 Wayne welcome to TFNN you got me I know I do that's a beautiful thing well listen man You first off you've done a great job, and I you know I've seen you know We've all seen you know now what st. Pete has become and We've all seen what st. Pete you know you see Pete used to be a dull city folks Okay, but guess what when I grew up in Boston it was the same way So I saw people work on Boston for 30 years to make it better And I know you've been working on to make st. Pete better for 35 years So first off I want to say thank you because you've done an amazing job And I know people think that it's okay the last five or six years, but this has taken 20 25 years So yeah, tell us exactly being the director of culture affairs What exactly you like to do every day and how you make the city better every day? Well Every day trying to hook up people to who can help advance that cause to get together With with one another whether it's an artist and an arts organization or two arts organizations or or Coming helping somebody help execute one of their ideas It's it's continuing to push and push and push whether it's from organizations or individuals and there's always Maybe organizations, but there's people and individuals behind those organizations are pushing pushing the envelope and coming up with new ideas And and again you get an army of people who are trying to make st. Petersburg a better place And and you end up with a better place Yes, and you help them you help them become successful. That's a beautiful thing It takes a city to make a city right once you get you guys got the fire going But the bottom line it takes a city to make a city It's nice that we've it's nice that we've now got the city behind this effort, you know 35 years ago when I was you know an egg Yes, and a young guy at a museum, you know It was the music the city was not nearly as cooperative or as interested in things as as the current administration And we've come a long long way. I mean I can remember when you couldn't buy a ham sandwich downtown It's amazing right let alone turn around a bus full of you know school kids to go visit a museum It was you know, it was a challenge back then no doubt So let's talk a little bit about you know in folks in st. Petersburg, Florida Okay, if you happen to be an artist or your creative no matter where you're on the country come on down and visit us because I'm telling you man the Creativity the artist community down here is not only a great community But they can they do very well Financially too because they have a backup like I you know the cultural fears like Wayne like the city like all these different Neighborhoods that are in St. Pete. It's really cool watching So I know that you just put together and this is a really a cool little piece man Because you know you have granite involved in it. Tell us about that the sculpture that you just put together at the roundabout on Central Ave so so we do public art and You know, we there was a selection process said there was a committee that was involved and we fund public art in a number of different ways this was funded through a tax increment district for the edge district, which is one of the In-town cultural districts that the city has we've got probably about seven or so of those various districts that are kind of like an arts district That group got together and and they meet and discuss, you know What do they want to spend these these tax dollars on and is it? Benches or a roundabout or or whatever that might be. Okay, this particular group wanted to Have additional artwork put in so we formed a committee and The group got together identified some locations the roundabout was it You know roundabout is a challenging place for any kind of artwork group of people from the neighborhood Public Arts Commission myself got Got in we wrote a call to artists had a budget through the tax increment district and Selected an artist who is Israeli-born and I believe I'm trying to remember now. I believe he's from Long Island. I was very based He'll another book is his name and so this very large recycled granite piece It's sort of its round so it resembles a flower or the sun and you of course go around it And and it changes as you drive around it. It's really quite an amazing piece. It does nod to the the former industrial district that that neighborhood really was And it also looks forward to the recycled granite and and the Sunshine City and and all of that So it's a wonderful piece of artwork and it you know, you get down Central Avenue, which is the main avenue in St. Petersburg Yes, and and you can see the sunrise or set at certain times of the day right through this this round Sculpture, it's really quite spectacular. And it's one of many many pieces that we've had installed through the public support and volunteer committees and selections and so forth Over the past seven or eight years, you know, it's so cool about this piece So pitch of this way and I was coming down there in our office folks is literally where we're we're on third Okay, but we're going up and down Central all the time I'm coming down the other day and I'm saying I thought that was the rain So that's cool to understand that I could see that it was different I said oh, I must have rained on that portion of it So that is really cool man because that it's looking different. I can't wait to see how the sun comes through it What is really intriguing to me? Of course, you know, we do financial talk We're always talking to public markets. What I love what you've managed to do down here Is that this is when you get you have a you have a you have private funds you get public funds that you put together and on the bigger aspect of it though You're giving people a lot of jobs man and and you're you know And I've seen the difference in in Boston would end up happening is that the artist It was it was the same type of deal when the city kept going the artist really got it going Unfortunately what ended up happening is that just got priced out. Okay, so they and so I know I've already seen the difference here the difference here is that that community is together enough and They can sustain themselves enough and I think a lot of it has to do with how many different larger Things you've put together so that all of us really understand. Hey, man This is a great quality of life issue also Yeah, it's a quality of life issue. You know who wants to live in a city with no artists And in creativity, so yeah, and we have it all around you know We have got over 600 murals in the city that you know, and we started a mural festival Those have transformed entire neighborhoods and districts The public art helps transform that and and you know You do get these great big blocks that that were sat empty for many many years, right? You can hear for many years I have to you see these big blocks that sat empty for many many years and Suddenly there's you know five-story Yeah, you know apartment style buildings there with Retail on the ground floor. It's completely transformed to districts and I mean the artwork has changed that I do think that we're aware of the gentrification issues and we're working on that and make Housing more affordable. We don't want to lose the artist. No, we certainly don't. Well, listen, you've done an outstanding job, man We really appreciate it. I want to thank you for everyone in the city. I want to thank you for the city I want to thank you for basically getting those artists up and going and making some good bread. Have a great Thank you so much