Cultural Places In St Pete, Florida

Museum of Fine Arts, St Pete (255 Beach Dr NE, St. Petersburg, FL 33701)

Over 5,000 years and 20,000 pieces of work live in this magnificent city landmark, which opened publicly in 1965. The first art museum of the city to be located on the downtown St Pete waterfront was founded by the art collector Margaret Acheson Stuart, and explores human expression across all time periods and cultures while being the only encyclopedic art museum in the state.

John Volk and Associates of Palm Beach were the designers of the original building, including the curving colonnade on Beach Drive that embraces the community. Their main inspiration was to build a museum that gave a feeling of permanence so that the art galleries and intimate gardens encourage you to stay. With a breathtaking view of the bay from the MFA Café, located at the two-story glass Conservatory and a Museum Store named the area’s best by the duPont Registry, just walking into the complex gives you both a homey feeling and an art experience like no other.

St Petersburg Museum of History, St Pete, FL (335 2nd Ave N.E, St. Petersburg, FL 33701)

If you’re looking for a place where the stories of the Sunshine City are the main character, the St. Petersburg Museum of History is the place for you: they collect, preserve and share the history and heritage of Florida with emphasis on St. Pete and the Pinellas Peninsula.

The oldest museum in Pinellas County was formerly known as the St. Petersburg Memorial Historical Society when it first opened its doors in 1921, and in 1922 the City of St. Pete provided an old aquarium building to be used for the public display of the Museum’s collections, sited right where the current museum is.

The Museum is best known for its Lark of Duluth exhibit, a Benoist XIV biplane seaplane that marked the beginning of the era of air travel, while being located near the exact same place where the first-ever commercial flight in the world happened: by the St. Pete Pier in 1914. Other artifacts, archival documents, photographs, and specimens of natural history have been collected over the years by the St. Petersburg Memorial Historical Society, including countless boxes of unknown treasures that show the rich cultural heritage of the city that were dropped at their very own doorstep by ordinary residents.

The Dali Museum (Dali Blvd, St Petersburg, FL 33701)

The Salvador Dalí Museum celebrates the life and work of Salvador Dalí and houses the largest collection of his work outside of Europe. It is located on the downtown St. Pete waterfront by 5th Avenue Southeast, Bay Shore Drive, and Dan Wheldon Way, and includes over 2,000 works from every medium of his artistic activity.

It was founded by Reynolds and Eleanor Morse, who first started collecting his pieces in 1943, and it hasn’t stop growing since then. They became friends and patrons of Dalí, which resulted in a huge collection of original work made for them. After displaying their large collection in their Cleveland, Ohio, home, they decided it needed a forever home, so they opened their first museum in Beachwood, Ohio. Their second moving, in 1982, was to St. Pete Florida, until 2008 where they moved 96 oil paintings, many original drawings, book illustrations, prints, sculpture, photos, manuscripts and an extensive archive of documents to a new place designed by Yann Weymouth of the architectural firm HOK and built by The Beck Group under the leadership of then-CEO Henry C. Beck III in the downtown waterfront.

Weedon Island Preserve Cultural and Natural History Center, St Pete, FL (1800 Weedon Dr NE, St Petersburg, FL 33702)

Opened in 2002, Weedon Island Preserve lays in an expansive 3,190-acre natural area located on Tampa Bay. The aquatic and upland ecosystems that conform the area are home to numerous species of native plants and animals that use to share their land with indigenous people that occupied the area for thousands of years.

This wonderful nature experience shares room with the fascinating historical significance provided by the Cultural and Natural History Center, that features classrooms and exhibit areas designed by anthropologists, historians and Native Americans to reflect the art and history of the area’s first people, the Timucuans and Manasotas that used to call the island their home.

The four-mile canoe trail, the three-mile hiking trail, a picnic at the fishing pier or a visit to the three-story center with 6,000 square feet of interactive exhibits was designed with the help of Native Americans to keep with their traditions. The Weedon Island Preserve Cultural and Natural History Center features exhibits to help visitors understand natural Florida, its native and newer peoples and how they evolved together in the same land.

In representation of the remarkable pottery of the early Weeden Island people (who lived on the island some 1,000 to 1,800 years ago and represent the history of the state) there’s a curved special wall in the museum displaying their culture, and the center includes artifacts excavated from the area by the Smithsonian. Some parts of the preserve are included on the National Register of Historic Places.

Dr. Carter G. Woodson African American Museum, St Pete, FL (2240 9th Ave S, St Petersburg, FL 33712)

Named by the avowed African American historian and civil rights activist known as the founder of Black History Month and the second African American to graduate Harvard with a doctorate degree, this museum is of historical and cultural importance to the community of St. Pete because of its large variety of exhibits and events.

Founded in 2006, the paths of the museum’s Legacy Garden were constructed with bricks containing the names of donors to the museum, located in Jordan Park, and the name was chosen by community children. While a permanent installation of artwork is being planned, the museum displays temporary exhibits of African American artists from Florida and other states. Weddings, birthdays, art walks and festivals also take place in the building and its gardens, and even an open access of the Chief of Police to talk with members of the community.