The Morean Arts Center, the Chihuly Collection and Morean Center for Clay announce gallery openings, sales of gifts made by local artists, and opportunities to meet the makers.
With an exuberant theme of ‘Spread JOY’ The Morean Arts Center will open their annual holiday member’s show and sale on Saturday, November 14. The festooned galleries at 719 Central Avenue will feature locally made art and gifts that allow visitors to peruse great art while checking off gifts for every age and interest. Collectors can expect to find art by their favorite local creators and enjoy the opportunity to discover amazing new talent too.
Another gallery is dedicated to celebrating life here in Tampa Bay with a curated selection of photographs from the One Day Tampa Bay 2020 photo challenge. The photographers include professional and amateur shutterbugs who committed to taking photos on a single 24-hour day in September. Participants were provided with COVID safety procedures and identification badges and encouraged to explore the community with an unflinching eye. The inspiring exhibition features images both breathtaking in beauty and stark in realism. Many of the photographers offer prints for sale if you find something that brings you JOY or moves you.
The children’s gallery showcases the insightful art of Pinellas County High School artists who tackled the theme of ‘What the World Needs Now’ in art and words. The Morean Arts Center is open from 10 am to 5 pm Monday thru Saturday and from 12 noon to 5 pm on Sundays for the month of November. For the exhibition openings on Saturday, November 14th, they will extend hours into the evening and close at 9 pm.
Across the street at the Chihuly Collection the small gallery will feature art made by Veterans in the Morean’s Operation: Art of Valor programs offering experiences in glass and photographic arts. The exhibition opens on Veterans Day, Wednesday, November 11 and the museum hours are from 10 am to 5 pm Mondays thru Saturdays and from 12 noon to 5 pm on Sundays.
At the Morean Center for Clay newly promoted Kodi Thompson who was an Artist-in-Resident and then worked at the Morean Arts Center as an assistant curator before taking the helm as the Manager of the Morean Center for Clay will be showcasing his ‘XYZ’ urban extrusions work in the front gallery. The exhibit features a body of work that resulted from clay being extruded through steel the artist plasma cut with shapes and compositions from two-dimensional inspirations including skateboarding, graffiti and architecture. “The ambiguous and cryptic nature of this work invites viewers to decode for themselves. References to my past are disguised in plain view from the extruding process, becoming a completely new and infinite set of forms to be interpreted,” said Thompson. The exhibit is open to the public thru November from 10 am to 5 pm on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays. For the exhibition opening on Saturday, November 14th, the Center for Clay will remain open until 8 pm.
Located in the heart of the warehouse district at 420 22nd Street South in St. Petersburg, the Morean Center for Clay is the largest operating clay studio in the Southeast. The facility boasts over 20 kilns ranging from shiny electric kilns to the expansive signature Anagama kiln that attracts ceramicist from around the world. Dating to circa 1926 the Historic Seaboard Freight Depot is also home to over 50 professional ceramic artists.
Mark your calendars for Saturday, December 5 when the Morean Center for Clay celebrates the Joy of Clay with a Meet the Maker’s celebration in the gardens and across the outdoor kiln pads of the facility. Functional pieces, clay jewelry and sculpture will be available for purchase from the working artists. Visitors can also plan on children’s holiday ornament making opportunities and activities, kiln unloading, artist demos, raku firings, and hand-built clay opportunities for all ages. FREE to the public.
Mask wearing and COVID guidelines recommended by the CDC and local governance will be enforced at all galleries and events hosted at the Morean Arts Center, the Chihuly Collection and Morean Center for Clay.