The Morean Arts Center, located at 719 Central Ave in St. Petersburg, is pleased to announce the creation of the Morean Muse monthly giving program! Your monthly donation will cover the costs of studio classes, workshops, contemporary art exhibitions, summer camps, school outreach programs and more at The Morean Art Center. Please help secure the future of these important cultural and educational programs for thousands of children and adults. For more info, call 727-822-7872 or visit www.moreanartscenter.org.
City of St. Petersburg and the St. Petersburg Arts Alliance, the SHINE Mural Festival puts a spotlight on the power of art in public spaces, and on St. Petersburg as an international arts destination, with exhibits and events September 1 through 12. For more information, please visit www.shineonstpete.com or email info@shineonstpete.com.There are walking tours every Saturday leaving from Florida CraftArt. For information or to make a reservation, floridacraftart.org.
The Florida Aquarium, located at 701 Channelside Dr in Tampa, has signed a historic Memorandum Of Understanding (MOU) agreement with the National Aquarium of Cuba with a focus on coral conservation. This partnership is the first official agreement between the National Aquarium of Cuba and any Aquarium in the United States and will allow researches from both organizations to share Coral Reef restoration research. For more info, please call 813-273-4000, or visit www.flaquarium.org.
Mark your calendars for the 2nd Annual Florida Viking Fest 2015! This fun-filled event will take place on Sat, Oct. 10 from 2pm to 8pm at the Tampa Garden Club, located at 2629 Bayshore Blvd in Tampa. Make it a date for the whole family.The event is open to the general public and the admission is only $5 per person for visiting the exhibits and vendors. For more info, please visit www.statampabay.org.
Actor Becca McCoy’s entertaining and heart-warming tour-de-force cabaret will be presented again by popular demand at American Stage, located at 163 3rd St N in St. Petersburg.This is another chance to catch Becca McCoy’s solo cabaret, “The Pearl in the Hogwaller” this fall on Friday and Saturday evening, October 23-24 at 8pm. For more info, please call 727-823-7529, or visit www.americanstage.org.
Creative Clay’s Folkfest St. Pete 2015 returns Sat. Nov 7, and Sun. Nov 8, this year on Baum Ave in the EDGE district of St. Petersburg. The annual music, art and craft beer festival, benefitting Creative Clay’s programs, will be hosted by Green Bench Brewing Company and be held on Baum Avenue, between 11th and 13th Streets N. For more info, please call 727-825-0515, or visit www.creativeclay.org. Creative Clay is located at 1114 Central Ave in St. Petersburg.
Keep St. Pete Lit joins forces with St. Petersburg’s Green Bench Brewing Co., located at 113 Baum Ave N in St. Petersburg, for a new kind of writing competition inspired by the names of favorite local brews. Called “Final Draft: St. Pete Stories” and culminating with a Nov 4thshowcase event, the competition aims to celebrate the work of local writers and their city-centric tales. For more info, please visit www.keepstpetelit.org.
Dr. Jerry N. Smith brings extensive curatorial, scholarly, and administrative background to his new role as the Hazel and William Hough Chief Curator at the Museum of Fine Arts. He begins his new position on Monday, Oct 19th. He is currently Curator of American and European Art to 1950 and Art of the American West at the Phoenix Art Museum. The MFA is located at 255 Beach Drive N.E. in St. Petersburg. For info, call 727-896-2667 • www.fine-arts.org.
The Tierra Verde Women’s Club Annual Garage Sale and Gift Market will take place Sat, November 7th from 8am to 1pm. To truly be a part of the selling end of this energetic early day event, reserve your space now at $25. E-mail tierraverdegaragesale@gmail.com for more info, or send your check to TVWC, 131 8th Street East, Tierra Verde, FL 33715 – attention Gaye Wurzbacher.
From Fri, October 16th through Sun, Oct 25th the Independent Business Alliance, Keep Saint Petersburg Local (KSPL), invites you to savor their local flavor during the 2nd Annual LOCALICIOUS Eat LOCAL Drink LOCAL Week highlighting St. Pete’s locally-made food & drink, restaurants & food trucks, breweries & distillery, markets, sustainable living and more! For info, please visit www.keepsaintpetersburglocal.org.
