On a sleepy post-Milton Saturday afternoon, a pair of young dancers in traditional Mexican garb stood along the eastern edge of Coachman Park. A handful of people were at the downtown Clearwater park’s mural walls for a dedication ceremony.
Among them, Mexican artist Edgar Islas Cruz, aka Tutubixi, stood next to his work—a colorful new mural featuring a hummingbird flying away from a bushel of flowers. Cruz is from Clearwater’s sister city, Ixmiquilpan, Mexico.
Cruz’s “Journey of the Hummingbird” is the latest in a series of public art projects supported by Clearwater’s Public Art and Design Program. Since Clearwater City Council approved the program in October 2005, Clearwater has gained more than two dozen sculptures and murals. You can see them by accident, while grabbing dinner on Cleveland Street or catching a concert at The Sound, or you can see them on purpose via Clearwater Arts Alliance’s monthly docent-led art walks through downtown Clearwater.
But this fall, the best introduction to Clearwater’s public art is a new art exhibit at Clearwater Main Library.
“Inspiration in the City: celebrating the artists enriching Clearwater’s public spaces” showcases artwork by some of the Tampa Bay area’s best artists. The Clearwater Arts Alliance started curating the library’s gallery during the pandemic—“Inspiration” is its third show in the new gallery.
“Inspiration in the City” showcases smaller artworks from artists who’ve contributed to the City of Clearwater’s growing public art collection.
The list includes Nathan Beard, a popular St. Pete artist whose “Pond’s Edge” graces a signal box in Clearwater’s Spring Branch neighborhood. Additional signal box artists Valorie Vogel, Elizabeth Barenis, and Don Gillespie all contributed paintings in their signature styles to the exhibition. Tim Boatright contributed a print of “Hibiscus Pop,” the first work of art to grace a signal box in Clearwater. And local sculptor Don Gialanella contributed a rattlesnake made of stainless steel, copper, and wood. Gialanella also contributed five sculptures to Clearwater’s Crest Lake Park in 2023 that are worth seeing while you’re in Clearwater.
Seeing “Inspiration in the City” can make someone want to see more public art in Clearwater.
Conveniently, Clearwater Main Library is also the starting location for Clearwater Arts Alliance’s monthly public art walks, held on the third Saturday of each month at 10:30 a.m. The docent-led walks lead participants through downtown Clearwater, where they’ll see about 20 public artworks, from murals to sculptures to art-wrapped signal boxes and painted storm drains. Highlights on an Oct. 2023 art walk preceding Clearwater’s inaugural Art in the Park event, included several signal boxes wrapped in art, Tony Krol and Michelle Sawyer’s “100 Years Before J. Cole” mural along the Pinellas Trail, multiple Cecilia Lueza murals, and several sculptures installed in the Cleveland Street District as part of the city’s Sculpture 360 program.
Clearwater Arts Alliance’s “Inspiration in the City: celebrating the artists enriching Clearwater’s public spaces,” is at Clearwater Main Library through Jan. 8, 2025. The art exhibition introduces Clearwater’s public art in a way that will leave you wanting to see more. And with fall in full swing, we recommend doing just that. Add a monthly public art walk and a stroll through Clearwater’s Crest Lake Park for a full morning/afternoon of visual art in Clearwater.
