Skyway 2024: A Contemporary Collaboration

Skyway: A Contemporary Collaboration is a joint triennial exhibition celebrating the diversity of artistic practices in the Tampa Bay region. Following the success of the initial Skyway: A Contemporary Collaboration at regional museums in 2017, and the second iteration in 2021, the highly anticipated Skyway 2024: A Contemporary Collaboration exhibition is set to be showcased at five leading art institutions across the Tampa Bay area this year.

The museums participating in this triennial exhibition—the Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg; The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art; Sarasota Art Museum of Ringling College of Art and Design; the Tampa Museum of Art; and the University of South Florida Contemporary Art Museum—are proud to announce their joint effort in presenting this groundbreaking showcase.

Skyway 2024 embodies the theme of boundless exploration and unity, reflecting the limitless potential of artistic expression in the region. This collaborative effort will feature a diverse array of contemporary art, including paintings, sculptures, installations, and multimedia presentations by 63 artists and art collectives living and working in the Tampa Bay area.

Exhibition Venues, Dates, and Artists 

Each museum will host a distinct grouping of Tampa Bay area artists and art collectives in Skyway 2024, providing visitors with a unique opportunity to embark on a comprehensive journey through the vibrant contemporary art landscape of the Tampa Bay region.

On view at The Ringling from May 25, 2024 through January 26, 2025: Caitlin Albritton, Ainaz Alipour, Mohsen Azar, Saumitra Chandratreya, Elisabeth Condon, Robyn “Avalon” Crosa, Rachel de Cuba, Jake Fernandez, Akiko Kotani, Carol Mickett and Robert Stackhouse, Libbi Ponce, Michael Vasquez, and Joo Woo.

 

On view at the Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg from July 13 through November 3, 2024: Will Douglas, Kendra Frorup, Emily Martinez, Cynthia Mason, Carola Miles, Anat Pollack, and Emiliano Settecasi.

 

On view at the USF Contemporary Art Museum from July 19 through November 23, 2024: Elisabeth Condon, Keith Crowley, John Gurbacs, Karen Tucker Kuykendall, Caui Lofgren, Bruce Marsh, Eric Ondina, Sebastian Ore Blas, Andrés Ramírez, Bradford Robotham, Erin Titus, and Susanna Wallin.

 

On view at Sarasota Art Museum from July 28 through October 27, 2024: Kim Anderson, Ryan Day, Sue Havens, Dominique Labauvie, Tatiana Mesa Paján, Samantha Modder, Roger Clay Palmer, Herion Park, Gabriel Ramos, Eszter Sziksz, Jill Taffet, Rob Tarbell, Kirk Ke Wang, and Willow Wells.

 

On view at the Tampa Museum of Art from August 28, 2024 through January 5, 2025: Marc Brechwald, Samo Davis, Danielle Dragani, Joe Fig, Adrian Gomez, JD Hardy, Sami Harthoorn, Cort Hartle, Latonya Hicks, Dallas Jackson, Aimee Jones, Candace Knapp, David Mack, David McCauley, Marina Shalthout, David Sibbitt, Yajaira Urzua-Reyes, and Corinne Zepeda.

Members Reciprocal Complimentary Admission

In celebration of Skyway 2024, all participating museums are offering reciprocal complimentary admission to our Members in the months of August and September. This means you can visit Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg, Tampa Museum of Art, The Ringling, Sarasota Art Museum, and the University of South Florida Contemporary Art Museum for free* this summer! Your museum’s membership team has more information.

*Complimentary admission applies to regular daily admission only and does not include any ticketed events or add-on experiences, and may not be combined with any other discounts. Parking is not included.

#5MuseumChallenge
Take the #5MuseumChallenge by visiting all 5 Museums, receive Free Admission, and see all 5 Skyway exhibitions within August and September! Show your love for your local arts scene by posting a selfie at each museum you visit, with #5MuseumChallenge and the # for the Museum you are visiting.

#TheRingling / #MFAStPete / #USFCAM / #SarasotaArtMuseum / #TampaMuseumofArt

Collaborative Curation and Community Engagement

The selection of artworks for Skyway 2024 was a collaborative endeavor, with curatorial teams from each museum working together to showcase the region’s dynamic and varied artistic talents. Museum curators reviewed over 300 submissions in response to an open call to artists from Hillsborough, Manatee, Pasco, Pinellas, and Sarasota counties. This initiative highlights local artists’ creativity and strengthens the community's connection to contemporary art. The curators working together for this third iteration of Skyway include the following:

  • Evan Garza, Guest Juror for Skyway 2024 and Independent Curator

  • Christopher Jones, the Stanton B. and Nancy W. Kaplan Curator of Photography and Media Art, The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art

  • Katherine Pill, Senior Curator of Contemporary Art, Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg

  • Joanna Robotham, Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, Tampa Museum of Art

  • Christian Viveros-Fauné, Curator-at-Large, USF Contemporary Art Museum

  • Ola Wlusek, the Keith D. Monda Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art

  • Rangsook Yoon, Ph.D., Senior Curator, Sarasota Art Museum of Ringling College of Art and Design

Anticipated Impact and Legacy 

Skyway 2024: A Contemporary Collaboration is more than an exhibition; it is a celebration of artistic innovation and a testament to the collaborative spirit of the Tampa Bay art community. This project promises to leave a lasting impact on the region by shining a spotlight on the artistic voices of the central gulf-coast Florida region, inspiring future generations of artists and art enthusiasts alike.

A full-color catalog will accompany the exhibition. It will include curatorial essays and information about each artist and their work.

This exhibition is supported by the Gobioff Foundation and the Stanton Storer Embrace the Arts Foundation.

About Guest Juror Evan Garza  

photo credit: Emil Cohen

Evan Garza (they/them) is a Curatorial Fellow at MASS MoCA in North Adams, Massachusetts and an MA student in the Williams Graduate Program in the History of Art at The Clark Art Institute (‘24). Garza was the 2021–2022 Fulbright U.S. Scholar at the Irish Museum of Modern Art (IMMA), and simultaneously served as Visiting Research Fellow in the Department of History of Art and Architecture at Trinity College Dublin. Garza and Ryan N. Dennis were artistic directors and co-curators of the 2021 Texas Biennial: A New Landscape, A Possible Horizon on view across five Texas museums (Artpace, FotoFest, Ruby City, The McNay, and San Antonio Museum of Art) from August 2021–January 2022. 
Garza was Director of Rice Public Art at Rice University in Houston from 2016–2019, and was previously Assistant Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Blanton Museum of Art at The University of Texas at Austin, 2014–2016. In 2011, Garza was cofounder of Fire Island Artist Residency (FIAR), a New York nonprofit and the first residency program in the world exclusively for LGBTQ+ artists. They have held visiting graduate faculty positions at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, VA, and the Lesley Art + Design Program in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Their writing on the work of contemporary artists has been published in several books and monographs and by IMMA, The Drawing Center, deCordova Sculpture Park + Museum, Flash Art, ART PAPERS, Hyperallergic, and Artforum.