dfaaca just won’t be the same
It seems like just yesterday, Pam Iorio was creating new departments such as the Department for Arts and Cultural Affairs. Oh wait - that was back in 2003 and ‘04. Yesterday she was buying Trump Tower. Today she was laying people off. Like the first hire for that department, Manager Paul Wilborn.
Alas, the Department for Arts and Cultural Affairs (DfAaCA - say it with me: de-FA-ah-ka) had a good run. Why, DfAaCA was responsible for…
uh…
Let’s see…
um…
I’m sure DfAaCA did something over the last 4 years…
Art… Art.. THINK… Oh yeah - The art museum.
They built a new Tampa Museum of Art. They moved the Tampa Museum of Art to an old courthouse. They moved the Tampa Museum to the Big Dice next to the Beer Can. Something might happen regarding the Tampa Museum of Art. Of course there is much more art than the cool stuff at the museum.
For instance, there are artsy gardens, such as Kiley Park. Oooops. The city allowed architecturally important Kiley Gardens to disintegrate, then chopped down all the trees. But I don’t think DfAaCA did that.
Here we go… I think DfAaCA created the photographer laureate program. I’m pretty sure DfAaCA helped to coordinate a downtown light show, best seen from a dark, scary, empty park shrouded in darkness* - look out for the muggers! And of course, the DfAaCA was responsible for the big Badonkadonk art festival.
Oh - and MUSIC! Of course. What the DfAaCA did for my favorite kinds of artists, musicians? Let’s see… There are still no local artists CD’s playing in the elevators at City Hall, or on the telephone hold music. I don’t recall any big DfAaCA music festival in town. And live music is damn near outlawed in Ybor City.
Oh - that reminds me - as of today, it has now been 365 days since I received my Ybor City NOISE METER WARNING. No more Lip-Syncing for me - tomorrow night we’re gonna use VOCALS! F#rget the cops! JGLB at Blue Shark Ybor - be there!
Where was I? Oh.. the end of DfAaCA. We’ll miss DfAaCA. Alot.
*Curtis Hixon Park still has more than half the lights out. 3 years and counting (but now we’re in a budget crunch - may as well forget about it).
Tags: arts, city
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June 29th, 2007 at 11:11 am
you raise some pretty good points. i know wilborn’s dept had a hand in a lot of things, but it didnt do much to promote its accomplishments as evidenced by the fact that no one can remember any.