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Award-winning poet Gloria Muñoz shares a soundscape of her poem “The Romantics” from her forthcoming poetry collection "Danzirly / Dawn’s Early." The soundscape was created for Nikke Pike’s installation “Totem” which was on tour at the Dunedin Fine Arts Center. The poem was originally published by Cosmonauts Avenue.

Ray Arsenault’s Freedom Riders Book 
Premieres as a New Opera

Cora Marshall can express herself in almost any medium. That’s thanks to teaching high school art for many years, where she had to show students how to do everything from drawing to throwing pots on a wheel. In this thoughtful conversation with Barbara St. Clair, Marshall explains how different concepts lend themselves to different artistic mediums. She shares her inspiration for the series she’s created based on newspaper ads hunting for runaway slaves, and another about older people who keep working at difficult jobs on their feet, to survive. Cora Marshall and Barbara St. Clair discuss the fine lines of political art, and her college years at Howard University during the Black Power Movement. Marshall details the artwork she’s created to explore her family’s heritage and history, and a new series designed to find a way out of our current negativity - artwork inspired by children’s faces. Explore Cora Marshall’s work here https://www.coramarshall.com/Artist.asp?ArtistID=47105&Akey=X679CJP9&ajx=1#!asset76453 Arts In is produced by Sheila Cowley. Executive Producer, Barbara St. Clair.

St. Petersburg Poet Laureate Helen Pruitt Wallace talks with Barbara St. Clair about growing up in St. Pete’s “Pink Streets” neighborhood and shares poems inspired by her rollicking childhood, the joys and grief of family, and her mother’s struggle with Alzheimer’s. With laughter and enthusiasm, she talks about her passion for the sounds of poems, the spark of playing with formal structure and how she’s not afraid to confront politics through poetry. You can explore Helen Pruitt Wallace’s writing at http://helenwallacepoetry.com/ and follow her on Twitter at @HelenPWallace. Helen hosts the Dalí Poetry Series - free and open to the public - typically the second Thursday of the month from September through May at The Dalí Museum. Details here.

Suzanne Pomerantzeff - or Ms. P, as she’s known to generations of dancers in St. Pete - shares her love of dance with movers of every ability. For 50 years, dancers of all ages have learned and flourished with Ms. P, sparked by her passion for all of the arts. Many who’ve studied with her at the Academy of Ballet or the Pinellas County Center for the Arts at Gibbs High School have gone on to acclaimed professional careers. An award-winning teacher and choreographer, Suzanne shares how her own performance career was cut short by injury, which let her find a path to teaching. She tells us how the Academy of Ballet Arts grew from one rented room to their current home, covered in murals - and explains how vital St. Pete’s own “Fame” high school is, as Pinellas County’s arts magnet. Ms. P talks about how much the classic discipline of ballet and the idea of a ‘perfect body’ has changed and grown. She shares the Academy’s newest success, an adaptive ballet program open to dancers of differing abilities. A seasoned educator, she explains how as a teacher, she never stops learning. You can hear the joy and passion in her voice, on this inspiring conversation with Barbara St. Clair. Find out more about the Academy of Ballet at https://www.academyofballetarts.org/. The Pinellas County Center for the Arts at Gibbs High School serves public school students throughout Pinellas County - https://www.pcsb.org/pcca-gibbs. - Arts In is produced by Sheila Cowley. Executive Producer, Barbara St. Clair.

Saumitra Chandratreya is an adventurous visual artist whose work is political, but beautiful - and often created from unexpected materials. In this conversation with Barbara St. Clair, he talks about identity, immigration and the inspiration he takes from objects other people overlook or throw away. As he explains, “If I don’t make challenging work, then I’m letting down anyone who is of brown skin and queer, who might be interested in making their voice heard, but don’t have the tools - because I have the tools.” Saumitra Chandratreya’s work was chosen this month for the 2019 Visions of Health Equity project sponsored by the Foundation for a Healthy St. Petersburg. His work will be featured at the Chad Mize Gallery in November. Link to the Foundation For Healthy St. Pete announcement: https://myemail.constantcontact.com/News--Events-and-Resources.html?soid=1120560768999&aid=BfoxUOerk8I Link to Mize gallery website: http://chadmize.com/exhibits.html Find out more about Saumitra Chandratreya’s work at https://www.saumitrac.com Instagram: saumiisawyou Facebook: Saumitra Chandratreya

