The St. Petersburg Arts Alliance sent this email to our Mayor, Deputy Mayor, City Council Members and County Commissioners, to let them know that St. Petersburg’s arts and cultural institutions are not relaxing their guard – and urging our elected leaders to continue mask requirements and safety protocols that are making St. Petersburg safer during the pandemic.
We urge you to stay safe and keep those around you safe – and remind you that mask-wearing is cool! It can be an artistic statement, and a show of support for our hard-working artists.
. . .
Dear County Commissioners,
As we reopen our museums, galleries, ArtWalk, and theater, music and dance venues, we urge that you stay the course on mask requirements and other safety protocols that are allowing us to restart our creative businesses and help reawaken our City of the Arts.
We feel strongly that if our local governments let their guard down and the infection rate spikes, our arts businesses will be forced to cancel all the plans we are scheduling through the end of the year and into the next.
Please continue reenforcing that mask wearing is still vitally important for us all.
(Signed)
John Collins, St. Petersburg Arts Alliance
Beth Gelman, Florida Holocaust Musem
Rui Farias, St. Petersburg Museum of History
Katie Deits, Florida CraftArt
Angeline Howell, Great Explorations Children’s Museum
Mark Aeling, Warehouse Arts District Association
Stephanie Gularte, American Stage Theatre Company
Duncan McClellan, Duncan McClellan Gallery
Jane Buckman, Imagine Museum
Kristen Shepherd, St. Petersburg Museum of Fine Arts
Paul Wilborn, Palladium Theater
Amy Miller, Bill Edwards Foundation for the Arts
Mark Cantrell, The Florida Orchestra
Eric Davis, freeFall Theatre
Matt Shapiro, Shapiro Gallery
Bob Devin Jones, Studio@620
Laura Hine, The James Museum
Howayda Affan, Morean Arts Center
Terri Lipsey-Scott, The Carter G. Woodson African American Museum
Lisa Marone, St. Petersburg City Theatre