See Some Great Art In Clearwater!

Clearwater has a really great scene and a lot of artists that are active and producing and selling their work. In the normal course of your day. as you walk around, you will come across a number of high quality galleries that are displaying fine art. Art really is part of the lifeblood of the local community - there is a lot of great art in public spaces as well, and it really transforms the way you can perceive the area.

The Clearwater Art Walk serves as the perfect event to introduce you to or remind you of what an artistic place you live in, or if you are from out of town and you are visiting, you will see what great artists Clearwater has to offer.

Come And See Us July 27th!

Here at Buzzazz, the company that built Wabamm, we are very supportive of the artists in our local community, and we have worked closely with several of them to help them promote their work. As part of our continuing support of local art we are taking part in this great event, and we will be having something very special happening at Buzzazz that you won't want to miss.

We are at 645 Cleveland St right opposite the Post Office, and we look forward to meeting you on Friday July 27th between 6 and 9pm.

There is a really bustling art scene in Clearwater, St Petersburg, Tampa, and the whole Tampa Bay area, and the SeaHorse Gallery and Gift Shop is a great example of this. Located next to the beautiful Clearwater Beach, it is the perfect setting for you to view art.

Really great art communicates, and there is something about finding a great gallery where you can enjoy great art - time disappears when you are stood in front of a great piece of art, and when you have a whole gallery full of great art, you can easily lose a whole day.

If you like art there are some great artists that have local connections. You can see world renowned artists like Jim Warren and Dick Zimmerman, and Marci Braun, and view some amazing work.

You can see work that represents the ultimate in portraiture and imaginative painting, as well as works that capture some of the unique character of Florida itself.

Jim Warren has been a successful artist for 40 years, is multi-award winning, and internationally known. One of his best known pieces is the Grammy Award Winning album cover to Bob Seger's album "Against The Wind."

Dick Zimmerman, who has been painting for over 45 years, and has painted many well known people, including Salvador Dali and his wife, and he created the portrait of Michael Jackson that was used on the "Thriller" Album Cover.

Kim Braun, who comes from Sycamore, Illinois originally, found inspiration in `982 while visiting the Florida Keys, and brings a vibrancy and unique vision to the life from under the sea and the water birds that surround it.

You are guaranteed to find a piece that you will fall in love with and want to own.

Clearwater is finally free from the frequent intrusion of train horns, which has been a long time coming, and is no small thing. For anyone in downtown Clearwater there were often several times in the day when you would have to hit the pause button on any phone calls you were trying to have because the train would come through and would announce to everyone that there was indeed a train passing through. You couldn't hear anything while it was going on, and depending on the length of the train, it could be a little unpredictable about how long the experience would go on.

 

It strangely got installed without much fanfare, which was a bit of a missed opportunity for whoever managed to finally get the decision pushed through. There had been enough coverage on how noisy it was, but no one has been out to ask how it feels to have the peace and quiet in place.

Train Now Moves Quietly Through Downtown!

I hadn't even noticed myself that it had happened, but when it was pointed out it was obvious. You can get so used to working around an issue, and so make it a part of your routine, that it becomes almost invisible – even if it is very audible.

 

Given that the barriers and lights were pretty obvious, it did make you wonder who exactly the train horns were catering for. To witness the normal routine when a train came through, and the impossibility of crossing in front of it, you would have to work really hard to not know that there was a train coming. When the train would sound off it wouldn't just be once, or if it was one noise it was continuous until the train passed.

 

But no wall you get is the Florida sunshine and the occasional car noise. It's great!

St Pete has the Firestone Grand Prix, where the streets are taken over every year by the fast moving race cars from the IndyCar Series, and you can barely move for the crowds, or hear yourself think for the noise.

Clearwater puts an interesting spin on the whole racing phenomenon, with it's annual Achieva Box Car Rally, which, this year, took place on Saturday, Oct. 14 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Trading in the noise of race cars for the excited crowd, drawn from all ages, there were a lot people in attendance.

The main course the drivers take starts at the intersection of Osceola and Cleveland, and continues west down Cleveland to the waterfront.

You had Pee-Wees (7-12), Teens (13-17), Adults (18 and older), High School (where the driver represented a high school), Corporate (representing a business or organization) and Auto (where they represented a business in the automotive industry).

It was a fun day for everyone

There is often a complaint from those in industry that schools do not hand them students that have any practical experience; they aren't prepared for life in the working world. This leads to many political discussions about the worth of education, and what can be done about it.

There are programs such as STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) designed to match education requirements to industry needs, which are doing a good job, and are also working to correct an imbalance in the number of boys versus girls in the system.

On a local level, Pinellas County is looking to introduce young children to computer coding.

A hundred bee-bots have been purchased by the district. They are simple little robots with arrows on them that the kids have to use to get the robot to an assigned square on a grid.

One of the schools taking part, Leila Davis Elementary School , in Clearwater, was interviewed by 10 News, and Kali Kopa, a teacher at the school who teaches technology, was very excited about the prospects this opens up for them. The bee-bot's simple functions prepare the children for the more complex challenges offered by coding.

It is a skill very much in command, and the Clearwater area, and the whole of Tampa Bay, is a hot bed for technology.