Whether we’re pitching Super Bowls, talking mass transit or planning trade missions, it’s obvious that a regional approach best serves this Tampa Bay market. Parochialism and rivalry are antithetical to this area’s best interest. This applies no less to the arts.
It was, thus, encouraging to see the first Regional Arts Summit that was held last week at the St. Petersburg Hilton. The turnout, which included major museum directors, executives from performing arts organizations and directors of arts alliances, was impressive.
Collaboration–from fund-raising to brand marketing to transportation synergy–is critical for the arts, which is especially vulnerable to recessions and slow recoveries. And the arts, as we well know, create economic ripples that benefit the larger community.
If any major endeavor requires a vision and a collective voice it is the arts. Nothing less than a summit of key players was the right approach–and the right signal to regional interests across the board.