Fairgrounds St. Pete is an interactive art exhibit that features the work of 70 local and regional artists. A walk-through series of explorable rooms constituting an immersive art and technology experience in St. Petersburg, Florida, it features open spaces and areas that defy description and is rooted in immersive fun.
Created in collaboration with artists, Fairgrounds St. Pete is an immersive world with playful exhibits based on original Florida stories.
CEO and co-founder Liz Dimmitt fell in love with interactive art when travelling and became determined to create an exhibit in St. Petersburg. Fairgrounds St. Pete, part of the Factory St. Pete in the Warehouse Arts District, opened in September 2021. Creative technology advisor and co-founder Mikhail Mansion, who was recently named the area’s Artist Laureate by the Creative Pinellas organisation, joins Dimmitt in speaking to blooloop.
A meeting of minds
“I have a background in art and technology,” Mansion begins. “It’s a hybrid practice that I’ve had of building immersive exhibits in different contexts, and then bringing those exhibits to life through technology. I’ve done that professionally for clients, brands, institutions and schools. For my own personal practice as an artist, I’ve done the same thing, working with different groups.”
One such group is Meow Wolf. He adds:
“I did some projects with them just before we got started with Fairgrounds St. Pete.”
Meanwhile, Dimmitt’s background is in finance. She says: “I’m a big fan of the arts. But, in the last decade or so, I have got into increasingly more large-scale immersive art projects, doing them with various clients”
She spent 17 years in New York City, but moved home to her native Florida in late 2017:
“I had always wanted to do a large-scale permanent immersive art space in St. Petersburg. There’s just such a thriving and wonderful arts and creative community here. In 2019, I was introduced to Mikhail through the then-head of the St. Pete Arts Alliance. He and I just hit it off.
“My first question to him was, ‘Do you know what Meow Wolf is?’ He said, ‘I’m a Meow Wolf artist,’ and I thought, ‘Oh, great!’
Creating Fairgrounds St. Pete
“We had very similar ideas. He is also from Florida, and we had the same idea of honouring Florida, its artists and its history. Fairgrounds St. Pete was really born then. We didn’t have a name for it or any money to do it yet, but we knew we wanted to do something together. Mikhail’s wife, Olivia Mansion, who is our chief marketing officer now, was very quick to get involved, and we all just started to push forward and made it through the pandemic.”
“Now here we are in 2023, and we’ve been open almost two years.”
Explaining the significance of the name Fairgrounds St. Pete, she says:
“We came up with that name because we were thinking of the World’s Fair, and how fairgrounds are the exhibit places to show the best and the brightest of new inventions. There was also the play on the word ‘fair’ in connection with treating artists, our guests, and our employees fairly. We take pride in paying artists well for their commissions. And then, also, our first location is on Fairfield Avenue.”
The guest experience
On arriving at Fairgrounds St. Pete, visitors are greeted by the staff and given some insights into how they can experience the venue.
“We say it’s a choose-your-own experience,” Mansion says. “There’s no right or wrong way to go through the space. There are lots of different rooms; it doesn’t have a sequence. It’s 15,000 square feet of different exhibits. It has a lot of narrative elements to explore and discover that lead you down story paths. There is gamification, so there is a variety of ways to interact with the space to play different games and solve puzzles.”
There are also certain games and scavenger hunts. These are designed either to help illuminate specific narratives or to highlight different pieces of art throughout the exhibit.
At some point, visitors will find themselves travelling up a ramp, Python Alley, passing an Interstate 275 exit sign for the Mermaid Star Motel.
“Python Alley is a sort of joke,” Mansion explains. “In Florida, there’s a famous road called Alligator Alley, an alligator crossing which bifurcates the Everglades. We have our own little version of that, but it’s an interstate highway. It expands in front of you, and it goes up this ramp into a hurricane, which is spinning and swirling in front of you. This is our Wizard of Oz moment where you pass through the hurricane.”
Artworks at Fairgrounds St. Pete
The hurricane is a 360-degree projection-mapped animation by acclaimed South Florida artist Francesco Lo Castro. Mansion adds:
“The eye of the hurricane is a transition. You land in a big vista, which is an expansive view of the Mermaid Star Motel, a roadside Florida motel. You’re coming off the road through the hurricane, and from there, you have lots of options. You can go in around six different directions. There’s no right or wrong way from there. However, we often encourage people to start with the motel lobby because it’s one of the spaces that has a lot of different artists’ work in it.”
