Davis Islands Today

By Julie Torres

The Arts Council of Hillsborough County has served bay area artists for decades. A visit to their website – tampaarts.com – reveals a wealth of opportunities for jobs, events, auditions, workshops and grants.

The Council sponsors an annual Individual Artist grant to help support the professional development of local artists. Applications are reviewed by a panel of arts community professionals and Arts Council board members. Submissions are awarded up to 200 points based upon a number of requirements, including resume and training, completeness and clarity of the application, the impact of the proposed project on the artist and the community, and artistic excellence. Normally ten artists are chosen to divide the $20,000 grant.

On January 9, several of the 21 applicants met with the review panel at the Council’s offices. The artists received work sheets to follow along as the panel critiqued and scored each aspect of the submissions. After careful deliberation the panel added up the points and announced ten winners of $2,000 each. Then the meeting ended. Or did it?

A few weeks later, the Arts Council publicly congratulated eleven winners. Eleven? Sources say one of the artists who didn’t make the final cut made a well-placed phone call and was hastily added to the list of winners. This reportedly behind-the-scenes decision removed almost $200 from the pockets of the original ten grant recipients, many of whom rely upon their craft as their sole source of income. A representative of the Arts Council stated that the board changed its decision because, “the last score was so close.” The truth may lie somewhere in between.

Controversy aside, the bay area is fortunate to have a dedicated Arts Council providing such valuable resources for local artists. The following list of grant recipients reflects the diverse pool of artistic talent residing in our community:

Laszlo Horvath, photographer
The Hungarian native immigrated to the United States in 1984. Horvath’s dark, sarcastic surrealistic works are reflective of his early life as an artist in a communist country and his struggles to re-invent himself in America. Horvath welcomes visits to his studio (by appointment) in the West Tampa Center for the Arts, 1906 N. Armenia Ave, Tampa. Contact him at laszlophoto@gmail.com.

Guillermo Portieles, painter/mixed media
Born in Havana, Cuba, Portieles landed in Tampa in 1991 after fleeing the artistic restrictions of Castro’s regime. Using heavy symbolism, his works bridge his heritage and memories with today’s culture. Portieles maintains a studio in the West Tampa Center for the Arts and is represented by Orange Park International Gallery, 1215 N. Franklin St., Tampa. Visit www.portieles.com to learn more about this prolific artist.

Taylor Ikin, painter
Ikin has called Tampa home for more than 30 years, interrupted by two decades in the West Indies. The Virginia native primarily works with water media on a slick YUPO surface, which she likens to painting on glass. The self-proclaimed environmentalist uses strong color and a sense of movement to preserve the landscapes of today’s Florida for the viewer of tomorrow. Her current series of Florida landscapes will become part of a traveling show in 2010. Ikin is represented by Nuance Galleries, 804 S. Dale Mabry Hwy., Tampa. Visit her website at www.taylorikin.com.

The remaining 2009 grant recipients are: Carol Cleere, photographer/mixed media; Beth Waligorski, pianist; James Lennon, photographer; Michael Norton, actor/interactive comedy; Rebecca Sexton Larson, artist/photographer; Maureen Patrick, actress; Myron Jackson, poet/storyteller/performer; and Lynn Manos, painter/printmaker.

Attend these upcoming events to learn more about Tampa’s rich cultural community:

39th Annual Raymond James Gasparilla Festival of the Arts
Juried outdoor art festival. Features 300 local and national artists competing for $75,000 in prizes. Don’t miss Melissa Fair’s exhibit in the Emerging Artist’s section.
Saturday, March 7, 9am-6pm., Sunday, March 8, 10am-5pm
Franklin Street and Lykes Gaslight Square Park in downtown Tampa
Free

101 Pieces of a Dream
Juried art exhibit and sale benefiting MacDonald Training Center and Pyramid, Inc.
Friday, March 27, 7pm-10pm, Patron Reception 7pm-10pm, $50
Saturday, March 28, 10am-3pm, Public exhibit and sale, Free
Scarfone/Hartley Gallery
310 N. Boulevard, Tampa, FL

Contemporary Chinese Photography
Works from local and national collections focusing on the destruction of China’s big cities and the quandary of people caught between past ways of life and the country’s breathtaking plunge into the 21st century.

My Florida Home: Recent Works by Benjamin Dimmitt
Large scale black and white photographs of Florida’s wilderness.
Both shows run March 12 through May 9, 2009.
The Florida Museum of Photographic Arts
200 N. Tampa Street, Suite 130
$4.00 suggested donation for non-members

Chalk Walk
Public art display of chalk drawings by professional and emerging artists. Prizes awarded for best drawings in several categories.
Sponsored by the Tampa Bay Committee for the Arts
Opening reception Thursday, March 19, 6pm; show runs through March 21
Snow Circle, Hyde Park Village, Tampa
Free

Artists Surviving and Thriving Together
Third annual Self Employment in the Arts conference. Sessions include:
Marketing Art in a Tight Economy
Ink Inc. – Successful Strategies for the Non-Fiction Writer
Networking — It’s Almost Always Less Than Six Degrees
Saturday, March 21, starting at 9:15 am.
University of Tampa, 401 W. Kennedy Blvd., Tampa
Students: $25; General Public: $45
More information: www.ut.edu/seaconference.

We All Want to Change the World: Art, Politics, Religion, and Revolution
University of Tampa Honors Program Symposia
Friday, April 3, 4pm
Reeves Theater, 2nd Floor Vaughn Center
401 W. Kennedy Blvd., Tampa
Free

Julie Torres promotes the creative arts in Tampa. If you would like her to write about your artwork or art-related event, email julietorres2222@gmail.com.

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