly is a Roycroft Renaissance Master Artisan-at-Large who practices her craft - and teaches it - at the Dunedin Fine Arts Center. Listen as she walks us through the fascinating process of creating woodblock prints and copper-plate etching.
Explore the work of Holly Bird at http://www.studioibis.com
The Roycrofters-at-Large Association - http://www.ralaweb.com
More on the Roycroft Campus in Aurora NY - http://roycroftcampuscorporation.com/index.php
Check out the many classes, art-making facilities and art exhibitions at the Dunedin Fine Arts Center - http://dfac.org
Arts In is produced by Matt and Sheila Cowley. Executive Producer, Barbara St. Clair for Creative Pinellas.
Carla Bristol runs the Gallerie 909 in St. Petersburg. It’s the only African American art gallery south of Atlanta.
Carla doesn’t just display original works of art and sell them, she opens the doors of the gallery to her community, and invites young people who’ve never explored an art gallery or museum into a welcoming place of creativity and conversation.
Gallerie 909 is in the historically African American neighborhood known as The Deuces. The gallery is home to music, poetry, festivals and more.
In our conversation, Carla explains the importance of original artwork, and the role galleries and collectors play in an artistic community. She tells us how Gallerie 909 has shown that everyone can appreciate art if you share art with them.
Find out more about Gallerie 909 at https://www.gallerie909.com/welcome-1.html
Keep up with special events at the Gallerie, and the Annual Black Arts and Film Festival - https://www.facebook.com/gallerie909/
Explore St. Petersburg’s own African American History Trail - http://www.stpete.org/parks_and_recreation/african_american_heritage_trail.php
Take a look at the history of The Deuces neighborhood in St. Petersburg (scroll down the page for The Deuces) - https://www.stpete.org/history_and_preservation/
The Deuces Live nonprofit organization is working to revitalize this vital neighborhood - http://www.deuceslive.org/aboutus
Make sure to visit the changing exhibits and the beautiful gardens at the Dr. Carter G. Woodson African American Museum - http://www.woodsonmuseum.org
Photo by Rossie Newson
Arts In is produced by Matt and Sheila Cowley. Executive Producer, Barbara St. Clair for Creative Pinellas.
Peter Meinke is what he didn’t think was a real job when he started writing - a professional poet.
The first Poet Laureate of St. Petersburg is now the Poet Laureate of Florida. He’s friendly and funny, sharp and engaging. And he’s passionate about the sound of words.
You’ll enjoy Peter’s conversation with Barbara St. Clair, as he explains the special nature and appeal of poems, the hard work behind it and how poetry is part of life.
Peter Meinke named Florida Poet Laureate, Tampa Bay Times - http://www.tampabay.com/news/humaninterest/st-petersburgs-peter-meinke-named-poet-laureate-of-florida/2233793
and Creative Loafing - http://www.cltampa.com/arts-entertainment/article/20761823/peter-meinke-named-florida-poet-laureate
Peter Meinke’s Poet’s Notebook column in Creative Loafing - http://www.cltampa.com/news-views/poets-notebook
Peter Meinke’s published works include:
• Unheard Music: Stories (2007) • The Contracted World: New & More Selected Poems (2006) • Zinc Fingers: Poems A to Z (2000) • The Shape of Poetry: A Practical Guide to Writing Poetry (1999) • Scars (1996) • Campocorto (Sow's ear) (1996) • The Piano Tuner: Stories (1994) • Liquid Paper (1992) • Far from Home (1988) • Night Watch on the Chesapeake (1987) • Underneath the Lantern (1986) • Trying to Surprise God (1981) • The Rat Poems: Or, Rats Live On No Evil Star (1978) • The Night Train & The Golden Bird (1977) • Lines from Neuchatel (1974) • Very Seldom Animals (1969) • Howard Nemerov (1968) • The Legend of Larry, the Lizard (1968)
Arts In is produced by Matt and Sheila Cowley. Executive Producer, Barbara St. Clair for Creative Pinellas.