Arts In: Don Gialanella Don Gialanella can make a cow out of children’s toys, that’s the size of a cow. He made the giant twirly moustache in front of The Dalí Museum. Don creates huge and beautiful sculptures that have personality and humor. From a life-sized metal man tenderly opening his chest to reveal his glowing heart, to a diver arcing exuberantly into a dumpster full of plastic bottles, to remind us to recycle. In this conversation with Barbara St. Clair, Don Gialanella shares wild and wonderful stories of working with sculptor Louise Bourgeois, new projects involving sound and how he keeps up with more commissions than ever despite Parkinson’s disease. Don explains how he wound up on the cutting-edge of digital design for television and shares his enthusiastic passion for public art. Explore Don Gialanella’s work at donsculpture.com Arts In is produced by Sheila Cowley. Executive Producer, Barbara St. Clair.

Award-winning filmmaker and screenwriter Victoria Johnson creates both narrative and documentary films. In this conversation with Barbara St. Clair, she tells us surprising and humorous tales of learning the craft of analog filmmaking in the adventurous artistic atmosphere of the University of South Florida in the late 1970s. She explains how her skills evolved through video and digital, and her focus on creating films that change her audience’s views about a subject. Victoria shares the challenges of suddenly needing to run her family business, and how she brought video to her marketing firm - and surprisingly got hired by the 2012 Republican National Convention, something she still chuckles about. She won the Telly Award for Welcome to Tampa. Victoria shares her passion for screenwriting, an art she came to after establishing a career as a filmmaker. She reflects on the thriving world of streaming video, and how to find an audience in a world where everyone can make a film on their cell phone. Victoria’s currently exploring political performance art. You can read about her recent project here - https://www.cltampa.com/arts-entertainment/visual-art/article/21080912/tampa-bay-artist-puts-toy-babies-in-cages-to-protest-trumps-migrant-detention-centers. And here - https://www.wtsp.com/mobile/article/news/local/ice-ice-baby-local-artist-takes-aim-at-immigration-crisis/67-6bdae07b-a0e9-48dc-a4ed-e8220edaf090. You can find out more about Victoria Jorgenson’s work at http://amovieproductions.com/.

Bahia Ramos recently spoke at the Art of Marketing and Branding Summit hosted by Creative Pinellas. She serves as Director of Arts at New York City’s Wallace Foundation, and leads the team responsible for the foundation’s work funding research by arts organizations around the country, as they explore a larger question that affects the entire arts community. Bahia explains the five-year relationship she has with grantees, as they help create a body of knowledge that can be shared to help arts organizations nationwide. She shares her thoughts on the crucial business of philanthropy, on growing new audiences and how to change your art as the world around you changes. Find out more about the Wallace Foundation at https://www.wallacefoundation.org/pages/default.aspx. Explore their five-year project, Building Audiences for Sustainability - https://www.wallacefoundation.org/knowledge-center/building-audiences-for-the-arts/pages/default.aspx   Their research is available for anyone to read. Here’s a selection from many pages of documents you can download.   Audience Building and Financial Health for Nonprofit Performing Arts https://www.wallacefoundation.org/knowledge-center/pages/audience-building-and-financial-health-nonprofit-performing-arts.aspx   Ballet Austin: Building Audiences for Unfamiliar Works https://www.wallacefoundation.org/knowledge-center/pages/ballet-austin-building-audiences-for-unfamiliar-works--discussion-guide.aspx   Change in Audiences in American Theaters https://www.wallacefoundation.org/knowledge-center/pages/change-in-audiences-american-theaters.aspx   Arts for All: Connecting New Audiences https://www.wallacefoundation.org/knowledge-center/pages/arts-for-all-connecting-new-audiences.aspx   Studies in Building Arts Audiences and Building Deeper Relationships https://www.wallacefoundation.org/knowledge-center/pages/wallace-studies-in-building-arts-audiences-building-deeper-relationships.aspx

