Pinellas County Public Budget Hearing—where County Commissioners voted to defund Creative Pinellas—was that Visit St. Pete-Clearwater “put on” the SHINE mural festival. County Commissioner Chris Latvala claimed this with Jenee Priebe, SHINE Mural Festival Director from 2018-January 2025, in the building.
Now, SHINE Mural festival co-founder Leon Bedore aka Tes One is pushing back. In a social media post the morning after the preliminary vote, Bedore shared some Florida-inspired art with Pinellas County Government. A gator glides across a Florida pond—the kind usually marked with a ‘No Swimming’ sign. But Bedore has swapped the quintessential Florida sight with a sign that reads ‘Walk-ins welcome.”
He captioned it: “Attn: Pinellas County Government – Am I doing this “art for tourism” thing right?” and tagged Pinellas County Government.
“Tourism follows culture. Culture does not follow tourism,” Bedore added over the weekend, noting that Creative Pinellas has done good with the money it gets by supporting real art and events that showcase the county’s artists.
“Redirecting their funding to VSPC is not only wasteful, it harms the very thing people come here to experience. Tourism without culture is empty – and culture without support is impossible. Pinellas County Commissioners: please reconsider your position and preserve funding for Creative Pinellas.”
Bedore is one of Tampa Bay’s longest-running muralists—he started painting murals in the 1990s, and practically established St. Petersburg as a destination for public art.
You can find an example of Bedore’s work within a slideshow on Visit St. Pete-Clearwater’s Dunedin page.
Pitch in to help make the Tampa Bay Journalism Project a success.
Subscribe to Creative Loafing newsletters.
Follow us: Google News | NewsBreak | Reddit | Instagram | Facebook | BlueSky
This article appears in Sept. 4-10, 2025.