Cleveland Street Median to Become Outdoor Art GalleryCLEARWATER – The medians of the Cleveland Street District will soon become an outdoor art gallery as the sculptures of three southern artists are installed in mid-July. The art exhibit, which is part of the Clearwater Public Art and Design Program, is called Sculpture360: Art in the Cleveland Street District Outdoor Gallery. The sculptures of artists Hanna Jubran of Grimesland, N.C.; Claudia Jane Klein of Lake Worth, Fla.; and Bruce White of Nokomis, Fla. will be on display until July 2009 when new artworks will be featured. The Clearwater Cultural Arts Division released a Call to Artists that brought in applications from as far away as the Philippines, and formed a committee to select the works including city staff, artists, community leaders, and private citizens. “A key factor in the selection process was to keep the ‘public’ in public art,” said Christopher Hubbard, the city’s Public Art Specialist. The city currently has an arts ordinance in place that requires developers to set aside new construction dollars for public art. The Sculpture360 initiative was developed before the ordinance was in place and was funded through a partnership with the Downtown Development Board and the Clearwater Downtown Partnership. “We were excited that the partnerships we developed could fund these high-quality exhibits, especially during uncertain economic times,” said Hubbard. The Sculpture360 program is based on exhibitions similar to Sarasota’s popular Season of Sculpture and Lakeland’s Florida Outdoor Sculpture Competition. Both exhibitions annually rotate the works of locally and nationally recognized artists. A July 22, 5:30 p.m. public celebration for the Sculpture360 exhibition is planned at the Atrium Building lobby, 601 Cleveland St.
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