Creative Pinellas, Pinellas County’s 14-year-old arts agency, closed its storied gallery at Pinewood Cultural Park on Jan. 4, at its final exhibition featuring over 70 local artists.
In September of last year, county commissioners voted 5-2 to remove more than $1 million from the organization, despite pushback from the local art community and the public. The funding slash comes during a time of scrutiny for the county as Governor Ron DeSantis attempts to eliminate “wasteful” spending across the state.
Commission Chair Brian Scott argues that Creative Pinellas doesn’t produce a significant return on investment. “I have struggled since I’ve become a commissioner to understand what they’re really bringing to the table,” Scott said last August.
The gallery’s closing cuts off a major stepping stone for local artists to launch their careers and deals a blow to arts fans across the county. Moreover, it reflects a statewide trend following Gov. DeSantis’s decision in 2024 to veto $32 million in state arts funding, which affected museums and cultural institutions throughout the Tampa Bay area.
Creative Pinellas CEO Margaret Murray discussed the importance of the arts to the public and what’s next for the arts agency in a Largo Tribune interview.
The following interview has been lightly edited for clarity.
LT: You’ve had an arts career all over – New York City, Amsterdam, DC, and now here in St. Petersburg. What do the arts mean to you?
The arts are such a huge part of my identity – both my personal identity and my professional identity. I’ve always been an art fan and knew from the first moment. The first art event I ever ran was a film festival – a 10-day film festival – and I remember waking up the morning after it ended and saying, “Oh, yeah, this is my life from here on out.”
One thing I noticed about the gallery is you’re showing short films, acrylic paintings, oil paintings, sculptures – all sorts of art forms – so what does it mean to you to see all these art forms come together in one place?
To me, it’s just breathtaking when you can see the nature and the scope of the artists that we have in our area. And it gives us a chance to really look at the talent who’s living here. That’s one of the benefits that we had with that gallery – is that we were able to mount such large-scale exhibitions. And we weren’t limited to one format. The gallery was purpose-built as a museum, and it was designed to show all different mediums. And we really took the fullest advantage of that. I just absolutely love seeing all of these incredibly talented artists in one place.
What has Creative Pinellas and leading this gallery meant to you as an art professional?
I remember – well, first of all, I’ve been a big fan of that space ever since it was a Gulf Coast Museum of Art. And I remember walking in there and just – wait, let me back up a little bit.
It has been such a privilege to manage that gallery. And it’s easy to walk away from a gallery when it’s empty; but when there’s art on the wall, and you see the talent that’s there, and you see artwork by artists you know and respect, and have worked with for either a few moments or a long time, that’s when it becomes really hard to walk away from a gallery.
The past few months, I can imagine, have been rough for the staff and for you. But you’ve seemed to have a positive outlook on it – that even though the gallery is closing, Creative Pinellas will still be an organization. Have the past few months changed your perspective on the arts?
The past few months have only deepened my respect for the artists working in Pinellas County, and artists who are facing these cuts, obstacles, and these headwinds all over the world. There are so many obstacles facing artists right now – they do have my utmost respect, and I remain committed to helping art flourish in any way that I possibly can.
The county’s rationale for these cuts seems that there are better ways and more efficient ways to drive tourism in our community. What’s your response to that?
The county’s own tourism data shows that people come here for the arts. They come here not only for museums like the Salvador Dalí museum and the Museum of Fine Arts, but they also come here for small performances in theaters; they come here for dance performances at the Palladium. They come here for murals. They come here for musicians performing in small venues.
Bringing tourism to an arts destination like Pinellas County – it has to be a countywide effort that encompasses musicians and performers and artists of all skills and ranges and points in their career. There’s no one stop for everyone. I think that’s what Creative Pinellas was good at – making sure arts experiences were available to everyone.
Creative Pinellas, since the beginning, has been working on projects across the county. Right now, you’re working with Pinellas County Schools, and in the past you’ve worked with other organizations. What does it mean to you to know that Creative Pinellas is and will continue to work across the county?
To me, the arts here are such a source of pride for our residents. We already know that they’re a draw for tourism – that’s already been so well-established. And right now, what we’re looking at is to see how we can showcase the value of the arts to more and more people, so that we can build our support from the ground up and show people what happens when art is missing from your area.
There’s no other gallery like Creative Pinellas in mid-county, and for the past month, we’ve just heard people coming in, distraught, and so upset that this beautiful place that allows them to see world-class art free of charge is going to go away.
We’re really working hard to help people understand the importance of supporting arts experiences like this so that they don’t go away.
On your end, what has the reaction been like from the Pinellas arts community?
We’ve gone through the five stages of grief.
Right now, it’s been really wonderful. I was at the gallery earlier this morning when artists were coming in to pick up their work. And it’s just – everyone is so supportive. They understand this had nothing to do with Creative Pinellas or Creative Pinellas’ management of county funds. Everyone is just eager to get back to work, see how we can all work together, and collaborate on continuing to help the arts flourish here.
Over the past few months, Creative Pinellas has been hosting shows and events like the Arts Annual. How have they played out?
This has been our most successful year ever. A lot of it has to do with steps that we took earlier in the year to strengthen our organization – really expanding the offerings that we have in our gift shop, which was really successful this year, and making sure that we’re really representative across all arts genres. And of course, the extra attention has certainly helped us and has made us realize ways we can continue moving forward.
Overall, it has been a really bittersweet last few months.
What will moving forward look like for Creative Pinellas?
Since we don’t have a gallery or a physical space, the remaining staff members will be working from home. But we’ve already started collaborating with other arts organizations, and I actually have a meeting with a healthcare institution next week, so we’re looking at different ways that we can really embed the arts in the community to benefit everyone here.
What do you think the importance of the arts is to the public and to the community?
Above and beyond, art is more than just an aesthetic experience. There’s so much research that shows how art – having public art in places – reduces street crime; how art-making, art-viewing, and art-participation do everything from lowering your blood pressure to helping students achieve better outcomes in schools.
So, we just hope to continue honing in on that research and making sure that we can use the arts to really better the lives of residents in Pinellas County.
As you’re moving forward with Creative Pinellas in this new direction, are you changing some of your priorities and goals with the organization?
Yes, we absolutely have to do that, because the organization is vastly different than the organization was over the summer. I met with our executive committee today and we’re going to – within the next few weeks – start doing some serious strategic planning, meeting with potential partners and collaborators, and making sure that we are mindful about the limited resources that we have now. And we’re making sure that we use everything we have at our disposal to make the biggest impact.
I visited the gallery this past weekend – one thing that really struck out to me was the drawing room. To my understanding, kids would go in there and make drawings and would have them hung on the walls. It seems to me that the gallery was more than a place for specific age groups, but for everyone. So, what do you think the public is going to be missing out on now that Creative Pinellas is moving forward?
Pinewood Cultural Park was created specifically to address three very real needs in the county – and that was nature, history, and art. So, the art portion of that is going to be greatly diminished. It’s such a source of joy for so many people.
It is a really wonderful opportunity for our three organizations to collaborate – a lot of that is going to be missed. We did everything from Halloween celebrations to large-scale vendor markets and plant sales, so beyond the art in our gallery, there’s going to be a real loss for Pinewood Cultural Park and the residents of that area of the county who don’t have a lot of cultural institutions at their disposal.
Correction: A former version of this article understated the amount of funding cuts as $156,000; the correct figure is over $1 million.
