Arts roundup: Localtopia looms, Art Week Tampa arrives

Ybor Arts Tour/Now On View/Art WeekTampa

Art Week Tampa returns February 18th-22nd with events and exhibitions happening downtown, in Seminole Heights, at USF, and, of course, in Ybor City. The multi-day sampler of the city’s arts scene launched in 2025 to coincide with two Ybor art happenings, the spring Ybor Arts Tour and Hillsborough College’s one-day festival, Now on View. 

“For many Tampa residents, museums are the most visible entry point to art — but much of the city’s creative life happens beyond museum walls,” a press release on Art Week says. “In addition to museums, Tampa’s art scene is shaped by its colleges, public art, and independent galleries and studios tucked inside historic buildings, garages and other unexpected places throughout the city. Art Week Tampa makes this broader creative landscape easier to navigate, offering residents a week-long introduction to where art lives in Tampa — and where to experience it throughout the year.

Things kick off at 10 a.m. on the 18th with concurrent gallery tours at the Tampa Museum of Art. Curator Joanna Robotham leads a group through “Jun Kaneko: Silence Before Sound,” an exhibit featuring nearly 50 works the ceramics artist created over six decades. Curator Branko Van Oppen takes guests through “Joseph Veach Noble: Through the Eye of a Collector,” an exhibit of of ancient Greek and Roman painted pottery and other pieces from Noble’s collection in the museum’s permanent holdings. 

At noon, things move to the University of Tampa’s Scarfone/Hartley Gallery, where professor Santiago Echeverry leads a tour of the Department of Film, Animation, and New Media All Faculty Exhibition, and Ry McCullough, Chair of the Department of Art & Design, takes visitors through the Ferman Center for the Arts.

From 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Thursday, the 19th, the spotlight shifts to Ybor City for the spring Ybor Arts Tour, a free, self-guided jaunt through the neighborhood’s galleries, performance spaces, artist studios, and art-loving businesses.  Gallery114@HC Ybor, the Florida Museum of Photographic Art, Marcolina’s Fine Art Gallery, Hotel Haya, DRIP Ybor, Sky Puppy Brewing, 1920 Ybor, Tropical Home Fine Art Gallery, LARA, and Westbuk Artist Studio are tour stops. At the Kress Contemporary arts hub, 1624 Seventh Ave., Tempus Projects, Art Noire, Fringe Theatre, Parallelogram Gallery, Reverb Art Gallery, Pop Yarn, and the Coalition of Hispanic Artists have exhibitions and/or special programming scheduled. Artists Kim Radatz, Mary-Helen Horne, Marilyn Silverman, Keith Robertson, and Lisa Ramudo are opening their studios to the public.

On Friday, the 20th, the focus is on the University of South Florida’s art offerings. From 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., there are exhibitions at the USF Contemporary Art Museum, USF Graphicstudio, and the Carolyn M. Wilson Gallery. From 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. in Seminole Heights, USF professor Adda Farcus and adjunct professor Kitty Davies’ independent garage gallery space, Lease Agreement, hosts the opening reception for Cooper L. Gibson’s “606-312-2004.”

On Saturday, the 21st, the action shifts back to Ybor City for Hillsborough College’s one-day art festival, “Now on View,” and the Ybor City Chamber of Commerce’s 79th Fiesta Day. 

“You get two great festivals celebrating arts and culture at the same time,” HC Art Galleries’ Jennifer Ring says. “You get to have a whole day of fun and experience daytime Ybor, as opposed to club life Ybor; it’s a very different vibe.”

The third installment of “Now on View” runs from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the HC Ybor campus, Hotel Haya, and Tempus Projects at the Kress Contemporary. Artist Ketsy Ruiz’s Puerto Rican heritage is the inspiration for her “Ida y Vuelta,” a suspended mixed-media installation in the lobby of the Ybor City Performing Arts Building that traces over 100 years of Puerto Rican circular migration to Tampa.

Outside on the Ybor Building patio, artists Lauren Gourgues and Michael Lonchar’s “Tunnel Vision” is a site-specific installation exploring themes of urban overdevelopment and the loss of Florida’s natural environment. Visitors will look through three hand-built periscopes to see “elevated perspectives of Tampa’s landscape.” 

At Hotel Haya, HC Assistant Dean of Student Services Mario Javier Pérez Salabarría’s “Open Doors to History,” an exhibit celebrating urban landscapes from Ybor’s past, is on display in the Valencia Foyer.

At Tempus Projects, two HC students will showcase their talents. Dance student Riley Weisbrodt performs “Tidal Memory,” a “contemporary dance work inspired by the waters of Tampa Bay and the layered cultural histories they hold.”

Camille Denmark’s “Paradise?” will explore how invasive plant species are destroying Tampa Bay’s fragile native ecosystems. Ring says Denmark graduates HC this year and participating in “Now on View” is a way to “introduce herself to the Tampa Bay arts community through this cool project.”

