The brief for the class read like a dare. Last November, at 125 21st Ave SE, mixed media artist Donika Vlada asked a room of Old Southeast kids how many things they could make from a plain brown bag, a glass bottle, or "that random object you found on your last walk," according to the Old Southeast Neighborhood Association's class listing. The class was free. It was open only to OSE residents ages 5 to 12, and the sign-up was an email. The teacher was a member of the neighborhood's own Artist Enclave.
That two-hour Saturday class tells you more about where Old Southeast's art scene is headed than the studio tour did on October 24. Over the past year, the enclave has grown into a small, grant-funded art school. The teachers are the neighborhood's working artists, the classrooms are buildings a few blocks from home, and the students are the kids who live there.
A zoning rule that always included teaching
Old Southeast residents voted for the Artist Enclave Overlay District in 2013, and the City of St. Petersburg granted it in 2014. Only one other St. Petersburg neighborhood holds the designation, and that is Historic Kenwood. The neighborhood association describes the overlay as letting artists use their homes as "work studios, artist lofts, galleries, and instructional spaces."
Instructional spaces, the fourth item on that list, is the one Old Southeast has built on since 2025. The rule itself sits in Section 16.30.030 of the City's land development regulations, which you can open through the City's zoning resources page or read directly in the St. Petersburg code on Municode. Anyone planning to run a home studio should read the code text there.
The faculty lives a few blocks away
In 2025 the association launched the Young Artists Program, which its program page describes as an initiative "to connect children with professional artists living in Old Southeast." It has no fixed classroom. Each session moves to a building that suits the medium, and each is taught by someone the kids could pass on a morning walk.
| Date | Session | Teacher | Where |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nov. 15, 2025 | Recycled Art | Donika Vlada | 125 21st Ave SE |
| May 16, 2026 | Wooden Whistle Making | Beth Ireland and Nick Reale | Salt Creek Arts Studio, 1499 Beach Drive SE |
| Aug. 29, 2026 | Cyanotype printing | Jim Santamor | Annex of the St. Petersburg Religious Society of Friends, 130 19th Ave SE |
| Sept. 26, 2026 | Field trip to the MFA | Museum docent | Museum of Fine Arts, 255 Beach Dr. NE |
Each session went further than a craft-table afternoon. The May whistle class ran as two sessions capped at 10 people each, with tools and materials provided. It was open to all Old Southeast adults and children, and any child under 9 needed an adult who would run the tools while the child watched. Jim Santamor's August class taught cyanotype, a historic photographic process that uses sunlight and iron-based chemistry to make Prussian blue prints, and kids took their own sun prints home. The September trip took young artists and their parents through the MFA's New African Masquerades exhibit, which features artists who make masks from found and locally sourced materials. The idea was to send the kids home ready to make their own Halloween costumes.
The August cyanotype class had the same rules as the first one: free, for OSE residents ages 5 to 12, with pre-registration encouraged through [email protected].
City arts money backs it
The program has funding behind it. The City of St. Petersburg's Level Up Arts Grant funds projects or capacity building for eligible nonprofit arts organizations. Awards go up to $5,000, and youth arts education is one of the priorities the City lists. The City's recipient list names the Old Southeast Neighborhood Association for FY25 and OSNA, Inc. for FY26. The association's own program page says the Young Artists Program received the 2025 and 2026 awards.
In its preview of this fall's tour, The Artisan Magazine wrote that the grants "strengthened programming, expanded workshops, and increased resources for both established and young artists," and called the youth program a cornerstone of the enclave's work.
Kenwood, the city's other enclave, has put its energy into scale. Its 2025 Tour of the Arts opened 28 artists' homes and studios, with live demonstrations and work for sale. The 2026 Kenwood tour was promoted as a two-day event with more than 30 artists and a free trolley. Old Southeast's tour stays at one day and nearly 20 artists. The new programming its enclave has added since 2025 is aimed at children who live inside the boundary.
The tour introduces the teachers
The October studio tour is the one day a year the enclave's artists open their own homes and studios to visitors. The Artisan Magazine's preview named ceramic artists Elle Leonard Dean and Amanda Westenberg, sculptor and photographer Charles Dean, and photographer Anthony John Coletti, a finalist for the Saint Petersburg Month of Photography 2026 Laureate. It also named metal sculptors Gillian Harper, Eileen Finegan and Brian Ottoson, watercolor artists Jean Triol and Deb Ferber, and Mary Grieco. Paul Wilborn and Eugenie Bondurant joined the tour for the first time with their band, Front Porch Picnic.
The neighborhood's Artist Directory covers even more ground. Brian Ottoson makes sculpture from scrap steel and silverware. Annie Johnson prints letterpress cards and posters. Amanda Westenberg hand-builds ceramic vessels. Joanne Manwaring works in shells and Nancy Jones in stained glass, and Donika Vlada, who taught that first recycled-art class, works across recycled materials, photography, writing and graphic design. Mike Woodall builds pieces from discarded fence slats, Tom Gammack works in ceramics, Sara von Waltsleben paints watercolor and colored-pencil portraits, and Michael Carlton is listed for music.
Donika Vlada shows up both in the directory and on the class schedule. Nick Reale, who co-taught the whistle class with Beth Ireland, works out of Salt Creek Arts, which describes itself as Reale's working studio with Shelly Steck Reale. That is also the building that hosted the 2024 holiday market.
What's on the calendar through December
OSNA's summer newsletter laid out the rest of the year.
- Saturday, Nov. 7, 10:30 a.m.: Young Artist Series, "Movement Art." The calendar lists no venue yet, so email [email protected] for details and registration.
- Tuesday, Nov. 10, 6:30 p.m.: OSNA Annual Membership Meeting at Operation Par.
- Saturday, Dec. 5, 6 p.m.: OSE Holiday Party.
- Saturday, Dec. 12, 10 a.m.: Holiday Art Market.
The Holiday Art Market is the one to mark down if you missed the tour, and OSNA has not yet named a site for it. The market has moved before. In 2024 it was at Salt Creek Art Studios, with entry from 4th Street South and 18th Avenue South. Last December it moved outdoors to Old Southeast Market at 1700 3rd Street S, where it ran from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. with local artists and makers, handmade gifts, live demonstrations and family art activities. Watch the association's newsletter for the 2026 location.
If you're an artist in Old Southeast and haven't joined, the enclave invites resident painters, potters, woodturners, musicians, writers, designers, filmmakers and other makers to list in the directory, show on the studio tour, sell at the holiday market, or teach a Young Artists class. Membership costs $10 a year. Teaching a class is the newest of those options.
Kym loves telling this side of Old Southeast. The Artist Enclave has turned the neighborhood's homes into studios, and over the past year into classrooms for its kids. If you have a home studio or a working gallery here and wonder how that kind of space comes across to buyers who care about this community, Kym Coyle would be glad to talk it through over coffee, or start with your instant home valuation.
