Author: GFA Marketing

An Emerging Artist Success Story: Nneka Jones

Nneka Jones, GFA 52 Best of Show Artist

If you’re an emerging artist on the fence about whether to apply to the 53rd Annual Raymond James Gasparilla Festival of the Arts Emerging Artists program in 2023, you should learn more about Nneka Jones.

GFA Selects its Jurors for the 53rd Annual Gasparilla Festival of the Arts.

Allison Glenn

GFA is pleased to announce the Festival jurors who will be selecting artists for more than $92,000 in prize money at the next Gasparilla Festival of the Arts, which will be held March 4 and 5, 2023 at Julian B. Lane Park on Tampa’s downtown riverfront. Meet Festival Awards Juror Allison Glenn Allison Glenn is […]

Janet Echelman announced as the 2022 festival juror

Janet Echelman

We are honored to announce that renowned artist and Tampa Bay native, Janet Echelman, will jury the 2022 show. Artist Janet Echelman defies categorization. She creates billowing sculpture engineered to the scale of buildings, choreographed by wind and light, that shifts from being an object you look at, to a living environment you can get […]

Featured Image: “Twister II – Twist Again” by Betsy Best

GFA 52 Festival Image, Twister II — Twist Again, by Betsy Best

GFA’s selected festival image for 2022 is “Twister II – Twist Again” by printmaker Betsy Best. This joyful, playful and colorful image is an acknowledgement of the human need for fellowship. The festival image is celebrated each year on all festival promotions, t-shirt, poster, and other merchandise.

Meet the 2022 selection jurors

Howayda Haffan

We are pleased to announce our distinguished art professionals who will serve as our 2022 selection jurors. The selection jurors will anonymously select the works that will be included in the 52nd Annual Raymond James Gasparilla Festival of the Arts, which will be held March 5-6 at Julian B. Lane Riverfront Park in Downtown Tampa. […]

Board of Directors nominations

Nominations are now being accepted for upcoming board director vacancies for the 2021/22 fiscal year, beginning June 1, 2021. We will hold elections during the May 20 board meeting. If you have a passion for the arts and Tampa Bay Community and would like to work with an amazing group of professionals and artists to produce this esteemed […]

2021 GFA Collegiate Scholarship

The Raymond James Gasparilla Festival of the Arts is pleased to announce this year’s $2,500 GFA Collegiate Scholarship recipeint, Marie-Ange Pollonais. About Marie-Ange Pollonais Marie-Ange Pollonais I am a graduating fine artist at the University of Tampa who has recently added graphic design to my creative mix. This allows me to combine the physical aspect […]

2021 Award Winners

Selecting from a field of more than 250 acclaimed artists, juror Dr. Nadiah Rivera Fellah of the Cleveland Museum of Art, selected the recipients of the 51st Annual Raymond James Gasparilla Festival of the Arts. $80,000 in award monies were awarded to the participating artists, including the $15,000 Raymond James Financial Best of Show Award. […]

Five things to experience at this weekend’s virtual Gasparilla Festival of the Arts

The Raymond James Gasparilla Festival of the Arts 51st event will be held this weekend in a virtual format on March 6th and 7th, 2021. Festival organizers created a complete program on the interactive online tool, Eventeny. This platform allows participants to view a live stream of entertainment throughout the weekend and let juried artists […]

Featured Image: “Yellow Light” by Nneka Jones

This year’s selected festival image is entitled Yellow Light by award winning local artist, Nneka Jones. Nneka grew up in Trinidad and Tobago and recently graduated with a BFA and minor in Marketing from the University of Tampa in May 2020.  Her most recent achievement was a commission from TIME magazine to produce the cover artwork […]

GFA Gasparilla Festival of the Arts logo

The Raymond James Gasparilla Festival of the Arts is one of the top outdoor, juried fine arts shows in the United States, showcasing a wide variety of art mediums and price points. We invite you to discover why this festival has been a must-see event for art lovers for more than 50 years.

