Creative Pinellas CEO Margaret Murray. Credit: Sandra Dohnert / Sandrasonik Photography
It’s an awkward moment for arts and culture in Pinellas County.
Governor Ron DeSantis’s June 2024 decision to veto all state arts funding affected nearly 50 Pinellas County arts organizations, which collectively lost more than $3 million.
Less than a year later last May, the National Endowment for the Arts began withdrawing awards and terminating previously offered grants under pressure from the Trump Administration. The decision stripped Pinellas County-based mobile art bus NOMADstudio of 1/3 of its annual budget. (They launched pay-to-paint events on the first Sunday of each month in response.)
The situation really hit home last September when Pinellas County Commissioners defunded the county’s designated arts agency, Creative Pinellas. The arts organization will lose its gallery in Largo’s Pinewood Cultural Park in 2026.
How do we meet this moment? For Creative Pinellas CEO Margaret Murray, the answer is to celebrate past accomplishments and work together to build a new future for the arts in Pinellas County.
“There are moments where I’ve had a little bit of a crisis of faith,” Murray admits. “All systems are pointing to the fact that many people don’t consider the arts vital to our county, but the optimist in me—and the lifelong arts advocate and arts professional in me—refuses to believe that.”
Murray believes that the arts are essential down to her core. And there is plenty of evidence to back her up.
The arts support more than 4,000 jobs in Pinellas County and generate more than $50 million in tax revenue annually for local, state and federal governments, according to the Americans for the Arts’ 2022 Arts & Economic Prosperity report—the most recent study available.
Beyond money and jobs, art provides joy and healing to many. National Endowment for the Arts (which Trump recommends cutting from the FY2026 budget) reports show that the arts reduces depression, anxiety, and pain; helps youth bounce back from adversity; and improves the health of older adults.
In other words, there are many good reasons to celebrate the impact of the arts on Pinellas County and to fight to preserve the arts in our communities. But it’s not going to be easy.
The landslide losses in government funding, created by federal, state, and local budget cuts, have created gaps too large for private donors to fill. There are whispers of donor fatigue locally, but the best hard evidence comes from a study released by the American Alliance of Museums this month—1/3 of US museums lost federal funding under Donald Trump’s presidency. Of those that lost federal funding, only 8% were able to replace that money through other sources, resulting in cuts to community programs and staff. “It’s an entirely different landscape now,” says Murray.
All evidence suggests that we cannot return to the way things were. It’s time to build something new.
“People are reluctant to give to a dream or a wish right now,” says Murray. “They need specific measurables, and they need to know what the path moving forward is. That’s what we’re creating, and that’s what we’re fundraising around.”
This means a lot of meetings for Murray, who has been reaching out to community leaders, artists, elected officials, college deans, art collectors and healthcare professionals, trying to find the best path forward.
To support these efforts, Creative Pinellas launched a new fundraising campaign, “Five ways to support Creative Pinellas,” last month. Among them is purchasing tickets to Arts Annual 8, Creative Pinellas’ annual fundraising party happening this weekend in Pinewood Cultural Park.
“This will be our last Arts Annual in that space,” Murray told CL. “We are going to honor and celebrate every single artist who has ever walked through the doors at Creative Pinellas, and that’s a real privilege to be able to do that. It’s not going to be a night of sadness. It’s going to be a night of incredible celebration—celebration of everything that Creative Pinellas has done, everything that happened when it was the Gulf Coast Museum of Art, and everything that’s going to come after.”
Several Pinellas County-based artists and businesses have already reached out to help Creative Pinellas make this year’s Arts Annual a not-to-be-missed event. Bask is creating a multiple-piece installation that Arts Annual ticketholders can purchase a piece of. Tes One is creating limited-edition prints, Chad Mize donated sticker packs, Bonefish Grill and Uptown Eats are providing food, and Great Bay Distributors is providing wine and cocktails.
Tes One signs lmited-edition prints available at Arts Annual 8 happening Nov. 21, 2025 at The Gallery at Creative Pinellas in Largo, Florida. Credit: Sandra Dohnert / Sandrasonik Photography
The celebration also includes music by DJ artist collective We’re Sweet Girls; a first look at this year’s Arts Annual Exhibition, curated by Allison McCarthy, featuring artwork from more than 70 Pinellas County-based artists; and holiday shopping opportunities at Gifted, a holiday shopping experience curated by Maggie Duffy.
Beyond Arts Annual, Murray speaks about the joy of finding hidden pockets of support throughout the county, “I’ve had people reach out from not only across the county, but across this state and other states. This has resonated with a lot of people. People want to help.”
“Both Dunedin Fine Arts Center and FloridaRAMA have offered gallery space for Creative Pinellas to mount exhibitions, which is so incredibly generous,” Murray adds. “And we have received pledges of office space, as well as the idea of hiring out our amazing team of experts (aka the CP team) as fractional experts for other cultural organizations…”
Can this community raise enough funds to keep Creative Pinellas alive in the absence of state and county funding?
“Obviously, I have moments of concern and doubt,” Murray admitted when pressed, “but I’ve been doing this for a long time. I know the capacity of our community to support the arts, and I know the capacity of myself and our team, and we’re creating viable ways forward. And yes, there is a possibility that no one really cares about arts and well-being, but I know that’s not the case. So we move forward in that direction. We move forward with the county. We’re in conversations with Visit St. Pete Clearwater about the funding that they are providing to the arts and how Creative Pinellas can play a role in that. So all of these things are in play.”
“I know there may be more challenging days ahead,” Murray continues. “Actually, I am 100% certain there will be, but organizations reinvent themselves and rebuild themselves all the time…I can look at it as the end, or I can look at it as the beginning. I’m looking at it as the beginning of something new, and that’s very exciting for me.”
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This article appears in Nov. 13 – 19, 2025.
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