When Hurricane Irma hit Pinellas County, Fla., in 2017, Barbara St.Clair and her team at Creative Pinellas didn't know what to do.
"Creative Pinellas didn't know what it was or what it was supposed to do," St.Clair tells Creative Loafing.
"So the board went around to the community, and the community said, 'We want grants, we want workshops, and we want a really good art website.' So St.Clair spent her first 90 days at Creative Pinellas shaping these community needs into a brand identity."
Since then, the arts agency has grown from a staff of 1.5 independent contractors to six full-time employees, bringing art to places like the Florida Botanical Gardens, the Pinellas Trail, and the St.
Petersburg International Airport, among others.
St.Clair tells the Tampa Bay Times that the group's success can be attributed to its responsiveness to community needs.
For example, when the Professional Association of Visual Artists had a Christmas show every year at the Gulf Coast Art Museum, which was closed after Irma, the group asked if Creative Pinellas would let them have their show in the gallery.
"So after that, we talked to the County and said, 'If you allow, we can program the Read the Entire Article
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Co-founders William Mann and David Mravyan devised the Sensimat during a mandatory project for their MBA at the Richard Ivey School of Business in Canada. Sensimat is a device that helps manage and assess pressure among wheelchair users.