Some rooms are entirely devoted to the work of one artist. Meanwhile, others comprise mixed pieces from various artists and scenic elements built by the Fairgrounds team:
“The lobby’s a great place to jump off into a lot of narratives. You can sit down on a couch and peruse different articles. There’s a television playing. We have our own in-world television network designed by some of our artists.”
“It plays different commercials and, like when you stay at a hotel, there’s that passive ambient channel that is advertising different things. There are cartoon newscasters that one of our artists came up with. They’re named Kippy and Kappy; it’s Kippy and Kappy’s Network of Happy. It’s full of whimsy and humour.”
The artist behind Kippy and Kappy (who are cats that talk in gibberish) is Shay Willard, an interactive video designer who has worked in themed entertainment and theatre all over the country and is currently doing so for Walt Disney Imagineering in Orlando.
Different ways of exploring
“You discover you can move on and explore the motel pool, for example, and all the different motel rooms,” Mansion continues:
“They’re all quite different from one another. Some of them are heavy with narrative that we’ve injected as a team, and constructed together. Then there are rooms that are purely the artist’s idea, where they have run with something that they really wanted to do, and we have supported them in different ways to achieve it. That might be by helping them use technology in a new way, or to use projections and immersive sound, or all kinds of materials.”
“You’ll find murals and paintings, ceramic work, digital media, stained glass, sculptural objects of all different forms and shell art. It goes on and on.”
Eventually, visitors discover a special room: the signature FLORIDARAMA.
“It’s an immersive diorama room full of small installations by artists. Each diorama tells a different Florida story from their perspective,” he explains.
Fairgrounds St. Pete: a layered experience
Fairgrounds St. Pete is a layered experience, says Dimmitt:
“There is no right or wrong way to do it. You can get as much out of it as you put into it. Some people come in and just look at pretty art, take photos, stroll around, and see the space. Some people come back over and over and get really invested in the narrative. They find themselves wanting to solve the mysteries or really understand every single thing that’s happening.
“Some people come because there are a lot of local, Florida-based and national-based artists, and they’re very art-centric. We didn’t want to have didactic information to break the experience, but we have discreet QR codes in every area. So, if you’re arts-interested you can scan that code and learn about the artists in that area, and their work.”
There is, she says, something for everyone:
“You do see people going through and doing their first lap, then starting over at the beginning because the more you see, the more you understand. There are rooms that reference other rooms and other stories. It’s a layered experience that is just really fun and magical; all ages enjoy it.”
The tagline is Art for All, Play for All, Joy for all:
“That is what it’s about. It’s whimsical, it’s fun, it’s happy. You can break from the day and have this transcendent experience where you get to escape reality. It transports you to a different world.”
Art meets technology
The team refer to the Fairgrounds aesthetic as ‘retro futuristic’.
“We’re looking back at the past in Florida’s history of roadside motels and roadside attractions,” she comments. “We’re also bringing art, technology and these futuristic things into it as well.”
The most recent installation at Fairgrounds St Pete is Shrimpfinity.
“It is just so much fun,” Dimmitt comments. “It’s by a group called MILAGROS Collective. We’ve been following them from the very beginning. Their two founders are both from Florida. When we expanded our footprint this year, we got in contact with MILAGROS Collective. We sent them information about us and our space and did a video walkthrough. They put together a proposal for us.
“As a leadership team, we loved it. Mikhail worked with them to help res up their practice. This room was the first time they had used sound and projection.”
Collaboration is key
Mansion explains:
“They were used to doing mural installations, both outdoors and indoors, but not working in a heavily controlled lighting situation, almost like stage lighting, for example, then layering on projection.
“Thinking about their work in the context of a lot of other works was also new to them. The flow and interaction design, ADA accessibility, and all of the things that you have to think about as a museum, or as an accessible space: how that all blends together and works as a cohesive piece of art. They were great, and eager to play in this new immersive space.”
Concerning their artwork, he adds:
“I think they nailed it. They brought in collaborators, which is interesting because that’s what we’ve found is the secret. Collaboration makes the difference because you’re engaging with so many forms of art and material and you’re dealing with architecture. So, you really do need to work together to bring it to life.”
It was, he says, above all, fun:
“There was a lot of experimentation. We try to do as much planning ahead of time as possible. But sometimes you just have to get on the ground and start moving the lights around, and exploring what’s possible. That experimentation led them to create a cool, immersive soundtrack with a collaborator who had sampled sounds from shrimp on the sea floor. They really made it a cohesive Shrimpfinity space.”
