A rendering of the future home for Tampa Arts Alliance at 201 E Kennedy Blvd. in Tampa, Florida. Credit: Photo c/o Tampa Arts Alliance/Beck

For almost half-a-decade now, the Tampa Arts Alliance has worked to help put the local art scene on the global map—and now the nonprofit might have a new place to call its own.

Last Tuesday, the alliance’s Executive Director Michele Smith said that the group has the opportunity to move into a ground floor office just across the street from Lykes Gaslight Square in downtown Tampa.

Tampa Arts Alliance’s forthcoming downtown space at 201 E. Kennedy Blvd—valued at $1 million and donated by Boston-based commercial real estate investor Farley White Interests—is at the corner of Kennedy Boulevard and Tampa Street and puts the alliance in the emergent heart of the city.

“There’s just so much synergy,” Smith told Creative Loafing Tampa Bay about the location of the 5,000-square-foot space at the bottom of the Fifth Third Center.

According to the Tampa Downtown Partnership’s development guide, the neighborhood has approximately 65,000 daily workers and 23,600 residents—and that’s not counting more than a dozen developments in the works right now.

So many artists live in pockets within West Tampa and Ybor City, but the density of people just isn’t that high yet, Smith told CL, adding that, “What we’re trying to do is make sure that where there’s this density of people, that the artists are represented and seen.”

Tampa Art Alliance’s potential new home gives the organization a chance to pull people in off downtown streets, before telling them to take a trolley over to Ybor City where they can visit the Kress Collective, Marcolina’s Fine Arts Gallery, the Florida Museum of Photographic Arts or Factory on Fifth. Visitors and residents would also be encouraged to go further down the Tampa Riverwalk to experience the public art in West Tampa.

“…we want to be the place that kind of reminds people that we’ve got homegrown talent, too.”

“We want to kind of be like a heart—literally, a heart muscle—that’s pulling the people in and then pushing them out to all these places, and increasing the visibility of regional art,” Smith said. “We have some world class institutions that bring in a lot of talent from other places. And we want to be the place that kind of reminds people that we’ve got homegrown talent, too.”

A press release says that the arts center will focus on three main goals: showcasing the work of local artists and organizations, inspiring connection and collaboration across the arts scene, and activating public space with art that everyone can enjoy.

Tampa Arts Alliance (which recently did its part to help Artspace open affordable housing in Ybor City) plans to open in downtown Tampa come March 2026—but moving in is not necessarily a give-in.

Smith said Farley White Interests wants her group to build the space out so that it matches the rest of the 44-year-old, 281,187-square-foot Class A tower and becomes an amenity for downtown itself.

“We’re not just going to go into a raw space and throw up some art,” she explained.

So together with the Beck commercial construction and architecture group, Tampa Arts Alliance is working to design a flexible venue with ceiling railings to accommodate moveable walls that can not only act as gallery space, but be moved to accommodate large groups for events.

“Part of the condition is that we need to be able to act quickly now that we have the commitment of space,” Smith said, adding that the rent is about $250,000 a year.

That’s why Tampa Arts Alliance has launched a new capital campaign that seeks to raise $1.2 million by Nov. 1 to help cover that first year of rent and buildout.

Smith told CL that one of the alliance’s board members, Wade Vaught of Strategic Property Partners and Water Street, is working with his connections to keep the process on budget.

For the rest of the summer, Smith plans to have face-to-face meetings in her effort to raise funds, but hopes to have a fundraising event in the fall.

“We haven’t even launched yet, and we do have two pledges already, which is really great,” she said about the progress.

UPDATED 07/18/25 8:48 a.m. Updated to fix some typos.

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This article appears in Jul 10-16, 2025.