Orange Blossom Award: Bill DeYoung

Bill DeYoung, an arts and culture journalist based in St. Petersburg, Fla., writes primarily for the St. Pete Catalyst, where his reporting and podcasts chronicle the region’s music, theater and cultural life. Photo provided by Creative Loafing

by Avery Anderson

For building the cultural memory of a place.

This December, Orange Blossoms are our way of slowing down in a fast news cycle — a daily pause to recognize the people whose work doesn’t always come with a spotlight, but without whom Tampa Bay’s cultural life would look very different. These are not lifetime achievement awards or popularity contests. They’re moments of gratitude for sustained impact, quiet leadership, and the kind of work that holds a community together over time.

Today’s Orange Blossom goes to Bill DeYoung.

If Tampa Bay’s arts scene has a long memory, it’s because Bill has been paying attention for a very long time.

Bill is not just covering the arts. He’s documenting a region as it becomes itself.

Through decades of reporting — now most visibly at the St. Pete Catalyst — Bill has quietly shaped how Tampa Bay understands its own creative life. Not by chasing spectacle, but by asking better questions. Not by flattening artists into soundbites, but by letting their ideas breathe. His work treats culture not as filler between development stories, but as infrastructure — something that holds a city together over time.

That distinction matters.

Because when arts coverage disappears, what goes with it isn’t just publicity. It’s context. Memory. Accountability. The connective tissue between generations of artists and audiences who might otherwise never find each other.

Bill’s writing lives in that connective space. He moves easily between music and theater, between institutions and DIY scenes, between what people call “high art” and what they dismiss as underground — and he never signals that one deserves more seriousness than the other. His reporting insists, quietly but firmly, that all of it is worth thinking about.

That’s why artists trust him. And why his impact reaches far beyond a single article.

David Jenkins, Producing Artistic Director of Jobsite Theatre, puts it this way:

“There is no more reliable, consistent arts coverage in what remains of the mainstream press in the area… Bill really remains a beacon in his coverage both in online stories and podcasts. He’s a truly curious person who wants to get inside of stories and the minds of artists…

One of the best things the press can do for us is to help get at those sort of ‘so what?’ or ‘who cares?’ questions about the work we do, bridging artists and audiences — and I’m just not sure I can think of another name in the region who can ride that line so deftly.”

That’s the legacy taking shape in real time.

Bill DeYoung has helped build a shared language for the arts in Tampa Bay — one that values process, history, experimentation, and persistence. He’s created an archive not just of events, but of ideas. And in doing so, he’s made it harder for this region to forget itself.

For the long view.
For the curiosity.
For the questions that keep culture alive.

This Orange Blossom is for you, Bill. 🌸

What Are the Orange Blossom Awards?

A month-long series from The Arts Passport celebrating the people and organizations whose quiet, steady work strengthens Tampa Bay’s arts ecosystem. No applications. No campaigning. Just community-driven recognition, released daily in December.