Arts District, a former industrial
part of town where dozens of small
working artist have studios and
galleries. Visit this district during
Saturday Art Walk. The Morean
Center for Clay at the Historic Train
Station and the Deuces Live Main
Street District, home to an historic
African-American community, are
located close by.
FILMMAKING IN THE
SUNSHINE CITY
Local and international fi lmmakers
are also celebrated as part of the
city’s arts scene. Sponsored by the
St. Petersburg-Clearwater Film
Society, The Sunshine Film Festival
is a three-day extravaganza of
independent fi lm from around the
world, combined with workshops
where industry professionals offer
advice to aspiring local fi lmmakers.
Now in its 12th year, the festival
is “very well organized and a
wonderful expression of the arts
culture in Tampa Bay,” says local
screenwriter and musician Alan
Armstrong. “It’s art at its fi nest.”
Since 2015, St. Petersburg has
been the headquarters for BLUE
Ocean, sponsors of the BLUE
Ocean Film Festival, which is held
in alternating years in either St.
Petersburg or the principality of
Monaco on the French Rivera. The
fi lm festival is one of the largest
marine environmental fi lm festivals
in the world. The public is invited
to attend both workshops and
award-winning documentaries on
the state of the world’s oceans
and marine life. According to fi lm
organizers, BLUE is on a mission
to use “fi lm and visual media to
raise awareness and inspire ocean
stewardship around the globe.”
MUSIC: FROM JAZZ
TO CLASSICAL
The local music scene is also
fl ourishing, providing a platform
for everything from jazz, blues and
rock’ n roll to opera, classical and
Broadway pop.
The Florida Orchestra fi rst
performed in 1968 and today, 50
years later, the orchestra is “the
premier and largest orchestra
in Florida,” says Kelly Smith,
the orchestra’s public relations
director. Headquartered in St.
Petersburg, the Florida Orchestra
also performs in nearby cities
of Clearwater and Tampa, as
well as at community venues
ranging from parks, museums,
shopping malls, craft breweries,
hospitals and schools. Under the
leadership of British-born Music
Director Michael Francis, the
orchestra attracts some of the best
musicians in the country, trained
at prestigious schools including
Juilliard, Curtis and Eastman.
Jazz and the blues have long
found a home in St. Petersburg,
dating back to the 1920s when
legendary artists like Louis
Armstrong, Fatso Domino, Duke
Ellington and Nat King Cole
performed at the Manhattan
Casino, a renowned dance and
music hall in the city’s historic
African American community.
Today, locals listen to jazz at
venues ranging from outdoor
concerts to intimate venues like
the Palladium Theater Side Door.
The annual St. Petersburg Jazz
Festival, now in its 10th year,
draws local, state and national jazz
performing artists to the Palladium
for fi ve evenings of great jazz in an
intimate concert setting.
BLUE Ocean
Film Festival
The Florida
Orchestra
22 'BURGLIFE | Living, Working and Playing in St. Petersburg, FL