Thanks for tuning into Art in Your Ear.

We are a weekly interview program, chatting with local, regional, national, and supersonic creative makers of things and ideas. We have a freeform playlist. To get in touch, please email [email protected].

Thank you to Creative Loafing for giving Art in Your Ear a Best of the Bay Award!
I also want to thank WMNF for this very meaningful recognition ~

This week:

Countdown Improv Festival with Kelly Buttermore & Kevin Milkaski

Improv invades Ybor City in August. The Countdown Improv Fest has grown into the country’s biggest improv festival. Spanning five days – Wednesday August 7 – Sunday August 11 – it showcases more than 100 solo, duo, or triple acts. One of the founders, Kelly Buttermore, and one of the artists, Kevin Milkaski, talked about their love of improv, and dove into the way it all works.

Kelly explained that she loves the small improv troupes, and featuring them in the fest makes sense artistically and financially.

Improv as an art form has made its way off stage into corporate training sessions, therapeutic modalities, and the studios of WMNF. The beating heart though is onstage performances, usually very funny, surprising, and topical.

The Improv fest also includes workshops that both performers and festival goers can attend.  Long time listeners of Art in Your Ear will recognize that every year I long to do improv, and then every year I fail to do so. WILL THIS BE THE YEAR THAT CHANGES?????

Previous shows  ~
Chris Sellen’s Print Mode & Leslie Neumann’s Wetlands in Transition Shows

Two interviews today! We will start with a stealth print show at Art at 400, curated by artist Chris Sellen.

Then we chat with artist Leslie Neumann, whose work is up at Dunedin Fine Art Center. Her gorgeous encaustic paintings capture Florida like no one else can.

Trish Parry & Will Glenn in to talk about the Governor’s targeting of Tampa Fringe.

Florida’s governor blamed his cutting of all state grants to arts and cultural programs on a single play at this year’s Tampa Fringe, calling the theater festivals ‘sexual’.

Tempus Projects ~ Younger Than the Sun

Journalist Gabrielle Russon & Creative Pinellas Executive Director Margaret Murray about Arts Funding Cut

Florida Governor DeSantis zeroed all arts & cultural spending out of the state budget, just two weeks before the new budget year.

What’s the impact? What was the point when there is an estimated $17 Billion surplus? What can be done?

You can click here to find your state representative; here to find your state senator, and here to contact the Governor’s office.

Here are two articles written by our guests:

Gov. DeSantis’ vetoes anger the arts community as state funding gets wiped out

Historic Veto Eliminates Arts Funding for Pinellas County

BLISS & FRINGE

We kick off the show chatting with curator/artist Chad Mize about BLISS, opening at The Factory. Then artists from the Tampa Fringe Festival will be in – always great theater chat. Please tune in!

 

American Stages Hedwig & the Angry Inch

Thanks to Matthew McGloin and Jana Henson of American Stage’s Hedwig for coming on the air!

 

The Smuggler, at Jobsite Theater

David Jenkins (Director) and Giles Davies (incredible performance!), along with playwright Ronan Noone on the phone, came in to talk about the one-man show, The Smuggler.

 ~  Author Peter Kageyama with
Midnight Climax

Peter returns with his private detective, Kats Takemoto, and 1950s San Francisco on the cusp of change.
We chatted about creating a sense of place, using true events (seriously, the CIA did operate brothels in San Francisco and NYC so they could test psychedelic drugs on unsuspecting johns!), and writing writing writing.

Tropical Heatwave Friday!

Jake-ann Jones of the Pinellas Diaspora Arts Project is going to call in and chat for a bit about Saturday’s Tampa Bay Chalk Festival.

THEN! For Tropical Heatwave, Sam Williams III comes in to talk about (and play a few songs)
Black Valley Moon  (7-7:45pm in the freaking BALLROOM!) That guitar run might also be familiar from Down By Law, and other bands.

You can get more info about Tropical Heatwave here. Get your tickets today before 4pm & save $!

 

 

freeFall Theatre & Tampa City Ballet

We will be chatting with Erica Sutherlin, Fahnlohnee Reeves, Hillary Scales and Milton Lyles
(and maybe Matthew McGee) about freeFall Theatre’s Nollywood Dreams. So much to talk about!

Then we get to chat with The Tampa City Ballet about their show opening in May at the Straz Center, If I Cry. This dance explores Frida Kahlo’s interior life through her diaries, looking at her world in a surreal, moving way. Paula Nunez, Artistic Director and Founder of TCB; Shelby Russ  & Carissa Smith (2 of the TCB dancers); and Donna Ray, Executive Director of TCB. This is when I wish I had a 2 hour show!

Exit Strategy, with Frank Strunk III & David Williams 

20+ years ago they collaborated, and now as Frank’s final show as an area resident, they’re doing it one more time.

Fresh Squeezed at The Morean Art Center

Morean Arts Center Curator Amanda Cooper, and two of the six participating artists come on the show to chat about the work.

Alexis Childress works in collage, and Camilla Byrd paints. Their work is glorious! (not sure what is wrong with the media center – their work is not at all fuzzy!)

Strength of Character

The Strength of Character exhibit, with works by Kathleen & David Bly (who go by Jib Projects), Edgar Sanchez Cumbas, and Kendra Frorup. Curated by our guest, Katherine Gibson. We are going to talk about this show, and also curation. I have QUESTIONS!

 

Stageworks ‘The Immigrant’

 Great conversation about memory, strangers, and who we are within (and without) our community. 

Previous shows:

Kelly O’Dell & Raven Skyriver at the Duncan  McClellan Gallery:
then Robin O’Dell & Wendy Leigh from the Florida Museum of Photographic Arts.