Dora Arreola and Andrea Assaf are longtime collaborators and award-winning theatremakers who create adventurous works that focuses on women, immigration, war and military veterans. Their projects blend music, dance and text to create theatre that is beautiful and powerful. It’s theatre as activism, and as healing.
Dora teaches in the University of South Florida School of Theatre and Dance, where Andrea is a frequent guest artist through the nonprofit group, Art2Action. In their inspiring conversation with Barbara St. Clair, they talk about borders both physical and metaphorical. They share the common ground they’ve found in Dora’s Mexican heritage and Andrea’s Arab-American identity.
Dora and Andrea talk about the hope you need to create art out of trauma and pain. And the joys of sharing physical theatre, dance, Shakespeare and theatre techniques from around the world with students embracing this diverse 21st century.
Find out more about Dora Arreola and Andrea Assaf’s work at: Art2Action: https://art2action.org Andrea’s original piece drawn from the aftermath of 9/11: https://art2action.org/eleven-reflections-on-september/ The R&R Arts Festival 2017 of Arts by and for Veterans: https://art2action.org/rr-festival/ Dora’s Mexican theatre company, Mujeres en Ritual: https://vimeo.com/channels/doraarreola https://alternateroots.org/mujeres-en-ritual-danza-teatro/ https://www.facebook.com/mujeresenritual/ Dora Arreola at USF: http://theatreanddance.arts.usf.edu/content/templates/?z=9&a=1472 The Mathematics of Love: http://theatreanddance.arts.usf.edu/content/templates/?a=5249&z=374
Andrea Assaf at USF: http://theatreanddance.arts.usf.edu/content/templates/?z=0&a=4169 9 Parts of Desire: http://www.arts.usf.edu/content/templates/?z=6&a=4827
Babs Reingold is a nationally-known mixed-media artist whose works and large-scale installations are displayed around the country more often than they’re seen near her home in St. Petersburg.
Her work asks questions about poverty and climate change. She explores aging and animal rights through her creations. Human hair is a material she often uses in her work.
And Babs Reingold’s work is beautiful.
In this conversation sparked with passion and laughter, we explore Babs Reingold’s many inspirations, from growing up in public housing to Hurricane Katrina and the hair she pulled out of her brush today.
Find out more about Babs Reingold’s work at https://www.babsreingold.com.
Selections of her work will be on display this summer at the Museum of Fine Arts in downtown St. Petersburg, as part of the collaborative Skyway Exhibit shared by the MFA, the Tampa Museum of Art and the Ringling Museum of Art in Sarasota. http://tampamuseum.org/news/ringling-museum-fine-arts-st-petersburg-tampa-museum-art-present-skyway-contemporary-collaboration/
Arts In is produced by Matt and Sheila Cowley. Executive Producer, Barbara St. Clair for Creative Pinellas.
Paula Kramer is a dancer and choreographer whose graceful, powerful and adventurously creative. Tom Kramer is a dance photographer known for strikingly beautiful images of dance.
The Kramers’ lifelong collaboration has made their life together a vibrant work of art. Now both in their 80s, Paula is still performing and choreographing and Tom is still creating vivid photographs of dancers and musicians. The Kramers are a vital part of St. Pete’s arts community, constantly collaborating with visual, literary and performing artists.
In this inspiring and often hilarious conversation, they tell stories together and tell stories about each other. We’ll find out about the groundbreaking work Paula did to integrate dance into elementary school education, and hear Tom’s thoughts on capturing the ephemeral beauty of motion.
You can see selections of Tom’s photographs on his web page tomkramerphoto.smugmug.com
Tom is currently working with dancer Helen Hansen French on Capturing Dance. Sponsored by the St. Pete Arts Alliance, the project seeks to capture the diverse dance community of St. Petersburg in photographs that will be displayed in venues through the city.
