By Divina Infusino
Go ahead. Burrow your toes in the powdery sand. Pedal around the clean, palm-tree-edged streets. Slice across the gulf in a boat or kayak, or maybe just relish the 361 days of sunshine.
But when in St. Petersburg — the one in Florida, not Russia — a city surrounded by 244 miles of shoreline, the smaller sibling of nearby Tampa — keep in mind that you are also visiting an arts-scene destination.
With a population of approximately 250,000, St. Petersburg punches above its weight in the visual arts. This is a city distinguished by fine art museums, galleries, artist studios and nearly 600 outdoor murals splashed across the sides of buildings. Glass art and glass artists receive enough support and recognition that the area refers to itself as "the glass coast."
Once a beachy retirement community with consistently warm weather, inexpensive housing and fewer incidences of hurricanes than much of coastal Florida, St. Petersburg was pleasant, stable and basically bland. But over the past 20 years the city has been transforming, especially the downtown. This change has attracted a younger population enticed by good restaurants, wine bars, water views, easy outdoor living, the ability to work from home and, of course, a dynamic, growing arts scene.
Anchoring St. Petersburg's artistic reputation is The Dali Museum, which, outside of Spain, houses the largest collection of verified works by the great surrealist Salvador Dali. Once it moved into its architecturally award-winning downtown waterfront building in 2011, The Dali, one of the best single-focus art museums in the United States, sparked a spoken and unspoken campaign to put St. Petersburg on the visual map in Florida, if not the United States.
While The Dali Museum is the most unique, St. Petersburg's other art institutions have flourished with it. The Museum of Fine Arts St. Petersburg now stewards 20,000 works, including pieces by Claude Monet, Georgia O'Keeffe and Kehinde Wiley and presents a steady stream of new exhibitions. The James Museum of Western and Wildlife Art, opened in 2018, showcases more than 400 sculptures, paintings and jewelry pieces, including a strong Native American collection.
The city's newest gem, the Museum of the American Arts and Crafts Movement, contains works by Gustav Stickley, Charles Rohlfs, Frank Lloyd Wright, the Roycrofters and other prominent artists of the era. The pieces enjoy careful display throughout an airy 137,000-square-foot building with surprising architectural elements, including a Guggenheim-like spiral staircase. This is the only museum in the world dedicated to the American Arts and Crafts movement.
As the institutional art side of St. Petersburg progresses, so does its grassroots art scene. Dozens of artists' studios, which open to the public twice a month, pepper the city's Warehouse Arts District, just west of downtown. Showcasing local as well as international talent on a large scale, the annual Shine Festival literally turns the city's buildings into a multilocation canvas for murals. On the art-glass front, the Duncan McClellan Gallery exhibits not only McClellan's own work but a rotating roster of more than 100 national and international glass artists in a huge studio that spills onto adjacent sculpture gardens.
The Imagine Museum wows visitors with multiple galleries of glass art, each with a different theme. It sponsors special exhibits and unusual examples of glass art from everywhere. The Morean Arts Centre contains the Chihuly Collection (opposite the main Morean Arts Center building) with a continually expanding collection of the famed Dale Chihuly's blown-glass art. The Morean Arts Center also offers the opportunity for visitors to make their own molten art-glass pieces in the adjacent Morean Glass Studio.
Near the Warehouse District is The Edge, a long stretch of emerging hipness lined with coffeehouses, local shops, galleries, breweries, record stores and restaurants, including Bodega, with its famous Cuban sandwich.
These districts are ancillary to the downtown area, the epicenter of St. Petersburg's renewal. Once a neglected neighborhood, downtown now boasts picturesque spots such as Beach Drive, a street lined with yachts glistening in the marina, trim lawns and charming restaurants with a nautical vibe, such as Perry's Porch, off St. Pete's Pier. Perched at the head of Beach Drive reigns the recently refurbished stately Vinoy Resort with its wide waterfront veranda bar, elegant pool and spa, a Chihuly chandelier in its ballroom and a grand lobby. Celebrating its 100th anniversary this year, the Vinoy hosts one of the best fine-dining restaurants in the city, the Elliott Aster, which sparkles with a gilded atmosphere and creative cuisine.
In another area of downtown, The 1888 Hotel has renovated a historic boutique hotel into updated suites equipped with kitchens. Meanwhile, new restaurants multiply quickly, including Cognac, a Parisian-style bistro with escargot, steak frites, a good curated wine list and open-air seating, ideal for downtown people-watching.
So yes, sink back into that beach chair, swim the warm waters, inhale the subtropical air. Just know that when you finally rise from the sand, St. Petersburg stands ready to reward your curiosity with a city pulsing with art and imagination.
WHEN YOU GO
The Dali Museum: thedali.org
The Museum of Fine Arts St. Petersburg: mfastpete.org
The Museum of the American Arts and Crafts Movement: museumaacm.org
The James Museum of Western and Wildlife Art: thejamesmuseum.org
The Morean Arts Center: moreanartscenter.org
The Imagine Museum: imagineismuseum.com
Duncan McClellan: dmglass.com
The Shine Festival: shineonmurals.com/about
The Vinoy Resort: thevinoy.com
The 1888 Hotel: the1888hotel.com
Elliott Aster: elliottaster.com
Perry's Porch: Perrysporch.com
Bodega: eatatbodega.com
St. Petersburg Visitors Center: visitstpeteclearwater.com
Divina Infusino is a freelance writer. To read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.
A visitor makes glass at the Morean Art Center in St. Petersburg, Florida. Photo courtesy of Visit St. Pete-Clearwater.
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