Arts In

You’ve seen Herb Snitzer’s photographs - on album covers, CD covers and almost every major magazine and newspaper. His images of Louis Armstrong, John Coltrane, Miles Davis and Nina Simone are legendary, a few of the many classic jazz musicians he knew well and loved.

His photographs are striking, and they always tell a story.

Herb Snitzer’s candid photos of the Civil Rights Movement capture moments of electric change. Though he still regrets being backstage with Martin Luther King Jr., Ossie Davis and James Baldwin - without his camera.

In his 80s now, Herb is still creating - and he still chooses black and white film over digital.

Herb shares the stories behind many of his best-known images - revealing where and when, and what’s happening outside the frame.

And he shares the story of the late-lamented Salt Creek Artworks, a vibrant group of artists who broke new ground for St. Petersburg’s now thriving arts community.

Find out more about Herb Snitzer at http://herbsnitzer.com/statement.htm.

Explore Herb Snitzer’s work at http://herbsnitzer.com.

The archive of Salt Creek Artworks is at http://saltcreekartworks.com.

Dancer, choreographer and USF professor Andee Scott says dance is public art as much as performance art.

In her work on Our Town, she turned a walking tour of downtown St. Pete into an exploration of site-specific dance performances. For Our Trail, she brought dance to locations along the Pinellas Trail.

Andee talks with Barbara St. Clair about her changing role in dance as she grows older, and her passion for exploring our humanity through movement, in this exciting conversation on Arts In.

Explore Andee Scott’s work during her time as a 2017 Creative Pinellas Professional Artist Fellow - https://creativepinellas.org/andee-sun-scott/

Find out more about Andee Scott’s work at USF at http://theatreanddance.arts.usf.edu/content/templates/?z=0&a=3132

with links to articles at - http://theatreanddance.arts.usf.edu/content/templates/?z=9&a=4210

A video of Between Here and Now, choreographed by Andee Scott at USF - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_zUBo5CeVAc

Jake Troyli is a young artist working with classical oil painting techniques, and making them his own.

With humor, and inspiration from both Rubens and Richard Pryor, his work explores race, identity and politics, and invites constant conversation.

Jake talks with Barbara St. Clair about his focus on perfecting his technique and why he chooses representational painting. He talks about growing up backstage at St. Pete’s American Stage, and how it’s easier to ask bold questions with art than conversation.

Find out more about Jake Troyli’s work at https://www.jaketroyli.com.

Read Creative Loafing’s article about his 2018 exhibition at the ArtsXchange - https://www.cltampa.com/arts-entertainment/theater/article/20991797/jake-troyli-at-the-arts-xchange-gallery-race-matters-addressed-with-comic-precision.

Explore Jake Troyli’s work during his time as a 2017 Creative Pinellas Emerging Artist at https://creativepinellas.org/jacob-troyli/.

Dolores Coe leads guided drawing sessions with students, caregivers and clinicians - and people who’ve lost language due to strokes or injury. And everyone communicates by making art.

Dolores is the Curator of the University of South Florida’s Art in Health Programs, a creative lab aimed at training health care professionals to carefully observe and decode what they’re seeing, hearing and communicating when they’re trying to heal patients.

In the Art in Health workshops, artists teach drawing, a composer shares tools for creating and understanding sound, a dancer explores how to see and record movement, and actors teach the listening and responding skills of improvisation. All of this is geared toward making medical and health care students better at their future jobs.

The program is part of the Institute for Research in Art that includes the Graphicstudio and USF Contemporary Art Museum.

Dolores shares the methods and focus of the Art in Health team - and the surprising offshoots of this program. Her inspiring stories include helping stroke victims communicate visually, and students developing practical tools now in use in doctors’ offices and trauma centers. She explains how Art in Health is a new career path for artists, one that is distinctly different from Art Therapy. And she shares how working in the Art in Health department changed the abstract paintings she creates.

Find out more about USF’s Art in Health Programs at http://cam.usf.edu/aih/aih_about.html

And the USF Institute for Research in Art at http://www.usfcam.usf.edu/.

Explore Dolores Coe’s artwork at http://dolorescoe.com/.

Roxanne Fay brings fascinating characters to life onstage. You might see her as Mary Magdalene, or a battered housewife who is suddenly set free. She’s played a wounded grandmother, a young girl hiding in a tree, Coco Chanel - and even wielded stormclouds in The Tempest.

As an actor and a playwright, Roxanne Fay crafted a life in professional theatre, working steadily in classic plays, new plays and her own projects.

In this conversation with Barbara St. Clair, Roxanne shares insights into vivid characters she’s played, and the love of research that drives her work. She talks about becoming a playwright to create compelling roles to play as she’s grown older, and the passion for live theatre that leads her from one project to the next.

