Ask Margaret
R.W. of Brandon asked me in a 1999 issue
of Tampa Bay Magazine about the large,
brightly colored outdoor art work then located
near Tampa’s Curtis Hixon Park. This
piece called Visual Welcome has a very
personal meaning for me.
My husband Aaron and I had been
invited to meet with the art piece in
question’s world famous Israeli artist
Yaacov Agam in his Tampa hotel suite.
Agam, who lives in France, was here
in 1995 to oversee the installation of
his Visual Welcome work. We were
eager to go, as we greatly admired
him, and had enjoyed being with
him on his earlier visits here. As it
turned out, he was scheduled to
leave from Tampa International Airport
that morning. Even so, he was a very
gracious, charming, totally unhurried host,
who chatted profusely about his life, his
new and future art projects and how much
he admired the Tampa Bay area. He even
gave us one of his coffee table books, which
he artistically signed while holding four
different colored pens between his fingers.
He kept ignoring his assistant’s efforts
to extract him. We were able to depart,
only after promising to call to give him
our critiques on his new Visual Welcome.
We hurried to see it, since he had refused
to leave for the airport before our call.
The sculpture was tucked away near the
by Margaret Word Burnside
I’ve received numerous
questions concerning updates
and additional information
about previous “Ask Margaret”
questions. These relate to
Tampa Bay area public
outdoor art.
old Tampa Museum of Art and so difficult
to locate, that I finally called to tell him
we loved it, so that he would not miss his
plane. We really did love it once we found
it, and still do.
Visual Welcome was created especially
140 TAMPA BAY MAGAZINE | NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2018
for the city of Tampa under the guidance
of then-Mayor Sandy Freedman as part of
the art museum area’s renovations. It was
not Mr. Agam’s first large, outdoor art
piece that could be seen here at the time.
He had also created the multimedia
fountain formerly in front of the Tampa
Convention Center, which combined
changeable colors, lights and water.
The newer Visual Welcome’s tall, vertical
multicolored panels appear to change
as you view them from different angles
and in varying lighting. It is actually a
large-scale outdoor version of Agam’s
greatly sought after smaller works.
The paneled piece was eventually
dismantled and moved for storage and
freshening repairs in 2012, before being
installed three years later in its location
at Bayshore Boulevard and West Mason
Street near the Monte Carlo Towers in
Tampa, where it can be admired today.
In our July/August 2002 issue, N.B. of
Tarpon Springs questioned the whereabouts
of Clearwater’s two missing statues that were
no longer standing guard on the western end
of Cleveland Street at the entrance to the old
bridge and Memorial Causeway leading to
Clearwater Beach.
The two exquisitely detailed, 7-foot-tall
copper statues by E.M. Viquesney of
Indiana had been donated to the City of
Clearwater by American Legion Post 7 and
If you have any questions about the
people, places or things in the Tampa
Bay area, please send them to
“Ask Margaret” at Tampa Bay Magazine,
2531 Landmark Drive, Suite 101,
Clearwater, Florida 33761.
We regret that not all questions
can be answered.