Arts Culture in St. Pete Beach

Art of survival
Just what might state-ordered tax cuts mean for a St. Pete Beach art center? Artists paint and wait.

By Dwayne Steward
www.PointsSouth.net
The Poynter Institute
June 25, 2006

Nancy Doyal is looking at the big picture, which means the St. Pete Beach art czar might have to fire herself after 18 months on the job.

The Florida Legislature, reacting to the voter demands, is almost certain to order local governments to reduce property taxes. No one knows for sure which programs are most vulnerable to the cuts, but arts programs have historically been the first to suffer reductions in local funding.

“If you put the job of a policeman on one side and my job on another, which one are you going to chose?” said Doyal, 46, who runs the Don Vista Cultural Arts Center, the only arts center in St. Pete Beach.

“If I were the city manager, I might make the same decision,” she said.

The city of St. Pete Beach has spent two years trying to cultivate its vast art community. It renovated the Don Cultural Arts Center at 3300 Pass-a-Grille Way. It increased the number of venues for artists to sell their work. It hired Doyal to serve an official liaison between the city and local artists.

Now with the Legislature ordering tax cuts, St. Pete Beach artists worry their progress will stop if support from the city dries up.

The city manager is estimating a $650,000 cut across the board and has asked the St. Pete Beach Recreation Department to shave off $58,000 of its $270,000 budget in the next fiscal year, which begins October 1. As of now, the city has not finalized the cuts, but Doyal is hoping the arts center budget of $100,000 will remain mostly intact.

The city has become a “tremendous” asset, said Libit Jones, 52, former president of the Suntan Art Center, a nonprofit community group that has organized festivals and art markets in St. Pete Beach since 1963.

“(Suntan Art) can’t afford to pay anyone to sit at the center daily,” she said. “The fact that we are able to house our group there rent-free makes much of what we do possible.”

Four years ago the city invested nearly $600,000 to transform the cultural center into a welcoming space. That project was completed in 2006. Thanks to the investment, local artists have more space to showcase their work, Jones said.

Now, artists who sell their work through the arts center give 10 percent of their earnings to Suntan Art Center and 15 percent to the city as a commission. That’s a good deal compared with most commercial galleries, which often take a 50 percent commission.

“We’re trying to create a place in the city for emerging artists who can’t afford $200 booth fees and high commissions,” Doyal said.

Over the last year 15 artists have sold about $4,000 worth of work.

And yet, the Suntan Art Center cannot accommodate all the artists who wish to display their work.

“This place seems to attract artists. It’s extremely inspirational,” said Markus Lehtovirta, 38, a St. Pete Beach resident and a member of the board of directors for Suntan Art. Lehtovirta owns Island Time, an outdoor custom furniture business, and hires local artists to paint his creations.

Although a reduction in property taxes will help him personally, he worries that his business will suffer if the city cuts funding to the arts.

“I am one of the only artists on the beach whose sole source of income is from his artwork, and I have a family to think of,” he said. “If the city starts taking money from the arts and Suntan is affected, how will I showcase my work?”

This month after heated debate, the state Legislature passed a $31.6 billion tax cut, the largest in Florida’s history. The cut means a “rollback” of budgets for local governments. Voters will decide if more budget cuts are to come in January.

In the past fiscal year the city of St. Pete Beach has seen a return of $3,000 from Suntan and next year Doyal expects that number to double. All members will have to purchase $5 “rec card” on top of their $36 membership fee. A new community center, at 7701 Boca Ciega Drive, will host art markets every Saturday.

Local artists will pay $30 booth fees. Doyal expects the city will earn approximately $600 a week through these fees alone, not counting any sales commissions.

Still some artists are feeling the crunch, expecting the arts will be the first thing to go if more cuts are on the horizon.

“It is a little nerve-racking because we’re all just waiting right now to see what happens,” said Rita Gould, Suntan board member and 20-year Pass-a-Grille resident. “Suntan, however, has been going strong for over 40 years. We were here before these cuts and we’ll be here long after.”

Doyal, however, is hoping her artistic colleagues will paint in that silver lining.

“You can’t really compete with cutting other city services on an emotional level,” she said. “Even if my position goes away at least I’ve put down the foundation that I’m sure will carry on.”

Comfort and Joy

Front Porch Comforts
At home business Comfort and Joy, two women have found a family.

By Dwayne Steward
PointsSouth.net
The Poynter Institute
June 18, 2007

Angie Cheak sits on her sky-blue porch in Pass-a-Grille, sipping hot tea, gazing out over the Merry Pier horizon. Neighbors chatter in the background. She closes her eyes and the past 2 1/2 years drift across the back of her eyelids -- images of sorrow, pain, and resentment, but also hope -- all wrapped around a business and a community she helped create.

Cheak, 43, and her business partner, Mary Ann Kelley, 65, are the women who created Comfort and Joy, 808 Pass-a-Grille Way, an in-their-home boutique that sells homemade jams, cookies, banana nut bread, original artwork and Front Porch Produce -- organic fruits and vegetables from local farmers. Goods for sale spill from the house onto the porch and lawn.

A serendipitous gathering of women, known locally as the Front Porch Gals, also has found its way to the porch, making Comfort and Joy a second home to an extended neighborhood.