And Tom is documenting performances at The Palladium Theatre in downtown St. Pete. . . www.mypalladium.org
Paula will be performing on July 27 at the Morean Arts Center as part of Helen Hansen French’s performance at the interactive arts event, [Unified] #genderequality .
You can see Paula’s choreography onstage at The Studio@620 on August 22, as she collaborates with actors, director Elizabeth Brincklow and dancers Helen Hansen French, Crystal DelGiudice and Sean McDonald in a staged reading of playwright Sheila Cowley’s work, Trio.
Featured image: Photograph of Paula Kramer by Tom Kramer.
Arts In is produced by Matt and Sheila Cowley. Executive Producer, Barbara St. Clair for Creative Pinellas.
Catherine Woods has a visceral passion for color. She shares the possibilities of ever-changing light through large-scale glass sculptures that change from every angle, and shift their appearance by day and by night.
In a conversation rich with laughter, Catherine details the work involved in public art commissions that combine art with engineering and construction crews. She explains the practicalities of leaving a secure job for a full-time art career, and the work required to push beyond simply ‘okay’ ideas to discover sparks that both scare and excite her as an artist.
Catherine shares the lure of creating small-scale models and monumental sculptures, of using cutting-edge technology but knowing when to work by hand. She studies the history of art while constantly exploring adventurous new art around the world.
Find out more about Catherine Woods’ artwork at: http://cglassstudio.com/Artist.asp?ArtistID=2595&Akey=EGW9FJRW
Artists mentioned in this Interview:
Olafur Eliasson - http://olafureliasson.net
Lucian Freud - https://artuk.org/discover/artists/freud-lucian-19222011
Anish Kapoor - http://anishkapoor.com
Anselm Kiefer - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anselm_Kiefer Heatherwick Studio, London - http://www.heatherwick.com/#
Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts, St Louis MO - http://pulitzerarts.org
Rachel Whiteread - http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/rachel-whiteread-2319
Arts In is produced by Matt and Sheila Cowley. Executive Producer, Barbara St. Clair for Creative Pinellas.
If you’re near downtown St Pete, you’ve seen the cheerfully iconic Mr. Sun mural and Twiggy’s dreamy, gazing eyes. The striking Paris-London-Tokyo-St Pete graphic is now a proud city emblem. Many of the city’s signature images spring from the quick-witted mind of Chad Mize.
Chad talks with Barbara St. Clair about the allure of mural work, and the draining physical labor of mural creation. He shares his many inspirations, the business sense that lets him earn his living as an artist and the sharp eye for design that drives his work.
Explore Chad’s murals, paintings, design, logos, music mixes and more at http://www.chadmize.com/chadmize.html
Check out the SHINE Mural Festival at http://shineonstpete.com
Arts In is produced by Matt and Sheila Cowley. Executive Producer, Barbara St. Clair for Creative Pinellas.
The vibrant actor Becca McCoy shares her passion for Shakespeare and the sublime storytelling of musical theatre, in a jolly conversation with Barbara St. Clair.
Audiences experienced Becca’s four-and-a-half-octave vocal range in her acclaimed performance last year as the Lady of the Lake in Spamalot, and in the intimate cabaret setting of the Palladium Side Door. In recent months she’s tackled Tennessee Williams, nostalgic radio-style comedy and an experimental duo with a dancer at the Gasparilla Fringe Fest.
As a hard-working member of Actors Equity, Becca’s realistic about life as a working actor and the need to make your own creative opportunities. She’s eloquent about the unique artform of cabaret, and the joys of lifelong learning and exploring.
You can keep up with Becca’s varied work at http://www.beccamccoy.com.
Arts In is produced by Matt and Sheila Cowley. Executive Producer, Barbara St. Clair for Creative Pinellas.
Gasparilla Fringe Fest clip - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7pOEK1928-Y
Rose Marie Prins shares her thoughts on the beauty of abstract art, and the artist’s need to adapt to changing situations and available materials.
