by Christy Rodriguez de Conte
In celebration of Tallahassee’s Bicentennial, the Council on Culture & Arts will highlight a specific artist or organization each month that is the epitome of artistic ambition in our capital city. The spotlight on the Railroad Square art community after the May 10 tornadoes is the spotlight for May.
Facing decimated theaters, destroyed galleries, ruined equipment, and canceled shows from the May 10 tornadoes, Tallahassee artists and arts organizations need your help.
There is nothing like the hours of dawn. Art spaces hold a bewitching aura at this time. From the ray of light reflecting off a glass sculpture as the day rises to the friendly fade of the ghost light into the shadows of morning, the space that holds the art shapes those who fill it.
These buildings serve as a vessel for the art made to extend from individual experience to collective sharing. On May 10, that delicate balance where fantasy meets fact was torn apart by very real tornadoes.
In a matter of 36 minutes, two separate tornadoes, both an EF-2 traveling southeast at 115 mph, tore through the town and converged with an approximated 1-mile radius over the heart of Tallahassee’s Railroad Square Art District. And by the grace of Dionysis, no one was there.
“Luckily, the storm happened early in the morning and outside of our open hours,” says 621 Gallery President/CEO Josh Johnson. “All of our staff, interns, and volunteers were off-premises.”
Mere days prior, arts organizations across Tallahassee were a flutter. Southern Shakespeare Company had opened their free open-air show “The Winter’s Tale” on the Adderley Amphitheater stage at Cascades Park.
At the Railroad Square Art District, Able Artists Gallery showcased the talents of persons with autism and neurodiversity in the Motivating People Through Arts & Culture Artcase.
Right next door in the Amtrak Campus, the independent film “Slow,” presented by the Tallahassee Film Society, was premiering at the All Saints Cinema.
Read more on the Tallahassee Democrat.
Learn more on resources for artists and organizations impacted by the May 10 storms.
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