Tampa Museum of Art — Attraction in Tampa

This is a great Museum! It is located in Tampa along the Riverwalk granting this museum a lovely and unique view of the Hillsborough River and the beautiful campus of the University of Tampa (just across on the other side of the water).

The museum houses modern and contemporary art, as well as Greek, Roman, and Etruscan antiquities. If you are enthusiastic about art history, humanities, anthropology, or even just fascinated by history this is a great place to visit! The different collections make this museum fun for multiple visitors with varying tastes.

There isn't just art inside! The artwork outside of the museum adds extra charm to the area and is actually what drew our attention to it when visiting on a separate day.

They did not harass us about our cameras. I know this may seem like a small thing for some but it really made a difference in our experience as we are shutterbugs. Often, museums or different parks can be restrictive if you're camera is bigger than your average point-and-shoot. We were so thankful that the Tampa Museum of Art didn't hinder our own personal practice of art by not allowing DSLR cameras. Thank you! It allowed us to share our experience with friends and family and helped us to encourage others to visit =)

Things to consider:

You can literally arrive by boat via the Hillsborough River and they do not charge for docking! Keep in mind, there are only two slips and they are on a first-come, first-served basis.

Parking is also available on the road however, it is hard to find a spot. No worries - Tampa's got you covered (literally) with a large parking garage that is adjacent (W.F. Poe Parking Garage)

Backpacks are not allowed in the museum. They do however, kindly provide free lockers for the patrons so that they do not have to walk all the way back to their parking location. I personally had a backpack and a small/medium camera shoulder bag. They did approve the shoulder bag...

Was expecting a lot more, it’s small random pieces of art. Nothing special.

Since its inception, museum planners knew that the Tampa Museum of Art's original building was too small for its collection.[1] Proposals for expansion or relocation were the subject of discussion and controversy for years. Several different plans were proposed either by the city of Tampa or the museum board, including:

in 2001, architect Rafael Vinoly designed a dramatic $76 million building which would have included a huge metal canopy overhanging nearby city streets. The project proved too costly and perhaps unsafe in a hurricane.[2] from 2003 to 2005, Tampa Mayor Pam Iorio proposed that the museum be relocated to one of several abandoned or underutilized buildings downtown, including an old federal courthouse and a small office tower. However, the museum board was unenthusiastic about the choices. As it turned out, converting the courthouse into usable museum space proved too expensive and disagreement over the appraised price of the office tower scrapped those plans as well. In 2006, the museum board and the city of Tampa agreed to use public and private funds to construct a $33 million 66,000-square-foot (6,100 m2) new museum building just a half-block north of its original location. The museum is integrated into the city's Riverwalk project in Curtis Hixon Park at the site of old Curtis Hixon Hall. A new home for the Tampa Children's Museum (now known as the Glazer Children's Museum) was built simultaneously next door.

The old museum building had to be torn down to make way for the current one. In the interim, the Tampa Museum of Art was temporarily moved to the historic Centro Espanol building in West Tampa, which had been vacant for several years.[3] Groundbreaking for the project took place on April 18, 2008,[4] and the grand opening of the new Tampa Museum of Art took place on...

I visited the museum in college years ago in 2010 and was so impressed with the fantastic collection of Greek artifacts on display among other exhibits. The staff at the time informed me that it was part of Tampa's permanent collection. I moved to Orlando for work, but returned excited to bring my father in and show him this amazing collection of works right here in Tampa. Imagine our extreme disappointment at paying $70 in entry fees to see slim pickings of art.

Before the mention of renovations comes up as an excuse, the existing building is as massive as a warehouse and previously housed the original Greek collection. The majority of space was just completely wasted. It is one thing to let a piece have its own breathing room and quite another to have dead air in an exhibit. Did the museum sell off its collection? Were pieces so poorly preserved and in bad condition that they all had to be discarded? It truly felt like there was not much at all for the museum to offer.

What is the point in a museum having such amazing art if people cannot even come to see it? What good is it to have all of these amazing pieces in random storage cardboard boxes and charge $35 a head to see little of substance? I was really hoping to see how the Tampa Museum of Art had evolved since college, but am mournful at how it seems to have regressed. With competition like the Dali across the pond, the Ringling with all its Rubens, and the Orlando Museum of Art (even with its very public Basquiat disgraces), the Tampa Museum of Art left much to be desired.

I am certainly going to make sure my friends and colleagues in the art scene all know of our experience. The Tampa Museum of Art has a lot of work to do, and I hope that the board, staff, and curators either rethink their approach, or bring in someone more eager to show off...