In short, the thing is a work of art, one which knits the Tampa Bay community together with 4.1 miles of prestressed concrete. Organizers of an upcoming tri-city art show couldn't have picked a better symbol. Skyway: A Contemporary Collaboration opens June 22 at the Tampa Museum of Art, and June 24 at both the Museum of Fine Arts in St. Petersburg and The Ringling Museum of Art in Sarasota.
A joint project meant to highlight the diversity of artistic practice in Hillsborough, Pinellas, Manatee and Sarasota counties, Skyway issued a call for submissions last fall, leading to applications from almost 300 local artists. Museum curators Seth Pevnick and Joanna Robotham (TMA); Katherine Pill and Robin O'Dell (MFA); Christopher Jones (Ringling); and guest juror Diana Nawi of the Pérez Art Museum Miami selected 57 artists, whose work has been divvied among the three museums for the exhibition. Some artists are already well-known in the area, but many are not. The focus on the local and the unsung is unusual for these institutions.
According to the curators, the time was ripe.
"There seems to have been something in the air," says Katherine Pill, curator of contemporary art at the MFA in St. Pete. "We had been thinking of it, Michael [Tomor, executive director of the Tampa Museum of Art] had been thinking of it."
The stock of local talent had reached a tipping point. "I began to write down a list of artists that I wanted to work with locally, and there was a full page," Pill says. "It was just time."
Members of the local arts community feel the same way.
"People are happy to see their museums sticking their necks out for local artists, living artists," says Caitlin Albritton, a Skyway participant (and CL's visual art critic). "It feels unattainable, looking at these huge museums…but this is putting [local artists] in the limelight, which I think is really special."
Robert Aiosa will be showing in the Sarasota wing of the show. When he first heard about the museums' call for submissions, he says, "My jaw dropped to the floor." Being selected to show his constructs of raw building materials in a well-known museum is potentially transformative for him.
"I've never had this kind of opportunity," Aiosa says.
The interaction between the Ringling's stately grounds and Aiosa's plywood-and-lumber sculpture is just one of the interesting collisions Skyway was meant to produce.
"I think the reaction will be really positive," says Aiosa. "Kudos to the museums for being willing to do something like this."
There is no standard profile of a typical Skyway participant. Some artists have shown internationally; others are fresh out of art school. The Tampa branch alone reports a range of artists' ages from 28 to 81. And the curators advise that there is not a unifying "look" to the works on hand.
Artist Bahareh Khoshooee is a good example of the elastic nature of Skyway's scope — and of the Tampa art scene in general. Raised and educated in Tehran, Iran, Khoshooee first came to the United States to pursue her Master of Fine Arts degree at USF. She was unfamiliar with the culture and the language.
"It would have been really easy to ignore me," she says.
But she was not ignored, and a mere three years later she is showing in the area's biggest presentation of local art in a long time — maybe ever. She is already acquainted with many of her fellow artists in the show, and is excited to see them all together.
"The community is really powerful, and really welcoming," she says.
According to artist Nathan Beard, reinforcing that web of support between the artists is the best thing the show could do.
"I think what's really important is for artists to meet each other. Because artists create opportunities for one another," he says. "There's a desire for collaboration, and connecting communities across the bridges. There's the potential for Tampa Bay to be come a large and highly networked cultural hub for the whole Southeast."
Albritton agrees:
"When people think of arts in Florida, all they think of is Miami in December," for the Art Basel festival. "But it's good to let them know that we're here."
The artists are arranged thematically in each space, rather than by geographical grouping. Curator Robin O'Dell of the MFA in St. Pete reminds viewers that the museums have reciprocal membership, so members of one can visit all of the others. Artists hope that people will take advantage.
"From a more regional view, people have to remember, you've got to see all three of them…to know what's happening here," says Beard. "It's exciting to be a part of this thing where we're being kind of mixed together, rather than standing alone."
This article appears in Jun 15-22, 2017.