‘Catalyst Sessions’ recap: Barbara St. Clair of Creative Pinellas

Thursday evening on The Catalyst Sessions, Creative Pinellas executive director Barbara St. Clair talked about the Pinellas Arts Relief Fund, a collaborative effort between her organization, the St. Petersburg Arts Alliance and the Pinellas Community Foundation.

The fund began during a brainstorming session Monday, March 16; by the end of the week, an advisory board, including representatives from numerous area arts business, had been formed and established application guidelines. “We started reaching out to the community, and the community stepped up amazingly and started funding us,” St. Clair said. “We went from 0 to about $112,000, which is where we are now.’

The initial disbursement of relief grants, $55,000 began this week.

“We are very committed, though, to continuing the fundraising effort because the need is so great,” St. Clair said. “We were not able to approve grants for everyone who’s applied; we still have a list of people we feel that would benefit tremendously from being able to get some of these funds.”

It’s an ongoing effort, she stressed, helping artists – in all disciplines – and small arts organizations in their time of great financial need. Donations are being accepted here.

“Artists make their living performing, or playing music, or selling their work. And when you cancel performances, and cancel art walks, and cancel art fairs, that’s people’s livelihood.”

Among those who provide the initial wave of funding, she added, “I think there was a really deep understanding that it’s a vulnerable population, as many of the working people are in our county.

“And our job” – Creative Pinellas, the St. Petersburg Arts Alliance and the Pinellas Community Foundation – “is to support the arts community. So that’s where our energy was for this fund. Artists are the same as everybody else as far as, how this is impacting them.”

Tonight (Friday, April 10) on The Catalyst Sessions: Artist Carrie Jadus.

The program streams live, via Facebook Live, weeknights at 7.