Glass artists Kelly O’Dell  and Raven Skyriver approach nature in very different ways, playing with light, weight (is heft a better word?), and texture. Their collaborative and solo pieces are meditative and lovely.  The pair will appear at the Duncan McClennan Gallery during their dual exhibition opening on Saturday,

Saturday March 9, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., followed by demonstrations in the Gallery’s hot shop between 5 and 9:00 p.m.
Sunday, March 10, from 12 to 4 p.m. with lectures and additional hot shop demonstrations.

FMoPA opened to much excitement in its new Ybor space last year. A lot of the excitement centered around the art veterans picked to run the space, Robin O’Dell and Wendy Leigh. So much to talk about!

Mark Mitchell at Jim Woodfield’s Gallery with True Colors

Surreal pop art – perfectly attuned to our times. 

Fund Drive! AiYE is raising $2,200 on 2/23/24
Update, thank YOU lovely people. We are very close to our goal, needing only a couple $100. xoxoxo

Past Shows:

Christopher Still & The Great State of Florida  

Christopher Still joins us to chat about The Great State of Florida, his permanent work at the Heritage Museum in Tarpon Springs. His exquisite work, underpinned by copious research, explores Florida, diving underwater and soaring overhead.

Dr Gordon Gilbert  St Petersburg Celebration of the Arts 

Andrea Assaf The Gaza Monologues Teach In
American Stage The Chinese Lady

Carmada!

Radio Theatre at Studio @ 620

Join in as we chat with Bonnie Agan about Radio Theatre and then Ed Lehmann about improv theater at the radio station!

Artist Nathan Beard & SPAACES

Founder Marianne Chapel Junker

Artist Nathan Beard and SPAACES founder Marianne Chapel Junker in to talk about contemporary cutting edge work here on the edge of the world.

FROM FAR EAST TO WEST: THE CHINESE AMERICAN FRONTIER

Curator Emily Kapes put together an amazing show looking at the role of Chinese immigrants and Chinese Americans in the early West, onward to today. Really interesting show and lots to talk about.

 

Jorge Vidal, Nick Reale, & Florida Craft Art

The Florida Craft Art Festival sprawls around downtown St. Pete this weekend. Jorge Vidal took over the leadership of Florida Craft Art earlier this year, and we are going to chat about all of the related things. Nick Reale is an amazing woodturner.

B.A.S.K. Because Art Should Kill

& American Stage – Indecent

Construct Destruct Restruct ~ Frank Strunk

Robert Margouleff & Jade Dellinger

Revolutionary producer Bob Margouleff and author and curator Jade Dellinger join us to talk about Bob’s impact on music. TONTO Expanding Head  Band (done after producing an Edie Sedgewick movie!!!) led to working with Stevie Wonder on his most creative set of music in the 1970s, which led to many other bands, which led to DEVO.

There is a show at the Bob Rauschenberg Gallery devoted to DEVO’s 50 years of existence, The Beginning Was the End. You can listen back to this fascinating man!

Arts2Action & VETERAN COMMUNITY OPEN MIC CELEBRATION

Art2Action’s Artistic Director Andrea Assaf and playwright Linda Parris-Bailey will be in to talk about the Veteran Community Open Mic and so much more.

Dr. Julie Buckner Armstrong & Learning from Birmingham

Happy to welcome Julie back to Art in Your Ear. ‘As goes Birmingham, so the nation goes.’ the Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth told Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Her new book, Learning from Birmingham, explores all the crossroads of history, personal and public; civil rights and alt rights; what we see and what we miss. If you want a preview of what we are going to chat about, here are a few posts she did while she was researching Birmingham.  Holley’s art, Civil Rights Trail, and Bombingham. Julie will be chatting with Eric Deggans at Tombolo Books on Wednesday, September 6. Her birthday!

We also will be speaking with Hillsborough County Commissioner Pat Kemp about the current proposal to reallocate Arts Council funding, possibly defunding a chunk of the arts and artists in the county. There is a petition you can sign, and we are going to find out how people can address this.

In Their Own Words – Group art show at HCC

Countdown Improv Fest

Kelly Buttermore and Matt Walker will be in to talk about this unusual and fun fest. We will be asking listener suggestions for improv! You can write in at [email protected] or text in to 813.433.0885 xo

Author Mark Leib ~ Image breaker

What happens when you question every single thing you believe – or don’t believe – in?

 

 Parachute Gallery’s Summer School

Jessica Todd and Victoria Alvarez come in to talk about banned books, drag queens, and pushing back.

Tempus Projects’
Like two Sealed copies of Expansions

𝕋𝔼𝕄ℙ𝕌𝕊 ℙℝ𝕆𝕁𝔼ℂ𝕋𝕊 is excited to announce the opening of 𝗟𝗜𝗞𝗘 𝗧𝗪𝗢 𝗦𝗘𝗔𝗟𝗘𝗗 𝗖𝗢𝗣𝗜𝗘𝗦 𝗢𝗙 𝗘𝗫𝗣𝗔𝗡𝗦𝗜𝗢𝗡𝗦, a group exhibition that showcases mixtapes from artists such as Hildebrando Bellizzio, Neil Bender, Ryan Berg, Joe Griffith, Gigi Lage, Jenn Ryann Miller, Justin Myers, Justin Nelson, Ashley Niven, Kym O’Donnell, Anthony Record, Emiliano Settecasi, Ryann Slauson, Brian Taylor, Kay Three, Matthew Drennan Wicks and more.
The exhibition serves as a tribute to the art of mixtapes and their cultural significance. The artists have created a series of works that delve into the mixtape as an object and an analog format for sharing music and self-expression. The exhibit highlights various mixtape components such as the cassette, jcard, case, and curated playlist.