SHINE® Mural Festival ’22 Brings Vibrant Art

To the Streets of St. Pete

The spotlight is on St. Pete as the SHINE® St. Petersburg Mural Festival returns for its eighth year this fall. The 2022 festival takes place October 14–23 and features local, national, and international artists who will add new murals to the more than one hundred existing SHINE murals in the St. Petersburg art districts and surrounding neighborhoods. The St. Petersburg Arts Alliance, with help from founding sponsor The City of St. Petersburg and additional sponsors, commissions highly respected artists from around the globe to participate in the curated event, where they are invited to turn public spaces and blank walls into dynamic displays of creative expression.

Kicking off this year’s festival is The CARMADA ’22 Street Carnival, on Saturday, October 15^th from 10 am to 3 pm in Child’s Park, 4300 11^th Avenue South. Produced with the support of the National Endowment for the Arts, Creative Pinellas, and the Pinellas County Board of County Commissioners, the family-friendly carnival will feature a little something for everyone, including a live art car painting, the NOMAD Art Bus activities, make-your-own mini art car, and more. Featured award-winning artist Nneka Jones (@artyouhungry, www.artyouhungry.com) will be on hand to paint a Nissan Versa owned by local jeweler Tiffany Elliott of Tee Sankey Designs @teesankeydesigns. After the carnival, the finished work will provide a traveling art display for everyone to enjoy as it daily travels the streets of St. Pete. Visit the CARMADA ’22 Facebook page to learn more.

The 2022 SHINE Mural Festival will wrap up with a finale party on October 22^nd. Details about the closing celebration will be announced in the coming weeks.

The St. Petersburg Arts Alliance is a non-profit organization dedicated to advocating for the arts and supporting area artists, arts organizations, and creative businesses. As part of that mission, the annual SHINE St. Pete Mural Festival covers travel expenses, lodging, and paint, as well as a stipend, for each artist it invites to exhibit.

ARTISTS TO PARTICIPATE IN THIS YEAR’S 8^TH ANNUAL SHINE® ST. PETE MURAL FESTIVAL

This year’s group of mural artists is comprised of six international, one national, and seven Florida artists who have been commissioned to add new murals to the St. Petersburg area’s art districts. They include:

INTERNATIONAL – Ben Johnston (Canada), Caratoes (Hong Kong), Imagine (Nepal), James Bullough (Germany), MadC (Germany), Marina Capdevila (Spain); NATIONAL – 123Klan (Los Angeles); FLORIDA – Ashley Cantero (Tampa), Dreamweaver (St. Petersburg), Graffiti Egypt (Tampa), Jeff Williams (St. Petersburg), Reginald O’Neal (Miami), Sydney Prusso (Dunedin), and Van Der Luc (St. Petersburg).

Four local artists were selected to participate in the SHINE Unity Mural Project, which was developed in response to community requests for murals outside of the St. Pete art districts. The project aims to promote “diversity, equity, and inclusion” and “ensure greater accessibility to art, promote safety and connection, and add to the vibrancy of our city.” Funded by a grant from the NEA (National Endowment for the Arts), the St. Petersburg Alliance for the Arts invited selected artists to use murals to illustrate what unity means to them. The Art Alliance issued a call for artists to submit their portfolios last spring, and from the applicants, four artists were chosen for the project to complete their murals in the following locations:  Tracey Artist Jones at Brookwood Florida, 901 7th Ave South; Brainstorm, in Midtown, at 1655 16th Street South; Reda3sb, along the Pinellas Trail, at 4139 7th Terrace South; and iBOMS, in Childs Park, at 690 43rd Street South. The artists created their murals during the summer months.

For more information about this year’s SHINE Mural Festival artists, as well as the artists selected for the Unity Mural Project, visit the website for St. Petersburg Arts Alliance. A map of the mural locations will be released on the festival’s website closer to the event date, providing the option for festival goers to observe the murals as they are being created.

In addition, a free interactive PixelStix app is available for download which offers a map of the murals and their locations and an accessible audio tour for those visiting the city on foot or by bike or other transportation. The interactive technology enables anyone with a smartphone or device to get a closer look at the mural art and listen to the stories behind the artists and their work. Click here to learn more and download the app.

For more details about this year’s SHINE® St. Pete Mural Festival, visit the website for St. Petersburg Arts Alliance by clicking here, or visit them on  Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and Twitter. Also be sure to follow the SHINE Mural Festival at @ShineOnStPete on Instagram and Facebook for up-to-date news and announcements about the event.

Content written by Dianna Graveman exclusively for Destination Tampa Bay.  All photos are courtesy of the St Petersburg Art Allinace form previous shine year’s as noted for editorial purposes only–all right reserved.  See individual art for credit.  Feature image above from  2021-SHINE-Mural-Festival-Ricky-Watts-Photo-Jenee-Priebe.

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