'A Third Act': St. Pete Woman Turns Home Into Gallery For Tampa Bay Artists

ST. PETERSBURG, FL — Years ago, a friend lovingly teased Cassandra Collins about her charming bungalow in St. Petersburg's Five Points neighborhood, telling her that it reminded them of a dollhouse.

But Collins always saw something more in the home, she told Patch.

"It isn't a dollhouse," she always thought. "It's an art gallery."

Today, the walls of her home are covered floor-to-ceiling with paintings, photographs, mixed-media works, and sculptures by dozens of Tampa Bay artists, with art filling nearly every corner. She currently has hundreds of pieces in her collection, which she rotates out.

For Collins, 61, the home gallery represents what she calls her "third act."

After careers as a therapist and, later, in medical imaging, she’s building a new role for herself as an arts advocate, curator, and promoter, helping Tampa Bay artists connect with buyers while creating an alternative to the traditional gallery model.

As Cass Studio, she opens her home to visitors, allowing them to browse the works on display, and encourages both collectors and first-time buyers to discover new artists. Collins takes appointments with art lovers and also hosts a gallery weekend every spring, opening her home to the public.

"The most interesting and the most difficult part of opening a home gallery and doing what I'm doing is you're inventing yourself from scratch," Collins said. "You don't really know what you are yet."

The path to that reinvention began unexpectedly.

Collins had spent her life around artists. Three of her sisters are working artists, and she grew up surrounded by creative people. But she never imagined making art her profession.

Instead, she earned a master's degree in community counseling and worked in behavioral health before eventually transitioning into medical imaging after moving to Florida.

"I was burnt out," she said of her work in mental health. "I think I was ready for something different."

But she still found herself searching for something more fulfilling, and it wasn't until Hurricane Milton that she realized what that might be.

As the storm approached, Collins and her friend, writer Albert Loftus, stayed in St. Petersburg while many others evacuated. The pair spent days talking through the storm and its aftermath, discussing creativity, unfinished projects and what they hoped to accomplish.

"We kind of talked each other into careers," Collins said. "Kind of a third act."

Loftus focused on publishing his novels, while she began thinking about working in the arts.

At the time, Collins had recently purchased dozens of artworks from a charitable sale organized through Diversity Arts after the deaths of two Pinellas Park artists, sisters Sandy and Irma Thomas.

"I remember asking [Loftus,] 'What am I going to do with all of this art?'" Collins said. "I must have had 70 pieces."

These works were among some of the first she sold and from there, she “just moved forward,” she said. “I trusted my gut. My instinct has guided me through this entire process. And I’ve learned so much along the way.”

As she continued to amass a body of art, she learned, from the staff at My Favorite Art Place in Clearwater, how to refurbish vintage frames and hang art. She overcame her fear of approaching artists, built a network across Tampa Bay and embraced Instagram as a tool for discovering new talent.

“Instagram is a wealth, a wealth, a wealth,” Collins said. “There’s nothing I like more than discovering an artist that maybe has a following of 200 but an amazing body of work … And then there’s no end to it. New artists turn you on to other artists. Instagram turned out to be a creative outlet for me.”

By fostering these new connections, Collins has been able to help local artists find homes for their work.

“Now, people will call me, and say, ‘Hey, can I come over and just look?’ and they do, and I pour them a glass of wine, and they take it all in,” she said. “Then we talk about the art and what they’re looking for and I help them find something they love.”

Though her open gallery weekend for the year was held in April, interested collectors can always reach out to her to visit her home. She’s also hoping to host events at other venues throughout the community, including an art show at Outcast Brewing in St. Petersburg in August.

Collins also anticipates that home galleries and other atypical art spaces will become a new trend, making the arts more accessible to everyone - those selling, creating and buying it.

“White wall galleries are way too expensive,” she said. “It’s a noose around your neck for a lot of gallery owners. When you’re doing pop-ups, when you’re using your own home, you don’t have that overhead. So, for one, you don’t have to take the same huge percentage. Rather than taking 40 percent from artists, you can do 25 percent. That’s amazing and much more in favor with them.”

Plus, there’s an intimate appeal to these spaces, Collins added. “It’s a lot of fun, fun, fun, and beautiful things happen as you transform these spaces, and build these true connections with artists and collectors.”

She continued, “And then they meet each other and it becomes a support network. That’s the coolest part about all of it. It’s a support between artists and collectors, and I’m starting to learn how to create collectors, which is wonderful. There is nothing more satisfying. I had six pieces by Tia Barket, these really colorful cool fishes, and to call her and say, ‘Listen, I brought these to a collector friend, and he bought the entire series,’ that’s golden. And that’s why I’m doing this.”

Collins hopes her gallery weekends, artist partnerships and pop-up exhibitions will continue to grow as she transitions out of her medical career.

As she prepares for retirement, she sees her role not simply as selling art, but helping artists build sustainable careers while strengthening St. Petersburg's creative community.

“I want St. Pete to become an arts mecca,” she said.

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