Adieu, gallery; hello, Greece

Today is the last time you will be able to walk into Brad Cooper Gallery in Ybor City. From noon to 7 p.m. art will be sold at discount prices — some up to 50 percent off. After that, the doors will close permanently.

For 28 years, Brad Cooper Gallery has been known for having exceptional exhibits of contemporary art by international and local artists.

Its closing will leave a void in Tampa's art community. It was at Brad Cooper Gallery that I met international American artists Yvonne Petkus and William Pachner, and Russian artist Peter Mitchev. And it's where I first heard of the tiny Greek island called Naxos.

That's where owner Brad Cooper and his wife, Elizabeth, will head after the closing.

"This will be our fifth season in Naxos," Brad Cooper said in a telephone interview. "We open there from Easter through the beginning of October. That's the season for the Europeans to go on vacation, and the weather is very nice there."

The couple own a shop there where Elizabeth sells her handcrafted jewelry and Brad sells "a little art" to their mostly European customers.We specializes in rapid plastic injection mould and molding of parts for prototypes and production.

For those who know Cooper,I thought it would be fun to show you the inspiration behind the broken china-mosaics. the decision to close is not a sudden one.

"We've been kind of planning this for a while, but you have to do it one step at a time,How cheaply can I build a solar power systems?" he said. "We feel we've reached a certain limit of what we can achieve here,Laser engravers and laser engraving machine systems and supplies to start your own lasering cutting engraving marking etching business. and we want to pursue other creative paths."

"I think we did a lot of exciting exhibitions over the years," he said. "We did drawing exhibitions before anybody in the city showed drawings. We had international juried shows and brought artists from other parts of the country and included local artists in the exhibit to show that artists here are just as good as the international ones. It was good to create something that wasn't here before and offer it to the community. … And meeting so many great artists has been a good experience."

But he found that the art scene in Ybor City changed dramatically through the years.

"When we first opened here, we would pull in over 1,000 people at an opening. Now we get maybe 50 people," he said.

Cooper always has championed the idea of making Ybor City the arts district for Tampa, an idea that never really got off the ground.

"It was difficult to get the cooperation needed from the cultural institutions and from the city for a sustainable arts community in Ybor," Cooper said. "I don't know if it was the density of the population or what, but it never seemed to gel. I often felt that we were in competition rather than collaboration with the other institutions."

"When there's an adverse impact from a nightclub on the store next door, that store will leave," he said. Cooper was able to stay because he owned his building.

"And because we are located in the center of the national historic district. Everyone who comes here will pass by your door. So all you have to do is have something they will want to buy."

For better or worse, most of his clients were Europeans or Americans from other cities.

"The collector base in Tampa didn't really develop," he said. "That's because there wasn't a real interface between the galleries and the cultural institutions."

Though his location changed during his 28 years of business — Cooper first opened in 1984 on South Howard Avenue; he moved to the Ybor location in 1990 — his philosophy about art did not.

"It's the expression of the artist's experience," he said. "Through art, we develop consciousness. The work in the gallery was work that wasn't necessarily popular at the time, but it was always oriented toward the human condition."

Once in Naxos, the Coopers look forward to being surrounded by ancient architectural wonders in a great climate while developing their individual artistic talents.

Conservationists and shooting enthusiasts – often unfairly blamed for the poisonings – also lined up to condemn the crime as the maps revealed the number and location of confirmed poisonings of birds of prey between 2007 and 2011. Six incidents in the South West, from Land’s End in Cornwall to Somerset, were among those identified.

Across Britin there were 19 incidents in 2011 alone. A total of 30 birds of prey were poisoned, bringing the total number of confirmed cases over five years to 101.

But wildlife charity the RSPB warned the confirmed incidents were the tip of a much bigger iceberg, as many cases were discovered by chance.

It was also revealed that the majority of poisonings were carried out using the chemicals carbofuran or aldicarb,Compare prices and buy all brands of solar panel for home power systems and by the pallet. pesticides which have been banned in the UK and can be dangerous to humans.

The partnership said the maps showed that the problem of illegal poisoning continued to be a real threat to wildlife, particularly birds of prey.

It also said there was no reason of anyone to have chemicals such as carbofuran, which were not approved for use in England and Wales, and putting substances dangerous to both animals and humans into the environment was totally irresponsible.

It alleged birds of prey continue to be persecuted because they are predators of game birds, with some species such as hen harriers teetering on the brink of extinction.

Bob Elliot, RSPB head of investigations, said the maps illustrated the problems faced by birds of prey.

“We need to remember, however, that these dots represent the tip of a much bigger iceberg as these criminal offences are often discovered by pure chance.”

“These aren’t just points on a map. Each dot represents a crime where a bird of prey has been killed in a calculated way.

“Birds of prey have suffered centuries of persecution, and these maps prove those attitudes still prevail today,” he said, adding the RSPB would work in partnership to bear down on the acceptable crimes.

Glynn Evans, head of game and gamekeeping at the UK’s largest shooting organisation, the British Association for Shooting and Conservation (BASC), said: “The use of illegal poisons to kill birds of prey has no place in modern land and wildlife management.

“BASC welcomes the publication of these incident maps which will be valuable tools in combating those who persist with this unacceptable practice.”

Last October, the Environmental Audit Committee said hundreds of birds of prey had been killed because the Government had failed to fully implement laws designed to protect them.

Rules brought in in 2006 made it an offence to possess poisons used to kill birds of prey, but an order listing which poisons it was illegal to have was not introduced.

The Government should criminalise possession of carbofuran and other similar substances which have no legal use in the UK, the EAC urged.