By Caron Schwartz
Strut your FloridaRAMA stuff To celebrate its 5th anniversary, FloridaRAMA is holding a Diorama Contest. Winners will get $500 and have their design added to FloridaRAMA’s permanent collection. To compete, you’ll need an official FloridaRAMA Diorama Kit, which includes a display box and basic lighting. Then transform it into your own version of the Sunshine State. Deadline 10/16. https://bit.ly/floridaramafest
J’MUSE St. Petersburg Arts Alliance MUSE Awards honor the folks whose vision, dedication, and contributions strengthen St. Pete’s creative community. The 2026 winners are: Visual Arts: Babs Reingold; Performing Arts: Jeffrey Multer, Palladium Chamber Series; Literary Arts: Lorielle J. Hollaway, Founder of Cultured Books; Literacy Foundation; Art & Technology: Kevin Hohl; Patron of the Arts: Steve & Marie Beaty; Arts Ambassador: Liz Dimmitt; Legacy Arts: Leslie Curran
Pretty bird Escape into a vibrant celebration of glass art at Birds of Paradise, a themed exhibition at the Duncan McClellan Gallery. Inspired by the beauty, movement, and color of exotic birds, each artist interprets the spirit of paradise through flame, form, and imagination. Now thru 12/6. www.dmglass.com
Bird is the word Brenda McMahon Gallery’s August fundraiser, For the Birds, raised nearly $1,500 and sold over 30 pieces of art. The proceeds will support local wildlife rehabilitation and advocacy group, Birds in Helping Hands. The month-long event brought together artists and wildlife advocates from across Florida to raise funds to rescue and rehabilitate injured or orphaned wild birds in the Tampa Bay area. www.birdsinhelpinghands.org and www.brendamcmahongallery.com
Touch of grey The City of Dunedin Committee on Aging wants to know who’s your middle-schooler’s Favorite Older Person. Kids can express their admiration with an essay, poem, or piece of art. The top three submissions win prizes, as does the teacher with the most student entries. Entry forms are at the Hale Senior Activity Center; the deadline is 10/9. Questions? Call 727-298-3299. https://bit.ly/agingcommittee
AI to the rescue The Jewish Digital Cultural Recovery Project (JDCRP) has added AI capabilities to Legacy Explorer, its provenance research tool, which helps families recover Nazi-looted art and heirlooms. The updated tool can search numerous databases, speeding up the search process. www.jdcrp.org
Counterpoint The Tampa Museum of Art presents David Hockney: Perspective Should Be Reversed, featuring 60 years of work by acclaimed British artist David Hockney (1937–2026). The exhibition features prints, collages, photographs, and iPad drawings of Hockney’s depictions of friends and family, landscapes, swimming pools, vibrant interior spaces, and stage designs. Now thru 2/28/27. www.tampamuseum.org
You say it’s your birthday DRV Gallery turns five this October! To celebrate, the Gulfport art destination is hosting Five, an exhibition showcasing acclaimed regional artists’ interpretations of the theme FIVE. DRV’s next curated show is Art for a Cause, an opportunity for artists to raise awareness for the cause of their choice. Applications open 11/1. https://bit.ly/drv-afac
Living wage Living artists typically don’t make money when their artwork is resold, but that might be changing. Alicia Keys and Kasseem Dean are partnering with auction house Bonhams to create The Deans’ Choice with Bonhams for its auctions in the US. The program lets the consignors of artworks by living artists commit a percentage of their sale proceeds to the creator, with Bonhams matching a percentage from the buyer’s premium. https://bit.ly/deans-choice
Salt life The Morean Center for Clay welcomes a new cohort of artists-in-residence with Salt AIR. This exhibition introduces artists from across the US whose practices are shaped by personal history, community engagement, material exploration, and a deep commitment to clay’s transformative possibilities. Drawing from diverse experiences and artistic approaches, the residents arrive in St. Pete ready to immerse themselves in a new environment, exchange ideas, and expand their practices. On view: 10/10-11/7, Morean Center for Clay. https://bit.ly/morean-welcome