Find out more about Roxanne Fay at http://www.roxannefay.com.

Check out her work as a 2017 Creative Pinellas Professional Artist Fellow at https://creativepinellas.org/roxanne-fay/.

Gloria Muñoz thinks about the details she observes in life. Details, feelings, shades of meaning that she observes as closely as a scientist. Gloria explores the environment and nature in her work, the prospect of extinction, the complexities of family and the compression of sound.

Gloria Muñoz is a poet - examining the world and investigating humans through her work.

Gloria shares her passion for eco-poetics and the art of observation, and beautiful poetic structures from around the world.

She’s also a filmmaker and advocate for women in the arts. Gloria talks with Barbara St. Clair about the complicated energies of growing up as a first-generation American, and how she trains her students at Eckerd College to truly see the world.

Find out more about Gloria Muñoz’s work at http://www.gloria-munoz.com

Check out Gloria’s film production company, Pitch Her Productions at https://www.pitchherproductions.org.

(Photo by Devon Moore Curtin)

Marlys Meckler is a docent who gives tours full of stories at the Salvador Dalí Museum, the Chihuly Museum and The James Museum, as well as Mural Tours for Florida CraftArt and tours of St. Pete’s Public Art.

Marlys talks with Barbara St. Clair about the work she does - how Public Art is chosen and the stories behind many of the striking artworks that residents of St. Pete don’t always notice as they go about their day.

She became an expert by getting involved and volunteering after she retired, and by talking with the artists who work here. Listening to her stories will send you out exploring.

Check out the links below for opportunities to find out more, and directions to many of Marlys Meckler’s favorite Public Art pieces.

Docent Tours and Volunteer Opportunities

THE DALI MUSEUM

Salvador Dalí Museum Docent Tours

https://thedali.org/visit/tours/

Dalí Museum Volunteer Opportunities

https://thedali.org/join-and-give/get-involved/become-volunteer/

Dalí Docent Training Program

https://thedali.org/join-and-give/get-involved/become-docent/

FLORIDA CRAFTART

Florida CraftArt Walking Mural Tours

http://www.floridacraftart.org/product/mural-tours/

Florida CraftArt Bicycle Mural Tours

http://www.floridacraftart.org/product/mural-tours-bike/

Florida CraftArt Volunteer Opportunities

http://www.floridacraftart.org/volunteer/

THE JAMES MUSEUM

The James Museum Docent Tours

https://thejamesmuseum.org/plan-your-visit/ (scroll down the page)

James Museum Volunteer Opportunities

https://thejamesmuseum.org/support/ (scroll down the page)

THE CHIHULY COLLECTION

Chihuly Museum Docent Tours

http://www.moreanartscenter.org/chihuly/group-tours/

Chihuly Museum / Morean Arts Center Volunteer Opportunities

http://www.moreanartscenter.org/volunteer/

Public Art Pieces Mentioned in this Conversation

SHINE Mural Festival

https://stpeteartsalliance.org/shine-mural-festival/

St Pete Arts Alliance Descriptive Mural Tour

https://stpeteartsalliance.org/virtual-mural-tour/

It Heals Up by Robert Rosenquist

http://www.cam.usf.edu/PA/Pages/pa_rosenquist.html

Thrill Hill by Kevin Brady

The Old Southeast Neighborhood Bridge at 3rd St S and 18th Ave S

http://thrill-hill.blogspot.com

a neighborhood partnership with matching grants

Security Lizard Catching Fireflies by Paul Eppling

On the roof of the City of St Pete Maintenance Building

1800 7th Ave N - visible on the 5th Ave N northbound entrance to I-275

http://allthingsruffnerian.blogspot.com/2012/11/the-ingenious-sculptures-of-paul-eppling.html

https://www.tampabay.com/news/obituaries/epilogue-paul-eppling-beloved-st-petersburg-metal-sculptor-dies-at-67/2305676

Human Sundial "Vista Point"

17th and Northshore Dr N

Eric Higgs - http://erichiggs.com

Heroes of St Pete Police

1st Ave to the water

Poem by George Hahn

built by corporate and individual sponsors

Millennium Gateway

By Alex Klahn

Walkway between the Sundial parking garage and Sundial Center

2nd Ave N between 2nd and 1st Streets N

Spun metal birds and animals

Fossil Wall

Artists Michelle Tuegel and Russ Gustafson

6635 Dr. ML King Jr St N

Imprints of actual fossils found in this neighborhood

https://www.visitstpeteclearwater.com/profile/willis-s-johns-recreation-center-fossil-park/2260

Dignity

by Yamamato

North Shore Fire Station 4

2501 4th St N

http://www.stpete.org/arts_and_culture/art_collections.php

Find more Public Art in St. Petersburg here - http://www.stpete.org/arts_and_culture/art_collections.php

Elizabeth A. Baker is a composer, a touring toy piano player, a classical guitarist, an experimental performance artist, a recording engineer, a cellist, a collaborator with dancers and visual artists, a computer programmer, a rarely-heard singer, an educator, sound designer. . . so many things that people forget she’s a concert pianist.