Her work connects to nature and to healing, both visibly and viscerally, and below the surface. She explores subjects such as habitat destruction and Florida’s water. Viewers often experience an emotional reaction to her paintings and imaginative installations.
Born in South Africa, Rose Marie’s paintings, sculptures and mixed-media works are in public, corporate, and private collections in the United States, Canada and Europe. The award-winning artist calls St. Petersburg home, and students at the Morean Arts Center have been studying with her for years.
You can see Rose Marie Prins’ artwork in the exhibition, “Sanctuary, East and West” at The Studio@620 in downtown St. Pete, on display May 13-May 30. Rose Marie will give an artist talk at 5:30 p.m. on Saturday, May 13.
http://www.thestudioat620.org/events/sanctuary-east-and-west
Find out more at http://www.rosemarieprins.com
Arts In is produced by Matt and Sheila Cowley. Executive Producer, Barbara St. Clair for Creative Pinellas.
Maureen McDole is a passionate reader and passionate writer. And passionate about creating opportunities for everybody in St Pete to read and write.
As the founder and director of Keep St Pete Lit, Maureen has made her literary nonprofit a vital part of the local arts scene. And she’s woven literary arts into visual and performing arts, with the Fantastic Ekphrastic, the Museum of Fine Arts Book Club, the SunLit Festival, First Night and the 100+ writing classes KSPL provides each year at the Morean Arts Center.
And along with that, Keep St Pete Lit hosts an annual children’s book drive, open-mic poetry and storytelling, a carefully-curated used bookstore, sunrise poetry and moonlit writing walks.
Maureen’s a published poet, recipient of St. Petersburg Art Alliance’s 2016 MUSE Award for Literary Arts, and a true believer that reading can change the world.
Keep up with Keep St Pete Lit’s events at - http://keepstpetelit.org
Check out their low-cost, professionally-taught writing classes at the Morean Arts Center in downtown St Pete - http://keepstpetelit.org/litspace/litspace-classes/
The BookSpace Bookstore - http://keepstpetelit.org/bookspace-has-a-new-home/
Arts In is produced by Matt and Sheila Cowley. Executive Producer, Barbara St. Clair for Creative Pinellas.
“We’re surrounded by materials. So there’s no reason to not make things.”
If you’ve been in downtown St. Pete you have seen James Oleson’s work. The sculptor and muralist shares his infectious enthusiasm for creating public art that’s crafted as a gift to everyone who sees it.
James talks about the sense of discovery in his work, and his collaborative projects with St. Petersburg’s Bloom Art Center. He explains in detail his process for creating Fire Sculptures, beautiful at every stage of their existence and especially when alive with 30-foot flames. And he gives us the philosophy of art he shares with children, “If you want to be an artist, you don’t need materials, you don’t need fancy things. You just are an artist and you make stuff out of stuff that’s around you.”
You can find out more about James Oleson’s work at http://www.olesonart.com.
Keep up with the happenings at Bloom Art Center at http://www.startbloomin.com.
Arts In is produced by Matt and Sheila Cowley. Executive Producer, Barbara St. Clair for Creative Pinellas.
Everybody knows Paul Wilborn. From jazz at The Palladium, newspaper pages, the emcee of countless arts events, the voice of “Noel Berlin, Cabaret Detective” and half of a beloved creative couple with actor and torch singer Eugenie Bondurant.
But Paul is even more than all of that. In this conversation, he shares his experiences as a war correspondent and award-winning journalist, and as one of the mischievous founders of Guavaween. As Executive Director of downtown St. Pete’s Palladium Theatre, Paul explains how a performing arts center focused on local performers can sell out shows and strengthen the area’s music scene.
As a tuxedo-clad cabaret pianist, Paul shares his passion for the vibrant songwriting of the 1920s-‘50s. And from his experience serving as Manager of Creative Industries for the City of Tampa, to becoming a mainstay of St. Petersburg’s arts community, Paul shares his thoughtful perspective on the past, present and future of the arts in Tampa Bay.
