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Arts Festival Plans Falling In Place

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By STEPHEN HAMMILL, The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 23, 2008

KEYSTONE - Jan Nelson didn't so much volunteer to organize an art festival as much as she was drafted into it.

"I made a couple of comments about it at a meeting of the Keystone Civic Association, and then I got an e-mail about being its chairperson," she said with a laugh.

Nelson is heading the town's inaugural Arts and Music festival, set for April 5-6 at Keystone Park, 17928 Gunn Highway. Thirty artists will display their wares before a night of food and music.

"We're ramping up - we've had some stumbling blocks along the way," she said. "We're working as a team to get this done."

Nelson was recruited by the association last fall to run the event, made possible by the Anita Unruh fund, a $25,000 grant provided to the association in 2007. Unruh, who died in 2004, was an art professor at the University of South Florida. Her husband donated the money with instructions to put it back into the community.

A Keystone resident for 16 years, Nelson was on the Anita Unruh committee, which decided how to allocate the grant. The original idea was for an art festival, "but it morphed into something bigger," she said. "It's the perfect way to honor her memory."

The festival is free and open to the public. The concert April 5 offers an evening of music by the R&B group the Dukes of Juke, whose band leader, Roger Casey, lives in Keystone.

April 5 also features a picnic. "That's BYOF - bring your own food," said Barbara Dowling of the association.

Nelson stressed they are planning to display fine art, not crafts.

"We want real artists to set ourselves apart from other art shows," she said.

The artists will pay a nominal fee and supply their tents, where they will show and sell work.

"In a couple of years, artists will be begging to get into this because it will be that good," Nelson predicted.

With a modest advertising budget, the organizers hope word of mouth will lead to a big turnout.

Keystone Civic Association President Tom Aderhold said proceeds from the festival will be used to replenish the Anita Unruh fund.

"We'll go to different homeowners associations in the area," Dowling said, "and, of course, we'll use our newsletter."

There's a shortage of event volunteers. Nelson plans to elicit help from Sickles High School students.

"Getting people who want to stuff envelopes is easy," she said. "What we need are some dedicated experts."

Reporter Stephen Hammill can be reached at (813) 865-1523 or at shammill@tampatrib.com.

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