Fine arts collective celebrates Fifth Anniversary this weekend:
Saturday, December 4th: 10am – 5pm & Sunday, December 5th: 11am-4pm
Gulfport, FL – In its first five years, Gulfport fine arts collective ArtJones has become a holiday shopping staple for arts lovers in the Tampa region and established itself as a premier artist collective on Florida’s Gulf Coast. The group celebrates its fifth anniversary this weekend, December 4th-5th, with its most creatively diverse group of artists to date, a growing emphasis on emerging artists and the group’s inaugural ArtJones Scholarship Award recipient. The two-day, self-paced tour features 28 fine artists from across a wide variety of mediums, including painting, glass art, ceramics, woodworking, photography, jewelry and fiber art.
ArtJones founder Brenda McMahon says there’s a new sense of enthusiasm on this year’s Tour. “As we celebrate our fifth year at ArtJones, we are thrilled to both unveil our new emerging artist program and welcome back some of the region’s most talented creators. We believe in giving back to our artist community and helping lift up those just starting out. In that spirit, ArtJones has invited four emerging artists to join us on the tour this year as guests at our veteran artists studios. We are thrilled to say this year we are bigger, stronger and more involved in our community than ever before.”
ArtJones announced earlier this fall that glass artist Michelle Ingram is the inaugural recipient of the new scholarship, joining emerging painters Amy Howell, Paula Roy and Deserie Valloreo on this year’s Tour.
Of the 28 participating artists in this year’s event, 17 are making their ArtJones debut. Newcomers Esther Aall, Patricia Burrows, Mary Ellen Clagget, Eric Folsom, Janet Folsom, Joshua Gibson, Denny Howard, Margaret Foy Meinhart, Molly Rohrer, Paula Roy, Steve Verenicin, Judith Villavisanos, Curtis Whitwam and the aforementioned emerging artists join ArtJones veteran fine artists Diane Bragg, Larry Busby, Jila Davoodi, Ray Domingo, Doug D’Souza, Berkeley Grimball, Elizabeth Neily, Nancy Poucher, Jack Providenti, Monika Watson, Melissa Zodda and McMahon in a lineup of fine and emerging artists representing nearly all mediums of visual art.
The group has redesigned the Open Studio Tour in 2021, clustering artists to provide visitors fewer stops while seeing more artwork. Each of the 11 studio locations will host 2-4 artists, with all safety protocols in place. For more information and to download your map for this year’s ArtJones Open Studio Tour, visit artjonesstudiotour.com.
For more information on the artists and to download a brochure with a map of this year’s ArtJones Open Studio Tour, please visit ArtJonesStudioTour.com and social media outlets:
Facebook: @WeAreArtJones
Instagram: @ArtJonesGulfportFl
About the organization: ArtJones is an independent artist-run collective. The rotating list of artists is selected by invitation.