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St. Petersburg Arts Alliance forms a ‘transition team’
The St. Petersburg Arts Alliance has maintained a relatively low profile since the May departure of executive director Terry Marks, which in turn followed the loss, in January, of longtime SHINE Mural Festival director Jenee Priebe.
The nonprofit’s Board of Directors announced today that it was forming a “transition team,” to pilot the ship as the Arts Alliance, and the city’s art community, move forward.
It’s not a reorganization so much as an assurance to the public that the longtime arts support organization, which sponsors and supports artists by distributing grant and sponsorship monies, is still a going concern. “The St. Petersburg Arts Alliance (SPAA) remains hard at work focused on our vital arts and cultural community,” the prepared statement read.
Board members, led by Terry Brett, will lead the charge alongside an outside consulting firm, with “advisory contributions” from former Chair Helen Hansen French.
Also serving in an advisory capacity will be John Collins, who founded the SPAA and whose retirement in 2021 led to the recruitment of Marks as his replacement.
Collins and his wife Mary Ellen moved to Annapolis, Maryland in January.
A timeline for hiring a new executive director has not been established; according to the SPAA board, the “transition team” will spearhead the search “which is set to occur before the end of the year.” The application process has thus far not been opened.
Chief Operating Officer Charlene Harrison and her staff are overseeing day-to-day operations, and will operate the 11th annual SHINE Mural Festival in October. Unlike previous iterations of the popular art event, this one will include only bay area-based muralists.
“Like a lot of nonprofits, 2024 was a difficult year for us, financially,” the board’s Ryan Griffin told the Catalyst in April. “Many of those challenges, in addition to funding cuts at the state and federal levels, were a result of the hurricanes. As a result, we looked at our programming for the upcoming year and helping our local artists that were feeling the same pressures.”
Priebe, who directed SHINE from 2018 through 2024, is working with SPAA as an editor on the upcoming 10th anniversary book.
Hal FREEDMAN
June 11, 2025at12:09 am
Why not consider Jenee Priebe for interim ED? She is.a known quantity. You couldn’t have anyone better running SHINE. As an aside, SHINE is almost redundant this year, given the 13 new murals at The Dalí Museum…a show that runs through October 26.
Andre pettifor
June 10, 2025at8:54 am
A funeral home director leading a transition Team. You can’t make this up.