Tarpon Springs’ Leepa Rattner Museum opens two exhibitions focused on water

It is no secret that Florida is home to beautiful and diverse waterways.

The Leepa-Rattner Museum of Art at St. Petersburg College is opening two summer exhibitions on May 21st which highlight the need to protect these waterways from impending harm. Both exhibitions run through August 27th.

The exhibition Balance of Water: Carol Mickett & Robert Stackhouse explores the effects of climate change and the warming of our waters. This exhibition can be found in the North, South, and Center Galleries.

“Balance of Water: Carol Mickett & Robert Stackhouse explores the unseen forces in nature that keep our planet in check and envisions what could happen when imbalance pushes these forces to the brink,” says Christine Renc-Carter, curator for the Leepa-Rattner Museum of Art. “Mickett and Stackhouse have created a forum for dialogue where art and science converge. Their monumental paintings push the conversation of climate change in new directions in a visually poetic way that is all-encompassing, yet intimate in feeling.”

The exhibition Florida’s Waterways: Homage to Tarpon Springs includes a collection of paintings and sculptures by local renowned artists. These pieces complement the Balance of Water exhibition by showcasing marine life and climate change in Florida. This exhibition can be found in the Atrium Gallery.

“As the Gulf Stream loops south towards the equator, the journey continues through Florida’s Waterways: Homage to Tarpon Springs with works focused on our southern waters by renowned local artists Christopher Still, Bill Renc, Allen Leepa and others,” Renc-Carter says. “The climate crisis becomes all too real with educational text and QR Codes that encourage scientific inquiry.”