ST PETERSBURG ARTS ALLIANCE INC

The St. Petersburg Arts Alliance (SPAA) serves as an arts incubator and resource center that helps build capacity and infrastructure for the arts and cultural community of St. Petersburg.

SPAA’s vision is that St Petersburg will become an arts destination with generous and ongoing support from the City, the business community and all who live and work here.

Organizational values: collaborative, inclusive, accountable, passionate, practical, catalytic, creative.

Organizational goals include:
• Advance and strengthen the arts and culture community, including ALL the arts (visual, performing, literary, etc.)
• Lead and support the implementation of major economic development/marketing initiatives
• Expand and strengthen strategic advocacy efforts
• Ensure operational stability and growth of the organization

SPAA’s Board maintains a rolling 3-year strategic plan to inform and shape a realistic and timely planning process.

SPAA’s 3-year Strategic Plan is updated annually and closely tied to the Executive Director’s annual goals and evaluations. Strategies for achieving organizational goals include:

• Develop and improve programs supporting the artists, arts venues, and non-profit and for-profit creative businesses with a view towards increasing their number, breadth and impact
• Continue to provide and disseminate data that demonstrates the economic and social impact of arts and culture and promote better understanding of the broader contribution of the arts to our community
• In collaboration with the Chamber, City, CVB, museums, theatres, hotels, etc. market the arts to defined audiences
• Produce innovative marketing programs, including publishing (guides), multi-media and website
• Continue to build relationships with funding agencies and corporations at the state, county and local levels.
• Continue to build a more robust individual contribution base.
• Continue to build a strong and inclusive board with pro-active committees.

Strategies for achieving the Sustainable Development Goal of Decent Work and Economic Growth include:
• Stepping up to provide arts business education monthly, online & in-person
• Expand the 6-week Arts Business Academy certificate program to 2 times a year
• Creating marketing/video/web resources to help creatives sell their work online
• Partner in marketing strategies for the benefit of the entire arts and cultural community

Since 2015, the Arts Alliance has moderated its growth becoming an organization of substance and financial stability.

Our Board is a working board. They are active in both the governance and programs of the Arts Alliance - without micromanaging. Every board member personally contributes to SPAA. According to a recent BoardSource survey, 68 percent of nonprofit organizations have a policy requiring board members to make a personal contribution on an annual basis. Boards average 74 percent participation in giving; however, on the average only 46 percent of boards had a 100 percent participation. The St. Petersburg Arts Alliance is in that 46 percent.

Past achievements are a clear indication of our capabilities. To date, SPAA has:
• Provided support and resources to non-profit and creative businesses in marketing, fiscal sponsorships, professional development and co-sponsorships
• Partnered with the City to launch the Artist Grant Program – 21 artist community engagement projects last year (2020)
• Created online resources: e-newsletter, website, online directory, YouTube, and social media platforms for our arts community
• Organized and established Second Saturday ArtWalk as a marketing strategy for the city's arts districts as a single arts destination with free trolley service
• Developed co-sponsorships to incubate and produce city/regional festivals, including the internationally known SHINE St. Petersburg Mural Festival
• Produced 8 Arts & Economic summits and/or reports since 2015, illustrating arts economic impact for the city and county
• Lead advocacy efforts for arts education, arts organizations and cultural tourism
• Established a strong board capable of leading, guiding and supporting the organization
• Established an Arts Endowment to support St. Petersburg arts

The St. Petersburg Arts Alliance (SPAA) was founded to fill a need for arts advocacy and arts community cohesion. SPAA's vision is to function as the go-to center for the arts and cultural community, providing resources, guidance and marketing programs.

Creative businesses had to pivot as COVID catapulted the artists of all disciplines, studios and galleries, non-profit and for profit, onto the internet to survive and grow.

"How do I construct a virtual presence for my organization or artistic practice”? "Can you show me how to become an “adult” and finally make my arts a business”? These are the major questions we have been receiving en-masse over the last months. The St. Petersburg Arts Alliance is working to build innovative opportunities for engagement, education, and equitable economic development that may be implemented now and sustained long-term via software platforms and expanded collaboration and training.

SPAA realizes that as an advocate of the arts and culture industry, we are in a unique position to gather many of the available options in one place, offer context with these tools, and provide resources on how to get started with some of the more common avenues used to take programming and artistic content online.

The Arts Alliance has stepped up to provide arts business education online. Zoom webinar software, enhanced technology, staff time, video (filming 27 separate gallery tours to date), and online workshops accessible to all help our arts community grow business on digital platforms.

SPAA has just launched its new website, serving as creative business directory, incubator; providing resources and opportunities, arts education and much more. We have added a COVID Arts Relief resource page to our website with curated, relevant information, which is also shared through the Arts Alliance email newsletter (ArtBeat) and through social media.

SPAA recently created a virtual St. Petersburg Gallery and website: CURATE ST. PETE (http://curatestpete.com). The website provides video tours for studios and galleries that do not have the ability or resources to establish and maintain a virtual business on their own as well as provide marketing reach for the established galleries.

The CURATE ST. PETE videos are different from most gallery videos: the story is not about the storefront. The story is about the artist or gallery owner who is devoting his or her life to their creative business. The videos are much more personal visits than the typical sterile gallery tour without a host.

SPAA is developing as the city's Arts Resource Center, offering individualized mentorships and other services to help businesses succeed in difficult times. ARC enables artists and performing artists to tell their stories and earn income more effectively, creating longer term value for themselves and for our community. Now is the time to teach artists how to “fish,” supporting themselves beyond just emergency relief.