Gasparilla Festival of the Arts

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Gasparilla Festival of the Arts

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Mark your calendars for the 57th Annual Raymond James Gasparilla Festival of the Arts!
📆 March 6 - March 7, 2027

10/08/2026

Ready to take the next step toward a career as a professional artist? 🎨

The Emerging Artists Program is designed for artists who are serious about their craft and ready to move from student or dedicated hobbyist toward building a professional career.

The 15 selected artists will receive:
• A free booth space and 10’x10’ tent to present and sell their work to 30,000+ art lovers during the two-day festival
• Mentorship from established artists and arts administrators on preparing for a major outdoor festival, working with galleries and interior designers, tax concerns, and an introduction to grant writing
• $450 to help reimburse preparation expenses
• A chance at the $1,500 Emerging Artists Award, presented to one of the 15 selected artists

Traveling the country and selling at juried art festivals is one possible path for a professional artist. This program gives you a chance to experience what that path can look like.

Applications close November 29. Apply now: https://tinyurl.com/3mfnptu8

10/05/2026

Last week, OXH Gallery hosted OHX Salon Vol. 4. The fourth in a series of discussions pairing artists, usually from outside of Tampa, with prominent local voices. This occurrence featured a timely discussion coinciding with the opening of the gallery’s newest exhibition, REDO: siempre/përsëri. The conversation brought together Cuban artist Tatiana Mesa Paján, Albanian artist Odeta Xheka, photographer Dave Decker, and Gasparilla Arts Board President Alexis Mootoo, Ph.D.

In addition to leading our board, Alexis serves as an associate vice president and adjunct faculty member at the University of South Florida. Her doctoral research examined institutional policies affecting affirmative action and the experiences of Afro-descendant populations in the United States and Brazil.

Inspired by the exhibition’s exploration of memory, displacement, identity, inheritance, and transformation, the panelists and attendees considered how immigrant artists create art, and help shape culture more broadly, in the United States. The conversation examined how creative expression is influenced by the immigrant experience and by the competing pressures of cultural, governmental, and social institutions.

REDO: siempre/përsëri brings together the work of Mesa Paján and Xheka, two immigrant artists, women, and mothers living and working in Tampa. Through newly created works, they explore the traces left by migration, the memories carried within the body, and the continuing process of remaking one’s sense of self and home.

We are proud to see Alexis contributing her insight and scholarship to this important conversation and helping create space for a deeper understanding of the experiences that shape artists, their work, and our community.

The exhibition is on view at OXH Gallery through October 16 and OHX Gallery’s salon series is on-going. Follow the gallery on social media for more information about upcoming events: OXH Gallery - A Thing of Beauty📌

10/01/2026

Emerging Artists Program applications are now open! 🎨🙌

The Emerging Artists Program gives 15 artists the chance to present and sell their work at our two-day festival (March 6-7, 2027), where they’ll connect with 30,000+ art lovers.

Selected artists receive:
• A free booth space and 10'x10' tent
• Mentorship from established artists and arts administrators covering major outdoor festival preparation, galleries and interior designers, tax concerns, and an introduction to grant writing
• $450 to help reimburse preparation expenses
• A chance to receive the $1,500 Emerging Artists Award, presented to one of the 15 selected artists

Applications close November 29. Apply now: https://tinyurl.com/3mfnptu8

09/24/2026

We’re excited to welcome Tatiana Mesa Paján as the Emerging Artists Program Juror for the 2027 Raymond James Gasparilla Festival of the Arts! 🎨

Originally from Havana, Cuba, Tatiana currently serves as a professor in the Printmaking Department at the University of South Florida and teaches in the Art Department at Hillsborough College in Tampa. She is a graduate of Havana’s San Alejandro Academy and Instituto Superior de Arte (ISA) and earned her MFA from the University of South Florida.

Her work is held in collections including The John & Mable Ringling Museum of Art and the Cornell Fine Arts Museum at Rollins College, and her artistic practice and writing have been presented and published internationally.

A process-based artist, Tatiana describes herself as an “archaeologist of the present,” exploring relationships, memory and the poetics of everyday gestures through printmaking, performance, installation, artist books, ready-mades and poetic prose.

We’re honored to have her experience and perspective guiding the Emerging Artists Program for 2027. We can’t wait to see the artists she helps bring into the spotlight!

09/22/2026

Main Show applications may have closed, but there’s another exciting opportunity on the horizon for emerging artists! 🎨

Our Emerging Artists Program gives up-and-coming artists the opportunity to present and sell their work to a large audience in a professional setting, often for the very first time.

🗓️ Mark your calendars: Emerging Artists Program applications open October 1!

If you’re ready to take the next step in your artistic journey, we hope you’ll apply! Want to see if you’re eligible? Check out the EA page on our website to learn more. https://gasparillaarts.com/emerging-artist-program/

09/21/2026

Join us Friday, September 25, at OXH Gallery for Salon Vol. 4, featuring a conversation with Gasparilla Arts Board President Alexis Mootoo, artists Odeta Xheka and Tatiana Mesa Paján, and photographer and social justice advocate Dave Decker.

The conversation will explore how the past and present continually shape one another, how artists carry histories across places and cultures, and how Tampa can create space for unique and global perspectives to take root and flourish.

Reserve your spot: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/oxh-salon-vol-4-redo-siempreperseri-tickets-2001094203631?aff=ebemoffollowpublishemail&ref=eemail&utm_campaign=following_published_event&utm_content=follow_notification&utm_medium=email&utm_source=eventbrite

09/18/2026

Gasparilla Arts in the news! 📰🎨

We’re honored to be featured on WTVT FOX 13 in a segment highlighting our Making Space to Create program and our recent visit to Tomlin Middle School in Plant City, one of 20 Hillsborough County middle schools benefiting from the program.

Made possible through a grant from Community Foundation Tampa Bay, Making Space to Create is helping provide art supplies to local middle school art classrooms and create more opportunities for students to explore their creativity.

Watch the full segment here: https://www.fox13news.com/news/making-space-create

09/17/2026

🎨 Calling all student artists!

Hillsborough County Library Cooperative is celebrating the rich Spanish language, culture, and traditions reflected throughout our community with its annual Poster and Bookmark Contest!

Students in grades K–12 are invited to submit their artwork for a chance to be part of this celebration of creativity and culture.

📅 Entries are due October 15 by 5 p.m.

Learn more and enter: https://hcplc.org/HispanicHeritage

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Tampa, FL

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http://www.gasparillaarts.com/

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