October 12, 2021 from 1:00 - 2:30pm

Location: Zoom

Registration: Free

The St. Petersburg Arts Alliance is providing a (free) Health Insurance Workshop to assist our artists in securing health benefits.  

This workshop will be lead by Peter Motzenbecker, an Independent Health Insurance and Medicare Professional.  This is an interactive workshop that will encourage participants to ask questions about the Affordable Care Act (ACA), sometimes referred to as Obamacare, as well as private Health Insurance.  

Open enrollment begins on November 1 and ends on December 5 and this timely discussion will help inform your decision-making and highlight options.  Takeaways include:

• How much does it cost?
• What are the deductibles and co-pays?
• What if I have preexisting medical conditions?
• Can I also cover a spouse, children, or significant other?
• Are there less expensive options if I am healthy?

Free and open to the public but pre-registration is required so you can receive the Zoom link.

Register Today!

• Member Moment

Our new series, "Member Moments" is where the St. Pete Arts Alliance's Board of Directors goes out into the arts community to have one on one interviews with our Arts Business Partner Members.  These video interviews will allow viewers insight into what makes the work of that artist so amazing and how they view the needs of the art community and the way in which SPAA responds to those needs.

Meet Dominice Gilbert, Metal Sculptor and SPAA Board Member, Kelly Lee McFrederick, Broker / Associate and NAR Instructor for Premier Sotheby's International Realty.

“I got the joy of meeting this talented, well-educated, and schooled sculpture artist last week! So lovely to hear from Dominice Gilbert and her belief in the value of the  St. Pete Art Alliance for all artists. She appreciated their support during the last year and how they are currently supporting artists and helping their works to be seen. She is a buff, pretty woman using heavy welding tools, precision metal cutting blades, and flattening rollers all laid out. She is tirelessly working to keep large installations in stock; currently, her large outdoor pieces are in the highest demand.

I also learned Dominice has a worldwide base of private collectors and hotels globally vying for her outdoor sculptures. She keeps an updated and current website of sculptures she is selling currently, and the "Second Saturday ArtWalk" is a true event she gears up for with new artwork, clean studio, rocks raked, and her zen atmosphere prevails. A beautiful outdoor space with the more scaled sculptures located inside the studio, you could tell she curated space to give room to walk around these very interesting sculpture pieces and see the color hues and shapes; she has such a variety of pieces for the walls, standalone, and some creative jewelry niches!

Her mind is very focused and authentic; Dominice creates inspired nature and her own ideas; and with regards to commission work, the ideas have to be her own inspirations and to feel the environment. Dominice is her own creative person and sees the art and the expression of movement and controlled color-thru her eyes and the eyes of nature.”

– Kelly Lee McFrederick

• Member Moment

"Member Moments" is where the St. Pete Arts Alliance's Board of Directors goes out into the arts community to have one on one interviews with our Arts Business Partner Members.  These video interviews will allow viewers insight into what makes the work of that artist so amazing and how they view the needs of the art community and the way in which SPAA responds to those needs.

Meet Jan Neuberger, Actor and Playwright and SPAA Board Member & Actress, Angela Bond Markus.

“I met my friend, Jan Neuberger about seven years ago when she and her husband moved to St. Petersburg from Connecticut.  Jan is a fellow thespian (I am a professional actor) who spent many years in NYC and has many Broadway credits to her name.  Since moving to our area, she has continued to perform at various professional theatres around Florida as well as in a couple of independent film projects, and has branched out to playwriting. 

Her first full-length play, Way Beyond Water, has had several professional staged readings, the first of which was underwritten in part by an Individual Artist Grant from the St. Petersburg Arts Alliance.  That grant enabled her to pay her actors and director, a top priority for any professional artist. 

In addition to her theatrical pursuits, Jan is active with Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, and FAST: Faith and Action for Strength Together and is also a member of St. Augustine’s Episcopal Church.

Jan is a great representative of St. Pete performing artists – talented, experienced, involved and well-rounded, and proud to be a member of the St. Pete Arts Alliance!”

– Angela Bond Markus

Way Beyond Water "Way Beyond Water" synopsis: 

In the Alabama Wiregrass of 1963, Earl McCall is dying. So is his pal Jim Crow. Their shared demise unearths buried secrets, exposing at once the force and the fragility of a tragic connection that binds two women together.

Four-point plan aims to make St. Pete the “Preeminent City of Arts in the Southeastern U.S.”

The St. Petersburg Arts Alliance, Downtown Partnership, and City of St. Petersburg released the Comprehensive Arts Strategy (CAS) on Wednesday, July 28 at the Museum of Fine Arts.  Developed over several months with thousands of community voices, the Strategy proposes strategic recommendations to grow St. Petersburg’s arts sector and improve overall community prosperity. At the launch event, organizers announced that $100,000 in initial seed funding from public and private sources has already been pledged to help launch the Strategy. 

The CAS recommends a path for increased collaboration, new marketing opportunities, and identifies immediate and long terms priorities. The strategy incorporates best practices from other communities and includes perspectives from leaders in business, politics, philanthropic nonprofit sectors as well as artists, arts organizations, and art patrons. It also identifies existing and new audiences as well as provides a rationale for public and private sector leaders to champion art. It also details a five-year road map for future development and aims to make St. Petersburg the preeminent City of Arts in the Southeastern United States. The Comprehensive Arts Strategy research was facilitated by Karen Eber Davis Consulting.

“There is no better time than now to move this strategy forward,” said Terry Marks, CEO of the St. Petersburg Arts Alliance. “We are a city of world class museums, outstanding performing artists and performing art venues, galleries, districts, visual artists, art related organizations and art related educational opportunities. We are a city that is rich in its diversity, with raised consciousness about equity, inclusion and simply caring for one another. Art draws us together, allows us to communicate what we know to be the truth. The Comprehensive Arts Strategy is meant to grow with us, respond to our needs as an arts and culture community. This is a city of art that is evolving; it requires us to be a city of one collective, unified voice.”

“St Petersburg already benefits from a robust arts community that creates a distinct sense of place and contributes to larger community economic success,” said Jason Mathis, CEO of the St. Petersburg Downtown Partnership. “As new art installations and cultural assets open and artists and art organizations navigate the impact of COVID, the Arts Alliance, Downtown Partnership, and City recognized that this is a pivotal moment to develop a shared vision as a City of Art.” 

Click here to read the full Comprehensive Arts Strategy. 

     

 (Photo by: Tracy Kennard)