It should feel odd to discuss a fall arts preview when the temperatures still cling to three digits for at least an hour a day, but it doesn't. I grew up in Tampa Bay, and honestly, the idea of living where the heat might be gone next week? That feels odd. Of course, it's no secret we have our own ways of doing things in Tampa Bay.
Case in point: I sit on the board of the Gulfport Historical Society, and we espouse the idea of "city as museum" — that is, we have a physical museum, but we encourage people to see the entire city as their museum. History, we tell people, is all around you.
That's also appropriate when it comes to art in Tampa Bay. Our museums, our big theaters — St. Pete's lovely MFA or Tampa's Straz — sure, they're the cornerstones. But we have so much happening in the open air it makes my head spin. In a few weeks, SHINE will take to the streets — literally, artists will paint an intersection to kick off St. Pete's annual festival; this Friday, Tampa's Borein Bridge will unveil Leadership Tampa Bay's "Before I Die" mural. To me, that represents an increasing number of local non-arts organizations using art to communicate, and that's how you build an city of art — with everyone's support.
We have so much happening, we couldn't fit it all in this issue, but never fear — our web features will keep the arts coming, and we've revamped our print listings and online events calendar to give you easier access to what to do. In the coming months, we'll showcase more culture, too — like next month's guide to all the area walking tours.
With our veteran visual art critic, Megan Voeller, leaving us, please welcome Caitlin Albritton as our new visual art critic. Caitlin pens a regular column, Femme Visuale, on our website, and has a passion for the lesser-publicized art exhibits (of course, she's still hitting all the regular stops, too). She has a fresh eye and I know she'll make a great addition to our team. As always, you can count on our theater reviewer Mark Leib to hold local theaters to a high standard (and line up his wish-list dream season). New music editor Ray Roa takes a look at some upcoming shows that aren't to be missed. David Warner catches up with some of our previous artists to watch under 25 (as well as one we didn't catch before he hit it big, Blake-trained actor Taylor Trensch). Me? I'm grabbing the things in between, from books to movies to history.
As I said, we do things different down here, and that applies to the arts, too.
Art is all around you. All you need to do is open your eyes.
—Cathy Salustri
This article appears in Aug 25 – Sep 1, 2016.