One medium, one museum

Its founders say that at the new Tampa Gallery of Photographic Arts, photography won't be treated like a "fourth cousin'' of the arts.

By MARY ANN MARGER

© St. Petersburg Times,
published June 17, 2001

TAMPA -- To pursue their love of photography, four Tampa residents have established the Tampa Gallery of Photographic Arts, a museum dedicated solely to the medium.

Located in about 600 square feet of donated space in Old Hyde Park Village, it opened last month with "Masters of Black and White," 36 works by American artists on loan from several sources.

Many are borrowed from the museum's four organizers, Charles Levin, a Tampa attorney; Cynthia Flowers, a Tampa businesswoman; Vincent Sorrentino, a Tampa resident and New York art dealer; and Timothy Kennedy, associate professor in the department of communications at the University of Tampa and former director of Lightspur, a nonprofit gallery in Anchorage.

Levin began collecting photos about a year ago, though he has always had an interest in photography. Madison Marquette, owners of Old Hyde Park Village, the upscale shopping center, offered him the space without charge for use as a gallery, stipulating that no works may be for sale, nor contain nudity or sensationalism.

Works on view include the familiar and famous: Dorothea Lange's grim icon of the Depression, Migrant Mother; Ansel Adams' haunting Moonrise Over Hernandez; and others by Berenice Adams, Walker Evans, Aaron Siskind, Weegee (Arthur Fellig), Dr. Harold Edgerton and that Florida favorite, Clyde Butcher.

Margaret Bourke-White's The US Airship Akron is framed in the metal used in the airship's girders. It is on loan from the collection of Dr. Robert and Chitranee Drapkin of Clearwater.

"The reason we wanted to establish a museum devoted to photography," says Sorrentino, "is because in every museum in the world, photography is treated as a fourth cousin."

Ironically, both the Museum of Fine Arts and the Tampa Museum of Art have exceptional collections of photography, but their works are rarely exhibited. William Zewadski, an attorney with Trenam Kemker and himself a noted collector, ranks them just behind the New Orleans Museum of Art and the High Museum in Atlanta among collections in the Southeast.

Both Zewadski and the Drapkins have shown portions of their collections at the larger museums.

The new museum's stated mission is "to mount exhibitions that present the photographer's vision as vital and central to life and culture," with photographers of international, national and regional acclaim.

To date it owns a single work, a photo of Bette Davis by well-known St. Petersburg photographer Herb Snitzer, who donated it. That raises the question: Can such a small operation truly claim to be a museum?

"Museum" is a nebulous term that usually, but not always, refers to a storehouse and display space for a permanent collection. The term "gallery" is often used as a synonym for "museum." The organizers avoided calling their showplace the Tampa Museum of Photographic Arts to avoid confusion with the Tampa Museum of Art.

The group has taken the first steps toward the rigorous accreditation process by joining the American Association of Museums as a not-for-profit organization.

The group hopes to expand in hours, size and offerings. A volunteer force would enable the gallery to stay open longer than the current 15 hours. Photographers Clyde Butcher and Bud Lee have already given well-attended lectures. The group has organized a program for at-risk children and hopes to offer workshops to adults. Says Kennedy, "It would be great to have a second gallery to show local work."

A show of children's photography is tentatively scheduled for this summer, and an exhibit of works by Snitzer opens Sept. 7.

Zewadski, who recently joined the museum, says of the works on view, "The quality is good, and the diversity is remarkable. But because the field is so wide and diverse, there is always more room for good photos to be shown and seen."

He hopes the new showplace will prompt the larger museums to show their collections more often. "Aesthetic competition," he says, "is never a bad thing."

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