THE SUNSHINE CITY MOSAIC is set to be St Petersburg’s newest piece of public art, located in the heart of Sunset Park. The project was awarded to local St Pete artist team of Alex Kaufman, George Retkes, and Laura “Miss Crit” Spencer. This is the team’s first collaboration together, and represents the most ambitious project any of them have attempted.

The finished mosaic, featuring 8 St Pete wildlife scenes, will be 175’ long, making it the longest mosaic in Florida as well as the Southeast. Comprised of 15,000 pieces of porcelain, metal, and glass, the artwork has been in production for the past 2 years.

Installation began on June 9th. It is hard to predict the exact time it will finish as we are working on establishing processes and dealing with Florida summer conditions, but we are very hopeful for an early August completion. Once we are done, the city will then come in and cast a 6” curb on each edge of the sidewalk to protect the finished work and the fence will be removed and the work will be open to the public.

During installation, most of the mosaic will remain covered to allow the concrete, tile, thinset, and grout to remain dry and clean, with a carport canopy allowing us to work during the occasional summer rain.

If you see us working, please feel free to say hi, but keep in mind that some of the processes are time sensitive so we may be in the middle of one and not completely free to communicate.

We hope you will come back and enjoy this finished masterpiece when it is done and open to the public.

We thank you for all the love and support.

-Alex, George, and Laura