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Hispanic arts festival spans bay

Arte 2005 features visual and performing arts from the Caribbean and Latin America in venues in Tampa, Largo and St. Petersburg.

By SAUNDRA AMRHEIN
Published April 7, 2005

TAMPA - Some, including those involved, never thought it would happen.

But after four years of wobbling formless in the arts ether, Arte 2005 has coalesced into a large celebration of culture of the Americas, officially launching today with what organizers say is the area's first festival of its kind.

Bringing more than 30 museums, halls and art groups together under the same umbrella, the festival showcases performing and visual arts from Latin America and the Caribbean.

"I think it's unprecedented for Tampa," said Paul Wilborn, the city's creative industries manager who considers the festival one of his biggest accomplishments since he started his job two years ago.

The size of the festival proved to be both groundbreaking and a challenge to organizers, who acknowledge that it is a little unwieldy.

"It's a bit like herding cats," Wilborn said of the effort to get museums and art groups, who compete for performers or funding, to sit down and plan. "Some were surprised to see the posters going up because they thought this thing fell apart."

The festival encompasses venues in Tampa, Largo and St. Petersburg. While it officially runs through April 16, some exhibits started months ago and extend into the summer.

Some items listed in the schedule of events under the Arte 2005 banner were local projects going on anyway, like the West Tampa community autobiography, and the third annual Hispanic Cultural Festival at Leto High School on Saturday.

But about 90 percent of the artists and exhibits were brought here specifically for the festival, Wilborn said.

That includes Colombian photographer Jaime Avila at the Museum of Fine Arts in St. Petersburg, South American poetry readings at the Salvador Dali Museum on Friday, along with a play, fine art and mixed media art from several Cuban artists at various venues. See Weekend in today's St. Petersburg Times or visit www.arte2005.org)

The Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center hosts singers and musicians from Venezuela, Brazil and Mexico.

The original idea for the festival started four years ago with a group at the University of South Florida that traveled to Cuba hoping to bring artists to Tampa, said Jorge Nef, director of Latin American and Caribbean Studies at the university.

The terrorist attacks of Sept. 11 and tightening U.S. government restrictions on visas and travel between the two countries proved too difficult to overcome. So organizers broadened the focus of the festival to include all of Latin America and the Caribbean, Nef said.

Organized by the city, USF and the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center, a committee formed and later incorporated into a nonprofit for the Arte 2005 festival. It raised at least $150,000 for marketing, Wilborn said, while the venues themselves paid to draw the exhibits and artists.

Organizers hope to make the event annual or biennial to run with a Latin American trade show.

For now, Nef and Wilborn recognized that the effort was driven by the arts community and involved little initial feedback from Tampa Bay's Latino community. Both predict the festival will draw local Latino leaders and artists into the fold for future events.

Festival coordinator Christian Leon said at first he was horrified when brought on in October to learn he was one of the only Latinos involved in planning the area's biggest Latino event.

"To me that was appalling and offensive," he said. "But then, at the same time, from a Latin perspective, you are always waiting for people to take interest in your culture and embrace it."

Leon, 31, born and raised in Tampa of Colombian parents, said he grew to appreciate the artistic tastes of some of the organizers. Though not Latinos, some drew quality artists and work from Latin America.

"I think it has served also to highlight the huge disconnect between all these groups and the Latino community," he said. "I think this is step one to bring these groups together, while I think it exposes a problem that we've had for a long time."

The divide is something Judy Lisi has been working to bridge building up to Arte 2005.

Lisi, president and chief executive of the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center, has made trips to arts markets in Mexico and met with agents, trying to tap into the wealth of talent in Latin America. The center has brought numerous artists from Latin America over the past few years, from pop stars like Juanes to classical acts like the Ballet Nacional de Cuba.

The festival could make Tampa a springboard to the rest of the nation for many Latin American artists, she said. Organizers are waiting to learn what works, what doesn't.

"Whenever you do something for the first time, you know you're never going to do it like that again," she said. "What we need to do is a wal k through the whole festival and then debrief and consider where to go from there."

[Last modified April 7, 2005, 01:22:13]