Central Tampa Artists Meeting recap

From Susan:

"Last night we met for our second meeting at the Front Porch Restaurant. They kindly allowed us to rearrange their porch furniture and the waitress served us well with a great southern accent. Our numbers grew from 11 to 21 and we continued to be a healthy mix of artists with writers, videographers, performing artists, and visual artists represented. Topics covered were the need for a collective space, field trips to visit other such spaces, a Central Tampa arts event, and the formalization of this group.

Several people had ideas for collective spaces including Amos Miers who is working on a project on Florida Avenue to convert a 1700 square foot garage into studio space, Jon Welding and partner Jen Persons have been looking at the Seminole Heights Theater and a 10,000 square foot downtown office building. Jenny Carey of the Arts Council sent a message about the availibilty of a 900 square foot space at 1906 Armenia. Also, to be considered is space in existing artists collectives. Jenny Carey is trying to gather info on those spaces and will be happy to share that with us when she gets it. So, all you shy artist groups out there, send in that info, so we can come visit. There was pretty much unanimous agreement about the need for a space where this group could meet and share. We have similar concerns, no matter what type of artist we are and this group has not only the potential to be a support to the members, but a powerful force as lobbyists for arts advocacy. We need a place where we can come to gripe, plot, and grow. We also would like studio space, a collective gallery, a space that allowed artists to share skills and materials. Is it possible to find one space that would suit the needs of all disciplines of art? Do we want to support the local community (Seminole Heights) or do we go for a downtown location? These questions will be discussed by a subgroup who signed on for that task. Also to be discussed are the possibilities for assistance from many avenues, including the Arts Coucil Of Hillsborough, Arts Advisory Council, Central City Community Development Corporation, and the mayor.

Next on the agenda were field trips. We are tentatively scheduling the first one for the weekend of May 20, 21 to St.Petersburg's Clay Factory and Salt Creek Studios. I'll send out the concrete details when they're set. Please. send the group suggestions for future filed trips, with the focus on other artist collectives.

There is still interest in organizing a multidisciplinary arts event to showcase local artists. Some people are shooting for a fall date. Fall of this year. They are, by my estimation, very brave. Molly Persons volunteered to email the owner of The Harbor Club in Sulphur Springs to talk about using it as a possible venue for this event.

The last topic of the evening was the formalization of this group. Do we move forward, gather more members and steam, create a cohesive whole? Will we be loosely structured or tightly wrapped? Petra Sussman suggested the temporary name of Artists of Central Tampa or ACT. That was accepted and another little subgroup was born to deal with the details. Other groups formed were Festival or Events, and Marketing. The various groups will be meeting in the next two weeks and be reporting at the next general meeting which will be Monday May 8, place to be announced.

I will be sending out info and lists to all the the subcommittees and Scott will be setting up a blog as another online format for this group's discussions. I think that covers the gist of the meeting. If I left anything out, misspoke, or gave you credit for words and decisions you didn't make, feel free to make corrections. And anyone, I mean anyone, who wants this job, is welcome to it. We have recently taken on an adolescent rescue dog who makes it very hard to type for more than three minutes at a time! Also, looking for facilitators for future meetings.

Wishing Everyone a Peaceful Week"