Chicago marketing guru Patricia Martin may have breezed through Tampa on June 10 to spread the word about RenGen, but her ideas seem to have taken up permanent residence. In front of about 90 audience members (mostly employed in the arts) at the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center, Martin described her concept of a "renaissance generation" of creative, cultural consumers that spans Gen X, Gen Y and the Baby Boomers. By appealing to RenGen with genre-bending, interactive forms of engagement based in arts and culture, businesses, nonprofits and government organizations alike stand to win, she says. (To watch a video of the original presentation, go to vimeo.com/1198221.)
Now get ready for RenGen part deux. On Tues., July 15, at 8:30 a.m., the Tampa Bay Business Committee for the Arts hosts a follow-up roundtable at TBPAC's Maestro's restaurant. Though the business community failed to turn out in great numbers at the initial presentation, RenGen-mania has gripped community activists including Julia Gorzka, who hopes her newly minted social networking site, Brand Tampa (brandtampa.com), will serve as a platform to engage the area's creative population. Join Gorzka and others for a discussion on how to spark a renaissance in Tampa Bay and finally break the curse of the unintentionally ironic tag line, America's Next Great City.
Creative Clay, one of St. Pete's most estimable nonprofits, showcases the results of its annual ARTLINK program Friday, July 11, 5-8 p.m., at The Pier. The program pairs students with developmental disabilities and mental health challenges with professional Bay area artists — and the resulting artwork, from paintings to ceramics to collaborative videos, is often out of this world.
As a bonus, Creative Clay will unveil several new licensed products to complement its current line of T-shirts, martini glasses, temporary tattoos, wrapping paper and more, which are decorated with student drawings. Proceeds benefit both the students and Creative Clay programs. For more information, go to creativeclay.org.
This article appears in Jul 9-15, 2008.