Events at The Palladium Theatre - http://www.mypalladium.org
Palladium Paul’s Blog - http://www.mypalladium.org/category/palladium-paul/
Paul Wilborn’s American Songbook Series - https://www.facebook.com/PWAmericanSongbook/
Paul’s Oral History of Tampa arts under Mayor Pam Iorio - http://scholarcommons.usf.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1260&context=flstud_oh
Noel Berlin, Cabaret Detective - http://www.radiotheaterproject.org/?s=noel+berlin
Arts In is produced by Matt and Sheila Cowley. Executive Producer, Barbara St. Clair for Creative Pinellas.
There’s a ship docked in downtown St. Pete with aerialists flying from the rigging. It’s a ship filled with actors and dancers and theatre crew, creating a visually spectacular story about climate change.
Adriana Kelder started the Caravan Stage Company with Paul Kirby in the 1970s. They’ve been bringing original productions to small towns and cities around North America - and Europe - for more than 40 years.
Adriana and Paul toured with horse-drawn carriages for 20 years before setting sail. They raised a family as they traveled, and built a network of creative collaborators around the world. And while the troupe lives together onboard with a library in the galley and lively shared meals, their website’s up to date and their shows use high-tech gear and video projections.
Quiet, passionate and full of humor, Adriana shares the inspiration behind the company and their current production, the risks they take performing political theatre and the pleasures of wanderlust.
Find out more about Caravan Stage Company’s history and current projects at http://caravanstage.org.
You can reserve tickets to “Nomadic Tempest,” performing April 4-8 in downtown St. Petersburg at https://www.eventbrite.com.
Rehearsal photos by Tom Kramer.
Internationally-known artists Robert Stackhouse and Carol Mickett share details of the evolving designs included in their Gateway Plaza commission in Richmond, Virginia. The building was constructed as their artwork was embedded in the structure.
They talk about working with German mosaic specialists and how to install art in 8-degree weather while elevators are being installed around you.
Find out more about their work at http://mickettstackhouse.com
Arts In is produced by Matt and Sheila Cowley. Executive Producer, Barbara St. Clair for Creative Pinellas.
Internationally-known architect Yann Weymouth shares the practical ideas behind the Dalí Museum’s striking design, and why the glass pyramid he helped build at the Louvre was a beautifully simple answer to their needs.
He shares the stories behind the new James Museum of Western + Wildlife Art that will grace downtown St. Pete this year, and how he let natural light into Miami’s Frost Museum using surfboard technology.
Yann Weymouth was honored by French President Francois Mitterand for his work as Chief of Design for I.M. Pei during the Louvre project. He also worked with Pei on Washington D.C.’s National Gallery. In Tampa Bay, you can see his work at the Salvador Dalí Museum and Museum of Fine Arts in St. Pete, the University of South Florida campus in Tampa and Sarasota’s Ringling Museum of Art.
Yann’s thoughtful philosophy of creativity and collaboration reveal the layered process of design. This professional who could live anywhere in the world explains why he and Susana Weymouth choose to live in St. Petersburg, and how he is constantly learning and growing.
For more details:
Salvador Dalí Museum, St. Petersburg - http://thedali.org/virtual-tour/index.html
http://inhabitat.com/interview-hoks-yann-weymouth-discusses-designing-the-hurricane-resistant-salvador-dali-museum/
Frost Art Museum, Miami - http://w3.fiu.edu/websites/FrostMuseum/thefrost.fiu.edu/new_building.htm
James Museum of Western + Wildlife Art, St. Petersburg - http://thejamesmuseum.org
The Louvre, Paris - http://greatbuildings.com/buildings/pyramide_du_louvre.html
Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg - http://mfastpete.org
National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C. - http://www.greatbuildings.com/buildings/east_wing_national_gallery.html
Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota - https://www.ringling.org/museum-art
Tampa Bay Businesses for Culture and the Arts - http://www.tbbca.org
University of South Florida’s Interdisciplinary Sciences Building - http://www.hok.com/design/type/education/university-of-south-florida/
Arts In is produced by Matt and Sheila Cowley. Executive Producer, Barbara St. Clair for Creative Pinellas.