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The Gasparilla Festival of the Arts, Inc. (GFA) values inclusion and access for all participants and will provide reasonable accommodations in accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA”) and Florida law to any person with a disability who needs an accommodation in order to attend a GFA event. To ensure that your request for accommodation can be considered, please submit your request at least ten (10) business days in advance of the scheduled event. Please email the organization’s Vice President to make a reasonable accommodation request.
Email: VicePresident@gasparillaarts.com
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Ajeva

Ajeva is a funk/rock band from St. Petersburg, FL. The band started in 2013 and features Reed Skahill (vocals), Taylor Gilchrist (bass), Mike Nivens (guitar), and Lyndon Thacker (keys). They’ve carved out a sound of their own with epic melodies and distinctive vocals that pair perfectly with their deep grooves. Each Ajeva show is a one of a kind experience with the band taking their songs to different places and new heights every night.

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Light the Wire

Light the Wire makes heartfelt, indie-folk rock that with powerful vocal harmonies, thoughtful lyrics, and powered by driving bass and drums.  The quintet is based out of Tampa, FL, and released its self-produced, debut EP – “Someday Is Coming” on all streaming platforms on November 1, 2023.

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Giorgi

Rock musician that refuses to find a niche

GA & FL

FFO: Foo Fighters, Jimmy Eat World

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Mwiza

Biggest influences are church, his mother, Coheed & Cambria, Acceptance, James Morrison, Bombay Bicycle Club, Disturbed, Arctic Monkeys, Young The Giant, Chevelle, Rusko, Chief and Matt Corby. Most of the music he listens to has a darker sound to it so he in turn makes darker, melodic music.

  • IAMMWIZA
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Datagram

Datagram has been the moniker of shapeshifting Tampa musician Scott Olson for the better part of the last decade.

In that time, the sound and styles of this project have shifted and morphed, painting with shades of glitch, downtempo, techno, and all that lurks in between.

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Shevonne and the Force

A multi-hyphenate, genre-bending artist, Shevonne Philidor is a singer-songwriter, producer, and actress who epitomizes her dynamic background in music and performing arts. A military brat born in Philadelphia, PA, she experienced living in multiple cities – including a stint in Italy – before landing in Tampa, Fl, where she nurtured her musical ability throughout her childhood. She’s a scion of a musical family stemming from her half-Haitian descent and taught herself to play the guitar at an early age, inspired by the likes of Prince, Whitney Houston, Aretha Franklin, Lauryn Hill, Bob Marley, and M83. In 2003, she made her first TV debut on America’s Most Talented Kids, and in 2010, she made an appearance on America’s Got Talent Wild Card. A recipient of the prestigious NFAA scholarship, she also made American Idol’s top 40 twice in 2016 and 2019, the same year she performed at Austin City Limits with five-time Grammy award-winning artist Gary Clark jr. In 2021, she performed alongside CeeLo Green at a Superbowl party for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and was tapped to sing for ABC’s Juneteenth celebration with T.I. and Domani. Working with Grand Hustle Records, she’s a Luna Guitar-endorsed artist who was also selected to perform in Just Blaze’s SXSW showcase in 2022. A theatre kid at heart, she’s flexed her acting skills on a national tour for Todrick Hall’s musical, Oz The Musical, and she was also recently casted in Life’s Rewards, an upcoming Amazon Prime TV show.

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Kristopher James

Though he’s lived in the Sunshine State, for most of his life, Kristopher’s talent for melody and song (now) extend far past the state’s line. Like his influencers Otis Redding, Amos Lee, and Roberta Flack, Kristopher’s voice is clear, controlled, and full of all-the-feels.  As with all artists, Kristopher’s sound has ebbed and flowed, evolving yet remaining instantly recognizable. With the growth he’s experienced as an artist, Kristopher felt it was time to capture his songs, in their fully-imagined sound!

