Tuesday, July 31, 2007

Stop the Presses

Last Friday morning we talked about a subject that keeps coming up again and again - coverage of the arts in the local media - or lack thereof. This has been a subject that we have been talking about at the Friday Morning Group for about as long as there has been a Friday Morning Group.

Meeting in St. Petersburg, most of the attention was focused on the efforts of the Times to cover the burgeoning art scene in St. Pete and Pinellas County over the years. Nice things were said about John Fleming, the Times performing arts critic. Fleming had just written a piece on the effects of the upcoming budget cuts as a result of the property tax reform. On the whole, not a pretty picture. Perhaps more pieces on the economic impact of the arts in the community would have kept us from getting to this point?

We were also joined by photographer Richard Stewart. Richard has been involved in the effort to start the St. Petersburg Photographic Gallery. The gallery, a more or less cooperative effort, has been stalled by lease issues. However, the idea lives on.

Patrice Pucci filled us in on the successful City Players run of Hello Dolly at Ruth Eckerd Hall. They sold the place out for the Sunday Matinee. Way to go!

We also talked again about the success of Herb Snitzer's "informal" talk to over 50 people during the first weekend of his show at the Museum of Fine Arts. The show is celebrating Herb's 50 years in photography. Pretty remarkable considering photography is only about 150 years old. Herb will give his "formal" talk about his work on Sunday, August 12th at 3 PM.

For more informal art talk, we hope to see you Friday Morning.

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