Fiesta Day closes Seventh Avenue to traffic from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. for a street festival celebrating the Italian, Spanish, Jewish, and German immigrants who settled  Ybor City as cigar factories thrived in the late 1800s. There will be arts, crafts, live entertainment, and food. 

From noon to 3 p.m. on Sunday, the 22nd, Art Week Tampa concludes at the Kress Contemporary with a hands-on monotype printmaking workshop led by artist-in-residence William Downs. Register at Kress Contemporary. 

Keep St. Pete Local’s Localtopia

Localtopia, Keep St. Pete Local’s sprawling annual celebration of the city’s small businesses, artists, makers, creatives, and nonprofits, returns to Williams Park and the surrounding downtown streets from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on February 14th. The festival will feature more than 300 vendors, a lineup of live music acts at the park bandstand, food trucks, family and art activities, and an expected crowd of 60,000. 

Now in its 13th year, Localtopia launched during the makers movement that followed the Great Recession, when many talented out-of-work people decided to follow their artistic and entrepreneurial dreams and launch small businesses, says Keep St. Pete Local founder and Executive Director Olga Bof.

“It’s the most visible manifestation of Keep St Pete Local’s mission,” she says. “The city has changed so much since we started. That was the St. Pete that attracted all of this new development and these new residents.”

For new residents, Localtopia is a “crash course” in St. Pete’s local business landscape, Bof says. For vendors, it’s typically a record day of sales until the next year’s Localtopia. For burgeoning entrepreneurs, it’s a launching place for small businesses.

“Our greatest genesis story, Mother Kombucha, celebrates its anniversary every year at Localtopia,” Bof says. “They started at the first Localtopia, handing out samples at a six-foot table. “They didn’t even have enough to sell.”

Today, Mother Kombucha is carried at Publix supermarkets and other retailers throughout Florida, on Amazon, and in Georgia, Louisiana, and Alabama. 

The art village that showcases local talent, makers, and nonprofits has also been the birthplace of some businesses. Each year, USF St. Petersburg graphic arts students create original art to sell at a festival booth as part of their senior thesis. Bof says in recent years, two of those students have turned their thesis projects into businesses, including St. Pete scrapbooking biz Scrap Happy.  

Localtopia is also a celebration of its home venue, Williams Park, which dates back to the late 19th century, but is more known for its homeless population than its history. Bof says as a Cuban who moved from Miami to St. Pete in 2008, she did not know the negative connotations surrounding the park.

“I learned Williams Park was the city’s first park, and, not being from this city, I saw it with very different eyes,” she says. “I saw it as it used to be, as a community gathering place.”

In fact, Localtopia’s branding material includes an image from a 1920s postcard of people listening to music at the park bandstand.

“As we’ve grown over the years, we’ve spilled out into the streets, and we’re adding another street this year, but Williams Park is still the heart of the event,” Bof says.

Street closures for Localtopia are Second Avenue between Fourth and Second streets, Third Street from First Avenue to Third Avenue, and, in a new addition for this year’s festival, a portion of Second Street between Second and Third avenues.

The SunRunner bus rapid transit system will be fare-free for Localtopia. The Central Avenue Trolley and a free bike valet will also be available.

For more information, including a list of vendors, parking locations, and transportation options, go to Localtopia

“Rise” at St. Pete-Clearwater International Airport

“Rise,” a group exhibition featuring Pinellas County artists, is on display at Creative Pinellas’ Sightline Gallery inside St. Pete-Clearwater International Airport (PIE) from February 19th through June 15th.

In “Rise,” the latest exhibit in Creative Pinellas’ partnership with PIE,  four artists explore themes of renewal, nature, and a sense of place through photography, woodworking,  poetry, and ceramics.

The exhibit features the poetry of Letisia Cruz, photography and a video installation from  Luci Westphal, woodworking by Scott Solary, and the ceramics of Charles Morrison.

For more information, go to Sightline Gallery

“Cultural Appropriation” at Pinellas Ale Works

“Cultural Appropriation,” an exhibit featuring the work of Tampa Bay artist and musician Jeffrey Rubenstein, is on display at Pinellas Ale Works in St. Pete from February 13 to March 27, with an opening reception from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. on February 14th.  A self-taught artist, Rubenstein’s art “tries to reflect the various colors and textures and rhythms of a world where technology clashes with nature.” 

The exhibit is presented by Funky as a Monkey Art Studio. Pinellas Ale Works is open Mondays-Thursdays, 3 p.m.-10 p.m.; Fridays and Saturdays, noon to midnight, and Sundays, noon-8 p.m. Artists interested in displaying their work at Pinellas Ale Works can contact Funky As A Monkey Arts Studio at 813-410-3150