Street Festivals

Clearwater Jazz Holiday

Museums

Florida  International Museum
100 2nd St. N,  St. Petersburg
(727)  273-4000

Museum of  Science & Industry  (MOSI)
4801 E. Fowler Ave., Tampa
(813)  987-6300

Great  Explorations: 
The Hands On Museum
1120 4th St. S, St.  Petersburg
(727) 821-8885

Heritage Village
11909 125th St. N, Largo
(727)  582-2123

Safety Harbor Museum of Regional History
329 South Bayshore Boulevard
Safety Harbor, Florida 34695
727-726-1668 

Salvador Dali Museum
1000 3rd St. S, St. Petersburg
(727) 823-3767

Gulf Coast Museum of Art
12211 Walsingham Road, Largo
(727) 518-6833

Theatre

The Florida Orchestra  
William Abbey
101 S Hoover Blvd
Tampa, FL  33609
813-286-1170 xt 305 Fax 813-286-2316

Ruth Eckerd Hall
1111 McMullen-Booth Rd., Clearwater
(727) 791-7400

Largo  Cultural Center
105 Central Park Drive, Largo
(727) 587-6793

American Stage
211 3rd St. S, St. Petersburg
(727)823-1600

Bayfront Center
400 1st St. S, St. Petersburg
(727) 892-5767

Francis  Wilson Playhouse
302 Seminole St., Clearwater
(727) 446-1360

Dancing

Gulfport Casino
5500 Shore Blvd., Gulfport
(727)  893-1070

The Coliseum 
535 4th  Ave. N, St. Petersburg 
(727)  892-5203 

Arts and Culture

The Florida Botanical Gardens feature all Florida plants, both native and non-native. The gardens are as natural as possible and the native canopy has been preserved allowing visitors to climb to the arboreal canopy to gain an usual perspective of life in the treetops. Wildlife nesting habitat, restored wetlands and natural bridges interact naturally with the more formal gardens. Specialty gardens include the Tropical, the Shade, the Wedding and the Palm. The South Gardens include individual gardens featuring daylilies, bromeliads and groundcover. Additional gardens are planned to include the Butterfly, the Hummingbird, the Sensory and the Children's; an Insect Zoo will focus on the relationships between plants and insects. The Sculpture Garden links the Botanical Garden to the Gulf Coast Museum of Art.

The Gulf Coast Museum of Art features a permanent collection of contemporary Florida art in all its manifestations with a special focus on fine contemporary-craft media objects from the twelve southeastern states. High quality and diverse temporary exhibitions are obtained from national and international museums and private collections. The coordination of a significant teaching program serving professional and aspiring Floridian and southeastern artists is underway.

Clearwater's premiere event is our Jazz Holiday, always the third weekend in October...four sunlit days and starry nights when more than 100,000 music lovers gather to hear jazz-dom's finest at stunning waterfront Coachman Park...an aquatic audience of pleasure boats anchored offshore...the sublime aromas of local food favorites drifting on gulf breezes...That's Clearwater Jazz Holiday, the largest free jazz festival in the Southeastern United States. Since its inception in 1979, the holiday has consistently attracted superior jazz musicians and each year's line-up reflects a commitment to meeting a wide variety of jazz tastes.

Outstanding theaters characterize the area. Constructed in 1983 by the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation, Ruth Eckerd Hall, at the Richard B. Baumgardner Center for the Performing Arts, is well known and respected for its acoustics and state-of-the-art equipment. Ruth Eckerd Hall programs a wide range of performances for every age to provide an opportunity for visitors to enjoy the best in Broadway, classical music, world stage, dance, pop, country, jazz, comedy and children's theater. It was recently nominated for outstanding theater of the year by Performance, a national industry trade publication. The Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center and the Bayfront Center complete the trio.

Clearwater is proud of its "community" Royalty Theater. Located in downtown Clearwater, the Royalty showcases an extremely wide variety of performance types, including but not limited to opera, big band, magic, dance, concerts of all musical types, theater and ballet; it even hosts sporting competitions.

The area is enriched by our world-class museums such as the Salvador Dali, home of the largest collection of his work outside of Spain, the Holocaust Museum, bringing forth the depth of emotion from that era and the Museum of Fine Arts with its elegant building showcasing world-renowned artists.

Our museums are not just for adults. Children and their parents will find the exhibits within Great Explorations, The Hands On Museum stimulating and intriguing, designed to be touched, moved and explored. The David L. Mason Children's Art Museum with its playful themes makes fine arts fun through intelligent, interactive experiences including cartoon-making, acting and stop-motion animation.

With our beautiful weather, it is natural the arts come outside. For example, Shakespeare in the Park brings the Bard to life in a way not experienced indoors. Art shows decorate the waterfront and our parks. Known for our outdoor concerts overlooking the water either from Coachman Park in downtown or beautiful Clearwater Beach, all types of musical professionals visit during the year, especially on holiday weekends.

Learn something new while having fun by viewing area artifacts dating back to 10,000 B.C at the Safety Harbor Museum of History, studying a replica of the first scheduled commercial plane flown in America at the St. Petersburg Historical and Flight Museum and experiencing the John F. Kennedy era from his birth in 1939 through his assassination and funeral at the Florida International Museum.