Alex Kaufman has spent 15 years building a career as a public artist in St. Petersburg, including painting the city's 175-foot Sunshine City mosaic. Now he says he isn't sure he can afford to keep working there, as commercial rents for available studio space run two to three times his budget. He's one of several St. Petersburg artists warning city leaders that soaring rent prices and a severe shortage of studio space threaten to push the local creative community out of the city it helped define.
According to FOX 13 Tampa Bay, some of the commercial locations still available to artists come with leases as short as six months, offering little of the long-term security studios need to plan ahead. Kaufman put it plainly: “We're not looking for a handout. We're just looking for stability in order to grow and build.” He says that stability would let him open a local fabrication studio and hire an assistant, but only if he can find workspace he can actually afford. He's also asked a pointed question of city leaders: does St. Petersburg want to keep its arts culture as it continues to grow?
Helen French, executive director of the St. Petersburg Arts Alliance, has urged city leaders to include artists directly in discussions about urban growth rather than treating them as an afterthought. Art consultant Kathy Gibson echoed that frustration, telling FOX 13 that politicians easily praise the arts while financial backing remains absent.
The Economic Case Behind the Pressure
The stakes go beyond individual studios. St. Petersburg's nonprofit arts and culture sector generated $132.5 million in total economic activity in 2022, according to an Americans for the Arts study cited by the University of South Florida, including $61.6 million in organizational spending and $70.9 million in audience spending. That activity supported 2,121 local jobs and generated $17.6 million in government revenue. The same 2022 study found that arts attendees spent an average of $48.90 per event beyond admission costs in St. Petersburg, and per the study's attribution, more than 70% of out-of-town visitors surveyed said the art event was their primary reason for traveling to the city, with visitors also reporting that the activity or venue inspired community pride.
Meanwhile, downtown commercial real estate has climbed sharply. On St. Petersburg's Playhouse block, properties purchased for $2.7 million in 2021 reached a contract price of $6.25 million in 2026 ahead of a proposed 12-story affordable tower, as previously reported by Hoodline. That kind of appreciation squeezes the same commercial spaces artists like Kaufman rely on for studios.
Two Competing Funding Ideas Collide in the Mayor's Race
City leaders have floated two different fixes, and the debate has become a flashpoint in the 2026 mayoral primary, set for today. Mayor Ken Welch has proposed allocating hotel bed taxes directly toward creative infrastructure, saying that directing a third of the tax could generate $5 million a year for the arts. That idea rests on a fast-growing revenue pool: Pinellas County's 6% Tourist Development Tax collections expanded from $30 million in 2015 to $98 million in 2023, according to Spectrum Bay News 9. But state law complicates that plan — under Florida Statutes section 125.0104, bed tax revenue is strictly regulated, with rules governing how much can go toward tourism marketing, beach preservation, and capital facilities rather than being freely redirected.
Separately, a City Council committee has advanced a proposed Artist Sustainability Fund, voting unanimously to move it forward. The fund would let downtown developers gain added building density in exchange for financial contributions meant to help secure and maintain affordable creative spaces. French called the fund a strong first step, though the proposal still requires additional approvals before it could take effect. Council Member Gina Driscoll introduced the fund as a new business item in January 2025, and the proposal has since become entangled in campaign politics, with Driscoll and mayoral candidate Brandi Gabbard publicly disputing credit for the idea, according to Florida Politics.
Candidates Stake Out Positions as Artists Push for a Permanent Fix
The St. Petersburg Arts Alliance hosted a mayoral candidate event where the funding debate played out directly. Former Governor Charlie Crist argued that broad cost-of-living relief is needed alongside any creative grants, telling attendees, “it costs a lot to live in St. Petersburg,” and urging the city to “make St. Pete affordable.” Driscoll has since endorsed Crist in the primary, pointing to his past sponsorship of Florida's State of the Arts specialty license plate law as evidence of long-term support for creative funding, per the same Florida Politics report.
City officials have already taken smaller steps to ease the pressure. In April 2025, St. Petersburg launched its Individual Artist Grant Program, offering $5,000 operational grants to as many as 40 local artists to help cover studio rent, supplies, and general business expenses, as Hoodline reported at the time in its piece on the $200,000 artist grant launch. But artists like Kaufman say one-time grants aren't a substitute for permanent funding, and they're now calling on mayoral candidates to commit to a lasting solution rather than piecemeal support.
The tension is visible elsewhere in the city's creative infrastructure, too. The Morean Arts Center requested $15.2 million in Pinellas County Tourist Development Tax funding in 2024 to support a planned $30 million replacement facility, winning formal support from Welch, while the Dalí Museum secured backing from Visit St. Pete–Clearwater tourism tax funds for its own $65 million waterfront expansion. Those flagship investments stand in contrast to the far smaller sums individual artists are asking city leaders to guarantee. With today's primary set to help determine who leads the city's response from the mayor's office, artists say the outcome will shape whether St. Petersburg's creative community can afford to stay.
