Thursday, June 27, 2002

Art for the Heart

Museum designer Dave Ellis was worried he would lose his edge once he retired. Then he created a stage out of stone.

By Karen Iwamoto
Points South Staff Writer

OLD SOUTHEAST-Dave Ellis designed his yard to be interactive, to start a conversation. Take, for instance, the pile of rusting metal next to the front porch. It resembles a bent mailbox post and begs the question, What is that?

"That’s the junkasaurus tail," Ellis said, straight-faced. "Don’t you have one?"

Ellis, who is 63, designed museums until he retired in 1996. He helped design Great Explorations--The Hands-on Museum. He is on the city arts committee. He works with elementary and high school students. He designs the labyrinth at Straub Park every New Year’s Eve for First Night. But he is still afraid that old age and retirement would steal his edge.

"I didn’t want to grow rigid. Whatever I can do to keep my mind open, to keep my heart open, is good," he said.

With this in mind, he wanted to create a forum for other people. By listening and talking to others, he believed he would be exposed to original ideas, interesting anecdotes and new points of view. It would keep him out of his comfort zone and force him to keep growing.

"I thought it might be fun to set up a bench in downtown St. Pete and have a sign next to me with a word, a topic of the day. That way, anyone who was interested in starting a dialogue could come and talk."

Ellis eventually abandoned the idea because two people sitting at a bench talking about a topic wouldn’t be diverse enough. He wanted an audience, something that would involve many people and ideas. He wanted to create a small community.

His back yard, which includes a bog, a frog farm, a labyrinth and a stone surface, seemed like the perfect solution. He talked to his neighbor, Bob Devin Jones, who performs at American Stage on Third Avenue South. Jones liked the idea and agreed to perform a few scenes from his plays. He and Ellis invited a few friends and neighbors to watch.

Ellis had found his community. He called the event "On the Rocks" because the performances took place on the stone surface of his back yard. Ellis got feedback from those in the audience, asking them what they’d be interested in seeing for the next event. He compiled their names in an e-mail list so he could contact them about upcoming events.

That was two years ago. The list of people has grown, mostly through word of mouth.

"There’s something nice about being able to walk down the block to one of these functions," said Jo Ellen Schilke, a neighbor of Ellis’ who has attended a session. "There’s something neighborly about it."

"It’s a good reason for people to get together," she added. "The atmosphere is very relaxed, very friendly. People have no qualms about expressing themselves. The performers are comfortable with getting feedback from the audience."

The feedback, from a group with diverse opinions, was just what Ellis was looking for.

"When you have three or four people, it’s not exciting," he said. "I’ve found that if you have a greater number of people you get a greater number of questions."

At a time when information is available on the Internet and entertainment is found by switching on a TV, Dave Ellis has found that talking to people is still the best source of inspiration.