Derek Donnelly, who appears at Suite E Studios in St. Petersburg, Florida on April 12, 2025. Credit: Photo via cityofstpete/Flickr

There aren’t many people who can more comprehensively, and honestly, describe Pinellas County’s changing arts landscape better than Derek Donnelly.

The multiple Best of the Bay-winner is one of the artists behind St. Pete’s mural-driven rise to art-topia prominence, and for this Saturday ArtWalk talk he welcomes visitors to the Warehouse District’s newest venue, Suite E Studios, to talk about a recently-uncovered mural of his.

Lawyer Kevin T. Beck commissioned the piece, asking Donnelly to draw inspiration from The World Is a Ghetto, a 1972 album by funk band War. The mural, organizers wrote, is a lost and forgotten relic of Old St. Pete, adding that, “Buildings come and go at the whims of business owners, city officials, and developers, while artists remain invested in their communities and where they live.”

A new projection map of the piece will also be unveiled, while the experimental, tinkerer-friendly music project Jadget Gam handles sounds.

There’s no cover for Derek Donnelly’s Saturday Art Walk talk, “Portrait of A City c. 2018,” happening at Suite E Studios in St. Petersburg on Saturday, April 12.

✖

Event Details