Art smart
Organizers take steps to meet the challenges of a fledgling festival.
By BILL COATS, Times Staff Writer
Published November 16, 2007
TAMPA PALMS - A year ago, David McKirdy decided to give the first-ever New Tampa Arts Festival a try. The Tampa artist spent a crisp November weekend under the oaks displaying his "optical abstract" works for potential buyers. Business was slack.
"I really don't think more than a couple of dozen people came by my booth," he said.
Then the tables turned. McKirdy's work earned Best of Show, accompanied by a $5,000 prize check. "I got lucky," he said.
As the festival's second installment unfolds this weekend, McKirdy's experience illustrates the event's two challenges for long-term success. First, it must attract talented artists. And to keep the artists returning, it must draw crowds of willing art buyers.
The $5,000 is getting the artists' attention. It matches the top prize paid at Dunedin's Art Harvest, which draws 50,000 people. McKirdy said awarding $5,000 at a young show with only 65 artists is "extraordinary."
Last year's show attracted 2,000 to 3,000 people, said Frank Margarella, festival chairman and president of the New Tampa Community Council, which is organizing the event. He hopes to double the attendance this year.
Citing lessons learned, Margarella plans this weekend to locate artists' booths closer to Bruce B. Downs Boulevard and its thousands of passing drivers. Like last year, the festival is scheduled in the parking lot of the Palm Lake at Tampa Palms office building off Amberly Drive. But last year, it wasn't visible from Bruce B. Downs,Margarella said.
Also new is a music headliner, soul saxophonist Dayve Stewart, a Tampa native who has toured with R&B great Al Green. Stewart is set to perform at4 p.m. Saturday.
And this year, the festival will add beer sales. Admission and parking are free.
"This is still a work in progress," Margarella said.
The number of exhibiting artists has increased from 40 last year to 65 this year. Although Margarella would like to have drawn 100, he sees the rising number as a vote of confidence.
The festival's critical decisions have tilted toward the artists. Organizers lined up Ken Rollins, interim executive director of the Tampa Museum of Art, as this weekend's judge. To exhibit and compete, artists were required to apply in advance, submitting photos of their work. Applicants who producecrafts were rejected.
"The work we're showing is more expressive, and not utilitarian," said Steve Rothfarb, the festival's arts coordinator and owner of New Tampa's FrameBy Frame Gallery.
The festival once again has antied up $9,500 in prize money, even though it finished $3,800 in the red last year, Margarella said.
"I think they're doing the right things for just a young show," said McKirdy, the artist.
McKirdy persuaded Denis Gaston of Dunedin to sign up, despite Gaston's aversion to start-up festivals.
"I made an exception this time," he said.
Gaston produces contemporary mixed-media works with an African influence, and sells them for $50 to $2,000. New Tampa's affluent reputation sounded promising, he said. The logistics sounded easy. The prizes were enticing.
"I used to give a show two tries before I made a decision," Gaston said. But now, he simply considers it a success if it's profitable.
Despite winning last year's top prize, McKirdy won't be exhibiting this weekend. He recently underwent hernia surgery and is under a doctor's orders to lift nothing heavier than a gallon of paint.
Yet his doctor told him he can take walks. So McKirdy, convinced of the show's potential, plans to visit.
"I'll go and walk around, and think about it for next year,"he said.
Bill Coats can be reached at 813 269-5309 or coats@sptimes.com.
Opening is Saturday
The New Tampa Arts Festival will be open at 10 a.m. Saturday and Sunday behind the Bank of Tampa at the northeast corner of Bruce B. Downs Boulevard and Amberly Drive. The festival closes at 5 p.m. Saturday and4 p.m. Sunday.
Admission and parking are free. Concessions will be for sale.
Entertainment: Students at American Ballet School will perform noon to 1 p.m. each day. Frank Margarella, a folk-rocker and the festival chairman, will sing and play guitar from 1-3 p.m. Saturday. Saxophonist Dayve Stewart (see www.dayvestewart.com) will play from 4-5 p.m. Saturday. New Tampa's Bob Thompson Trio will perform from 1-4 p.m. Sunday.