The official release date for the 224-page collectible book, Food + Art: Cooking around Tampa Bay with the Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg, Florida is Wed, Oct. 21. To celebrate the release, a launch party is scheduled on October 21st at the Museum of Fine Arts. Also, the MFA has accepted an invitation to present Food + Art at the 23rd Annual Tampa Bay Times Festival of Reading on Sat, Oct. 24, held on the bay front campus of the University of South Florida St. Petersburg. For more info, please call 727-896-2667 or visit www.fine-arts.org.
Mark your calendar for Luncheon and Game Day! Come have lunch, visit with friends old and new, shop for some jewelry and accessories, indulge in a few hours of game playing … and, all the while, support All Children’s Hospital Johns Hopkins Medicine. The event is scheduled from 11am to 3pm on Mon, Oct. 12th at the Holiday Isles Elks Lodge, 14111 E Parsley Drive, Madeira Beach. For tickets, $20 per person, contact Peggy Lubke, 616-745-4945, or Georgia Kelley, 727-409-3419.
Movies in the Park has become the best “small” event on the waterfront so don’t forget to mark your calendars for each Thursday in October (1, 8 15, 22, 29). Live music starts at 6 pm, followed by the movie at dusk. It all takes place in North Straub Park, between Beach & Bayshore Drives and between 4th and 5th Ave N. For more info, visit www.stpetepreservation.org. Movies in the Park are: 1 – Moonstruck, 8 – Raiders of the Lost Ark, 15 – Sister Act, 22 – Willie Wonka, 29 – The Birds.
The 7th Annual Sanding Ovations Masters Cup Sand Sculpture Competition and Music Festival will take place Wed, Nov 18 through Sun, Nov 22 on Treasure Island. This event is free and open to the public. For event schedules, sculptor bios, and more info please visit www.mytreasureisland.com, or call 727-547-4575.
The St. Petersburg Opera Company has some phenomenal main stage performances planned for the upcoming 10th Anniversary Season! Be sure to visit www.StPeteOpera.org, or call 727-823-2040, for schedules, ticket prices, and general info. St. Petersburg Opera Company is located at 2145 1st Ave S in St. Petersburg.
Ten live high-definition broadcasts of the Metropolitan Opera will be shown on the big screen at Miller Auditorium at Eckerd College, 4200 54th Ave S in St. Petersburg, starting this fall and running through the spring. The Met: Live in HD begins Sat, Oct. 3rd and continues through April 30, featuring such popular operas as Il Travatore, Otello, Tannhauser and Turandot. For tickets and details go to www.eckerd.edu/metopera or call 727-864-7600.
“Marks Made: Prints by American Women Artists from the 1960s to the Present” opens at the Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg on Saturday, October 17th and continues through Sunday, January 24, 2016. For more info, visit www.fine-arts.org, or call 727-896-2667. The MFA is located at 255 Beach Dr NE in St. Petersburg.
St. Petersburg City Theatre, located at 4025 31st St S, will be holding auditions for two upcoming performances. Auditions for “Memphis, The Musical” will take place at City Theatre on Sun, Oct 4th and Mon, Oct 5th, from 6pm to 9pm. Auditions for “The Best Christmas Pageant, Ever!” will take place at City Theatre on Sun, Oct 11that 6pm for ages 4-14, and Mon, Oct 12th at 7pm for all adult roles. For more info, please call 727-866-1973, or visit www.spcitytheatre.org.
For more than a thousand years, an ancient dugout canoe lay buried under mangrove peat near a shoreline on Old Tampa Bay at Weedon Island Preserve. The public is invited to view the 1,100-year-old canoe during the grand opening of a new exhibit, Navigating Tampa Bay’s Maritime Past. The event featuring Florida’s longest (40 feet) and only saltwater dugout canoe is Sat, Oct. 17, from 10am to 3pm at the Weedon Island Preserve Cultural and Natural History Center located at 1800 WeedonDr NE in St. Petersburg. For more info, visit www.weedonislandpreserve.org.
Bert Smith Chillounge Night in Downtown St. Petersburg will take place on Saturday, November 21st, 2015. In Straub Park from 6 pm till 11 pm. Presenting Cirque du Chill, Featuring world-renowned circus artists. Tickets: $25, VIP $100 – VIP includes catering by 400 Beach Drive. Benefiting Creative Clay & Woodson Museum. Info and Video of Cirque du Chill 2014Visit chilloungenight.com/st-pete-2015/
Art News by Sarah Meitz