Art After Dark has become a popular quarterly event at the Tampa Museum of Art, 120 Gasparilla Plaza, and a new one is coming around on Friday. From 8 to 11 p.m., the serene first-floor lobby will be transformed into a cultural bazaar with live music, performance art, film, dance and, of course, visual art. Like other AADs, this one will have, at least nominally, a connection to the current exhibition, a superb and big retrospective of photographs by Henri Cartier-Bresson. It's also a fundraiser for the Arts Council of Hillsborough County's artist grants program.
More than 550 works — drawings, paintings, sculpture, photography and mixed media — all measuring 5x5 inches, will be for sale, each $25, including the painting shown. They have been donated by professional artists from near and far as well as a few notable non-artists. The fun part: You won't know whose creativity you're buying until after the purchase. At fivebyfivetampabay.com is a list of contributors and a few examples of the art, which could provide some clues. But a lot of the fun is in the surprise.
The event is $10 with a cash bar. tampamuseum.org or (813) 274-8130.
Lennie Bennett, Times art critic
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