Over 50 New Art Studio Spaces Planned For Ybor Warehouse

Over 50 New Art Studio Spaces Planned For Ybor Warehouse

Over 50 new art workspaces may soon open at Tampa Bay’s Meatyard Ybor, a converted warehouse named after noted sculptor and HCC Ybor professor Jerry Meatyard. The project is being spearheaded by photographer Fadi Garcia and his wife, architect Jessie Shell, in an attempt to provide growing artists with affordable studio spaces to create and refine their works. The building, currently the abandoned David and Co building on 2nd Avenue and Angel Ovia Sr Street, used to be a manufacturing plant for machinery to farm orange groves. Now the 12,000 square foot building is in talks to become the hub for a budding arts district, promoting Ybor as a destination for exciting and creative new installations. By analyzing the successes of projects in St Pete’s art district as well as studios in Portland and Houston, building owner and CEO of BluePearl Veterinary Partners Darryl Shaw has been finalizing the decision to move ahead on the project. The hope is that by building an affordable place to work on art, Ybor will be able to support more artists who would otherwise plan to move away from Tampa in lieu of bigger, and more cost-effective cities, and develop programs for artists coming out of USF, HCC, and the University of Tampa.