{"id":325916,"date":"2026-07-01T13:29:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-01T13:29:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/325916\/"},"modified":"2026-07-01T13:29:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-01T13:29:09","slug":"creative-pinellas-celebrates-citrus-art-with-airport-show","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/325916\/","title":{"rendered":"Creative Pinellas celebrates citrus art with airport show"},"content":{"rendered":"

The collaborative spirit of St. Petersburg\u2019s art community is in full flower with Juicy: A Slice of Florida Life, which debuted Tuesday at the Sightline Gallery, inside the terminal at St. Petersburg-Clearwater International Airport.<\/p>\n

The exhibit, and the year-old gallery itself, are curated by Creative Pinellas, the county\u2019s umbrella arts support organization.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a celebration of Florida\u2019s all-important citrus industry, a key step on the state\u2019s historical timeline. Juicy features a series of the stunning, colorful illustrations used on West Central Florida citrus shipping crates in the 20th century.<\/p>\n

The 36\u00d736 inch canvases are painstakingly painted reproductions of the (much smaller) original labels, all of which are in the collection of Heritage Village, the county-run history center and 21-acre park.<\/p>\n

Heritage Village, which celebrates its 50th anniversary in 2026, partnered with Creative Pinellas, and the airport, to define, refine and focus the citrus exhibition.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

As the idea of a collaboration expanded, they decided to bring in a sculptural element.<\/p>\n

St. Petersburg glass artist Duncan McClellan introduced the parties to Tucson, Arizona\u2019s Steve Hagen, who creates intricate blown glass fruit slices. So detailed, brightly colored and juicy-looking you can almost taste them.<\/p>\n

Hagen contributed several glass sculptures, and fruit-themed, hand-made glass jewelry.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Glass jewelry by artist Steve Hagen.<\/p>\n

And the collaborations didn\u2019t end there. Through a grant from Creative Pinellas, bay area artist Kirk Ke Wang has created an installation celebrating legendary Chinese horticulturist Lue Gim Gong, whose work with cross-breeding different hardy strains of oranges is credited with saving the citrus industry. Lue died in 1925.<\/p>\n

The piece, which is being installed on the Heritage Village campus this week, will be formally unveiled July 11, during the Heritage Village All-American 50 at 250 Bash<\/p>\n

Airport director Mark Sprague credited Creative Pinellas, which curates and manages all the art on display throughout the facility, with providing visitors \u2013 particularly in high traffic areas like Gates 7-11, where the main exhibits are located \u2013 with glimpses of the real Pinellas County.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen people think of Pinellas County,\u201d Sprague said, \u201cthey think \u2018Oh, there\u2019s beaches, there\u2019s resorts, there are all these great restaurants,\u2019 but then they see something like this. And THIS is \u00a0what Pinellas County is also.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Duncan McClellan and wife Irene, with examples of Hagen\u2019s blown glass fruit slices.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The collaborative spirit of St. Petersburg\u2019s art community is in full flower with Juicy: A Slice of Florida…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":325917,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[135,137,136],"class_list":["post-325916","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325916","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=325916"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/325916\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/325917"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=325916"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=325916"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=325916"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}