Your 15 Minutes Of Fame At FMoPA - by John Granberg

If you're a photographer and you'd like to show your work, here's your chance. The Florida Museum of Photographic Arts (FMoPA) in downtown Tampa launched a monthly "open mic night" called Your 15 Minutes of Fame.

The program was started to provide a forum in which local artists can present their work and interact with others doing the same.

So if you want to share your photographic work with the community, and want to view other photographer's projects and meet the artists, Your 15 Minutes of Fame is the perfect forum.

The event is usually held during the 3rd week of the month. To enter your work and become a presenter, email your contact information to 15Minutes@fmopa.org.

The event hosts six presentation slots each month that showcase any form of photographic medium, and it gives each presenter 15 minutes to talk about their work and respond to audience questions. When the first six slots are full for the current month's event, entries are scheduled for subsequent months.

Presenters can bring a digital media presentation to show on the FMoPA projector during their presentation and/or they can show actual photos. Museum membership is required to enter and it's quick, easy and inexpensive to join ($25).

If you're a photographer in the Tampa Bay area you should be a member anyway!

You don't have to present your work to attend. Your 15 Minutes of Fame is great place to see cool photography and meet other people including local artists and enthusiasts. As an attendee, you help decide one of the event's awards by casting your vote for the Audience Choice Award.

The evening is free for museum members and $4 for non-members.

FMOPA is a museum that exhibits important photographic art as central to contemporary life and culture. FMoPA collects, preserves and exhibits historic and contemporary works by nationally and internationally known photographic artists. FMoPA also enriches the community by operating outreach programs to educate children and adults.