Artsy Phartsy talk show hosts A. Paul Johnson, left, and Taylor Edwards jokingly throw their hands up in the air, as the director says he’d like to thank God for letting them film the first segment. Saturday they filmed at BayWalk in St. Petersburg.

ST. PETERSBURG - The experts who gathered Saturday to discuss the economy included a rap artist, a dancer/choreographer and a musician who plays a Mongolian violin with strings made of horsehair. …

They’re not exactly the Federal Reserve Board, but that’s the point. Instead of getting bankers talking to bankers, local composer A. Paul Johnson wants to hear artists talk about the big issues: business, health care and others.

“I think it’s a very untapped resource,” he said.

That’s why he spent Saturday with a television crew to film a pilot episode of Artsy Phartsy, a cable show that would be centered on artists. He said a startup cable network that plans to launch in Jacksonville is interested, and has first rights to pick up the show.

The crew and artists gathered Saturday morning in the BayWalk shopping complex, filming their discussion, and hoping it’s the start of something new. Johnson said artists have so much creative power that it’s only sensible to ask them to turn their thoughts to other issues as well.

“I like the fact that it gives artists a voice. They’re going to let people know what we think about issues,” said guest and rap artist Shadcore of St. Petersburg, whose given name is Rashad Harrell.

“I like the concept. I never heard of anything like it before,” said co-host Taylor Edwards.

“I’m excited,” said Leymis Bola Wilmott, a guest who directs a Sarasota-Bradenton dance company and helped put together Hello Dali, an homage to the painter Salvador Dali featuring dance, and music composed by Johnson. She likes Johnson’s concept of bringing artists into different realms of discussion, because “you think of artists, and you think of entertainment.”

Johnson is producing the show through his company, the Apollo Project.

Curtis Krueger can be reached at ckrueger@sptimes.com or (727) 893-8232.

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