Carrie Jadus made a name for herself as a professional artist, after giving up a career as a skilled radio frequency engineer. Her distinctive, soft and subtly subversive style is seen in paintings, on murals, posters and notecards around St. Petersburg. Working at Soft Water Studios, she’s a mainstay of the Warehouse Arts District and longtime illustrator for St. Pete Preservation. Carrie shares the turning point that made her decide to choose art over engineering - and how as a working mother, she carefully planned a sustainable artistic career, using the business plan of a Toymaker as a model. She explains how working in several different styles helped her earn a living and fulfill her urges for personal expression. She tells the story behind her well-known mural of pioneering electrical engineer, Nikola Tesla - and Little Miss Sisyphus, the mural people often miss just around the corner. Carrie shares her passion for ‘grand portraits,’ monumental paintings of figures from Einstein to Nina Simone, and explains in detail two recent, more surrealistic, paintings. You can explore Carrie Jadus’ work at http://www.carriejadus.com/bio.html. And follow her new work at https://www.facebook.com/cjadusfineartpage/ and https://www.instagram.com/jadusfineart/. Soft Water Studios is open during Second Saturday ArtWalk - https://stpeteartsalliance.org/artwalk/ - from 5-9 p.m. on the second Saturday of every month - http://www.softwaterstudios.com/. Her Tesla mural and Little Miss Sisyphus are featured in the St Pete Arts Alliance’s Virtual Mural Tour - https://stpeteartsalliance.org/carrie-jadus-tesla/ and https://stpeteartsalliance.org/carrie-jadus-little-miss-sisyphus/.

Jason Hackenwerth is an adventurous abstract sculptor who’s medium is thousands of latex balloons. His enormous sculptural inventions can fill a towering museum atrium, or mall. His sculptures are enormous, and the vivid pictures on his website are only an echo of the overwhelming power of experiencing them up close. Jason Hackenwerth teaches at St. Pete’s Eckerd College and works all over the world. To his knowledge, he’s the only artist right now doing serious, curated art with balloons. He talks about the challenges of validating a new kind of art when you don’t have a community of artists working in that style. In this conversation with Barbara St. Clair, Jason shares the moving and “terrifying” story of his early experiments, and how his first big installation went so badly wrong. And how he turned that failure into a new way of working that got him a year-long gig building a sculpture a day on a stage inside FAO Schwarz, and traveling the world creating giant balloon sculptures. Jason explains his passion for the ephemeral nature of his artistic practice - and his ongoing artistic quest to push this unique medium constantly further. And the challenges of creating artwork that curators expect to look like a birthday party. Find out more about Jason Hackenwerth’s work at http://www.jasonhackenwerth.com/. Time-lapse footage of the installation of Pisces at the National Museum of Scotland - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtqPxtSMK9E. An interview with Jason during the unveiling of Corona at the Abu Dhabi Science Festival - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHv9PMl-Ki8. The video he mentions of a year of impromptu sculptures created while people watched him at FAO Schwarz - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kg3aE1zytnI

Desiree Moore is a multidisciplinary artist working in video and film, art installations and a unique take on interactive public art. She shares her creative process, with plenty of action in the editing room, in this conversation with Barbara St. Clair. Along with her engaging collaborative effort, The Barter Boat, traveling the country to trade people’s special objects and stories. Find out more about Desiree Moore’s work at https://www.desireenicholemoore.com/. Explore the online journal she posted during her Creative Pinellas Emerging Artist Fellowship - https://creativepinellas.org/desiree-moore/. Find out more about the Barter Boat at https://www.facebook.com/BarterBoat/.

Carrie Boucher’s artistic practice is driving a traveling art classroom, providing opportunities for children and adults to create art. The much-beloved Nomad Art Bus visits art festivals and foster homes, domestic abuse shelters, juvenile detention centers and parks, recreation centers and youth programs in areas of poverty throughout Tampa Bay. Carrie talks with Barbara St. Clair about her journey from a solo studio practice to this vibrant community art project. She tells the story of the Bus they drove and coaxed and sometimes towed to events - and how their first participants invented what is now the Nomad trademark, that everybody gets to paint the bus. Carrie explains the joys and challenges of working as an artist with a social practice - and how she uses her training in critiquing art to constantly question her own work, and keep making it better. You can find out more about the Nomad Art Bus at http://www.nomadartbus.org/.

As Keep St Pete Lit brings this year’s Writer in Residence to town, we share a conversation with last year’s award-winning author, Ladee Hubbard. Ladee talks with Barbara St. Clair about her rollicking, imaginative novel, The Talented Ribkins, about a family of African Americans living in the South who have odd and unique superpowers. . . like drawing maps and seeing colors no one else can see. The inspiration for the book is an essay by W.E.B. DuBois, a story of a strangely-shaped potato and her grandfather defying odds to earn a PhD in chemistry and teach at St Pete College, at a time when that was a rare thing for an African American to do. Ladee Hubbard talks about deciding to earn an MFA while raising three young children, and how Toni Morrison encouraged all her wild experiments with language as a student. You can find out more about her work at https://ladeehubbard.com/. Check out the events around this year’s Keep St Pete Lit Writer in Residence and the annual SunLit Festival, celebrating reading and writing in Tampa Bay - https://keepstpetelit.org.

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/.

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