Art for the People

The folks who seem to get heard — and quoted — most on the Community Investment Tax funding of an arts district and zoo expansion are either disgruntled homeowners or employees of the Tampa Museum of Art or Lowry Park Zoo. That's understandable. We all have neighborhood issues, and if the trustees aren't leading the charge, then it doesn't get led.

I think most folks realize that the arts are no longer the easily stereotyped realm of the "elites." This should not be a "silk stocking" crowd vs. working class and poor neighborhoods scenario. The arts benefit all of us, as few other municipal investments do, across the range of neighborhoods and socioeconomic levels. It would be condescending to imply that only certain souls can be nourished or have their spirits sent soaring by the arts.

Otherwise, annual attendance for Tampa Bay arts organizations wouldn't exceed 5-million. Nearly half those admissions were free, 40 percent of whom were children. This doesn't include the 700,000 annual attendees at the zoo, as egalitarian an experience as there is, and the 130,000 kids — from every Tampa ZIP code — who attend zoo classes. And more, despite a downtown public arts infrastructure limited to an outreach-driven but embarrassingly undersize museum of art, a convention center-annexed history center and a first-class but stand-alone performing arts center. That the Poe Garage has the highest profile on Ashley should be exhibit A about our past priorities, one we are no longer wedded to.

I think the CIT — and its "public facilities" provision — provides an opportunity to help take this city to the next level — culturally and economically. The arts, as we are reminded in a recent Newsweek cover story, are increasingly seen as "urban jump-starters, capable of attracting hordes of visitors, good press and even new business." More than most major markets, Tampa — not yet a household name nationally — needs such investment infusions.

The arts, first and foremost, are investments — in our own quality of life and especially that of our children.

Joe O'Neill

Tampa

Corrections

The caption in last week's Film column misidentified the actor in Ratcatcher. It's William Eadie. Also, the film was slated to open April 13 at Channelside Cinemas, which we reported, but notice came after our paper went to press (again!) that the film was no longer opening on that date.

This article appears in Apr 12-18, 2001.