By Lauren Tjaden
Florida museums promise to ignite the imagination, with offerings that treat the eye and feed the spirit.
If breathtaking works of art move you, you can wonder at cryptic paintings within paintings by Dali in St. Petersburg; colorful images of lush women and flying cherubs by Rubens at the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art in Sarasota; and scenes of beloved Florida landscapes by The Highwaymen in Fort Pierce.
Other Florida Museums sweep you into the past. The curious can discover rare pirate artifacts, (including an authentic pirate treasure chest, the only one in the entire world) at the St. Augustine Pirate Museum; celebrate the history of the Seminoles at the Smithsonian-affiliated Ah-Tah-Thi-Ki Museum on the Big Cypress Seminole Reservation; or gasp at reenactments of battles across the Sunshine State—many complete with cannons, calvary and living historians retracing the steps of our ancestors.
Interactive adventures include brushing your fingers across the velvety skin of a cownose ray at the Frost Science Museum in Miami; climbing the winding stairs of a lighthouse at The Ponce de Leon Inlet Lighthouse & Museum, a National Treasure; and even flying above the Sunshine State’s forests atop a zipline at the Tallahassee Museum.
Florida’s niche museums promise to fascinate as well, with museums like the Riverview Carnival: International Independent Showmen’s Museum; the Paquette Farmall Tractor Museum in Florida in Leesburg; and the International Game Fish Association Museum in Dania Beach.
Whichever experience – or experiences—that tickle your imagination, in Florida, there’s a museum for that. Check out these articles, zoned by region, that reveal some special offerings.
