November was already a great month for the arts in Pinellas County. And it got even better in 2022 when Creative Pinellas and Visit St. Pete Clearwater co-branded it Art’n Month (stylized “ART’n Month”) and added an artsy scavenger hunt.
When Art’n Month launched in November 2022, Barbara St. Clair led Creative Pinellas, Steve Hayes headed Visit St. Pete/Clearwater, and Charlie Justice chaired the Pinellas County Commission. Three years later, both arts and tourism organizations had new CEOs, and the County Commission had seen a succession of new chairs. Suddenly, a new group of people were discussing an art month to attract tourists to Pinellas County. Should we have it in November? Déjà vu!
When the new CEO of Creative Pinellas—Margaret Murray as of January 2024—presented a new cultural tourism initiative called Making Waves to Pinellas County Commissioners in the summer of 2025, Pinellas County artists were already applying. But it was the age of DOGE, and the county commission chair at the time, Brian Scott, claimed to be “pretty underwhelmed” by the proposal that laid the foundation for Art Everywhere. Pinellas County commissioners were impressed when hundreds of artists showed up to defend their county’s arts agency, but it didn’t change their decision. Pinellas County Commissioners voted 5-2 to defund Creative Pinellas.
Creative Pinellas let go of four staffers it could no longer afford to pay and moved out of its gallery in Pinewood Cultural Park. Then Murray, who now works from home, was left to figure out how to fulfill Creative Pinellas’ mission of supporting Pinellas County artists with far less money and fewer employees.
The county kept intact $400,000 for Pinellas County artists and arts organizations to develop and organize amazing arts & culture events to attract tourists to Pinellas County in November. It DOGE-ed a lot of admin costs.
Creative Pinellas, the St. Petersburg Arts Alliance, and the Clearwater Arts Alliance received a combined $100,000 from the county’s bed taxes to administer Art Everywhere—the equivalent of about two people’s salaries. And Visit St. Pete Clearwater continued working with Creative Pinellas on a November art month.
It sounds great—like taxpayers really saved some money—until they remember that Pinellas County lost a beautiful art gallery and a handful of Pinellas County residents lost their jobs. Then there’s the issue about how Pinellas County artists will pay their bills outside of November. Some in the community have found it tough to square the cuts with the fact that in fiscal year 2025, Visit St. Pete Clearwater asked for just under $6 million in bed tax revenue to staff its 50-person workforce.
Despite the political sideshow, Pinellas County artists submitted $3.6 million in proposals.
“It was hard to narrow it down to $350,000-$400,000,” says Murray. “Looking through the proposals, I saw the depth of creativity in Pinellas County, and knowing it made me realize how we’ve fallen short in supporting this immense creativity.”
Politics aside, Art Everywhere finds Creative Pinellas, Visit St. Pete Clearwater and Pinellas County Commissioners finding a way to work together to get $500,000 in bed tax revenue into the hands of Pinellas County artists.
“I speak an entirely different language than they do, and they speak an entirely different language than I do,” Murray told Creative Loafing Tampa Bay. “But we both understand the common goal. We’re all moving toward the same thing: making sure that Art Everywhere is a success.”
Art organizations and experiences not funded by the county’s bed taxes also joined to make this month even better.
“I think it’ll be a fun month, and I love this calendar, too,” current County Commission Chair Dave Eggers said at an Oct. 21 meeting of the Tourist Development Council, holding up a downloaded calendar . “Lletting people know there’s all kinds of activity all over the county—you can’t love the arts and not find something…”
The bottom line: whatever you want to call it—ART’n Month, Making Waves, Art Everywhere—it’s back, it’s old, it’s new, it’s happening.
“There’s a vibe here—and whether it’s the beach vibe or the sports vibe or the culture vibe, it’s all tied together,” said Murray. “That’s what Art Everywhere does. It shows how interconnected they all are. Things don’t need to be pulled apart or untangled. Just enjoy it for what it is. If you are at a park and you see a dance performance, that’s like the most fascinating thing that could happen on a vacation…That’s what vacations are about—relaxing and falling into whatever is right around the corner.”
There’s so much art out there. Now get out there and enjoy it. Imagine what Pinellas County’s arts & culture scene could be if we allocated even more money to support it.
“When we announced this in early June, we did not anticipate that we would receive $3.6 million in funding requests,” Murray said in that Oct. 21 TDC meeting, “which goes to show me that our artists and our cultural community and arts organizations are really invested in making sure that Pinellas County remains an arts destination, and we only have room to grow from this.”
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This article appears in Nov. 05 – 11, 2026.