Renaissance Artist is the most accurate job description Elizabeth could think of.

No one can describe her work better than herself. “Celebrated for her ‘terrifying dynamic range,’ cleanliness of sound, as well as unique sensitivity and ability to sculpt her performance for the acoustics of a space, Elizabeth A. Baker is a dramatic performer with an honest, near psychic connection to music, which resounds with audiences of all ages and musical backgrounds.

“An active performer highly sought after for her unique concert presentation methods, which break the fourth wall and draw the audience further into the music by asking them to listen beyond the surface through interactive dialogue. . . ”

Elizabeth shares her passion for adventurous music, and why she followed up a degree in cello with a degree in music production. She explains why she's trained in Voice but you’ve probably never heard her sing. . . and the little-known story of her all-girl band.

Find out more about Elizabeth Baker at https://elizabethabaker.com/

Listen to her music at https://elizabethabaker.com/recordings/

Check out Elizabeth’s online blog, when she served as a Creative Pinellas Professional Artist Fellow - https://creativepinellas.org/elizabeth-a-baker/

Amanda Cooper is the longtime Curator of Exhibitions at the Morean Arts Center, the 100+ year mainstay of St. Petersburg’s arts community, with a mission to provide training in the arts for all ages.

Amanda talks with Barbara St. Clair about the process of shaping the Morean’s adventurous themed exhibitions. She explains how the gallery focuses on local artists but places their artwork in a national perspective, and shares what she’s looking for in an emerging artist’s work.

She details the history of the Center, which now includes the Chihuly Collection and glass-blowing Hot Shop, and the Morean Center for Clay - the largest working pottery in the Southeast.

Amanda shares the challenges of keeping on the cutting edge of contemporary art while raising four children, and tells Barbara about the painting she saw as a teenager at the Museum of Fine Arts, that led her toward an arts career.

Find out more about the Morean Arts Center’s classes here, with training available in drawing, painting, welding, pottery, metal, jewelry, fiber arts, photography, digital arts and more - moreanartscenter.org/classes-2

Visit the Morean Arts Center Gallery - moreanartscenter.org.

Watch a glass-blowing demonstration at the Hot Shop - moreanartscenter.org/hot-shop

Visit the Morean Center for Clay - moreanartscenter.org/center-for-clay

And check out the Chihuly Collection, where ticket sales fund the Morean’s education programs - moreanartscenter.org/chihuly

If you’ve seen theatre or opera in Tampa Bay, you’ve probably seen a production Keith Arsenault helped bring to life.

A skilled lighting designer, set designer, theatre tech consultant and arts administrator, Keith is the resident lighting designer of the St Pete Opera, runs HCC Ybor’s beautiful Performing Arts Center, has worked as a voiceover artist, theatrical producer and circus ringmaster, and served on the staff of The Joffrey Ballet, the Opera Company of Boston, Palm Beach Opera and Nacional Ballet de Colombia.

His theatrical work has taken him to 45 states and across Canada and Latin America, and he’s the winner of Creative Loafing Best of the Bay Awards for both Lighting and Scenic Design.

Keith talks with Barbara St. Clair about growing up in a family rooted in theatre and dance. He shares the imaginative work of lighting design and the fascinating details of Tampa’s participation in the Federal Theatre Project in the 1930s, the one city in the U.S. that had both an English and a Spanish language company.

Find out more about Keith Arsenault at - https://www.jobsitetheater.org/portfolio-item/arsenault-keith/

Explore Keith’s Video Portfolio

Check out upcoming shows at the St Pete Opera - stpeteopera.org/home-page

and Dance performances at the HCC Performing Arts Center - facebook.com/hcc.dance

Explore the vibrant history of the Federal Theatre Project -

livingnewdeal.org/glossary/federal-theatre-project-ftp-1935-1939/

ipfs.io/ipfs/QmXoypizjW3WknFiJnKLwHCnL72vedxjQkDDP1mXWo6uco/wiki/Federal_Theatre_Project.html

Theatrical posters and photographs from the Library of Congress - loc.gov/exhibits/federal-theatre-project/slideshow/