Harborside Studios Partners With Main Street Market for Halloween Events

With Halloween rapidly approaching, a couple of downtown businesses are working together to make the spooky holiday a real treat for the citizens of Safety Harbor. 

Main Street Market is hosting a pair of pumpkin themed events, each one designed to help raise money for Harborside Studios, the UPARC funded gallery located on Fifth Avenue North. 

In addition to hosting Pumpkin Palooza, a pumpkin-carving contest that’s sponsored by the Safety Harbor Museum and Cultural Center, Dawn and Bill Bailey are using their Second Street produce stand as a fund raising spot for Harborside. 

“It’s all about bringing the community together and raising money for Harborside,” Dawn Bailey said. 

The students at the gallery have already created a pair of scarecrows that are set up at the market, and they have decorated baskets and pumpkins that will be sold and displayed there this month. 

On October 20^th, they will have a table set up selling the students’ artwork, and the scarecrows will be auctioned off, with bids starting at $75.00. 

“We’re very excited that Dawn…is trying to help us out, Harborside director Michelle Ault said. “We’re definitely grateful for all she’s doing for us.” 

Ault said the students will be there on the 20^th selling “lots of beautiful things”, and employees will be on hand to assist with face painting from 11am-1pm. 

She said they would be selling art on the 27^th as well, possibly during the big Pumpkin Palooza party, which runs from 6pm-9pm. 

At least one person is extremely grateful for the services Harborside provides, and she is thrilled the Bailey’s are doing what they can to promote the facility.

“The gallery is really close to my heart because I’m recovering from a traumatic brain injury,” longtime Safety Harbor resident Stacy Hatcher said. "I went there...and started working with decoupage, and I knew it was helping my brain."

“The healing that comes with working with art cannot be overestimated.” 

According to Bailey, that effect the Gallery has on people is what spurred her to create the holiday event. 

“I want more people to be aware of what’s going on over there,” she said.