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Fall Arts Show's Future May Be Hard To Picture

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By GEORGE WILKENS, The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 18, 2008

NEW TAMPA - For years, the New Tampa Community Council has sought to create a fall fundraiser that can match its popular and financially successful spring food festival, the Taste of New Tampa.

The nonprofit organization's latest effort, the New Tampa Arts Festival, has been met with a lukewarm response from artists and the public, despite large cash awards to winners of the juried event.

The November 2006 inaugural event in the parking lot of the Palm Lake at Tampa Palms office building drew 46 artists and an estimated 2,000 to 3,000 people during its two-day run.

November 2007's show at Palm Lake - again with prize money totaling $9,500 - attracted slightly larger numbers: 75 artists and an estimated 3,500 people.

Now - if there is to be a third annual show - organizers must find another New Tampa location.

"We can't go back to Palm Lake, so we need another site," said community council president Frank Margarella. Palm Lake management cited insurance concerns in declining to host the arts festival for a third year, Margarella said.

Given the limited success of the festival, the board of the community council is pondering its future.

"There's been some concern expressed by the board that it's cost us several thousand dollars each year," Margarella said after February's directors meeting. "We're not getting a lot of artists, and we don't know where it's going to go."

Artists pay entry fees, but the event is free to the public. The Arts Council of Hillsborough County gives $1,000 toward each of the festivals.

"But we're funding the deficit," Margarella said.

The festival cost the community council $4,000 the first year and slightly more in 2007, he said.

"There was some grumbling on the board - really from just a couple of people - who said: 'Is this going to be a viable event? We need more help from the art community in our area,' which I agree with," Margarella said.

Still, the organization is exploring alternate sites, from churches to parks.

NTCC fundraisers over the years - including an Oktoberfest and fun run - never came close to achieving the success of the Taste of New Tampa. The 2007 Taste of New Tampa drew about 8,000 people and netted $35,000 for parent-teacher groups at New Tampa and Wesley Chapel public schools.

The council's first food fest, held two years after the organization's 1992 founding, netted $2,600, recalled Margarella, a longtime council officer.

Reporter George Wilkens can be reached at gwilkens@tampatrib .com.

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