Cut it out Transform existing pages into brand-new poems. Join poet Ariana Kija Matondo at the St. Pete Museum of Fine Arts to explore black-out, or erasure, poetry. By selectively removing words and phrases from texts, uncover hidden meanings and carve out original poems. Just bring your journal and an open mind. Then wander the galleries and enjoy a snack during Café Clementine’s L’Apéro hours. 10/15, 5:30-7:30pm. https://bit.ly/mfa-poetry
Whole lotta history The Pier isn’t all fun and games. It’s also home to the St. Pete Museum of History. The Seminole People of Florida exhibit illustrates how the Seminole people shaped Florida’s history through resilience, adaptation, and connection to the land. Plate to Paper: Women Printmakers in Pinellas explores the history and impact of local women printmakers. From Polly Knipp Hill in the early 1900s to today’s artists, the exhibition highlights the talents who helped shape the local art scene. https://bit.ly/spmoh-exhibit
Bougie nights Join The Dalí for a screening of avant-garde filmmaker Luis Buñuel’s The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (1972). The surreal, wickedly funny classic turns dinner parties, social conventions, and bourgeois absurdity upside down. Talkback with writer/producer Christopher Ward afterward. 10/29, 5:30-7:30pm. https://bit.ly/dali-film
Sometimes you’re infamous for 15 minutes A real-estate investor and his son walked into a Miami gallery and left with almost $7 million worth of Andy Warhol paintings. Turns out, most of the Warhols were fake. The family is suing the dealer, the dealer’s dealer, the forgers, a retired dentist, and other alleged collaborators. The Andy Warhol Foundation and Christie’s, the official Warhol auction house, declined to comment. https://on.wsj.com/4xrTvc2
Janis, but no Mercedes-Benz American Stage presents Randy Johnson’s A Night With Janis Joplin. Like a comet that burned too bright to last, Janis Joplin exploded onto the music scene in 1967 and, almost overnight, became the Queen of Rock ‘n’ Roll. This musical journey celebrates Joplin and her biggest musical influences, like Aretha Franklin, Etta James, and Bessie Smith. Now thru 10/11. https://bit.ly/as-janis
Shimmer & glow at the 67th Annual Fall Gem, Mineral, and Jewelry Show 11/7&8, 10am-5pm, at the Florida Fairgrounds. Ooh and aah over unique slabs, cabochons, beads, gemstones, jewelry, and more. Kids will be busy at the sluice, touch table with rock ID, scavenger hunt, a mineral ID booth, and bean bag toss. https://bit.ly/tamparockshow
Landscape art-chitecture Wild Space Gallery and Florida Wildlife Corridor Foundation present The Unseen Landscape with artists Julie Evans, Karl Kelly, and Eric Wolf. Each artist engages the natural world with distinct aesthetic visions and approaches to representation and pictorial space. Now thru 11/28 at The Factory St. Pete. Opening reception 10/10, 5-9pm. https://bit.ly/wild-gallery
Hey you creative kids! Ansbacher Law invites elementary classrooms to enter the 2026 Ansbacher Law Annual Holiday Art Contest. This initiative encourages creativity, offers a chance to win art and school supplies, and spreads holiday cheer. First-, second-, and third-place winners receive BLICK Art gift cards, and their schools receive a contribution toward their art program. Deadline to enter: 10/21; deadline to submit student artwork: 10/28; info and application: www.ansbacher.net/holiday-contest
Oldies but goodies Homeland Security agents seized more than 22,000 ancient artifacts in Florida, one of the largest hauls in HSI history. Archeological experts from the University of Florida and University of Pennsylvania are examining the 1,000- to 5,000-year-old trove, which includes coins, ceramic pots, statues, weapons, jewelry, and more from across Europe, Africa, and the Eastern Mediterranean. HSI will return authenticated items to their countries of origin. https://bit.ly/artifacts-seized