Canvas for a city arts district unfinished
By SHARON TUBBS, City Times Editor
Published July 6, 2007

You can tell that the massive three-story building in the Channel District used to be a warehouse. Its hallways stretch forever. Brick peeks through the white paint. Birds could fly beneath the high ceilings.

In time, it was transformed to a collage of art studios and galleries, an office and kitchen area. The letters outside spell Artists Unlimited, the nonprofit where local artists have rented work space and held art shows for years.

After Ray Paul moved here from Cincinnati in the early 1990s, it was about the only organization with studio space.

This week, Paul - stained in vibrant yellows, reds and greens - stood in a corner room before a wall canvas, listening to blues and touching up one of his abstract masterpieces.

It was exactly the scene Bill and Genie White hoped their efforts would create. They established Artists Unlimited in 1993, then moved their home to one portion of the building in 1995.

Artists Unlimited, they hoped, would become a major outlet for local artists and transform the Channel District into Tampa's premier art district.

That hasn't happened - at least not completely, not yet.

But the couple is preparing to move on. It won't be right away - five or so years - Genie says. But she knows they can't make it here too much longer.

What happened? Let's go back 15 years, when the Whites moved to the Channel District, that swath of a neighborhood off the Port of Tampa, with Ybor City to the north and downtown to the west.

Back then, the area was bare of anything that mattered much. "Nothing was here, just warehouses, " Genie says.

They expected that to change as official-types talked of developing the area and land values went up in downtown and Ybor City. Change would be a good thing, they thought. The more people who came, the better exposure for artists.

The Whites formed the Channel District Council neighborhood association and stayed up to date of the happenings around them.

But they thought too small when it came to development. They hadn't envisioned the high-rise towers, the townhouses and condos. Soon, buildings and construction crews gobbled up parking around them, a reality that made the large art shows they used to have impractical. People won't come if they can't park.

Artists Unlimited doesn't have juried shows and its Friday night gallery events anymore. And about two years ago, the Whites stopped offering their summer art program for school students for the same reason, no parking.

The budget for Artists Unlimited plummeted from about $300, 000 in grants, donations and rental fees to its current $20, 000, mostly from studio rentals, Genie said.

Meanwhile, property taxes quadrupled; insurance more than doubled. Instead of the organization supporting itself, the Whites had to pay many of the bills themselves. Bill, 66, is a retired salesman. Genie, 67, is an artist.

And then there's the building's age. Without the organization pulling is own weight, the Whites say they can't afford the upkeep.

Still, they won't let their vision for artists die.

Genie started negotiating with developers, persuading them to reserve spaces in their towers for artists. Already, she says, she has secured space for artists in the Grand Central condo building. She has talked with other developers as well.

"The soul of Artists Unlimited will continue, " she said.

Instead of having artists in one massive building, they will be spread throughout the district.

"We're having to adjust the vision to get the artists into the properties that are being built, " Genie said.

She hopes someone will take on oversight of Artists Unlimited when they move away.

The Whites say they aren't looking for glory, that it's the artists in Tampa who should be recognized.

But the truth is, without people like them forcing recognition for artwork, this city would be even further behind the easel than it is now.

They sing a familiar tune. Many in the art community say Tampa is more concerned with sports and nightclubs than paintings and sculptures. Several galleries have closed this year, Genie said. They don't get the support they need from the government or from the public.

Paul said things are a little better for artists than when he came here in 1991. He has joined others in independent group shows around the area.

"I think there's a lot of artists, but it's kind of fractured a little bit."

In the meantime, the Whites say they still enjoy what they do.

The "fun" part, they say, is providing a place for artists like Paul.

"I guess I'm just an aging hippie, " Genie says. "People don't believe some people just want to make the world better."

And in her eyes, that better world always includes at least a painting or two.

What do you think about Tampa's art community? Is it adequate or should more be done to support local artists? Send your comments and ideas to citytimes@sptimes.com or to Letters to the Editor c/o Sharon Tubbs, St. Petersburg Times, 1000 N Ashley Drive, Suite 700, Tampa, FL 33602.

http://www.sptimes.com/2007/07/06/Citytimes/Canvas_for_a_city_art.shtml

Well luckily the conciliation prize is a huge return on the property investment. That chunk of land is worth a fortune, I have wondered several times how it was still there. (IIRC it's right across from Grand Central, on the South side).

MAybe they close because the art isn't very good.

^ That's a bit subjective.

The problem, if you can call it that, is that Channelside was NEVER going to become a cute little artist's colony, no matter what anybody wanted. Anymore than it was going to remain a dilapidated warehouse district. The two require about the same property values, and Channelside was not the neighborhood where that was going to happen.
Still, that's hindsight. When the Whites moved here you could be shot in broad daylight in Ybor and downtown rolled up at five o'clock. Channelside was run down and there were a lot of vacancies; property was cheap.
Tampa is the sort of town where it's easy to assume things will remain static, because the local leadership makes it feel that way. So you can't blame the Whites for assuming downtown would never develop and Ybor's renaissance was somewhere in a future that seemed like it would never come.
Artists Unlimited was actually a really fun little place, but it was dependent upon Tampa never changing. But with downtown finally developing and Ybor rising from the ashes of I-4 and urban redevelopment, Channelside wasn't going to stay a sleepy warehouse district.

I'd like to point out, though, that the Whites aren't shouting about how development is wrong, that Channelside should stay the small funky arts district it only ever was in people's dreams. They're realists. They're good people. The art was... subjective. But they make a strong point: more than one local gallery has closed. I'm an artist myself and I have to go to St. Pete to find a market, much less a studio space. Tampa isn't a City of the Arts--and I don't care what Pam thinks, it's never going to become one. Give the Whites credit for trying, and not trying to obstruct the urban neighborhood Channelside is becoming.

No, it is simply another explanation for the galleries closing.

And there was no one being shot in Ybor in broad daylight in 1993 - Ybor was already on its way back by then - eight years or so into it, as a matter of fact.

And Channelside could have remained a warehouse district - and would have gagged if they had listend to saul-sena and the "artist colony" crowd. It was Greco that saw what it could be. There is no inevitablility to development. Someone has to see it and push it.

^ That's a bit subjective.
Tampa isn't a City of the Arts--and I don't care what Pam thinks, it's never going to become one. Give the Whites credit for trying, and not trying to obstruct the urban neighborhood Channelside is becoming.

The real arts places in my opinion are St. Pete and Sarasota. I agree that Tampa won't live up to the arts dream the Iorio has been planning. I think she's wasting too much time and effort for her stupid riverwalk and trying to keep the Tampa Museum of Art on the waterfront. Frankly, I think the museum would have been perfect in the old courthouse. But anyways, It's not that I have a huge problem with the riverwalk, or the art museum for that matter. The existing museum is crap and shows off near-worthless art anyway (or maybe not). But I think Iorio is wasting too much of her efforts to complete a riverwalk that probably won't see completion by the end of her administration and in my mind, I think the future mayor of Tampa may end up losing sight of the project and leave it unfinished...moving on to whatever other visions he or she may have.

It's a dissapointment in a way that the Whites have to do what they're going to have to do. I've been the warehouse several years ago and thought it was pretty neat. I wish the Whites good luck with whatever they decide to do.