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ARTS & CULTURE
The cultural impact of art and culture in Central Florida cannot be overstated. In fact, it’s almost surreal, which is what you’ll conclude after visiting the Dali Museum in St. Petersburg, whose collection of masterpieces by the brilliant surrealist Salvador Dali includes 2,400 works from every moment and in every medium of his artistic life.
The stunning works of a contemporary and internationally celebrated artist, Dale Chihuly, a pioneer of the studio glass movement, are on display at the Chihuly Collection at the Morean Arts Center—also in St. Petersburg—including spectacular large-scale installations and popular series works like Ikebana, Persians and Tumbleweeds.
The masterpiece collection of history’s greatest artists, including Peter Paul Rubens and Nicolas Poussin were once the private collection of American circus impresario John Ringling, but today form the core of the collection of the Ringling in Sarasota, which has expanded over the years to include the Chao Center for Asian Art, the Kotler-Coville Glass Pavilion and the Keith D. Monda Gallery for Contemporary Art. Ringling’s original estate is now a cultural campus including a circus museum, his 1920s mansion and the Historic Asolo Theatre. Prepare to spend a day or two there.
Meanwhile, Henry Flagler wasn’t the only railroad magnate in Florida to leave behind magnificent homes and hotels now operating as museums. At the turn of the last century in Tampa, Henry B. Plant—founder of the Plant System of railroads and steamship lines—built the palatial Tampa Bay Hotel, which today is part of the University of Tampa and operates as a museum whose original furnishings, artifacts and exhibits can be enjoyed on self-guided audio tours.
To find works by a world-renowned architect, head east of Tampa to the campus of Florida Southern College in Lakeland, home to 13 sculptures that are beautiful examples of Wright’s Usonian style, including the Danforth Chapel and the Usonian Faculty House.
Another legendary name from the world of art lives on in Central Florida, Louis Comfort Tiffany, whose collection of jewelry, pottery, paintings, art glass and the famed leaded-glass lamps are displayed at the Charles Hosmer Morse Museum of American Art in the leafy Orlando suburb of Winter Park.
Winter Park also is where you’ll find the Albin Polasek Museum & Sculpture Gardens, the Rollins Museum of Art, part of Rollins College, and the Winter Park Playhouse, producing a year-round series of six musicals, new or rarely produced in the region.
In nearby Maitland, the Art & History Museums offer a combined experience including the Maitland Historical Museum, the Telephone Museum, the Waterhouse Residence & Carpentry Shop Museum and the Maitland Art Center—the only National Historic Landmark in Greater Orlando.
Continue north of Orlando to Ocala/Marion County’s Appleton Museum of Art, home to a permanent collection of over 24,000 objects representing cultures from around the globe, an outdoor sculpture walk and gardens and a variety of visiting exhibitions and special events throughout the year. Or take in a performance at the newly expanded Reilly Arts Center—home of the Ocala Symphony—and the Ocala Civic Theatre, a community mainstay for 70 years.
The city of Orlando itself, whose downtown area seems a world away from surrounding theme parks and attractions, raised its artistic profile nearly a decade ago with the opening of the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts, whose magnificent Walt Disney Theater hosts an annual Broadway series which in 2024 will include The Book of Mormon and Mean Girls.
Also presenting vibrant seasons of mainstage productions is the Manatee Performing Arts Center in Bradenton, north of Sarasota, where upcoming shows include Anything Goes in August and the Stephen Sondheim classic Merrily We Roll Along in October.
Heading to Central Florida’s Atlantic coast, you’ll get a first-hand look at Florida’s beauty on canvas at the A.E. Backus Museum & Gallery in downtown Fort Pierce. Famous for his vivid Florida landscapes, Backus also taught and mentored the group of entrepreneurial African-American artists who became known as the Florida Highwaymen; today the museum is home to the state’s only permanent multimedia exhibition on the Highwaymen.
HISTORY & HERITAGE
The history of African-descended people in Florida informs a large part of the state’s heritage and lives on in too many places to name, but you can start by exploring the landmarks of Eatonville, north of Orlando, the oldest all-Black town in the U.S., founded in 1887 by 27 Black men. It was also the childhood home of author, anthropologist and folklorist Zora Neale Hurston, who mentioned the town in her 1937 novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God.
