Art talk

Arts leaders sweat state budget decisions

E-mails flew and tensions mounted in the Pinellas arts community recently. The state budget had been delivered to Gov. Jeb Bush and he had power over more than $14-million in Cultural Facilities Grants, more than $1-mllion of which had been designated for Pinellas organizations.

"We got an alert indicating that the governor wasn't sure he could support the grants," said Judith Powers, director of the Pinellas County Arts Council. "It came out of leftfield."

"I got a phone call at a quarter to 5 on Friday (May 31)," said Mary Wyatt Allen, "saying the governor was questioning the list and we should rally. I believe at that point, he got inundated with messages statewide."

Allen and others had a lot at stake. She is a longtime supporter of the St. Petersburg Museum of History, which was to receive $250,000. Also in that budget was $250,000 for Great Explorations, the Hands-On Museum; $367,240 for Florida Craftsmen; $143,000 for Gulf Beach Art Center; and $500,000 for the Florida International Museum. With a veto, said Allen, "We would have been delayed indefinitely in our building program which we've been working on since 1997."

Powers stuck close to the phone until she got news that Bush signed the budget June 5.

Meanwhile, Ron Mason, the only Tampa Bay area representative on the Florida Arts Council, which assesses arts requests, was in the middle of hosting the group's quarterly meeting in Pinellas. The 15-person group is appointed by the secretary of state.

"We all made calls to the governor's office and they listened politely and I just decided we would have to trust in the process."

They continued with their agenda that included meetings, "a forced march" that began at 8 a.m. June 1 with visits to nine venues countywide and ended with dinner catered by Michael's on East at the Dali Museum, hosted by Marshall Rousseau, the museum's director and past arts council member. Mason said he was so exhausted, he and wife Pat Mason, who is director of First Night St. Petersburg, packed up and went to the beach for a few days.

Call for board members

The Arts Council of Hillsborough County seeks applicants to fill three vacancies on its board of directors. You must be a Hillsborough resident, eligible to vote, have general knowledge of the arts as well as a specific discipline or interest and have been involved in the arts. Term of service is four years and financial disclosure is required. For an application, call (813) 276-8250. The deadline is Aug. 1.

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