40 Years of the
Visual Arts in Tampa Bay
A Personal Reflection (1975-2015)
By R. Lynn Whitelaw
The Leepa-Rattner Museum of Art at St. Petersburg College is in Tarpon Springs.
When I moved here, there were no personal
computers, worldwide web, cell phones,
GPS, cable TV or so many other services and
technologies that we take for granted today.
Also, there were no Bucs, Rays or Lightning;
no Interstate 75 from Tampa to Naples or
I-275 completed through Pinellas; there was
no Straz Center or Ruth Eckerd Hall, and even
the Mahaffey Theater bore little resemblance
to what it is today.
I have lived in the Tampa Bay area for just over 40 years. During that
time, I have been both a witness and a participant in the growth of
the visual arts in our area. My research and reflection on the past 40
years has felt like the unfurling of a richly woven tapestry.
In 1975, my first professional job out of graduate school was at
Hillsborough Community College in Tampa. I did not grow up in this
area; and my only familiarity with it was when my Canadian relatives
would come down for stays at Clearwater Beach, and we would go to
dinner at the Kapok Tree restaurant, somewhere out in the country. My
impression of Tampa was that, outside of having a great airport, it was
the blue collar town you had to cross to get to the beach communities of
Pinellas County. The coastal communities were about beaches, tourists,
and sponges; and the southern towns of the Tampa Bay area, down to
Sarasota, were just wealthier versions of the same.
52 TAMPA BAY MAGAZINE MARCH/APRIL 2016