Head to Daytona Beach, where a classic American foursquare house built in the early 1900s was the home of Mary McLeod Bethune from 1913 until her death in 1955. Born to formerly enslaved parents, Bethune achieved nationwide notice for her success in establishing the Daytona Educational and Industrial Training School (now Bethune-Cookman University) and went on to play an important role in the advance of education and civil rights, particularly in the years between the world wars.
Until the railroads opened Florida to the rest of the U.S. in the 1800s, forbidding terrain kept most of Central (and South) Florida’s development confined to the coasts, which is where you’ll find one of the state’s oldest settlements, New Smyrna Beach, founded in 1768. Strolling the downtown Canal Street Historic District will give you a sense of bygone eras, while the New Smyrna Museum of History explores the diverse facets of the city’s heritage with exhibits on African American history, the pioneer years, the railroad era and even East Coast surfing.
Despite the lack of infrastructure in Central Florida’s early days, the pioneers always made it through, and one of them was Jacob Summerlin, who made his fortune hunting wild Cracker cows in the Kissimmee and Peace River areas—descendants of cattle (and horses) brought by the Spanish in the 1500s and left behind to run wild.
You can explore this unique heritage at Lake Kissimmee’s Historical Cow Camp in Polk County, which includes a living history reenactment of the era.
In addition, get a sense of this era at the Pioneer Village at Shingle Creek, telling the story of Osceola County’s early settlers through original pioneer homes, schoolhouse, blacksmith shop and an original citrus packing plant. Meanwhile, dioramas at the Osceola Welcome Center and History Museum in Kissimmee showcase local habitats such as swamplands, pine flatwoods and oak hammocks. The museum also features exhibits related to the early cattle industry in Central Florida.
The history of horses in Central Florida leads naturally to Ocala/Marion County, “Horse Capital of the World,” and one of only four major thoroughbred centers in the world, with 600 farms producing some of the biggest names in horse racing. Ocala/Marion County also is home to national and international equestrian events and competitions, including the HITS Ocala Winter Circuit and multiple series at the World Equestrian Center.
Within a countryside of sprawling pastures and farmland, horses will greet you across their fences, but you can get much closer on farm and carriage tours or by riding horseback along nature trails. Visitors can follow the Painted Horse Trail of full-size painted horse statues; the CVB has a list of the easiest and most accessible statues within a few miles of downtown Ocala.
Head west to Dunnellon for a 2-hour guided tour of the Grandview Clydesdales, one of the most awarded Clydesdale farms in the world. You’ll experience the day-to-day operations, from the birth of babies all the way to winning world championships and starring in commercials.
Cattle and citrus were among the early industries in Central Florida, but the sea played a major role in securing the state’s fortunes. Find out more in the Cortez Historic Fishing Village west of Bradenton, the state’s oldest active fishing village, founded around 1880 by fishermen from North Carolina, some of whose family cottages still exist. After visiting the small maritime museum, relax in one of the classic Florida fish shacks dotting the coastline, feasting on fresh seafood while watching pelicans, herons and egrets gathered nearby.
North of St. Petersburg, fishermen from another industry, and another part of the world, helped put Tarpon Springs on the map. With sponges growing in the waters of the Gulf, enterprising Greek sponge divers came over and for 30 years, Tarpon Springs was known as the “Sponge Capital of the World.”
All aspects of the sponge industry are still on view here, from sponge harvesting at the working docks to browsing the Sponge Exchange, once an area for sponge auctions but now a collection of shops.
Other treasures offered by Florida drew the treasure seekers to the peninsula, and the Tampa Bay History Center introduces you to the explorers who landed here over the centuries, including conquistadors, pirates and wreckers—the opportunists who pillaged shipwrecks in order to sell the spoils. Also highlighted is the 1920s Florida Land Boom, which drew thousands to the Sunshine State between 1920 and 1930.
NATURE & ECOTOURISM
Unlike your smartphone, people have to unplug to recharge, and Central Florida offers the means to do just that.
