Metals and Nature<\/a>.<\/p>\nWalking through Metals and Nature, Smude\u00a0says it\u2019s like\u00a0a magical realm.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve got the Zen area, we\u2019ve got the nocturnal area, we\u2019ve got gargoyles,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a place that she says her customers\u2019 imaginations and creativity can run wild. That\u2019s what she\u2019s hoping will translate into\u00a0the heart of\u00a0downtown.<\/p>\n
City commissioners recently approved an ordinance change that would allow murals on the sides and the rear of many buildings.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Smude says it\u2019s an important change.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur downtown is the heart of our community, and when you have a prosperous downtown, you have a prosperous city,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Smude has been part of a group of residents pushing to add more\u00a0character and creativity\u00a0to downtown. Over the past few years, she\u2019s been instrumental in the trash canvas project and the electric box art project.<\/p>\n
Vice Mayor Jason Jones says the change will help preserve the history of the community.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s going to bring some color to downtown Plant City \u2014 more charm, it\u2019s also going to support the local artists, we have a lot of local artists in the community, and now they can come out and put their hand into downtown Plant City,\u201d Jones said.<\/p>\n
For Smude, it\u2019ll mean more to enjoy on her everyday walks\u00a0through the city.<\/p>\n
And she hopes it\u2019ll strengthen the community too.<\/p>\n
\u201cI hope that all the different cultures that we have in our community are represented, whether it\u2019s the artist or the subject,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
So that more people can feel inspired to create.<\/p>\n
So far, one mural has been painted since the ordinance change went into effect earlier this year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PLANT CITY, Fla. \u2014\u00a0Changes are being made in Plant City to help allow for murals in its historic…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7696,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[1011,274,770,276,1190,6076,115,135,137,136,278,2032,835],"class_list":{"0":"post-7695","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tampa","8":"tag-app-human-interest","9":"tag-app-top-stories","10":"tag-community-news","11":"tag-hillsborough-county","12":"tag-human-interest","13":"tag-lizbeth-gutierrez","14":"tag-news","15":"tag-tampa","16":"tag-tampa-headlines","17":"tag-tampa-news","18":"tag-top-stories","19":"tag-trending-topics","20":"tag-vod"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7695","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=7695"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7695\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7696"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7695"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7695"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7695"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}