Columns

Arts czar a frill that waltzes out the door

By SUE CARLTON
Published July 11, 2007

Paul Wilborn always was a Tampa man-about-town.

He played the piano and sang Sinatra, knew the cool people, turned up at the fun parties. He managed to work as a journalist at the Tampa Tribune and later the Times and somehow remain unrumpled.

When he left this burg for Los Angeles, I inherited his desk. Even his stapler was cooler than mine.

Then he was back in town with the striking actor who would become his wife. He had scored a plum gig as Tampa's arts czar, part of Mayor Pam Iorio's push to make the place more "livable" and arts friendly. (Technically, Wilborn was manager of creative industries, but "arts czar" sounds so much better.)

Still, this is Tampa, a city better known for Busch Gardens and the Bucs than museums, concerts and theater. The place is way behind sister city St. Petersburg when it comes to downtown coolness.

As the theory goes, arts should be part of the package for a city hoping to attract economic development.

Visitors should know ahead of time that a place will have something to see and do without having to check local listings.

Some naysayers wondered if Wilborn would be paid to party on the taxpayer's dime. (The position started at $92,500.)

You say party, Wilborn says "arts event." Yes, they tended to happen at night, and, yes, hors d'oeuvres were often passed. Arts business definitely looks more like a party than, say, what the folks over at solid waste are up to.

But for most cities, the arts are in the mix.

"I think if you look at any city of comparable size to Tampa, you'll find much larger arts departments," Wilborn says. "It's considered part of the territory."

Unfortunately for the arts, cities and counties right now are cinching their budgetary belts so tight they have to punch new holes in the leather. Tampa will slash 236 full-time positions.

Wilborn's innovative post made more sense in better economic times. If you're the mayor, how do you justify an arts czar when you're cutting $15-million in jobs?

(And remember. Unlike some of your local lawmakers in the paper this week, Iorio is not the sort to go off on a taxpayer-paid jaunt to Boston, saying, "Let them eat chowder." Or cheesesteak, in the case of the Philly trip.)

The mayor's cuts were surgical, though not painless. The arts czar is a luxury we can no longer afford.

Wilborn says he's proud of the two-week, counties-wide Arte 2007 Festival coming in November, paid for with no city money except staff time. He's proud his town sponsored one of the biggest gay and lesbian film festivals in the country, proud of the 22 Pops in the Park concerts held all over the city on his watch. He likes to say more people paid to sit in a seat at the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center than at Raymond James Stadium.

"We've got the most successful performing arts center south of D.C.," he says.

So what happens to Tampa's man-about-town?

Though the mayor offered three months to axed employees, he's already rustled up a new gig. The ink isn't dry yet, so he can't give details. He'll only say that it's most definitely in the arts.

Oh, and it's in St. Petersburg.

[Last modified July 11, 2007, 00:06:45]