The Morean Arts Center in St. Petersburg has a 100-year history.
this, the mission of many art museums was
solely about the preservation, conservation
and research of its collection. As a result
of these two changes, a national pride
and a renaissance of museum building
across the United States began, with
Florida becoming one of the epicenters
of this phenomenon. By the mid-1970s, the
fledgling Florida Association of Museums
(FAM) was comprised of only a handful
of museums. Today, FAM has over 400
museums and cultural centers (art, science,
history, children’s and aquariums), and
Florida now ranks nationally in the top
tier for its robust and innovative cultural
institutions.
With this in mind, I will chronologically
explore the rapid growth and development
of the visual arts in the Tampa Bay area.
With regard to art museums, we now
have the Tampa Museum of Art (which
first opened in 1979 and relocated into
its new museum building in 2010) with a
unique Leo Villareal Sky (Tampa) exterior
LED feature. In 1982, the Salvador Dalí
Museum opened up in a refurbished
warehouse south of downtown St.
Petersburg; and in January 2011, it moved
into its new award-winning building
designed by Senior Vice President of
HOK Architects, Yann Weymouth. It has
become an important cultural contributor
and has brought recognition to our area
for its collection, major exhibitions and
remarkable architecture. Globally, the Dalí
is considered a destination museum. The
USF Contemporary Art Museum opened
in 1989 and has organized significant art
exhibitions, many of which complement
the work being done at Graphicstudio.
The Gulf Coast Museum of Art, which
transitioned from the Florida Gulf Coast
Art Center into a museum that opened in
a beautiful new facility in the Pinewood
Cultural Center in 2000, unfortunately
became a victim of the economic recession
and closed its doors in January, 2009.
Then, in January of 2002, the Leepa-
Rattner Museum of Art opened on the
Tarpon Springs campus of St. Petersburg
College in an award-winning building
designed by area architect Ed Hoffman,
Jr. It is listed by the Florida Chapter of the
AIA (American Institute of Architects) as
one of the top 50 architectural buildings
in Florida – the only other museum in that
group is the Dalí Museum. The Ringling
Museum’s master plan for expansion was
also designed by Yann Weymouth of HOK
and added the Searing Wing for changing
exhibitions in 2008, followed by James
Turrell’s Skyspace light installation in 2010.
Its new Center for Asian Art will open up
later this year in a new Asian-inspired
wing. The St. Petersburg Museum of Fine
Arts also has grown, and it opened the
new Hazel Hough Wing in 2008 with a
significant two-story addition to house
changing exhibitions and other
museum services. This, too, was
designed by Yann Weymouth.
During this time, Tampa,
Sarasota and, more importantly,
St. Petersburg took initiatives
to see their cities viewed as
places for the arts. To that end,
St. Petersburg created, through
public and private monies, an
emphasis on art venues as an
economic indicator. In 1995, the
Florida International Museum
refurbished the old Maas
Brothers building in downtown
St. Petersburg and brought us
such extraordinary blockbuster
exhibitions as “Treasures of the
Czar” (1995), “Splendors of Ancient
Egypt” (1996), “Titanic” (1998) and
its closing exhibition “Vatican
Splendors” (in 2008). In that same
vein, The Chihuly Collection
opened in 2010, along with a hot
shop experience as an extension
of the Morean Art Center. It
will move into a new expanded
facility on Central Avenue this
year. Additionally, the Warehouse
Arts District west of downtown
continues to emerge as a major center for
the creative industries, and two new art
museums are underway in downtown St,
Petersburg.
Educational institutions, including the
University of South Florida, the Ringling
School of Art + Design in Sarasota, the
University of Tampa, Eckerd College,
some for-profit arts institutes, and the
wonderful and strong art programs at
our area Community Colleges, have
all provided learning, exploration and
exhibitions to advance and continue the
growth of the visual arts in Tampa Bay.
All of these institutions have established
exhibition gallery spaces and some have
created collaborative studio and print
workshops, including Studio-f at the
University of Tampa and Graphicstudio
at USF. The faculties at these institutions,
over the years, were often attracted to
the area because of the reputation for the
visual arts. Educators such as Harrison
Covington, Bruce Marsh, Mernet Larson,
Mark Anderson, Leslie Lerner, Joe Testa-
Secca, Harold Nosti, Jack King, Jerry
Meatyard, Steve Holmes, Suzanne Camp-
Crosby, James Hagenbuckle, and Kevin
Grass, to name only a few, represent longterm
commitments to their respective
institutions, as well as making significant
contributions as practicing artists.
Adding richness to this tapestry has
been the development of numerous art
54 TAMPA BAY MAGAZINE MARCH/APRIL 2016