The arts and artists never left Ybor City, says Tracy Midulla, the founder and director of nonprofit gallery and arts organization Tempus Projects.
But the activity and energy of the Ybor arts scene had dulled over the years until the fall of 2022, when Tempus Projects and an eclectic mix of art groups moved into the historic Kress Building on the 1600 block of East Seventh Avenue. Collaboratively, they’ve created a buzzing arts hub along Ybor’s main drag - a place filled with galleries, performance spaces, artist studios and a micro-cinema - and where Thursday night means exhibition openings and special events.
“What’s happening now is kind of special because there’s been a renaissance in terms of artists getting organized,” Midulla says.
Last October, the artists and organizations putting down roots in the newly-opened Kress, Hillsborough Community College’s Ybor campus and venues like The Bricks launched the inaugural Ybor Arts Tour to bring more attention - and bring back the audiences, patrons and collectors - to an arts scene with more to do. This Thursday, October 19th, the tour is back for a second year, with more stops and more to showcase.
The second edition includes the performing arts space and the gallery at HCC; a multitude of things to do at the Kress; a new exhibition and an after-party at The Bricks; a rehearsal of the upcoming November production of "Heirs of Pretending" at the LAB Theater Project; the Florida Museum of Photographic Arts’ new space on the first floor of the Kress; and Marcolina’s Fine Arts Gallery.
Midulla says the Ybor tour carries on the tradition of an annual artist and gallery tour Tempus Projects put on as a ticketed event and annual fundraiser. There is one significant difference. The Ybor tour is free.
“When we moved into the Kress we felt like we needed something comparable to that,” Midulla says. “While we miss it being a fundraiser for Tempus, it’s still just as important to us that it’s happening and bringing people through the neighborhood in a really organized and guided way.”
Changing perspectives on Ybor
HCC Gallery Director Amanda Poss says that, in the months before the opening of the Kress and the first Ybor Arts Tour in 2022, artists and folks from various arts organizations started meeting to talk about the arts in Ybor and ways to collaborate.
“With that spirit of a rising tide lifts all boats, we wanted to work together in a way that elevates everyone’s efforts in the community,” Poss says.
Those meetings evolved into an ad hoc Ybor arts group that gets together monthly at Hotel Haya in an informal setting to talk about ways to shake off the narrative that Ybor is just a bar and nightlife district and showcase the reenergized arts community. That ad hoc group’s brainstorming sessions spawned the idea for the tour, Poss says.
“We were looking for a tangible thing we can do to illustrate what we all knew to be true- that there is an exciting and diverse array of arts and culture organizations, businesses and programs that are already here in Ybor,” Poss says. “We decided, ‘What if we all open our doors at the same time?’”
This year’s second go-round will showcase the visual, performing and literary arts, with emerging, early, mid-career and established artists all in the mix.
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Tampa artist Ya La'ford will give an artist talk in connection with her exhibit "HENGE - unearthing ancestral memory" during the Ybor Arts Tour on October 19th.The experience planned at the HCC Ybor campus shows the breadth of what’s in store. A public reception for Ya La’ford’s “HENGE- unearthing ancestral memory," which is currently on display in Gallery114@HCC on the Ybor campus, includes an artist talk by the acclaimed Tampa-based artist. Students from the music, theater and dance programs will also present live performances, including some inspired by “HENGE.”
“We want to showcase that the arts isn’t just one thing,” Poss says. “There is visual art. There is dance. There is performance. There is music. And all of those things can, and often do, beautifully overlap. This is a beautiful opportunity to showcase what we do and what our students do and highlight how we support community artists.”
The Bricks
The Ybor Arts Tour is right in line with the philosophy of The Bricks.
Since opening in 2010, the popular Ybor spot has built a reputation for showcasing the talents of Tampa Bay artists in the gallery space connected to its bar and restaurant.
Tampa artist Michelle Sawyer recalls how, in the venue’s early days, her work was in every art show for three years. In July of last year, Sawyer, whose work includes large-scale murals in Ybor, Tampa Heights, Clearwater and other spots around Tampa Bay, returned to The Bricks as curator of the gallery.
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Michelle Sawyer, curator at The Bricks in Ybor City.
“For me, in terms of artists, I find this place to be a nice medium,” Sawyer says about The Bricks. “Your traditional galleries, a lot of up-and-coming and even established artists are sometimes a little intimidated to approach and try to get into. It feels a little bit out of reach. Then you have other things like the pop-ups, which are typically at bars and other restaurants. They’re not as long as our shows. Our shows are typically six to eight weeks. I actively promote them. We have an art show opening event. So I find it to be a happy medium between the two worlds. It’s a good foot in the door for a lot of people. I know it was for me. But I also pull in some established artists in the community too. They kind of get to mix and mingle and learn from each other.”
