Westshore Alliance plans banner year for public art

The new year brings new public art to Tampa’s Westshore District. 

The Westshore Alliance’s plans include a banner art installation along busy Boy Scout Boulevard and the return of the eye-catching sculpture “Kinetic Ring” after years in storage. 

A banner year

From June through September, the Alliance’s “Art in the Air” initiative will display Westshore and Tampa-area-themed artwork created by local artists on banners along Boy Scout from West Shore Boulevard to Dale Mabry Highway, a stretch with an estimated 22,000 vehicles a day. Alliance Public Art Committee Chair Paula Buffa says the banner project serves a few roles. It’s a showcase of local art talent, a creative placemaking initiative, and a fundraiser for the Westshore District Foundation, the nonprofit organization that the Alliance formed to fund its public art projects.

The Alliance has put out a call to artists and is accepting entries until 5 p.m. on February 13th. The Alliance is also seeking business sponsors for banners, with four sponsorship levels available. The deadline to sign up to sponsor a banner is 5 p.m. on February 3rd. 

“Art in the Air” is an updated version of  “Exposé: Art of Westshore,” an Alliance banner program that ran from 2006 to 2009. Buffa says in many cases the Public Art Committee will bring back successful past art initiatives “instead of reinventing the wheel.” The committee itself relaunched a few years ago to help spur Westshore’s ongoing shift from corporate office hub to bustling mixed-use urban neighborhood.  Mural projects, signal box art wraps, an annual student art exhibit, and a yearly World Photography Day contest and exhibit are some of the relaunched committee’s projects to date. In 2026, the Alliance expects to add a multi-year effort to get “Kinetic Ring” back on public display to its list of completed projects.

“Kinetic Ring”

About 15 years ago, the City of Tampa and the Alliance commissioned St. Petersburg-based artist Catherine Woods to create a piece of public art to stand at the gateway to the Westshore District. Woods’ creation, “Kinetic Ring,” is a 24-foot-tall sculpture with four brightly colored, C- shaped glass panels mounted on a steel frame. Completed in 2012, it originally stood at the intersection of Kennedy Boulevard and Memorial Highway but was removed to make way for road construction. Since then, it’s sat in storage. 

The City of Tampa and the Alliance are collaborating to install the sculpture at a new location, waterfront Cypress Point Park. The project will add to the array of public art in the Westshore District and hopefully attract more activity to Cypress Point Park, which Alliance Executive Director Michael Maurino has described as an underutilized gem. Because of the waterfront location, the sculpture’s foundation has to go several feet into the ground to keep it stable and stationary in a hurricane. Buffa says the Alliance expects to have a ribbon-cutting to unveil Kinetic Ring at its new home in the summer

A facilitator

The Alliance’s Public Art Committee has been a collaborator and partner on multiple mural projects and other public art initiatives. Buffa says they’ve recently taken on an additional role – facilitator. She says the committee connected representatives of International Plaza and Bay Street with Tampa Tunes, a nonprofit that places art-adorned pianos at locations around the Tampa Bay area.

That introduction led to a collaboration that placed a Steinway painted by Tampa-based international artist Ya La’ford at the upscale shopping plaza over the holidays, with a special performance by The Florida Orchestra. Buffa says the committee also connected office real estate firm Highwoods Properties with an artist for an upcoming mural project at Highwoods’ Tower Place building.

“If there is someone who wants to do something at their office building or property, we want to help foster that because it adds to the beauty of Westshore,” Buffa says.

Student art exhibit

In February, the Alliance’s annual “Celebrating Westshore Student Creativity” student art exhibit is on display at a new location, the MacDonald Training Center’s Joy McCann Culverhouse Fine Arts Gallery. This year’s exhibit features work by student artists from Roland Park K-8 Magnet School and Hillsborough College. It’s on display the week of February 9th, and the MacDonald Training Center gallery is open to the public. 

For more information, go to Westshore Alliance