Duncan McClellan’s Bold New Chapter
By Antonio Permuy
Published August 31, 2024 on The Artisan Magazine.
A story of vision, legacy, and renewal prepares for a new phase.
A story of vision, legacy, and renewal prepares for a new phase
Duncan McClellan has established one of the most beloved arts hubs in Tampa Bay. The glass art pioneer is now marking the 15th anniversary of Duncan McClellan Gallery with the announcement of a new chapter in their story by the end of the year.
Since its inception, Duncan McClellan Gallery has been a story of constant evolution with often dramatic results. McClellan first learned of the property “a former tomato packing plant” from artists Mark Aeling and Catherine Woods in 2009 when it was still off the market. At the time, the space bordering the Pinellas Trail and 24th street south was a barren, distressed lot within an undesirable area. Even in that setting, McClellan envisioned a sprawling tropical oasis that merged living vegetation with outdoor glass art. That sense of vision has been a perpetual source of renewal and growth in the ensuing 15 years, leading to achievements that would have been unthinkable to anyone else in his position that day in 2009.
Before the Dream: The future site of Duncan McClellan Gallery, as it was in 2009.
Just as glassblowing almost alchemically transmutes common sand into translucent glass, McClellan took the gravel and weed-filled lot and transformed it into a fine art gallery, glassblowing hot shop, and event space surrounded by more than 70 varieties of lush vegetation. From the seed of that vision grew a mesmerizing series of ripple effects that continue to extend far beyond the grounds of the property. In fact, the very idea for the now iconic St. Petersburg Warehouse Arts District may have been born on the property.
Around 2009 or 2010, former St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Baker had first expressed the idea while speaking with McClellan on the back porch of the property. While the renovation of the building was not yet complete, it was already evident that it offered the possibility for a broader and more ambitious transformation of the surrounding neighborhood. “We need to call this the Warehouse Arts District”. McClellan recalls Baker saying as their conversation flowed, undoubtedly due to the prevalence of large, industrial structures there. As the idea of a broader district continued to take shape and emerge with more support, Duncan McClellan Gallery took the additional step of funding the contest to create the Warehouse Arts District logo. It is a story not unlike Miami’s famed Wynwood, although with a more organic, community-driven effort that was less dominated by monolithic investors like New York developer Tony Goldman’s role in Wynwood.
Fellow St. Petersburg arts pioneer Bob Devin Jones, who recently retired from his own nationally acclaimed St. Pete arts institution, The Studio@620, was another early supporter of McClellan’s burgeoning glass art scene in what was then the outskirts of the city. With Jones’ background in theater, this showed that from its inception McClellan was already attracting and engaging with communities from across different backgrounds and disciplines in the arts. Jones later recognized McClellan by awarding him a Studio Award in 2015.
A transformational impact: Duncan McClellan Gallery helped revitalize the surrounding area and spark the St. Petersburg Warehouse Arts District.
Alongside the development of the Warehouse Arts District, a second defined community identity was also beginning to take shape by around 2011: the Glass Coast. The term, likely originally coined by gallerist Mary Childs, identifies the impressive coalescence of a thriving glass art scene on the West Coast of Florida that has St. Petersburg as its epicenter. This community has grown to include The Chihuly Collection, the Morean Glass Studio, the Imagine Museum, Zen Glass Studio, and Sigma Glass Studio, among others. McClellan was not only on the forefront of this new community, but has been its effective diplomat, traveling far and wide bringing glass artists and collectors back to St. Petersburg to see this glass art haven with their own eyes, and thereby connecting it to wider audiences beyond Florida. As the unofficial, yet undisputed, Glass Coast ambassador, McClellan also helped with the opening of The Chihuly Collection site, associating the local scene with the highest levels of the international glass art market. This status would be formally recognized in 2019 when the St. Petersburg Arts Alliance named McClellan a Muse Arts Ambassador.
Another major development came in 2011 with the opening of the hot shop. This allowed not only for the display of glass art, but also the creation of it. The Hot Shop has been utilized by visiting glass artists, as well as to teach glass blowing students, and for educational demonstrations for the public. In fact, it became the first hot glass studio with regular free demonstrations in the city of St. Petersburg that was open to the public.
In 2012, another new outgrowth bubbled up from the ever-flowing fountain of ideas. This time it was for a more coordinated approach to their programming and outreach that also formalized McClellan’s deeper mission. The DMG School Project, a 501c3 nonprofit, emerged as an innovative new vehicle to launch community-engaging initiatives that expose more people to glass art. It has spanned to include the Gallery Lecture Series, a residency program, and even a Mobile Glass Lab to bring glassblowing offsite to areas that would not otherwise have access to demonstrations. As it developed, the DMG School Project has also partnered with other leading regional institutions including the Museum of Fine Arts St. Petersburg and Eckerd College, and also received the $50,000 Lightning Community Hero Award grant from Tampa Bay Lightning owner Jeff Vinik.
Duncan McClellan, center, receiving a Lightning Foundation grant check from Tampa Bay Lightning owner Jeff Vinik, right, in 2018.
Duncan McClellan has brought glass art education to many communities through his DMG School Project’s lecture series and demonstrations.
