Letters

Re: "The Creative Revolution" by Trevor Aaronson and Natasha Del Toro (Aug.7-13)

Viva la Revolution

A well spoken and much needed article indeed; however, what about the arts in Tampa? What about the more than 400 artists who live in Tampa Bay and the many galleries that have gone out of business? For over two years, I was the director of MacArthur Galleries in Tampa, right across the street from the Tampa Museum of Art. I'm no longer there. I'm sure you can figure out why.

We have so many artists in Tampa in all media who are professional and have serious desires to develop their career nationally. These artists are not only creating their own work but are doing everything they can to get it seen by potential collectors, curators and gallery owners. Most of these artists are represented by galleries. The underCURRENT/overVIEW annual exhibition at the Tampa Museum of Art is always a sure thing for getting the skinny on our regional area artists.

Why are the terms for these arts councils so long? It seems that most of our representatives of the arts in the Bay area and even Sarasota have been there forever and have no art related background or experience other than sitting on a board or two. Are their day-to-day lives based in the arts? Do they travel to national shows? Are they familiar with current contemporary art? I am completely at a loss for the Arts Council's new slogan "You'll Love it." What the hell does that mean? These artists don't need more false hopes like the cultural arts district in Tampa, which I foresee commercial galleries offering mass-produced catalog art for the "non-discerning collector." We need real collectors! We have a fair amount here but most of the ones who really know what is going on leave town to buy or have a consultant in New York. What do our resident collectors need? What can these local galleries, art centers, curators and artists do? What would it take to ask them to involve their friends and family and spread their knowledge? What would it take to draw these established artists to the Bay area?

I am overwhelmed at the lack of action on this issue by anyone other than our artists. Don't just talk about it; act on it! Does anyone listen? Quit developing and pour some color and money into the Arts!

Sophia Nakis
Executive Director
Art Registry of Tampa

Thank you for your well-written and insightful article. I was not familiar with Richard Florida's work, and your article truly inspired me. As an arts educator, I believe that the arts are an undervalued but essential aspect of society, and now I can reference the economic power of the creative class in my argument for more funding for arts programs.

I also enjoyed Natasha Del Toro's accompanying piece, and hope that Tampa Bay can learn from the mistakes that Sarasota has made. Fortunately, we do have museums, galleries, and music venues that are committed to showing cutting-edge artists, even if we struggle in competing with the more popular local attractions. I hope that this article validates those readers who already support local artists and encourages those who have yet to take full advantage of the opportunities in their back yard. I urge them to pass on Thomas Kinkade and BayFest, and instead attend a local gallery opening or catch one of our many great local bands. I guarantee that they will be pleasantly surprised at the truly incredible, yet undiscovered talent, and maybe someday be able to tell friends "I knew them when." And let's not forget to thank Weekly Planet for articles such as the recent story on Rocky Bridges, which help to draw attention to our very rich hometown arts scene and could help to move Tampa Bay further up the chart of creative cities.

P.S. We will be hosting an exhibition of Jeff Whipple's work Nov. 30-Jan. 12.

Kim Lomas
Curator of Education
Gulf Coast Museum of Art

This week's Planet is a Planet among Planets.

Since my return from Italy a few weeks ago, I have been so frustrated by many lacking aspects of our culture in general and our food and wine culture specifically. "The Creative Revolution," "Support the Little Wine Guy" and "Florida's Cultural Milquetoast" were right on and spoke passionately to many of the issues that are most frustrating in our community.

Huge kudos to the paper for taking increasingly strong stances on what should be important. These articles articulated many aspects of my new mission statement. It is wonderful to see community leaders (the Planet and its writers) shaking us (or at least attempting to shake us) from our established and accepted levels of mediocrity. Saying no to the retail and food chains, the factory wines and the status quo city planners has to be the best first step.

Thank you and those who wrote these articles. This was a truly inspiring issue.

Ben Carson
Augustan Wine Imports

What's this bunk? Elitist rubbish. Boot out the beer-belching, blue collar breeders and relegate the minorities and immigrants to tidy, Toronto-inspired enclaves, and hope they don't sneak out to steal your Lexus. Scrape away the progressive patina and what you have is a formula for ethnic cleansing and social stratification. At 10 grand a pop for this patent medicine show, no wonder Richard Florida is grinning like a smug, Land's End catalog model.

Ray Zacek
Tampa

Transit for the People

If Pinellas County Administrator Steve Spratt follows through and gets Pinellas Suncoast Transit Association converted to a county agency, it would mean more accountability because it would be under the control of officials directly elected by the people (the Pinellas County Commission), which would be better than the current system which, by design, lacks accountability and home rule, as well as promotes "taxation without representation."

I also feel that a PSTA controlled by the Pinellas County Commission would also be a significant step toward the development of a true regional transit system covering the entire Tampa Bay area, which currently trails Orlando and even the Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach corridor in providing regular, as opposed to limited, multicounty transit service.

Steve Byrd
St. Petersburg

This article appears in Aug 21-27, 2002.