Last month, the  Culinary Heights dinner fundraiser event raised $8,238.54 for the Seminole Heights, Tampa, public arts initiative Urban Art Attack. The Heights Collective dinner featured chefs from Anise Global Gastrobar, Cena, Clementine Cafe, Ella's, and Rooster and the Till, plus locally brewed craft beer pairings from Angry Chair Brewing, Bastet Brewing, Cigar City Cider and Mead, Hidden Springs Ale Works, and Southern Brewing, who also was the event sponsor.

CL caught up with Urban Art Attack founder Melissa Deming, co-owner of Ella's Americana Folk Art Cafe, to find out if any plans are in the works now that the organization had a mini-windfall, thanks to neighborhood supporters.
 

"The funds are really going to be a great kickstarter for the Urban Art Attack, said Deming. "Right now we have seven different building owners around the Seminole Heights neighborhood that are interested in having a mural painted on their wall. Since they are mostly neighborhood businesses, the task at hand is to find the right artist for each location. The building owners have the final say in what gets ultimately put on their walls so we are trying to match artists up accordingly without having anyone spin their wheels on designs that won't work for each of the locations." 

Deming added that several of the upcoming project locations have descriptions on Urban Attack's website, urbanartattack.org. Venues include Angry Chair Brewery, The Independent, Hampton Station, The Crossroads' new building on Nebraska, A Modern Line, Fodder and Shine, and one on the corner of Nebraska and Osborne.

"Artists are currently working on The Angry Chair, The Crossroads  and the Independent," Deming adds, "so I expect those locations to be the first to be completed." 

Artists are welcome to be considered for projects. "We encourage anyone interested in helping with the attack to contact us now so they can be considered for upcoming projects," Deming says. 

For more information on the Urban Art Attack, visit UrbanArtAttack.org. For more information on The Heights Collective, visit TheHeightsCollective.org.

This article appears in Apr 23-29, 2015.