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More than just a glimmer

Starting Saturday, some buildings in downtown Tampa will become canvases for artists using lights as their medium.

By JANET ZINK
Published January 2, 2006

TAMPA - Downtown Tampa has a reputation for going dark at the end of each business day.

But Saturday, six buildings will shine bright long after sunset with the launch of Lights On Tampa.

The public art project is being billed as a cutting edge art show that includes video in a storefront and lights projected onto buildings and choreographed to music. Artists include University of South Florida professor Wendy Babcox and Paris-based Spanish artist Jorge Orta, who has done similar projects in France and in Vienna, on a volcano in Japan and on Machu Picchu in Peru.

"It's a whole different kind of art that not only Tampa has never seen before but most cities in the United States have never seen," said Mayor Pam Iorio. "It puts us in a whole different category as to the kind of art we are presenting to the public."

Orta's piece is a one-night-only event on Saturday. He'll bathe the University of Tampa's Plant Hall with a colorful light show set to music. But other buildings will remain artfully illuminated for several weeks, months or permanently. Two additional installations will make their debuts in the spring. Plans call for another Lights On Tampa event during the 2009 Super Bowl.

"Whether you have extreme artistic knowledge or not, it's going to be something that everyone can appreciate," said Christine Burdick, president of the Tampa Downtown Partnership. "Who can't enjoy pretty lights?"

In addition to being a unique art happening, Lights On Tampa is important to the evolution of downtown and shows what can be accomplished when government and the private sector work together, supporters say.

Lights On Tampa cost nearly $1-million. The city spent $250,000. The rest of the money came from grants and corporate sponsors, including Verizon, which contributed $200,000, and Pepin Distributing Co., which kicked in $50,000.

Peter Hobson, in-house counsel for Pepin, said his company got involved because it believes the arts are an important economic development tool, although he admits he has an unrefined artistic aptitude. When he sees a vase in a museum, he wonders where the flowers are, he said.

But he knows that the arts are an important part of a city's vibrancy.

According to the Tampa Bay Business Committee for the Arts, museums, concerts, plays and other cultural events in the Tampa Bay area drew more than 5.6-million patrons in 2004. That contributed more than $521.3-million to the economy.

"When a company looks at a community (for relocation), they look at the big picture," Hobson said. "One of the things they say is: When we relocate, what is the quality of life? If one of the first art projects of its kind is in this area, you can use it as an item on your mantel and say this is a developing, cutting edge community."

Cooperation between local government and business helps improve the quality of life in a community, he said.

"Government can't do everything - in the area of transportation, in the area of health care, in education," Hobson said. "We've got to come out of our corporate boardrooms and meet the government halfway. We've got to continue to make this community develop and grow in a different direction."

City leaders also say the project will showcase downtown, which is experiencing a residential building boom.

"It's just the kind of thing that Tampa needs to do to bring people downtown to support residential development," said Melinda Chavez, executive director of the Tampa Bay Business Committee for the Arts.

As evidence of that, she points to the financial contribution from local businesses, including Novare/Intown Group, which is building a condominium tower downtown and gave $25,000 to Lights On Tampa.

"Those guys don't put their money where their mouth isn't," Chavez said.

Babcox said that as an artist, she, too, is impressed by the outpouring of support from the city and business community.

"I'm very excited and really thrilled to be involved," she said. "It feels like a big deal."

--Janet Zink can be reached at 813 226-3401 or jzink@sptimes.com

[Last modified January 2, 2006, 02:30:25]