From the ashes of tragedy, this place has risen as the heart of Pass-a-Grille, a quiet enclave usually defined as just a stop on St. Pete Beach tour maps. And both Cheak and Kelley have had their own journeys, from small-town notoriety to successful businesswomen and back again. Now, as they prepare for their first vacation in 13 years, they have finally built something they know won't fall apart after they leave: a community.

"They know that we care," Kelley said. "Our customers are just as excited for us to finally get a break as we are. That's how we know it's time."

Kelley and Cheak had been business partners in Lexington, Ky. Kelley was the best friend of Cheak's mother, and when the women found they both loved floral design, they launched a mutual career. Their work became a household fixture when Kelley started a weekly television show, The Designing Woman, running in Kentucky and surrounding states for 500 episodes.

They first came to Pass-a-Grille about 13 years ago, from Lexington, Ky., for a two-week vacation, and never left. While staying at a small hotel on the beach, Kelley was put off by the dingy curtains and tasteless floral sheets. She sketched out a new design for the rooms and showed it to the motel's owners. The women were hired to redecorate the motel in return for a year's free lodging.

Their floral work caught the attention of managers at the prestigious Don CeSar Beach Resort. Kelley and Cheak were hired to run Gatsby's Floral and Gifts at the resort. They worked 200 weddings a year, sometimes for the rich and famous. At their peak, they were even asked by first lady Laura Bush to design and arrange flowers at the 2004 Republican National Convention in New York, where they "partied" with the likes of Donald Trump and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush.

The business partners bought a house in nearby Pasadena, and settled in.

But eight years later, the house burned down. Their homeowners insurance had lapsed without their knowledge, and the women lost everything.

They took shelter with relatives, but the fire was the beginning of a series of hardships. Cheak's grandmother died soon after from diabetes. Fifteen days later, her mother died on the operating table during a liver transplant. Emotionally exhausted, the women quit their jobs at the Don CeSar.

"After my mom died, my whole perception of life changed," Cheak said. "I didn't want to be 65 and look back only to see that I'd made a lot of money. I needed a change."

With nowhere to go, Kelley and Cheak prayed for a miracle. It came in the form of a former wedding client whose mother-in-law owned 808 Pass-a-Grille Way. She agreed to rent them the house, and urged them to open a shop, claiming the town was in dire need of their personalities and design talents. Thus Comfort and Joy was born.

And in little more than two years, it has become a fixture of life in Pass-a-Grille. "Locals" and tourists alike come by just to sit on the porch for a chat or to play with Remey and George, their white poodles.

"Comfort and Joy would be nothing without the people," said Darcey Phillips, a St. Petersburg resident and customer since the store opened. "Mary Ann and Angie are extremely talented and aren't afraid to support the work of other talent."

Local artists produce 70 percent of the artwork they sell.

In 2 1/2 years of operation, Cheak and Kelley have yet to put up a CLOSED sign; they leave Front Porch Produce open for customers even when they're not there. A drop box is by the door. "Just leave around what you think it'll cost," Cheak told a new customer. Prices range from $5 for their jams and jellies to $75 for some of the artwork.

Small businesses like Comfort and Joy are crucial to the bigger beach business picture, said Mark Neter, president of the Tampa Bay Beaches Chamber of Commerce.

"They generate tax dollars, they enhance the culture, and they offer more specialized choices to tourists and residents," he said. "They are a critical component of any business community or village."

The ladies' contribution doesn't end with their commercial venture. Local women started showing up on the porch for a chat, and staying for a long talk. The gatherings were organized into small weekly potlucks for women to gossip and share cooking tips, but soon grew into the Front Porch Gals.

"The (Front Porch) gals are a real asset to the community," said Diana Sames, 54, a Pass-a-Grille real estate agent. "Mary Ann and Angie are the souls of this town and they inspire others around them."

Their reach in the community was felt again last Thanksgiving, when Cheak hosted a dinner – what she expects to become an annual ritual. It was the first Thanksgiving after her mother died, and done to honor her tradition of Thanksgiving dinners that often included more than 50 guests every year.

"There was a buffet line from the kitchen all the way through the house and out to the porch," Cheak said. "None of the 46 people who came were my family, but it didn't matter."

The road they traveled to get to Pass-a-Grille was more like a rollercoaster, but after opening their small shop they have realized what’s important: making a family no matter where you end up.

"This place has become a part of who we are," Kelley said. "A part of our self goes home with people when they put their purchases in their bags."

After July Fourth, Comfort and Joy will be closing their doors until the fall. They are unsure when they willll reopen because of plans to renovate. It will be the first time Kelley and Cheak will have had a vacation since they arrived in Pass-a-Grille 13 years ago.

"These women work so hard," Phillips said. "I'm definitely going to miss them. I think we all will."

Cheak looks up from her mug of tea and glances at the ladies sitting around her. She catches the eye of Kelley, who sends her a knowing smile. While on their five-week road trip throughout the South, both women said, they willll miss Pass-a-Grille dearly, because of the sweat and tears they have invested and the community they helped build. Closing a business for three months can be risky, but they said they aren’t worried. Their "gals" and family will be there waiting for them when they return.