I was a member and took my granddaughter to their excellent free monthly art classes for children ages 2-5 that are held the first Wednesday of the month. After the classes we walked around the museum, discussed the pictures and then had lunch. I also went by myself or with a friend from Tampa and enjoyed the permanent and temporary displays. Rather than describe the variety of the art including all media and old masters to very contemporary art, I suggest you go to their Facebook page to see a small sample and then go to the museum and see so much more. They have a nice cafe, but check the days and hours as the cafe is not open every day. Thursdays admission for adults is only $12 after 5:00 pm, Children under 6 are free. They are closed on Mondays.

On a recent windy, cool day in downtown St. Pete we visited the Museum of Fine Arts. This is a great small museum packed with art from a variety of periods and places from ancient to Modern. In addition to their usual galleries, there was a Rodin show which included many sculptures using Rodin's casts as well as a smattering of Impressionistic works. There was a small gift shop and a nice lobby to sit and relax. All in all this is worth the visit even on a not so windy day!

Smallish art museum with a varied collection from around the world. I wouldn't make a special trip to the area for this one. We really preferred the nearby Dali Museum and Museum of the Arts & Crafts Movement. Parking in the vicinity is expensive. There's a small café inside the museum open Thursday through Sunday.

This relatively small museum has a great collection, and it has good rotating/touring exhibits. We are members and go each time a new exhibit opens. One wing is devoted to a touring art exhibition and the small upstairs gallery is devoted to showing photo and video items from the museum collection. It seems to be a popular spot for special events, so the small parking lot next door frequently closes early. The museum is surrounded by restaurants and is next to the Pier, so it is good a daylong visit.

The Museum of Fine Arts in St. Petersburg, Florida, is as impressive on the outside from an architectural perspective as it is on the inside with a collection covering almost 5,000 years of civilization. Located at 255 Beach Drive Northeast, across the street from the new St. Pete Pier, the museum showcases thousands of objects extending from antiquity to present, to fascinating travel exhibitions, to exciting events in the heart of downtown St. Petersburg's scenic waterfront. Open from 10 to 5 Tuesday through Saturday and noon to 5 on Sunday, the Museum of Fine Arts features the only comprehensive art collection of its kind on Florida's west coast, including masterpieces from Monet, O'Keeffe, De Kooning, Wiley, Morisot, Rodin and Steichen. Also see African art, European paintings, American photography, even ancient Greek and Roman art. Take a guided tour and purchase the MFA handbook, a beautifully bound book, published by Rizzoli, which highlights more than 200 works of art from all areas of the permanent collection. Founded by Margaret Acheson Stuart, the museum was opened to the public in 1965, the first art museum in St. Petersburg located on the downtown waterfront. Did you notice the Bombax tree on the south lawn that was only three feet tall when it was planted after the museum opened? Currently on view are stunning exhibitions by noted photographer Tom Jones, Japanese woodblock prints and Japanese photographs from the Meiji Era from 1870 to 1900 and Dogs in Art. Jones' Here We Stand" exhibit includes more than 100 works spanning from 1998 to 2021, including his critical assessment of the romanticized representation of Native Americans in photography that re-examines historic pictures taken by white photographers. The "Lasting Impressions" exhibit features 60 Japanese woodblock prints from famous Kabuki theater actors in the 18th century to vibrant landscapes in the 19th century.