St. Pete artist Michelle Passoff organized a team of Tampa Bay singers, songwriters, music and video producers, media, marketing and web designer folks ages 16 to 77 years old to create Voice the Vote, an inspiring music video aimed at sparking voter turnout in November’s election.
Most of her collaborators had never met, before they gathered on Zoom to get started in March.
Their intention is to send a message from Tampa Bay to hometowns big and small around the country – that the time has come to gather friends and families to get out and vote.
The toe-tapping dancehall beat with a bit of rap is sung in Spanish and English. A version of the music video on YouTube accessible to the Deaf and hard of hearing community through text captions and American Sign Language.
Voice Your Vote 2020 (Official Video)-
St. Petersburg’s SHINE Mural Festival returns November 7-14, 2020 with a special edition of SHINE – Sea Walls: St. Petersburg.
In these unprecedented times, the SHINE Festival is adapting to meet the challenges that St. Petersburg and many cities around the globe are facing. Now, more than ever, we recognize the critical need to nurture the arts, celebrate our connection to the environment and use art as a unifying force.
Our sixth annual SHINE Mural Festival will expand our partnership with PangeaSeed Foundation’s Sea Walls: Artists for Oceans program to present Sea Walls: St. Petersburg.
This year’s artist lineup will focus entirely on Florida-based artists with an emphasis on Tampa Bay muralists, who are the backbone of SHINE and make St. Petersburg pulse all year long. Invited artists will be announced in September.
Building on last year’s collaboration with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA), all 10 new murals will explore the interconnectedness of human health and environmental health as we navigate an ongoing global pandemic. The economic and social devastation experienced worldwide is juxtaposed with cleaner air, clearer waters and newfound focus on the importance of human and animal interaction.
As a coastal city, climate change and sea level rise are ongoing threats to the well-being of St. Petersburg. Beach tourism is an important part of the area’s economy and issues of storm surge, plastic pollutants, clean drinking water, harmful algae blooms and sustainable fisheries are important community education topics. Intersectionality – environmental justice for our most vulnerable communities – will be a focal point of this year’s event.
Other highlights of Sea Walls: St. Petersburg include virtual events and a “Bright Spot” mural collaborating with local youth to educate and inspire.
Follow facebook.com/shineonstpete for developing news.
This year from May 25-31, International Arts Education Week aims to increase the international community’s awareness of the importance of arts education – and promote cultural diversity, intercultural dialogue and social cohesion.
This year, the World Alliance for Arts Education and its members – International Drama/Theatre Education Association (IDEA), International Society for Education through ART (InSEA), International Society for Music Education (ISME), and World Dance Alliance (WDA) – joins UNESCO in celebrating the week alongside the global arts education community to acknowledge the important role arts education plays in the lives of children and youth, families, and communities during and beyond the COVID-19 pandemic.
Find out how you can participate at creative-generation.org
The 80+ amazing SHINE murals created by local, national and international artists have been turned into a Drive-In Theatre art experience by the kind folks at Pixelstix, who install the markers you can use with your smartphone to bring up the descriptive SHINE audio tour and text transcript, to find out more about the art and artists when you’re visiting the murals.
Download and open the free PixelStix app.
It’s easy to use. Here are the Step-by-Step instructions:
Click Here to Download PixelStix Guide
Many thanks to the creative folks at Pixelstix!
The challenges posed by quarantines and a stalled economy are daunting, especially for artists. In the last month, Creative Capital launched a series of free online workshops, Coping with COVID – designed to help artists mitigate the effects of the pandemic and economic situation, and above all to show that none of us are alone in this struggle.
All four workshops are available to watch online.
Find more Creative Capital resources for artists here.
Livestreaming for Artists
If you’re thinking about livestreaming for the first time, it can be hard to know where to start. Yara Travieso and Brighid Greene suggest using livestreaming less as a final product, and more as a way to continue a creative practice. In their workshop, they assess different platforms and what to know when just getting started.
Thinking about livestreaming as an artist? Read this first.
Financial Implications for Creative Individuals
Elaine Grogan Luttrull, CPA-PFS, AFC, answers questions and provides tangible strategies to help artists cope with the unique financial challenges they face in these uncertain times, including a look at small business loans, filing for unemployment, and more.
Time Management for Artists During Challenging Times
When your home is your office, studio, daycare, and sanctuary, how do you divide up and manage your activities? Amy Bloustine advises on ways to create more structure and better manage your time in order to reduce stress, and be more productive during the quarantine.
Centering Wellness and Self-Care
As artists attempt to maintain a sense of “business as usual” when things are anything but usual, Rhonda Wheatley discusses lessons in healing and wellness to manage the growing isolation, anxiety, and uncertainty we are all facing. Wheatley closes with a guided meditation.