Like parts of North Florida, Central Florida has its share of beautiful, crystal-clear and perennially temperate natural springs, and one of the best places to go to experience this marvel of nature is at Ocala/Marion County’s Silver Springs. In Silver Springs State Park, you’ll take the fabled glass-bottom boat tour—which has been wowing visitors since the 1870s—observing an underwater panorama of fish and other wildlife.
Then go even farther off the beaten path in Ocala, ziplining through canyons, skydiving or, in the other direction, diving through the mysterious depths of spring caverns.
Head west to the pristine waters of Weeki Wachee Springs in Hernando County, offering paddling down sparkling waterways, river boat cruises, swimming and the famous Weeki Wachee mermaids. You heard that right—these underwater beauties have been performing feats of swimming for the past six decades, including during the latest show, The Little Mermaid.
From the Weeki Wachee mermaids to Solomon’s Castle in Ona, Central Florida is filled with wonderful, historical Old Florida attractions, including Gatorland, south of Orlando. This 110-acre theme park and wildlife preserve, founded in 1949 on former cattle land, is home to alligators and crocodiles of all sizes—including the largest collection of rare white leucistic alligators—as well as a free-flight aviary, petting zoo and thrilling ziplines.
Florida’s Sports Coast (Pasco County) offers a huge array of outdoor and nature-themed recreation, starting with an expanded Bay Scalloping Season beginning in July. Adventure-seekers can grab mesh bags and snorkeling gear and head under the waves of Pasco Bay to retrieve the ever-elusive Bay Scallops, which are usually found hiding among blades of seagrass just under the surface. These tasty rewards are just the beginning of what can be found in the waters along Florida’s Sports Coast, and local marinas are ready to get you going.
North of the Sports Coast, Crystal River is home to the Crystal River National Wildlife Refuge, the only refuge in the United States specifically created to protect critical habitats for the manatee, the beloved state marine mammal. As water temperatures drop in the Gulf of Mexico, hundreds of West Indian Manatees make their way to the warmer waters in and around Crystal River during Manatee Season (Nov. 15-March 31), an annual influx that makes the spring-fed waters of Crystal River and Homosassa the perfect place to learn about these curious creatures. In fact, Crystal River and Homosassa are the only places in the country to legally swim with manatees.
Visitors also can observe manatees along the boardwalk of the Three Sisters Springs, or even get a bird’s eye view on an aerial tour of the springs; Right Rudder Aviation makes the trip in a historic 1946 Piper Cub. Fun fact: Did you know that early sailors thought manatees were mermaids, thus giving rise to the mermaid myth in popular lore?
Heading south to Bradenton, manatees are cared for at the Parker Manatee Rehabilitation Habitat, part of the Bishop Museum of Science and Nature. With the goal of returning them to the wild, the Bishop has cared for 46 rehabilitating manatees. This fascinating facility also includes a planetarium and exhibitions that include fossil evidence of Florida’s earliest animal inhabitants.
The area of Central Florida’s Atlantic side known as the “Space Coast” may be famous for the Kennedy Space Center, but the Stone Age exists alongside the Space Age here, with sea turtles lumbering ashore along Canaveral National Seashore just north of the center, the longest stretch of undeveloped coastline in Florida.
More encounters with nature await in the Indian River Lagoon, which stretches for 156 miles from Volusia County to Palm Beach County and has earned another superlative as one of the most biologically diverse estuaries in North America. But when the sun sets, the bioluminescent creatures come out, and you’ll see these tiny organisms on a night kayak tour with BK Adventure.
Set where the St. Sebastian River meets the Indian River, Sebastian is a quaint fishing village offering views of the lagoon as well as natural areas like Sebastian Inlet State Park—home to abundant wildlife—and Pelican Island National Wildlife Refuge, where visitors can view endangered wood storks, egrets, herons, and a variety of sea turtles.
STAY AWHILE
A hidden gem along Florida’s Nature Coast, the Plantation Resort on Crystal River has created new one- night “manatee” packages including snorkeling for two from the Plantation Adventure Center.