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ST. PETERSBURG — A proposed ticket surcharge for popular downtown festivals is on hold with the hiring of a consultant to head the Arts Alliance, a new initiative charged with fostering arts and culture in the city.
As part of his contract, John Collins will work on ways to fund the St. Petersburg Endowment for the Arts, which will supplement the city's existing arts grants. He also will research other avenues to generate money for arts programs.
The new Arts Alliance also will aim to attract artists, arts organizations and special events to St. Petersburg.
"Creativity doesn't succeed without organization and an action plan and often needs a champion to move it forward,'' Collins said.
City Council member Leslie Curran, a member of the council's Arts Funding Committee, said: "Hopefully we can find a way to raise the level of financial stability for the arts community in St. Petersburg.''
Elizabeth Brincklow, the city's arts manager, said an endowment is critical.
Budget allocations plummeted from more than $400,000 in 2007 to $175,000 in the past four years, with more than two dozen organizations competing for funding, she said.
What each group gets is not much money, she said, "but in this economy, it is a lifeblood for a lot of organizations."
Without such assistance, said Collins, "We wouldn't have organizations such as Juneteenth or SPIFFS (St. Petersburg International Folk Fair Society) or the other smaller organizations that add vitality to our city."
He added that the Arts Alliance will have the collaborative impact to get additional funding. "There is federal and state and other funding for the groups as a whole that they cannot access individually,'' he said.
The City Council has allocated $100,000 from the endowment to get the alliance off the ground, Brincklow said. Collins, 61, who was picked by Mayor Bill Foster for the position, will be paid $50,000. His contract is for a year, with an option for renewal.
Collins and his wife, Mary Ellen, first came to St. Petersburg about 10 years ago, when he was hired to work for the University of South Florida St. Petersburg. He became involved with the arts community, but then left to become president and chief executive officer of the Boca Raton Centre for the Arts. The couple returned to the city about 2 1/2 years ago.
"We missed St. Petersburg,'' Collins said.
"We love that you can get your arms around this city, that you can get involved,'' he said. "When we came back, I became a member of the Arts Advisory Committee. I absolutely found they were willing to have new blood and new ideas.''
He made his mark as chairman of the volunteer committee, spearheading a study of 32 organizations that looked at the economic impact of arts and culture in the city. The analysis was prepared by USF St. Petersburg's College of Business. It found that arts and cultural organizations provided more than 500 jobs and brought in 1.3 million visitors who spent $26 million in 2009.
Collins, whose contract started on Oct. 1, has begun an informal survey of artists, arts organizations, City Council members and others to find out what they would like the Arts Alliance to accomplish. He's also taking a look at the way nine other cities with arts alliances, including Santa Fe, N.M., Portland, Ore., Seattle and Sacramento, Calif., operate. He said he is working on drawing other artists, such as glass sculptor Duncan McClellan, who moved from Tampa, to St. Petersburg.
The idea of a $1 surcharge on tickets for some downtown festivals was raised this year by the Arts Funding Committee. Members said money from the surcharge would be used to support the arts. Those who disagreed with the proposal said it would unfairly target festivals that donate most of their proceeds to charity.
Council member Jeff Danner said the idea has been put on hold with Collins' hiring.
"Once he gets up and running, we'll revisit all the funding for the arts,'' Danner said.
"We are looking at John to do research and analysis of our current situation,'' Curran said, "and make recommendations for where we go from here.''
Collins is expected to make initial recommendations in January.
Waveney Ann Moore can be reached at wmoore@tampabay.com or (727) 892-2283.
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