Cementing its reach far beyond its deep local roots, DMG now represents well over 100 artists, many of whom are also international. Impressively, most of the artists have also attended the gallery in person and given lectures and demonstrations in the studio.
A major coup for the gallery as an still-fledgling institution came in June 2010 after successfully securing the representation of the late Stephen Rolfe Powell, an artist and professor who was one of the leading pillars of the contemporary glass movement. Though Powell, a friend of McClellan’s, was very interested in joining the gallery, his assistant had strong reservations due to the history of the surrounding area. They were decisively won over after making a personal visit to the gallery and studio. And it has proved fruitful: McClellan recalls once selling a group of nine Powell sculptures as a single package to Miami-based art collectors. The gallery now has a collector base across the U.S., Canada, Mexico, France, Germany, the Czech Republic, Sweden, and Australia.
In addition to this year’s 15th anniversary, the DMG team is also gearing up to mark another major milestone next year: 40 years of Duncan McClellan’s own journey with glass art. To finally follow his passion and launch his storied career as a leading Florida glassblowing artist, McClellan worked three jobs and sold over $150,000 of perfume and cosmetics from a cart to afford to study and blow glass professionally.
After years of interest and pursuit, McClellan began his formal studies in Tampa’s Ybor City in the 1980s before traveling to New York City where he was mentored by leading glass artist John Brekke. He eventually became only the second American invited to study in the ARS Studio in Murano, Italy where he would also work and deepen his craft considerably. These experiences led him on the path of learning not only the process for creating glass art, but also the unique challenges that glass blowing brings, including cost prohibitive equipment and specialized settings.
As he didn’t have his own studio at the time, McClellan decided to create a venue that would not only serve as a base for his own career, but help other established and aspiring glassblowing artists to succeed as well. This journey has since grown into the still-flourishing nexus we see manifested today, with a legacy that has helped change the arts landscape of Tampa Bay, and successfully placed Florida on the international glass art map.
Inevitably, McClellan’s own personal art career has also blossomed alongside the communities he has helped build. Since launching his career, McClellan has exhibited his work throughout the U.S. and as far as Dubai, Japan, and in the United Nations. He has also gone on to win numerous awards and recognitions and is included in the permanent collection of several major institutions, including the Tampa Museum of Art, the New Orleans Museum of Art, Polk Museum of Art, the Museum of Art – DeLand, the Mobile Museum of Art, and the Walt Disney Company.
A crystalized legacy: after 15 years, Duncan McClellan Gallery is now a leading arts hub with a still-flourishing impact.
His is undoubtedly a story of constant transformation. Not one to rest on his laurels, his wife Irene recalls that when discussing the progress made on any one project, McClellan frequently responds “It’s getting there, it’s getting there.” For McClellan, everything is a work in progress, and the work is never done. As one phase stabilizes, he expands his vision into unexpected new directions.
Behind these continuous evolutions is a high-spirited ambitious itch for growth and, surprisingly, growth does reliably and organically follow each project. While not every idea makes its way into execution, like his infamous but not-entirely-joking “art zipline” idea that featured on the Tampa Bay Times April Fools edition of 2017, those that do manifest tend to last.
Underneath it all, there is a restlessness and sometimes quirkiness mixed into McClellan’s approach and his unique way of thinking that shows a willingness to try things that others may not. It has an endearing sense of playfulness, a desire to experiment, to try new things, and reach new communities. There is also a keen instinct to innovate that keeps generating and attracting growth around their activities: the crowds keep getting bigger. The shows keep attracting new artists and collectors. And the ideas never stop. Nor does the impact.
That remains true as the DMG team prepares for their latest transformation: a new management structure. After 15 years, Duncan McClellan will be reshaping his role and his schedule. This will mean that his wife Irene will be taking over in an official capacity as the new General Manager.
In typical Duncan McClellan fashion, rather than stepping back or slowing down, this transition is tied to further growth. It will free his day-to-day schedule and allow him to pursue more events, more travel, and explore more arts projects beyond St. Petersburg. McClellan will still be directing all aspects of their gallery and studio operations in a general way rather than the daily execution of it. This will also allow him to bring more people from out of town and better develop and expand the Glass Coast concept, another ongoing priority of his.
Among those ambitious new projects, McClellan is looking to find a creative partner to collaborate with in possibly adding a new restaurant to the site. Tentatively titled “Dinner at Duncan’s,” the project would allow McClellan to draw from his previous restaurant experience and create a unique and immersive fine art dining concept that will also enhance their on-site event hosting capabilities.
It is clear that McClellan has a very capable partner in Irene to not only keep things running at the gallery, but also to maintain their values, such as the way they engage with artists and the public, which will also help realize their vision to expand. She has developed long lasting relationships with all the regulars of the gallery’s scene and also has the knowledge and structure to carry out both new and existing projects.
Notably, the gallery will still remain open seven days a week and no other changes to existing services will take place beyond expanding into their new projects. And perhaps most importantly, Duncan will still be a constant presence there.
The official transition is planned to occur in October with the arrival of the new fall season, with an event in the works to mark the anniversary and this new era.
Reflecting on what keeps them both going after 15 years, Irene simply says “It’s a joy to be doing this.”
To the rest of us, the joy is still palpable.