Imagine Museum enters the world of comic and anime art

“Wolverine,” illustration by Marius Wiget.

St. Petersburg’s six-year-old Imagine Museum has lately been attracting visitors in record numbers. According to Executive Director David Flatt, attendance is up 25 percent for the first half of this year – and that’s following an already record-breaking 2023.

One of the city’s three privately-owned art museums, the Imagine includes a vast sampling of philanthropist, artist and humanitarian Trish Duggan’s collection of contemporary glass art, by many of the movement’s most renowned global creatives. Visiting exhibitions are rotated regularly.

Since signing on in the spring of ’23, Flatt has instigated a series of special events, including art, antique and goods markets, artist workshops, musical performances and even comedy nights.

Opening Friday, Graphic Worlds: Exploring Comic and Anime Art features more than 50 works from dozens of artists, including paintings, drawings, illustrations, comic and Japanese anime art, sculpture and, yes, glass art.

“Gift of Gab,” glass art by Dan Dailey.

The logical reader may wonder what markets, music, comedy and comic books have to do with museum-caliber art glass creations. “Over the past year and a half,” Flatt explains, “I’ve tried to reach out to new audiences, and bring in new genres, to try to get more people to come in to the museum.”

And, he says, it’s working. “The idea is, say you come in for a music night, or a market night, and with your price of admission you have the opportunity to tour the museum as well.”

As art forms, they’re not so dissimilar, he stresses. Flatt says Graphic Worlds invites visitors to “engage deeply with visual storytelling” in several forms and in differing dimensions.

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He and Duggan curated the exhibition together. “I’ve always had an interest in anime and comic book art,” Flatt says, “and I knew there were a lot of people interested as well.

“And Trish’s collection, I knew, had a lot of pieces that would match pretty well for this type of exhibition. Because it’s a mixture of glass art, paintings and drawings – we have a lot of artists that are involved with comic books, and anime as well, and they kind of complement each other.”

“Wildflowers Sun,” mixed media by Ora Haze.

While glass and metal sculptures by Rick Allen – depicting spaceships and other futuristic imagery, were already featured in their own Imagine gallery. Florida glass artists Jack Alden, Charlyn Reynolds, Lindsey Boux and Chuck Boux were among those who answered Flatt’s Call to Artists.

Pieces by glass legend Dan Dailey, Flatt insists, “really do represent a comic book-type look. It’s whimsical and figurative – it matches not only the style of comic cooks, but also the colors.”

A collaboration between the Imagine Museum, Metrocon and the Tampa Bay Comic Convention, Graphic Worlds launches with a 5 to 8 p.m. reception Friday. On the menu: A cellist performing classic anime scores, appearances by participating artists, a celebrity cosplayer, and Japanese specialty food and beverages.

Flatt perfected this type of crossover by bringing art and art events at the automobile and factory museums where he’d worked as a director before coming to St. Petersburg.

“I started doing art fairs, and antique markets … that’s really why I do this, because I’ve proven that it works at other museums. And I know that it does bring in a different demographic. We love to have the snowbirds here, but also when you get to this time of year, traditionally it’s the time when attendance will start to drop off for Imagine Museum.

“Not this year! We’re just as booked now as we were earlier in the year.”

He and Duggan are convinced that once people get a good look at top-tier glass art, they’ll become instant fans. “A lot of people will come for an event, and they really didn’t know that the museum was about,” Flatt says. “Or they’d never really been exposed to glass art.

“It is a fine art, but a lot of people don’t know it as well as, say painting or illustration.”

Advance registration is recommended. Imagine Museum website

Performing Tuesday: The folk-fusion band Mai Sweet Basil.

“Blackforge,” illustration by Stephen Walker.