Since taking over as curator, Sawyer has put together shows by carefully selecting artists whose work would go well together. She’s also come off the top turnbuckle with a wrestling-themed show.
“I play around with ideas,” Sawyer says. “It’s usually up in the air as to where I’m going to go.”
Sawyer likes to mix things up with the themes for art shows but she always stays focused on providing a needed outlet for local artists and supporting the arts community in Ybor. That means promoting the shows she puts together at The Bricks and spreading the word about other galleries and cool goings-on.
That spirit of cooperation runs strongly through the Ybor arts community these days. It’s been a driving force in the arts resurgence centered around the Kress Building and a foundation for the arts tour.
“Anything I can do to help solidify Ybor as an arts community, I will do," she says. "We have a lot of art assets here and with everything going on in the Kress Building, it can only improve.”
During the Ybor Arts Tour, “Print Mode (2),” a printmaking exhibit featuring the work of 11 visual artists using methods like risograph, linocut and letterpress, debuts at The Bricks.
“Printmakers are a very cool sub-group of artists,” Sawyer says. “They’re very supportive of each other. It’s like this little community in itself. And they get really excited to share their craft. I did it last year and every artist said, ‘Can we do this again? This was really fun. I really enjoyed this.’”
Department of Contemporary Art Tampa, FL
The Department of Contemporary Art Tampa, FL opened its gallery on the second floor of the Kress Building annex on the evening of the first Ybor Arts Tour. Emiliano Settecasi, the founder, director and curator of the Department of Contemporary Art, worked four years in the art galleries at HCC under Amanda Poss and is a member of QUAID, the artist cooperative gallery also on the second floor of the Kress annex.
“I was making exhibitions for a long time whether it was for my job, independently or as part of QUAID,” Settecasi says. “When I found out what this space was going to become, I decided it was a good time and a good opportunity. I also felt a responsibility to be here and provide a place where another set of artists could show their work and cater to another part of the community.”
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The Ybor Arts Tour is a chance to check out the gallery Department of Contemporary Arts Tampa, FL and other arts organizations in the collaborative, close-knit arts community that's blossomed in the Ybor Kress Building over the last year.Settecasi says his gallery is a place to “shine a light” on local and regional emerging artists while also mixing in artists at different stages of their careers. It also contributes to the community vibe of the Kress, where a crowd will show up for an exhibition opening, performance or event at one space in the building and then flow through the other venues.
“That happens a lot with the other galleries that are here,” Settecasi says. “If somebody has a big opening and everybody is open then everybody can trickle into everybody’s thing and everybody sees what everybody’s doing. I have always proceeded from viewpoint.”
During the Ybor Arts Tour, “Degrees,” a group exhibition by members, friends and collaborators of the Greater Public Studio will be on exhibit at the Department of Contemporary Art.
That’s a sample of the activity planned in the Kress for the Arts Tour. At Tempus Projects, the solo exhibitions “What Did We Use to Say?” by artist Justin Myers and “Hobby House” by artist Jenn Ryann Miller will be on display with a members' reception from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. and an open reception from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.
The Tampa City Ballet presents an installation from their upcoming performance "Interstices," which is set in Ybor City during the 1930s and inspired by the book “Tampa: Impressions of an Emigrant” by Cuban writer Wenceslau Galvez y Delmonte.
Screen Door microcinema will show past films from FLEX, the Florida Experimental Film/Video Festival, from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m., followed by a screening of the 2018 supernatural horror movie “Hereditary.”
The nonprofit Heard Em Say Youth Arts Collective, in collaboration with Grow House and Kitchen Table Literary Arts, will have an all-ages open mic event.
At QUAID, “NOTHING REPLICA,” a solo exhibition by Justin Bryan Nelson, one of the collective’s original founding members, will be on display. At Drift, the exhibition “Look Who Decided to Stop By, featuring artists Kalin Price and Erin Titus, is on display. At Tempus Volta, “Ten Days in Bodrum,” a solo exhibition by artist Andrés Ramírez, will be on view.
GRATUS/Jenny Carey Studio and Parachute Gallery, which recently relaunched as a boutique gallery shop carrying locally-made artwork and goods, will also be open.
On the third floor of the Kress, where several local artists have studio space, Pop Yarn, which specializes in yarn art, will have yarn-themed snacks and refreshments as well as an interactive yarn arts experience. The tour also offers a chance to explore JZ Atelier Jewelry, a jewelry design studio on the third floor that local artist Samantha Uttech manages.
On the first floor of the Kress, the exhibition "Icons of Black and White,” featuring vintage photographs from renowned artists such as Ansel Adams, Dorothea Lange, Lewis Hine and Edward Weston, is on display at the Florida Museum of Photographic Art.
For more information and tickets to the event, go to Ybor Arts Tour.