Ikea donates the shadowboxes.
Artists provide their art.
Dunedin Fine Art Center puts those two together in its annual Me and My Shadow [Box]. This night of anonymous artists creating art in small shadowboxes (9" x9") offers the off-center type of art show/event/night out for which DFAC is so well-known. It's one part art party, one part grab bag, one part culture. Also, it's at least one more part dessert. You show up, you pay admission, you get one ticket. You can buy more, and after that's it a game of chance. 100 pieces of art go home with 100 lucky ticket-holding attendees, so buying more tickets increases your chances of getting some local art in your living room.
And, yeah, once you win the piece, they will tell you who made it, so you get bragging rights when you hang it at home or at work. Hey, we love Dunedin and we love the chance to eat at Casa Tina's pre-event and have a beer at Woodwright Brewing after, so, really, this is a hat trick of a Friday night.
The Dunedin Fine Art Center, by the way, promises it is "an organization that is known for putting on some of Tampa Bay’s best events according to the people who choose those sorts of things." We can't argue, but that made us chuckle. Oh, DFAC, you wacky upstarts, we can't wait to see you again. And your tiny IKEA art.
FYI, those IKEA shadowboxes? If you're wondering which ones, they're the RIBBA ones.
This article appears in May 10-17, 2018.