Artistic Odyssey

By AMANDA HENRY The Tampa Tribune

Published: Aug 31, 2006

Fortunately for the economies in those parts of the world without a coastline, most holiday goers do eventually return to their workaday lives.

Count Brad Cooper, proprietor of the eponymous Ybor City gallery, among the exceptions to that rule. After 21 years and more than 100 exhibitions, Cooper and his wife, Elizabeth, are moving to Greece.

"Your environment, to a large degree, determines your state of mind. Over there, it's really living in the Old World because the culture is still in place," said Cooper, waxing rhapsodic about his new turf. "The landscape and the architecture and the food and the people ..."

The Coopers have been taking annual trips to Greece, Elizabeth's ancestral home, since 2001. The idea of making a permanent shift started percolating a few years ago and shifted into high gear last summer. After looking at buildings and properties on the mainland and some of the islands, they settled on the area around Mani, on the Peloponnesian peninsula, a few hours southwest of Athens.

"It's very inspiring. It makes me want to get back to work. There's something about walking along a stone path that was built 1,000 years ago," Cooper said of the region's rich cultural history, which includes dozens of churches with spectacular Byzantine frescoes.

The area is largely undeveloped - some of the villages didn't have electricity until the 1970s - but does attract a number of tourists, particularly from Europe. The Coopers (Brad is 50, Elizabeth 35) hope to build on that industry by running art-themed vacations for artists and art enthusiasts, which might include studio time as well as sightseeing, kayaking and local cuisine.

That business is still in the planning stages. Although the Seventh Avenue building that houses the Brad Cooper Gallery is on the market, there are exhibitions planned at least through the end of the year. Even after the doors close, the Coopers intend to maintain an online presence and continue representing some of their artists - especially since most of their clientele is already from out of state.

"We'd like to go next week if we could, but we're really systematically planning the shift," Cooper said.

They hope that a business with an artistic bent will take over the location. Before the Brad Cooper Gallery moved in, there was an art supply store there for decades, so the space has a long history of cultural activity. Cooper thinks the time is right for non-nightclub development in the area.

"I think Ybor will bounce back," said Cooper, who moved the gallery from south Tampa to Seventh Avenue in 1990. "There's a new emphasis on getting balance down here."

Although it wasn't an easy decision to let go of the highly regarded business Cooper spent more than 20 years building - an eternity in the tumultuous art world - the Coopers said the trade-off is worth it. It's not just the region's art history that appeals but also local culture in a broader sense.

They want to be regulars at the village cafe, get their fish from the boat every morning and take part in the daily rituals of the town.

"There's an authenticity to it," Cooper said. "That aspect of it is missing in the U.S. in a way."

Ybor City offered an approximation of the intimacy and activity of village life, but the pace - and relentless marketing - of the American lifestyle makes it difficult to stay grounded, Cooper said.

"There's a denial of what it is to really be human. People have lost touch with that," said Cooper. "Culture is viewed in a myopic way today.

"We want to go there so we can experience something that's broad, and then we can share that with other people because it's been such a thrill for us to discover."

Eventually the Coopers hope to have a building of their own in Greece for studio and exhibition space. In the meantime, running cultural tours will offer some of the same satisfaction as programming a gallery - such as interacting with creative people - without the headaches of making a living through art.

"I don't think it's necessarily just Tampa," said Cooper, who heard familiar tales of woe from Athens gallery owners. "I think the world has evolved to the point that the group of people that is visually aware is smaller and smaller."

For the time being, the Coopers will keep their house in Tampa and winter here. Eventually, though, they see their lives in Greece.

"We won't have access to a lot of the comforts, the conveniences that we have over here. But the trade-off, I think, is worth it. The quality of life is much higher," Cooper said.

"There are so many different things to learn about and discover; it's opened up a new world for us."

Reporter Amanda Henry can be reached at (813) 259-7569 or ahenry@tampatrib.com.

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