Center Place Fine Arts & Civic Association has many new events and programs coming in 2022.
“We are very excited to join partners with The Exhibiting Society of Artists (TESA), which is an artist group from Pinellas County,” said Center Place’s executive director, Libby Hopkins. “TESA is a fine arts cooperative that brings original local artist to art buyers in our community. Many of their pieces available at Center Place depict beloved scenes emblematic of our community.”
TESA currently has a hallway show at Center Place, but next month it will have a full show in Center Place’s Grand Room.
“We are just so excited that this large art group from Pinellas County reached out to Center Place because they want to get their foot in the door of the Brandon art scene,” Hopkins said. “I feel that Center Place is moving in the right direction to be the hub of all things art in our community.”
During Center Place’s recent Christmas Tree Lighting, MOSI was on hand to offer some pop-up STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art and math) programming at the event. Since the programming was a hit with Center Place’s guests, the center is working on a partnership with MOSI to offer more STEAM programming at the center.
“Since the ‘A’ in STEAM stands for ‘art,’ it only seems natural for Center Place to partner with MOSI and offer more STEAM pop-up programming,” Hopkins said. “We are hoping to offer STEAM summer camps with MOSI this coming summer as well.”
The New Year brings new classes and events at Center Place as well.
“We are excited to partner with Dark Light Portrait Studios to start offering photography classes at Center Place,” Hopkins said. “They joined us at our Christmas Tree Lighting and asked if they could offer photography classes. We’ve been wanting to have photography at Center Place for a while now, so we can’t wait for their program to start in February.”
Center Place artist and teacher Alejandro Algarin is going to be offering his Street Art class and has added a Cartoon Drawing class.
“This class will help students become cartoonists and help them to express everyday characters, scenes and stories,” Hopkins said. “Alejandro will also discuss cartooning history and how to express emotions and acting through cartooning.”
If you would like to learn more about all the classes and events happening at Center Place Fine Arts & Civic Association, you can visit its website at www.centerplacebrandon.com or call the center at 685-8888. Center Place is located at 619 Vonderburg Dr., Ste. B in Brandon, next to the Brandon Regional Library.