With his debut album “Kindness Never Quits”, featuring members of Scary Pockets, Kristopher caught the attention of Relix & Glide Magazine, Spotify Playlist curators and continued praise, such as “vocals are so powerful and as the song progresses, he showcases why he is one of the best singers out there. All that soul in one artist is just unbelievable” from Reignland Magazine.

Continuing through the COVID years, Kristopher partnered with musicians to keep the music and community alive. Along with composer and keys player Mike Hicks of Rascal Flatts, The War & Treaty’s Max Brown on guitar, as well as talented artists Kyshona Armstrong, Jonathan Huber, DeMarco Johnson, Kristopher released 3 acclaimed singles: “Never Had to Find Our Way”, “Feelings” and “I Can Only Love You in a Song”

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Deaf Company

Three piece Rock n Roll band hailing from St. Petersburg, FL.

Deaf Company Instagram Page
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Skyler Golden

Musician from St. Pete Florida and Studio Producer for Zen Recording. Brings an eclectic sound of string instruments for the Yoga Classes at GFA 2024

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SydLive

From Tampa Florida, SydLive was born to write and sing songs that touch the world. As her mother recalls, her climb to stardom began with getting on top of restaurant tables to sing at the age of two.

By the time she was eleven, she acquired her first guitar and began to teach herself to play by learning Beatles songs. Within four years she found her way to the stage singing in a Carpenters tribute band. Since this time, Syd has amassed over a decade of experience as a professional singer/songwriter and recording/performance artist. Within the industry, she names Aretha Franklin as her idol.

  • IG: sydlive
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DURRY

The first sound you hear on Durry’s rambunctious and poignant debut album, Suburban Legend, is an old-school Internet dial-up tone. To songwriter Austin Durry, the sound is instantly familiar but his bandmate and sister, Taryn, hadn’t heard it before. The Burnsville, Minnesota-based duo might identify with different age groups — with seven years between them, Austin is a millennial and Taryn is Gen Z — but by joining forces in Durry, they show just how much the neighboring generations have in common.

Between their serendipitous origin story and a crop of dynamic, hook-heavy alt-pop tracks, Durry are doing something few bands can achieve — and they’re doing it entirely on their own terms. As a band, Taryn and Austin’s journey happened both unexpectedly and fortuitously. At the start of the COVID pandemic, Austin and his wife moved back into his parents’ house, where Taryn was also living at the time. In addition to moving back in with his family, COVID forced Austin to cancel an extensive tour with his previous band, Coyote Kid. Faced with nothing but time, he got back to songwriting, regularly asking Taryn for input — or as the two playfully put it, “Gen Z quality control.”

“I’d say, here’s an early concept, what do you think? Then she’ll steer the ship, and then I’ll evolve it from there,” Austin explains. “Taryn is the sounding board and Gen Z vision of the band, where I’m kinda cranking stuff out.”

As they got going, forming what would turn into Durry, the siblings also outlined DIY ideas for branding and promotion, creating all of their own content and imbuing their visuals with nostalgic golden yellow, large fonts, and tactile images that would later make their way into eye-catching merch.

The immediate result of their musical partnership was the pop-punk/alternative anthem “Who’s Laughing Now,” which leads with wry, tongue-in-cheek lyrics about the futility of young adulthood in 2023: “My mama always said I would regret it if I ever got a tattoo,” Austin chants, adding: “She said I’d never get a job like I ever wanted one with that attitude/ My dad said I had to learn to drive a stick shift, but every van I ever had was an automatic/ My friends said that someday I would make it big, but I’m still living in the basement.”

After posting an unfinished version of “Who’s Laughing Now” on TikTok, it swiftly took off, galvanizing thousands of viewers who shared their coming-of-age frustrations. Clearly, the song’s sentiments — which land somewhere between a shrug and a clenched fist — resonated with millions of listeners, and today the song has garnered more than four million Spotify streams. Meanwhile, Durry have recorded a fully fleshed-out version of “Who’s Laughing Now,” which is set to appear on their riveting, perfectly sardonic debut LP, Suburban Legend.

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