March 1, 2025 | Brittney J. Miller
The St. Petersburg area is known for its award-winning beaches. But the “Sunshine City” is also home to world-renowned museums and a vibrant arts community, ranking as a top arts and cultural destination among mid-sized jurisdictions.
The attractions brought 2.2 million attendees, around 2,800 jobs and an estimated $178 million to the city in 2024, says Celeste Davis, director of arts, culture and tourism.
“St. Pete really is an art-experience city,” she says. “We have 11 museums, which is amazing for a city of about 260,000 people.”
The pinnacle of the city’s museum collection, some residents would say, is the Dalí Museum. The waterfront building, a geodesic glass bubble bursting from its side, is dedicated to the work of the late Spanish surrealist Salvador Dalí. More than 2,400 works — including oil paintings, drawings, watercolors and prints — call the museum home, marking the largest collection of Dali’s works outside his home country.
The Museum of Fine Arts sits down the street, bringing columns and Palladian-style architecture to St. Petersburg’s iconic Beach Drive. Its collection showcases works by Claude Monet, Georgia O’Keeffe, Willem de Kooning and Robert Rauschenberg.
St. Petersburg’s arts and culture scene is tied together between seven arts districts, linking the waterfront museums to the inland Imagine Museum of Contemporary Glass Art to a citywide collection of independent galleries and studios. The physical arts are complemented by performing arts partnerships at local venues such as the Mahaffey Theater, where the Florida Orchestra performs, and the Palladium Theater, which hosts the St. Pete Opera.
“The 10th anniversary of the SHINE Mural Festival was this year,” when international artists create murals around the city, Davis adds. The annual tradition, produced by the St. Petersburg Arts Alliance, has resulted in nearly 170 murals since 2015.
Downtown St. Petersburg houses the three-story Florida Holocaust Museum, with a permanent collection of original artifacts, historical photographs and documents. The museum — one of three nationally accredited Holocaust museums — is closed for renovations until this spring. The first phase of changes includes a remodeled entrance and space for a Danish rescue boat that saved more than 7,000 Jewish lives in 1943.
St. Petersburg also hosts the Dr. Carter G. Woodson African American Museum, the James Museum of Western & Wildlife Art, and the Museum of the American Arts and Crafts Movement.