The cultural bridge between Tampa and St. Petersburg will be dramatically shortened when a new concept art from the University of South Florida debuts at The Factory St. Pete in the fall.
Generator: The USF Museum of Contemporary Art will occupy 3,100 square feet of serviced and redeveloped space on the former Industrial Warehouse Campus in the Warehouse Arts District.
It’s an extension of the USF Museum of Contemporary Art and Graphicstudio in Tampa, said Margaret Miller, director of the college’s Institute for Research in Art, which includes the museum and Graphicstudio. The latter, a workspace for the limited-edition print and sculpture multiples, would be “hard to move,” Miller said.
“What I really wanted was something where I could do temporary settlement and education programs that reach our campus there, giving our students opportunities, but also reaching the community of Saint -Petersburg. I have many friends in St. Pete who support the museum.
Among them are the curator Katherine Pill of the Museum of Fine Arts in Saint Petersburg and the executive director of the Dali Museum, Hank Hine, who was once the director of the Graphicstudio.
The Downtown Partnership, the City of St. Petersburg and the architectural firm Behar Peterancz (co-owners of The Factory) contributed to the new project, which will focus primarily on digital and cinematic instillations.
“There are people in St. Petersburg who are so deeply interested in the dynamics of a creative community and what that can bring – not only economically, but in terms of local community engagement,” said said Miller.
“And building through the arts a sense of place, a sense of ‘we really have something special going on here in this environment’.”
The existing Museum of Contemporary Art, at 3821 USF Holly Drive, Tampa, comprises just 5,000 square feet of gallery space.
Generator, Miller said, is an extension, not just an extension. “We will only program for this space. And I’m not saying that I won’t link them and maybe commission a new work for St. Petersburg, but often it will be its own thing.
The ongoing consolidation of all USF campuses has been a factor in bringing Generator across the bay, as well as St. Pete’s growing reputation as a “City of the Arts”, has said Miller.
“Vertical Migration”, a computer-generated siphonophore and animated film by SuperFlex, projected on the United Nations building in New York, 2021. Photo: superflex.net.
The museum is currently in talks with Danish collective SuperFlex to bring its innovative environmental-themed “vertical migration” installations to Tampa – and hopefully St. Pete.
“The idea is to bring artists in and pitch them, and then see what kind of projects will emerge and grow in the community,” Miller said.
“That’s the kind of stuff we’re looking at: who can we bring in to catalyze interest from different neighborhoods in this area? And how can we involve young artists – and the public – in our programs? »
The public is invited to the Generator Groundbreaking Ceremony at 1:30 p.m. Sunday (February 20) at 2622 Fairfield Ave. South, Building 8.
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