The Art of Giving in St. Pete
June 10, 2009
Keeping Watch over Round Lake
As a result of the economic downturn the number of people in real financial need has grown significantly. In Pinellas County there are in excess of 6.000 homeless, many of them taking up residence on the streets of my home town, St. Petersburg, Fl. I don’t have to tell you that the ranks of the unemployed has also grown causing many families to struggle in their efforts to pay their bills and keep their heads above water. Despite some bad press a couple of years ago, St. Petersburg, as a community, actually does care. There are many outreach ministries, faith based and otherwise. One such organization is called Daystar Life Center. Founded by Monsignor McNulty in the basement of St. Mary’s Catholic Church in 1982, Daystar makes a fine art out of giving. As you might imagine the slow economy has made things tough for organizations like Daystar. Demand for their services are way up while donations from benefactors are down.
All of these realities were in the back of my mind when I was approached by two artists about organizing a plein air painting event this spring. Their motivation was that they were not accepted into a local paintout called Paint the Town. Although formerly involved with that event I had no interest in organizing a Salon De Rufusee’. I did, however, think this was a great time for the art of plein air painting to serve something besides its own self interest. I took my idea for an exhibition and sale of plein air paintings benefitting Daystar to city councilwoman and owner of Interior Motives gallery, Leslie Curan. As expected, she loved the idea and we began planning immediately. I got a group of artists together while Leslie and her staff handled publicity. We were flying by the seat of our pants but we believed in what we were doing. When all was said and done, 8 local artists had six weeks to produce (5) plein air paintings within the St. Petersburg city limits.
The Pier
Opening Night
The show, which opened May 23rd, was a success. The paintings looked great, sales were very good and well over $1,000 was raised for Daystar. Ironically the two artists who a originally approached me backed out. They made what they thought was a good choice for themselves. This show was not about “artists doing for themselves” it was about what art could do for others. It was about being outwardly focused, civic minded and concerned for those in need. There are still a few paintings available as the show hangs at Interior Motives until June 19th, 2009.
A special thanks goes to councilwoman Leslie Curan for her extreme generosity and Jane Walker for her dedicated hard work at Daystar.
Leslie, Jane, Robert
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5 Responses to “The Art of Giving in St. Pete”
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ROBERT, WHAT A GREAT IDEA!
Proud of you – way to give back and pay it forward!
Thanks so much for yours, and Leslie’s hard work on this. It is so nice to do something that really does benefit a great service without them having to do all the work ON TOP of the work they do every day. That means a lot.
One of my favorite charities is All Faiths Food Bank. I would love to do another show for them. I would love to do it a bit differently. I would love to ask them when they are having a big benefit for themselves. Then I would love us to be the ones that decorate that benefit with our plein airs or studio paintings for sale. The combination brings buyers and we can help even more. Then if Leslie is willing, we can also combine the gallery. At this point I would do whatever is needed….Leslie is so great and so are you for putting others first even in these hard times for artists.
Take care, and thanks a lot,
Terry
Fine idea Robert. Maybe you can build on this for a similar show next year.
Don
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