It's been a while since the visual arts had a banner year in terms of economic climate or political support. Somehow, that hasn’t stopped Tampa Bay from growing, celebrating and making art in 2011. Think of this top ten (plus one) as auspicious canaries in the coal mine — signs of more good things to come in 2012.
ARTpool Gallery. In December, artist Marina Williams moved her ARTpool Gallery to a new and permanent home — she owns the building — on the 2300 block of Central Avenue. With twice as much space, the cooperative gallery now features work by more than 25 artists as well as vintage clothing and handmade crafts. The biggest boon of the move? An outdoor 3,000-sq.-ft. courtyard serves as home for gallery events including an "I Love St. Pete" party scheduled for Jan. 14.
Community Stepping Stones. Since 2004, Sulphur Springs-based nonprofit Community Stepping Stones has used the visual arts as a platform for teaching neighborhood teens life and job skills from conflict resolution to multimedia design. In 2011, the nonprofit unveiled its new headquarters on the Hillsborough River — a renovated fish camp that provides vastly expanded studio and classroom space — and a revamped board of directors led by former Tampa City Council member Linda Saul-Sena.
Jono Vaughan. 2011 was a break-out year for Vaughan, whose beautiful, gender-bending drawings of hair (mostly his own) dazzled many viewers. After snagging a solo show at Collective in April and a Best of the Bay award from Creative Loafing, Vaughan was invited to participate in the National Performance Network conference, held in Tampa earlier this month. With the grant he received, Vaughan created a performance piece in the form of a temporary hair salon (inside a PODs storage unit), where two stylists administered haircuts just like the artist's to willing visitors.
Bluebird Books Bus. In October, Mitzi Gordon realized a longtime dream, transforming a compact yellow school bus into the blueberry-hued Bluebird Books Bus, stocked with a mix of art books, novels, non-fiction, artists' books (including Josh Pearson’s illustrated Alphabetto, a 2011 release) and hand-crafted objects. The bus doubles as a mobile venue for events like film screenings. Last week, the Bluebird got a boost when donors kicked in $3,000 to help fund the project via Kickstarter.
T. Hampton Dohrman. Dohrman, a 28-year-old entrepreneur, has already made a name for himself in Tampa Bay by creating (or co-creating) several innovative arts funding initiatives. In December, Creative Pinellas, the private arts agency that emerged from the dissolution of Pinellas County's grant-making Arts Council, named Dohrman as its director. Though the agency's shoestring budget is intended mainly to fund publicity for local events, Dohrman has some creative ideas for stretching every dollar, including starting a free equipment rental program for local artists.
Duncan McClellan Glass. In 2009, artist Duncan McClellan took a gamble and moved his glass-blowing studio from Tampa into a former fish-packing warehouse south of St. Pete's Grand Central neighborhood. In 2011, visitors flocked to the space — which McClellan has lovingly remodeled into a massive glass art showroom fronted by tropical fruit trees — for monthly art openings and rotating exhibitions. McClellan's success has made it possible to contemplate a glass art district in the area — a dream that seems even more attainable since Zen Glass Studio’s December move to a building nearby.
Tempus Projects. For a gallery housed in a Seminole Heights garage, Tempus Projects punches above its weight as one of the most respected visual art venues in Tampa Bay. In 2011, the artist-run space celebrated its second anniversary and organized an impressive slate of exhibitions — from a solo show for Tampa-based artist Brian Taylor, whose woodcuts were inspired by the macabre eroticism of French writer Georges Bataille, to a juried exhibition of artist-made mixtapes. In January, Tempus hosts one of two local exhibitions celebrating the centennial of John Cage's birth; the Tampa Museum of Art hosts the other.
Tampa Bay’s clay community. The April arrival of NCECA, a national conference celebrating the ceramic arts, in Tampa Bay confirmed the existence of a passionate local clay community. The traveling conference inspired more than 35 venues on both sides of the Bay to organize or host exhibitions of ceramic art that spanned the gamut from conceptual installations to functional pottery.
Florida Museum of Photographic Arts. Since 2006, the Florida Museum of Photographic Arts in downtown Tampa has offered visitors small but smartly curated exhibitions of photography. In March, FMoPA moves from its current under-the-radar location (on the ground floor of an office tower on Tampa Street) to two floors — and three times as much exhibition space — in the high-profile "cube" building at Rivergate Plaza, facing the Tampa Museum of Art across Curtis Hixon Park. "This is nothing short of a miracle," says FMoPA board chair Roger Robson.
Downtown St. Petersburg. More than anything else, 2011 was remarkable for the lovefest of good vibes that seemed to emanate from St. Pete's visual arts community. From Central Avenue to Beach Drive, institutions large and small banded together for the benefit of all. Galleries and retail businesses on Central Ave’s 400, 500, 600 and 700 blocks partnered to create the nascent Central Arts District and launched a holiday window-decorating competition, while several of the 'Burg's major arts venues — the MFA and the Morean included — conspired to create the St. Petersburg Arts and Entertainment Pass.
The Dalí opening. Yes, this makes my Top 10 a Top 11, but it seems only right, since the Salvador Dalí Museum's eye-popping new space opened its doors to the public, with suitably surrealistic fanfare, on 1/11/11.
This article appears in Dec 22-28, 2011.
