Culture

Clearwater is “lots more than the best beach!” In fact, more and more visitors are discovering that west central Florida is a burgeoning cultural hot spot. The area is enriched by a variety of world-class museums and performing arts institutions that celebrate contemporary artistic achievement.

Museums

Dunedin Fine Art Center
1143 Michigan Blvd., Dunedin (727) 298-3322
The Dunedin Fine Art Center offers a wide variety of studio art classes, educational workshops, gallery exhibitions, lectures, outreach programs and community events. The center contains 18,000 square feet of space including studio classrooms and galleries and is home to the acclaimed David L. Mason Children's Art Museum, the only children's art museum on Florida’s west coast.

Florida Holocaust Museum
55 Fifth Street South, St. Petersburg (727) 820-0100
The Florida Holocaust Museum is dedicated to advancing public awareness, education and understanding of the Holocaust and has become a preeminent source of Holocaust information and one of the largest Holocaust museums in the country. The museum features art, photography and documentary exhibits from around the world.

Florida International Museum
244 Second Avenue N, St. Petersburg (727) 341-7900
The Florida International Museum is a Smithsonian Institution affiliate housing artifacts from the Smithsonian and traveling exhibitions on a rotating basis.

Great Explorations, The Children’s Museum
1925 Fourth Street North, St. Petersburg (727) 821-8992
Drawing upon the arts, sciences and technology, Great Explorations encourages and invites creative problem-solving and discovery through interactive displays and exhibits. The museum, popular with all ages, presents a vast array of multidisciplinary activities, including special classes and workshops, summer camps, field trips and programs.

Gulf Coast Museum of Art
12211 Walsingham Road, Largo (727) 518-6833
Located in Pinewood Cultural Park, Gulf Coast Museum of Art’s campus includes nine permanent collection and changing exhibition galleries featuring artwork by Florida artists and Southeastern fine crafts, along with sculpture gardens, studio-classrooms, an auditorium and a museum store. Many educational programs and membership events supplement the exhibitions.

Leppa-Rattner Museum of Art
600 Klosterman Road (St. Petersburg College), Tarpon Springs (727) 712- 5762
This museum offers an extensive collection of art in various mediums by Allen Leepa, renowned abstractionist, and noted figurative expressionist artist Abraham Rattner, including drawings, watercolors, paintings, stained glass, mosaics and tapestry designs, plus works by other expressionist artists of the period including Le Corbusier, Marc Chagall and Henry Moore. The museum also presents traveling exhibitions as well as workshops and a variety of arts and cultural programs.

MOSI (Museum of Science and Industry)
4801 E. Fowler Avenue, Tampa (813) 987-6100
At over 300,000 square feet and more than 450 hands-on exhibits and activities, MOSI is the largest science center in the southeastern United States and features an IMAX DOME theater. MOSI also includes Kids in Charge, designed by children for children with more than 180 activities.

Museum of Fine Arts
225 Beach Drive North, St. Petersburg (727) 896-2667
The Museum of Fine Arts has one of the most comprehensive art collections on Florida's west coast. The collection of 4,000 objects includes Greek and Roman antiquities, pre-Columbian and Asian art, works by European and American artists such as Monet and O'Keeffe and 20th century photography. The museum also presents traveling exhibitions and offers a variety of programs and community events.

Pinellas County Historical Museum
11909 125th Street North, Largo (727) 582-2123
The Pinellas County Historical Museum is on the grounds of the 21-acre, open-air historical Heritage Village at Pinewood Cultural Park. The Museum’s exhibits trace the history of Pinellas County from the Indian-Spanish period to contemporary times. The Museum also has a 3,500-volume library and archives containing historic photographs, maps, special collections and other materials relating to the history of Pinellas County.

Salvador Dali Museum
1000 Third Street South, St. Petersburg (727) 823-3767
The Dali features the world's most comprehensive collection of the famed surrealist’s outside of Spain. The collection includes 94 oils, 200 watercolors and drawings and 1000 graphics, sculptures and objects d'art. The museum offers extensive educational programs for students and teachers. Film series, lectures, concerts and other special events supplement the themes of the exhibitions throughout the year.

