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The City of Pinellas Park joins artist Derek Donnelly in celebrating the opening of a new artist live work facility at 5705 Park Boulevard. Donnelly will officially celebrate the grand opening of COVE, Creative Opportunities & Visual Entertainment, in conjunction with the Pinellas Arts Village Holiday Art Walk on December 17. Donnelly, a well-known local artist who had helped to lead St. Petersburg�s mural movement, is the founder of the nonprofit Public Art Project, Inc. and the owner and operator of Saint Paint Arts. A Pinellas Park native and graduate of the Pinellas Center for the Arts and IADT Tampa, Donnelly returned to Pinellas Park in November to a new residence, gallery, and studio in a recently completed, 2,000 square foot building constructed from seven shipping containers. From his upstairs residence, Donnelly will enjoy a very brief commute to the public gallery on Park Boulevard, and office and studio space with entry to 75th Avenue North. Donnelly�s Saint Paint Arts was created in St. Petersburg in late 2011 as an evolving collective of local artists from realism to abstract, painting to sculpting. In early 2014 Donnelly closed the physical location of Saint Paint to focus on doing more murals, art exhibitions and curating local businesses and restaurants. The group�s extensive charitable work grew into the Public Art Project, Inc., a 501(c)(3) nonprofit charitable organization that facilitates public art by working directly with artists, businesses, organizations, and local governments. The project�s mission is to create and facilitate visual stimulation in the community while raising awareness of the importance and economic impact of the arts. Donnelly was among the first to answer a call to local artists to join Pinellas Park�s Better Block project in early 2015. The Pinellas Park Better Block invited the entire community to vision and build a pop-up arts district where none had existed, north of Park Boulevard in the 5600 to 5800 blocks. Donnelly enlisted the Public Art Project create a mural wall on the side of building at 5663 Park Boulevard. The Better Block vision became reality in 2016, and the building is now the home of the Studios at 5663, a suite of affordable artist studios that is managed and leased by the City of Pinellas Park on behalf of the Pinellas Park Community Redevelopment Agency. The new artist live work facility at 5705 Park Boulevard joined two existing live work cottages located across the street on 75th Avenue, but is the first facility to offer a full suite of residential, work, and commercial space. The building was designed by iDesign, Inc. of Clearwater, Florida, and featured earlier in the year in an HGTV series on shipping container buildings.
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