Journalist Dr. Lillian Dunlap and actor/director Jaye Sheldon are co-Artistic Directors of Your Real Stories.
Based in St. Petersburg, Your Real Stories practices “theatrical journalism.” After in-depth interviews with local residents, they distill each person’s story into a script that an actor shares onstage.
Your Real Stories brings real experiences to life, to spark conversations across differences in race, gender and age - while creating a detailed view of local history from many different viewpoints.
Find out more at http://www.yourrealstories.org. Check out a video of St Pete Stories - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cpFP-keLjrE.
And their popular Decades of Day Work series - (see Dropbox video?)
StoryDays in Tampa Bay, their week-long storytelling festival, takes place every year in early October. You can follow the schedule of stories told by voice, text, dance, theatre and image on the Your Real Stories Facebook page - https://www.facebook.com/YRSinc.
Journalist Dr. Lillian Dunlap and actor/director Jaye Sheldon are co-Artistic Directors of Your Real Stories.
Based in St. Petersburg, Your Real Stories practices “theatrical journalism.” After in-depth interviews with local residents, they distill each person’s story into a script that an actor shares onstage.
Your Real Stories brings real experiences to life, to spark conversations across differences in race, gender and age - while creating a detailed view of local history from many different viewpoints.
Find out more at http://www.yourrealstories.org.
Check out a video of St Pete Stories - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cpFP-keLjrE.
And their popular Decades of Day Work series - (see Dropbox video?)
StoryDays in Tampa Bay, their week-long storytelling festival, takes place every year in early October. You can follow the schedule of stories told by voice, text, dance, theatre and image on the Your Real Stories Facebook page - https://www.facebook.com/YRSinc.
Ya La’ford
Painter, muralist, installation artist, community activist and teacher, Ya La’ford, shares her passion for creating art, and for nurturing the next generation of artists.
Ya spoke with Barbara St. Clair after recent work in Thailand and China, and before a project where she’ll be working with children in Cuba. While her artwork is internationally known, Ya’s murals grace buildings throughout her chosen home town of St. Petersburg, including the Morean Arts Center, the James Weldon Johnson Public Library and a beautiful blue tunnel leading to the baseball stadium at Tropicana Field.
Ya reveals her intense creative fire, her profound connections to her family and the world around her, and how training in engineering and law have shaped her art practice.
Find out more about Ya’s work at http://yalaford.com
Arts In is produced by Matt and Sheila Cowley. Executive Producer, Barbara St. Clair for Creative Pinellas.
Rebecca Penneys
Internationally-acclaimed concert pianist Rebecca Penneys commutes between St. Pete and New York every other week, to teach at the Eastman School of Music.
Her infectious sense of humor and the joy she finds in sharing music run throughout this vibrant conversation. Penneys talks about how training as a dancer - and almost giving up piano to pursue a professional ballet career - now shapes the way she plays piano, and the way she teaches even students with carpal tunnel and stress-related injuries to play the piano so it feels like they are having a massage.
Rebecca shares her true love, the international piano festival she hosts each summer at USF Tampa. She hosts 40 students from around the world, for free, to learn in a non-competitive environment from a variety of world-class teachers, and to share their music in free performances all over Tampa Bay.
rebeccapenneyspianofestival.org
Music selections from: Rebecca Penneys & Steinway, Fleur de Son Classics 2005 Recital Gems from Chatauqua, Fleur de Son Classics 2002 All Brahms, Fleur de Son Classics 2000
Arts In is produced by Matt and Sheila Cowley. Executive Producer, Barbara St. Clair for Creative Pinellas.