Working with artists at Fairgrounds St. Pete
“For our team, getting to work with the artist is the most fun part of it,” Dimmitt says:
“Some days, of course, we have to talk about how we sell more tickets. But the days when you get to collaborate with the artists and help them realise a project are so rewarding and fun. MILAGROS Collective told us at the end of this project that it was their favourite thing they’d ever done. That is a huge compliment, and wonderful for our team.”
Mansion comments:
“I’ll just add that when we started the company, we said to ourselves – and this is woven right into our ethos – that artists are the first customers. We created a whole artist relations strategy. That comes through when the artist goes through a commissioning experience with us, works with us, launches an installation, is promoted by us, and then feels great and supported.
“The point of Fairgrounds St. Pete is to be a platform for artists to express themselves in a cool and immersive way that we can all profit from.”
The rise of immersive experiences
Immersive art spaces are becoming increasingly popular, Dimmitt observes:
“Over the two years we’ve been open, we’ve seen the concept evolve. In the beginning, we’d have to explain what an immersive art experience is. Now, that’s not the case. ‘Immersive’ is a word that’s used all the time.”
Mansion credits Meow Wolf with leading the way:
“They have been a huge inspiration to us – and really brave, out there beating the path and showing everyone else what can be done.”
Collaboration, Dimmitt reiterates, is key. It’s about putting that individual ego on one side and working together to produce something that’s bigger than everybody:
“We like to say we’re creating the stage for these other artists and people to perform on. They bring the magic.”
Different narratives
Dimmitt explains the narratives that thread through the space:
“In the beginning, we came up with a global narrative as a framework for us to help prioritise what we were going to do. We then also did an artist call in March of 2020, right at the height of the pandemic. It was a little bit sooner than we had planned because everyone was at home. They needed something to do, and a paid project. We had a little bit of a narrative then to explain what Fairgrounds St. Pete was.”
“We like to say that we’re celebrating weird, wacky, wonderful Florida. As we developed our anchor spaces we framed that with a global narrative.
“We call ourselves a ‘storyful experience’, and that narrative frames the entire experience. As a guest, you can dive into that story as much as you want to. Some people understand that there’s a story right away. They dig into it and read every article and everything throughout the space. Others just take in all the beautiful art.
“The narrative is a framework that helps connect everything. For us as a team, it helps us decide what goes where, and how to continue things so that everything is cohesive and fits together. You never land in a space that makes no sense. You know there is a logic to it, but it’s very loose, so there aren’t hard and fast rules.”
Fairgrounds St. Pete as a living lab
In terms of the layering of experience, she adds:
“We’ve just had our first expansion, and we’re always layering on things. Every time you come, there’s going to be something different or expanded upon. We’re always upgrading, adding new technology, adding new games. In 2024, we’ll start to change out some rooms and to change some things.”
Mansion enlarges on this, adding:
“We think of the exhibit as a living lab; we do a lot of prototyping, trying out different creative ways to do storytelling and to facilitate interaction. We do consider it an interactive museum, so we’ve been working on different conventions for how to interact. It’s an interesting problem set as a designer; you’re dealing with different ranges of fidelity of art.”
“There’s some really fine art in the space. You can’t interact with everything successfully without getting some damage, so how to steer people towards the right modes of interaction has been an ongoing design challenge.
“We’ve developed a range of our own different ways of doing it, from foot pedal activations to touchless buttons.
“We’re always finding new ways to do things like that, and to create these surprising moments, where animations come to life on a wall, or there is a sudden surprising sound or a kinetic robotic element.”
Looking to the future
“We really have the full gamut,” Mansion comments:
“The future is exciting, in terms of how things might come to life through artificial intelligence. That is something we are exploring in conjunction with researchers at Ringling College of Art and Design. They are doing creative writing classes with AI, building characters that can have fluid conversations and will stay in a certain character narrative.”
In short, Dimmitt says:
“We are thinking and growing all the time. As new tech comes along, we’re experimenting with it, and layering it on. We have added an augmented reality magic mirror installation at the front of our experience, on the outside. That’s something people can play with. We’ve always thought about how Fairgrounds St. Pete could expand beyond our walls so you can interact with the brand and the stories in different ways, maybe outside, or in different contexts.
“So yes: we are always prototyping and experimenting.”
All images © Fairgrounds St. Pete
