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Community Corner

The Regent Looks to Inform, Answer Questions

The Regent will hold a community meeting this Thursday to inform the public about its community outreach programs.

has been about its methods and practices since the day it opened thanks to the taxpayer dollars that helped build it, but the special event center is continually hoping to address the community's concerns through meetings with the public.

This Thursday, officials from The Regent, 6437 Watson Rd., Riverview, will meet with members of the public to outline its community outreach efforts and to answer any questions that attendees may have. The meeting is partially a response to past requests for more transparency.

"We're doing this because we were asked to do it," The Regent's executive director Kristen Kerr said. "Our director will answer questions, and we'll brief people on how things are going. We only had around 10 people at the previous meetings. We're doing it for the public, so we'd like to see them come out."

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Amongst the activities the center has been focusing on are monthly art exhibits and open houses. February will also feature an open mic competition and a canned food drive.

A task force was set up last year to engage the local art community and make The Regent a home to the arts in the Brandon and Bloomingdale areas. With events like the upcoming competition, they appear to be doing just that.

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The competition, set to take place on Feb. 10, will include submissions by artists of all skill levels exhibiting three finished pieces of work with the winner awarded a solo show at The Regent.

Thursday's meeting is more of a chance for The Regent's board to sit down with the public and show them what they are doing, rather than being an outlet for a response to the criticism that has been hurled at them in the past.

"These meetings are important to us because we don't have the budget to advertise or market what we do," Kerr said. "We do our fair share of working with the media, but we're at their mercy so this a chance for us to sit down and let the public know what we're doing and what is coming to The Regent."

If You Go

The meeting will take place at 5:30 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 9. For more information, call The Regent at 813-571-2494.

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