The 2023 SHINE Mural Festival won’t begin until Oct. 13, but director Jenee Priebe has been hard at work for months, making plans, closing deals, ordering paint, losing sleep.
This is how it goes every year. Blueprints are almost complete for this year’s 9th annual event, which will see 14 new murals painted on downtown walls – right in front of our eyes – by artists local, regional and national (and more). It’s a nine-day “plein air” art festival, one of the most renowned and respected in the country.
Priebe, who guests on today’s edition of our Arts Alive! podcast, has announced the six bay area muralists who’ll be assigned walls to use as canvas, with little to no “direction” from SHINE or the St. Petersburg Arts Alliance. Nobody tells them what their design has to look like. This “freedom of expression,” she believes, is one of the factors that makes artists gravitate to the St. Pete festival.
That includes the national and international artists (the 2023 collection won’t be announced until mid-month); in the last couple of years, SHINE has brought in some of the very best from across the globe.
We also talk about the festival’s first two-year title sponsor, its first, the 88-residence condominium tower Reflection St. Pete. And Priebe’s plans for SHINE’s 10th anniversary in 2024.
Click here to listen to the interview.
