Tampa has a decent amount of art galleries, but it is not a huge thing there. Sarasota (where I live), however, has a large art community that is constantly growing. Sarasota is about an hour South of South Tampa/Brandon/Plant City and surrounding areas, about an hour and a half from lakeland on a good traffic day. Lakeland also has a very nice game/comic store, one of the best stores this side of Orlando, the Fantasy Factory.
I have lived in the Tampa/Plant City and now Sarasota area for arounf 15 years, so if ya got any more specific ?? let me know. You can email me too at me (at) neurozombie (dot) com