Because we believe it’s important during these times, we wanted to share some good news with you all. We’re happy to announce and thankful to have received a combined $5k in grants from the City of St. Petersburg and Pinellas County Government as a small arts business through their Fighting Chance Fund and Pinellas CARES Local Business Grant, respectively. While there was no requirement to thank them, we’d like to do so anyway in the name of openness and transparency. We greatly appreciate the city and county governments being proactive in taking care of their creative community, one which they proudly sell our area on in good times. Whereas it is easy to pay lip service to the arts, this is was them putting their money where their mouth is at a time when many things don’t necessarily come through or to fruition. If the amounts seem like a lot, it is a drop in the bucket compared to the normal revenues our business and others like us have missed out on, but we are grateful for any assistance. These may be merely bandages, as they do not heal all our wounds or stop the bleeding, but they give a sense of resolve and some security. Our local government officials deserve credit for this and we’re sure many of the other businesses in the arts will continue to exist as part of what makes this city shine once this is over because of it. Most importantly, with the health and safety of our community the number one priority for us as event organizers, they’ve stepped up to encourage, rather than punish, us for making necessary sacrifices and doing the right thing during this pandemic.

We’d also like to take the opportunity to talk about some of the ways in which we’re a part of the local creative economy. People come to dance to our DJs, but in addition to booking a diverse group of independent, underground artists, Open House Conspiracy also commissions art, design, and sometimes live projections from visual and graphic artists. In the past, we’ve also paid for art installations and performance art such as drag performers or entertainers when we can incorporate this. For many events we bring in photographers and videographers, whose work we treat as the art of story telling, rather than simply a marketing tool. We also secure space pro-bono for emerging artist exhibitions and dance and DJ workshops. Creativity has also been on display through working with local chefs for pop-up food concepts or vendors sharing their fashion style with the world. This year, we took our Dunedin International Film Festival programming to another level by incorporating a screening of ELECTRIC ROOTS and a talk on film composing by Reggie Dokes and are working on something similar for 2021. All of this is in addition to hiring more technical roles like sound, lights, and door, as well as supporting bar staff and supporting local boutique hotels with room reservations. It takes a whole community to pull off these events, including all of you who generously support us.

These funds will be used to cover our reoccurring bills, help with past and future livestreams, procure merchandise to sell online, keep our core DJs afloat where necessary, and return to events confidently and safely whenever it’s possible and responsible to do so.

Stay well and best wishes, until we can dance again.