And this is where it all began …

Excerpts from 2018 interviews with original PAVA Members and Cool Art participants, Denis Gaston, Lisa Glaser and Melissa Miller Nece

Denis Gaston:  “The idea for the Cool Art Show was first hatched out over chow mein and Buddha’s Delight in 1988.  Wet and exhausted, Italo Gazzoli and I were commiserating in a Chinese restaurant. We had just survived a lousy rainy Mainsail and had no exhibitions the rest of spring or summer. Chasing noodles around my plate, I came up with what I reckoned was a brilliant idea. “What we need is a summer show run by artists in the cool indoors.” Italo, glancing over the edge of his second plum wine,  opined, “A show run by artists? Naw, it’ll never work!”

The first Cool Art Show was held in Fox Hall on the Eckerd College Campus barely three months after we came up with the idea. There were twenty of us stalwart artists and for much of the weekend, artists outnumbered visitors. And it poured both days.  It didn’t matter because we had somehow pulled off the impossible – putting on a killer art show that lasted the entire weekend without someone getting punched in the face.

Veteran photographer Jack Breit came up with a clever way to pass the time during lulls in the Cool selling frenzy – putt-putt golf.  He lay out a zig-zag course in the USF Bayboro student center and for much of Sunday afternoons, artists and visitors putt-putted all over the place, sometimes actually getting balls into cups.” 

Melissa Miller Nece:   “In early years, it was at Eckerd College (how many times I don't know, I just went there once). One year, it was in a recently completed large studio at DFAC (now the main storage area). Then it moved to USF St Pete.  The Campus Activities Center there is a big carpeted gym, and yes, a group of artists set up a miniature golf course in and around artists' booths. Coolers and chairs were part of the course challenges. The game would go on for most of the weekend. Jack Breit, Russ Gustafson-Hilton, Lance Rodgers, and others were part of that, I think. Then USF hit us with a big jump in fee for the space, and we had to skip a year because we had no venue. Based on my photos, that was 2004 (2003 photos are of USFSP and 2005 is the Coliseum). Some work to get a grant from the city of St Pete helped it move to the Coliseum the following year (probably 2005).”

Lisa Glaser:  “Jack and I were there from the beginning. It was us, Denis, Bill Renc and Roger Bansemer. Russ might have been there too. We decided the Pinellas County Arts Council wasn’t doing enough for the artist so we wanted to change things. Jack designed the first logo. Melissa is right about the show locations. I think we were at Eckerd for 2 years before moving to USF. I made the golf trophies and Jack set up a nerf golf game. We also gave out goofy awards for a few years until people got upset because the same people were winning all the time even though Jack always won the least amount of sales award. Lol. 

We lasted the longest, every year until 2 years ago. Another funny thing was when we exhibited at DFAC everyone covered one piece of their art with a black cloth to protest art censorship.” 

So what came first:  PAVA or COOL ART?

Denis Gaston:  “At the same time I was ruminating about a show to be called Cool Art, Bill and Linda Renc were in the formative stages of getting PAVA off the ground. They called me and suggested we join forces.  So PAVA was formed and the Cool Art Show became the first exhibition.

(When asked if he was, indeed known as “ The King of Cool” or “Mr. Cool”}

Pretty sure I was called a lot of names, maybe even King of Cool.

No King ever got anywhere without the help of a whole bunch of dedicated folks and that has been PAVA people for 30 years.”