The #PaintItPink Street Festival is this Sunday and visitors will have the chance to vote for their favorite murals displayed on the vibrant pink buildings in St. Petersburg. The artist who wins will have a mural featured inside the new Roche Bobois St. Pete Tower, set to open in 2029.
This event is sponsored by Valor Real Estate Development, which sparked media attention after the company painted the buildings on the corner of 4th St. S. and 4th Ave. S. vibrant pink. Overspray Art Space and SERHANT. New Developments also helped bring this festival to life.
Valor transformed the buildings into a canvas for local artists in the community ahead of construction on the Roche Bobois St. Pete Tower begins, creating a temporary public art exhibit.
“Some of Tampa Bay‘s most talented and prolific muralists will transform this block into the largest art initiative St. Pete has ever seen,” said Derek Donnelly, one of the featured artists in the festival. “As we say goodbye to these beautiful but dilapidated historic buildings, our hope is that the citizens will come out and help us celebrate this site one last time, before it cocoons and transitions to its next lifespan.”
Donnelly said he hopes this event will help honor the past, while celebrating the future.
“As long as creativity and community continue to flourish in our beautiful sunny Paradise, no level of change or development could dim the true creative spirit of Downtown St. Pete,” Donnelly said.
Five murals will be selected to be recreated as full-scale works to be displayed inside the Roche Bobois St. Pete Tower.
“This continuing initiative to collaborate and invest in local art is rooted in a simple belief: that it takes real valor to create, to share, and to put your work into the world. And through that courage, art helps shape the next generation of artists—and the future of cities they live in,” said Moises Agami, CEO of Valor Real Estate, in a press release.
Artists will begin painting today, while the festival will start at 11 a.m. Sunday. The event will feature food trucks, a pink t-shirt giveaway, music, dancing and opportunities for attendees to vote for their favorite mural. There is also a skateboard showcase from 3 p.m. to 4 p.m.
“We have 29 stories and 164 residences in Roche Bobois St Pete Tower, and they should be full of local art. Our hope since the beginning has been to make it the most artistic development project in Florida—if not the country—and help kickstart a new wave of collaborative opportunities that gives rise to a new surge of support for the creative community here in St. Pete,” Agami said in a press release.
The festival will also feature work from artists including Kris Markovish, Lyko, Esh, SIO, Dreamweaver, Vital Bros., Zulu and Arturo Romero.