Internationally-known artists Robert Stackhouse and Carol Mickett share their method of collaboration and give listeners a look behind the scenes of large-scale public art commissions - wrangling contracts. sourcing materials, coordinating with engineers, and managing budgets and schedules on art installations where you have to wear a hard hat.
Robert and Carol explain their passion for both 2-dimensional and 3-dimensional art, how placement on a wall affects a work of art, and why St. Petersburg’s maturing arts community needs every kind of artist from students to professionals.
Find out more about their work at http://mickettstackhouse.com
Produced by Sheila Cowley.
Arts In is produced by Matt and Sheila Cowley. Executive Producer, Barbara St. Clair for Creative Pinellas.
Lynn Whitelaw looks at how much the world of visual art has changed in Tampa Bay in the last 40 years. We enjoy a wealth of museums, galleries and arts events now, and take for granted the many working artists and arts organizations in our area. It’s hard to believe how different the arts scene was when Whitelaw arrived in 1975. Lynn Whitelaw recently retired as the founding Director and Curator of the Leepa-Rattner Museum of Art at St. Petersburg College. He also served as Curator of Education at the Tampa Museum of Art and taught at Hillsborough Community College.
- Recorded and mixed by Matthew Cowley, edited by Sheila Cowley.
Arts resources Lynn mentions in his talk: Chihuly Collection http://www.moreanartscenter.org/chihuly/ Salvador Dalí Museum http://thedali.org Dunedin Fine Arts Center http://www.dfac.org Florida Artists Hall of Fame http://dos.myflorida.com/cultural/programs/florida-artists-hall-of-fame/ Florida Association of Museums http://www.flamuseums.org Gallery 221@HCC http://www.hccfl.edu/gallery221 Graphicstudio http://www.graphicstudio.usf.edu Leepa-Rattner Museum of Art https://www.leeparattner.com Morean Art Center http://www.moreanartscenter.org Museum of Fine Arts http://mfastpete.org Ringling Museum of Art https://www.ringling.org/museum-art Ringling College of Art + Design http://www.ringling.edu Shine Mural Festival http://shineonstpete.com Studio F, University of Tampa http://www.ut.edu/studio-f/ Syd Entel Gallery http://www.sydentelgalleries.com Tampa Bay Businesses for Culture and the Arts http://www.tbbca.org Tampa Museum of Art http://tampamuseum.org USF Contemporary Art Museum http://www.ira.usf.edu/CAM/cam_exhibitions.html Warehouse Arts District http://www.warehouseartsdistrictstpete.com
Arts In is produced by Matt and Sheila Cowley. Executive Producer, Barbara St. Clair for Creative Pinellas.
Tom Sivak
Tom Sivak is an adventurous composer and lyricist who talks about turning Beatles songs into Bach fugues, a musical version of “The Brain That Wouldn’t Die - in 3D!!!” and an Andrews Sisters spoof on Shakespeare that featured Jose Ferrer at Lincoln Center. Tom spoke to us shortly after revealing his new comic opera, “Dr. Dilligaff’s Baboon,” at The Palladium.
You can find out more about Tom’s work at http://tomsivak.com and follow the development of “Dr. Dilligaff’s Baboon” at http://www.rapidreturns.org/artistslandingpage/.
Arts In is produced by Matt and Sheila Cowley. Executive Producer, Barbara St. Clair for Creative Pinellas.
Lisa Powers Tricomi
In a conversation rich with laughter and with her own probing questions, Lisa Powers Tricomi shares her thoughts on acting and directing. Lisa talks about her work with veterans in The Telling Project, and the ideas behind drama therapy. She explains the different energies of acting and directing, the power of theater to transform audiences, and how she grapples with questions of how to be human through her work onstage and off.
Find out more about Lisa Powers Tricomi’s work at: http://creativepinellas.org/artists/lisa-powers-tricomi/ https://thetellingproject.org http://www.theactproject.com/home.html
Arts In is produced by Matt and Sheila Cowley. Executive Producer, Barbara St. Clair for Creative Pinellas.