One week from tomorrow, on Saturday, September 25th, St. Petersburg residents will get the chance to experience Arts Alive Free Museum Day!  St. Petersburg’s major museums will throw open their doors and welcome everyone in, free of charge! This will be the sixth annual event, done in coordination with the Smithsonian Institute and Smithsonian Magazine. The event is taking place in many major cities around the country, so if you’re not near St. Petersburg, be sure to check your local media for details in your area.  But for St. Petersburg, I can tell you that you will be welcomed, at no cost, at the following great museums:

• The Dali Museum
• Dr. Carter G. Woodson Museum
• Florida Holocaust Museum
• Great Explorations Children’s Museum
• Morean Arts Center and Hot Shop
• Museum of Fine Arts
• Pier Aquarium
• St. Petersburg Museum of History

For more details, such as addresses, museum hours, description of current exhibitions, etc,  you can check out this link  on the City of St. Petersburg’s website.

And if you’d like a larger version of any of the photos shown here, just click on the individual image.

Here’s the situation:  Each spring, a group of people ranging from floral designers to interior decorators to garden club members choose or are assigned specific artwork the the Museum – it might be a painting, a sculpture, or even a room filled with works of art.  Each person then goes about interpreting, designing, creating and crafting their own vision/version of the permanent Museum artwork, but instead of creating the new interpretation in the original material, they create it out of flowers!

The results range from fun to serious to spectacular, and all flavors in between.  During the run of the exhibit, which lasts four days, many of the designers who created the floral artwork are present at the exhibit, standing with their work and explaining details of their interpretation. 

This was a very interesting and fun exhibit to see, and listening to the talks added to our appreciation.  Although there were interpretations all around the Museum, in virtually every room, I only have space for a few examples here.  But next Spring, try to remember to watch for the 11th annual Art In Bloom and you can check it out for yourself.

Botero, a world-renowned Colombian born painter and sculptor, is known for creating works of art that are united by their proportionally exaggerated, or “fat” figures, as he once referred to them.  Botero graduated from Medellin University in Colombia in 1950, and in following years, studied in Madrid, Florence, New York, and Paris, where he moved in 1973 and where he lives today.

As one can see from the two sculptures that are in temporary residence outside the museum, Botero appears to have fun with his craft, and this theme can be see throughout much of his work.  If you’d like to get a little of the ‘flavor’ of Botero’s work, you can check out this link at Google Images.

For information about the Museum of Fine Arts, including location, direction, hours of operation, and more, check out their website.

Rear View (Click on Photo for Larger Image)

Work from Botero Exhibition (click on photo for larger image)