Tremendous Turnout in Pinellas County

Pinellas County, Florida celebrated their Tenth Anniversary with the NAP with record breaking numbers.  This year’s exhibition featured 240 pieces of art from more than 180 artists!  Organizing and installing a show of this magnitude is no small undertaking, but co-coordinator Sarah Markofski does it with true professionalism. The result, a courthouse lobby full of the tremendous talents of employees, retirees, volunteers and their family members.  

When asked if they did anything different to promote the show this year, co-coordinator Mary Kvam stated, “that the county is hiring between thirty and fifty new employees a month with about the same number retiring.”  With the constant addition of so many new employees, the show not only increased their total number of eligible participants, they also had a record number of first time entrants.

Along with the participants, the exhibition is extremely well received by the local leadership with a huge showing of support from county officials at the awards reception held on June 27th.  Dave Blazewitz, Interim Director of Human Resources emceed the event with a different county official announcing the awards in each of the categories.  The NAP’s Director of Programs, Robyn McGinley, attended the awards reception to present the new Art Education Award in addition to recognizing the coordinators with the tenth anniversary award for all their hard work.

In celebration of their anniversary, the original three judges from their very first show were invited back to judge this year’s exhibition.  What a lovely way to mark the growth of the show over the past decade!