Science Center of Pinellas County
7701 22nd Avenue N., St. Petersburg (727) 384-0027
The Science Center is a hands-on teaching museum with interactive exhibits exploring astronomy, physics and archaeology. Permanent exhibits include the African American Scientists & Inventors Exhibit, the Spirit of Columbia Theater & Planetarium, the Carol Samuels Observatory, an Environmental Learning Exhibit (which includes wetlands, a nature trail and gardens) and a replica of a 16th century Native American village. The museum also presents a variety of educational and outreach programs including workshops, science fairs and lecture series.

St. Petersburg Museum of History
335 2nd Avenue N.E., St. Petersburg (727) 894-1052
The St. Petersburg Museum of History maintains a collection of over 32,000 artifacts, an archive of over 8,000 historic photos and 5,000 documents that trace the history of the Pinellas Peninsula. The museum’s signature exhibit traces the story of commercial aviation from its inception in St. Petersburg in 1914 and features a full-size working replica of the Benoist Airboat.

Performing Arts

Clearwater Chorus
One of Clearwater’s oldest and most recognized musical organizations, the 100-member volunteer Clearwater Chorus performs a variety of styles from classical to pop with matinee concerts on the Ruth Eckerd Hall stage. For more information, call 727-791-7400.

Florida Orchestra
The Florida Orchestra is recognized as Tampa Bay's leading performing arts institution, one of the leading professional symphony orchestras in Florida and one of the best regional orchestras in America. With 80 professional musicians, the orchestra performs more than 150 concerts annually in the tri-city area of Clearwater, St. Petersburg and Tampa. Concert series include the Progress Energy Masterworks, Raymond James Super Pops, Coffee Concerts, free Pops in the Parks and youth concerts. The Florida

Orchestra Ticket Center can be reached at (813) 286-2403 or toll-free (800) 662-7286.

Francis Wilson Playhouse
302 Seminole Street, Clearwater (727) 446-1360.
This community theater in downtown Clearwater annually presents seven main-stage productions, including plays and musicals during its regular season September to June. It also offers summer theater workshops for children and adults.

Master Chorale of Tampa Bay
The Master Chorale of Tampa Bay is a highly select, 170-voice, all volunteer chorus that includes singers from across the entire Tampa Bay region. From its inception in 1979, its performances have been consistently and critically recognized for xcellence. Designated in 1989 as the Principal Chorus of The Florida Orchestra, the Master Chorale is featured annually on the Orchestra’s Masterworks Season. The chorale presents several major works throughout the season. For tickets and information call 813-974-7726.

Opera Tampa
Opera Tampa is the resident opera company of the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center and performs in the center’s Carol Morsani Hall, a classic horseshoe opera house. Opera Tampa produces and presents several productions throughout the season featuring internationally-known performers, the full Opera Tampa Orchestra and the Opera Tampa Chorus, all under the direction of world-renowned composer-conductor Anton Coppola. The Center Ticket Office can be reached at (813) 229-STAR or (800) 955-1045 outside the Tampa Bay area.

Royalty Theater
405 Cleveland Street, Clearwater (727) 441-8868
This community theater located in downtown Clearwater is the oldest theater in Florida still in operation. Built in 1896, the 450-seat Royalty presents a wide variety of performances and offers instruction in the performing arts. It also houses historic exhibits on Florida, musical instruments and the classical arts.

Ruth Eckerd Hall
1111 McMullen-Booth Road, Clearwater (727) 791-7400 or toll-free (800) 875-8682
Clearwater’s 2,184-seat Ruth Eckerd Hall, at the Richard B. Baumgardner Center for the Performing Arts, is one of North America’s most successful and favorite performing arts facilities. Its acoustically perfect chamber, designed by the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation, has been named one of the top five concert halls in the United States by a nation-wide industry poll. Ruth Eckerd presents more than 200 events annually.

Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center
1010 N. W.C. MacInnes Place, Tampa (813) 229-7827 or toll-free 800-955-1045
Located in downtown Tampa along the Hillsborough River, the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center is the largest performing arts complex south of Washington, D.C.’s Kennedy Center, and presents a wide variety of world-class concerts, performances and events. The complex consists of five individual theaters, a performing arts conservatory, rehearsal halls, and on-site boutiques, restaurant and banquet facilities.