In the time it takes Jeff Svajdlenka to answer a question, his eyes make a quick pass around a freshly painted art gallery.
"For me, 20 years," he says after a moment.
That's how long the systems administrator and part-time ceramicist has dreamt of opening a community arts center. Now, in a former dry goods warehouse in Ybor City, the New Tampa resident is living his dream — or starting to, at least. Arts On Ninth, the space Svajdlenka, his wife and two friends recently founded, officially opened to the public in March. While it's not quite running at full speed (a nascent art supply store stocks sketchpads and some paintbrushes but not much else), the space's potential is heartening for a neighborhood where art has struggled to thrive.
Any time a promising new business — or better yet, a cluster of them — opens in Ybor City, it's tempting to hail a renaissance. (Who isn't pulling for the historic district to shed the last vestiges of its French Quarter-meets-the-Bronx rap?) Think of the excitement surrounding Ybor's recent popularity as a site for architecture, urban planning and design firms or the emergence of the GaYbor business coalition. Even the appearance, and subsequent success, of Tre Amici at the Bunker (an independent coffeehouse that dabbles in music and art exhibition) has been a big deal, never mind the imminence of Ikea (due to open on May 6).
At last, Ybor's visual arts community seems to be experiencing the kind of strength-in-numbers growth that longtime players like art dealer Brad Cooper have been advocating. Take a stroll through the historic district on a Saturday (better still, on the first Saturday of the month, during the Ybor Art Association's Art Walk, 12-6 p.m.) and you'll find the number of art exhibition venues number closer to a dozen than the handful of a year or two ago.
Regulars remain in place: 24-year-old Brad Cooper Gallery, though it recently downsized and will soon share its building with Blue Devil Tattoo, soldiers on, as does Hoffman Porges Gallery. By now, most people have discovered HCC Ybor's beautiful new gallery (nearly two years old), though its location on the north side of Palm Avenue puts it on the district's fringe. RedLetter1, a combination tattoo studio/art gallery, looks better than ever since it relocated last year to a spacious storefront on 15th Street. Ybor Art Colony, atop King Corona Cigars, houses studios for artists including Noah Deledda, Hance Clay and Greg Latch; Gallery Live (on 15th Street just north of 8th Avenue) similarly shelters artists with an emphasis on LGBTQ inclusion. And the city-run Ybor Art Studio in Centennial Park still offers painting, metalsmithing, pottery and digital media classes at unbelievably low cost.
But, unsurprisingly, it's the two newest dedicated art spaces that are generating the most buzz right now. In addition to Arts On Ninth, there's REAX Space, a art gallery/boutique that fronts offices for REAX music magazine in a historic bungalow on 19th Street, two doors north of Tre Amici at the Bunker. While Arts On Ninth hopes to charm diverse demographics with offerings ranging from a belly dancing class dubbed "Wiggles and Giggles" to a current photography exhibition, REAX Space's niche market is pretty clearly defined. The graphic tees stacked neatly on its custom-built shelves provide an enticement to Ybor's burgeoning hipster contingent (and South Tampa MILFs), who might be more inclined to drop $20 on an accessory or $100 on a silkscreen print than $5,000 on a painting at a traditional gallery.
The space's current showcase of prints, T-shirts, mugs and more by Philly and Tampa-based artist Eleanor Grosch, has been successful enough that artist Brandon Dunlap — one of the space's three founders — fretted about a nearly empty display during a recent visit. Dunlap, along with REAX publisher Joel Cook and Merchline.com entrepreneur Nate Murray, conceived the space in response to the growing number of Tampa Bay artists whose work takes the form of printed matter, from fine art prints to bags, journals, greeting cards, pillows and more. (In addition to Grosch, featured artists include ISO50, Tes One, Fullbleed, Owl Movement and Dunlap; a collection of CDs for sale focuses on Florida-based bands.)
"We all have so many friends that do things like this in the community that we wanted to try and give people a platform to sell some products," Dunlap says.
The scope of ambition at Arts On Ninth is even greater. Svajdlenka, the ceramicist and systems administrator, says he and his collaborators teamed up to transform the 6,600-square-foot space into a community arts center after participating in the now-defunct Oliva Cigar Factory collective. While the finishing touches have yet to be put in place, the space boasts an art gallery, black-box theater and several small studios. A small consignment shop sells costumes by co-founder Rosemary Saunders and ceramic figurines by Svajdlenka, among other offerings, while an adjacent nook is where they hope to further develop an art supply store that could serve HCC Ybor students.
Despite having just opened, Svajdlenka says the group already feels like community interest will soon necessitate a larger facility. "We would love to grow this to the point of bursting for two or three years and then find a different space," Svajdlenka says.
So far, Arts On Ninth offers two classes — one on sewing in addition to the bellydancing group. The black-box theater has hosted several concerts, including one by the Boulevard Jazz Orchestra, and plans a multi-band concert on Friday featuring EzSwank, the latest endeavor of Oliva Cigar Factory collective founders Blake and James Emory. The concert will coincide with an opening reception for the arts center's new photography exhibition.
Ybor's arts scene may have a ways to go before it can compare with, say, downtown St. Petersburg's. But its growth isn't going unnoticed — and every new element helps nudge the community a little bit closer to critical mass, says art dealer Brad Cooper.
"The more kinds of the things that involve art and artists the better," he says.
This article appears in Apr 22-28, 2009.