On my day off yesterday I decided to check out the museum/art scene in the Tampa bay area and I must say they do have a couple nice museums. First, I headed over to the Henry Plant Museum, which is on the campus of the University of Tampa- located in downtown Tampa. The museum itself is small and in my opinion rather cluttered but the history of the place is fascinating. The history is really that of Tampa and how Tampa became to be because of Henry Plant. Henry Plant is responsible for bringing the railway to Tampa, which in turn brought about the shipping industry, factories, and etc...
Mr. Plant started to get into the hotel business and took on the Tampa Bay Hotel as a personal project. He traveled the globe with his wife looking for the finest furnishings for the hotel- even picking up a chair that was rumored to have been Marie Antoinette's. Below is a drawing of what the hotel looked like in its glory days- in the 1890's.
At that time the hotel had over 500 guests rooms and had a casino, horse racetrack, and a theatre as well. An overnight stay would cost you approx $5 a night for a single room or around $15 for a suite. The hotel also has historical significance in that during the Spanish American War it was the headquarters for the US Army. Teddy Roosevelt and his rough riders even stayed for a week. Below is a picture of what the hotel/museum looks like today. The majority of the building is used by the University of Tampa for offices and classrooms and I would say about 10-12 rooms are used for the museum, which are filled with artifacts from that time.
After leaving the Henry Plant Museum I decided to walk along the river and across the way I saw the Tampa Museum of Art and decided to check it out. After inquiring I found out that they have "art on the house" on Fridays- meaning its free after 4 so I decided that I would come back after checking out the Dali Museum. So I jumped in my car and crossed the big bridge between Tampa and St. Petersburg and went to the Dali Museum. Below is a pic of the Dali Museum which was recently reopened on 1-11-11 at 11:11. The architecture of the building is amazing. The glass seems to ooze or flow off the building.
I had a quick lunch in the Dali cafe then I joined a tour of the museum. Unfortunately I was unable to take pics but I did find some online- at the very top of my blog is the first Dali painting that we came across in the tour. I must admit I myself did not know a whole lot about Dali, but I found the tour to be very informative and learned quite a bit. Salvador Dali was born and raised in Spain and started painting at a young age. There is a self painting of Dali at age 17 at the museum. Walking through the museum you see how Dali's painting progresses from the impressionist paintings to the surreal painting. After Dali read Sigmund Freud that is when his painting went more of the surrealism way. I enjoy looking at his work because of the fine details and meaning behind the paintings- there is a message if you pay close attention. Below are a few of Dali's paintings.
After getting inspired and enjoying the art work of Dali I decided to head back across the bridge to check out the Tampa Museum of Art. The Tampa Museum of Art has a more modern take on art. The building itself is nice and new- the architecture is very clean and simple, but they have large rooms with only a few pieces of art. The museum opened in Feb. of 2010 so they have not been open very long and the collections on display is very limited. The special exhibit was that of Janet Biggs-No Limits. Janet used video to make art- I personally am not a fan of video art(unless its a movie. lol). For example, in one room there were 3 huge screens- on 2 of the screens it showed just the face of a horse as it was running and the video kept playing over, while the video in the middle showed an older lady sitting in a rocking chair and her going back and forth. I can't say that I was inspired. The one video that I did enjoy was from the arctic, which showed a guy kayaking through the ice- looked cold but adventurous. Overall, I enjoyed my day exploring the museums and art I found in Tampa. The highlight of the day was definitely the Dali Museum. So if you are ever in the area I would say it is a morning or afternoon well spent!
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