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Tampa Travel Articles
- Art & Soul
It’s no wonder that Tampa Bay was recently awarded the distinction “Top Arts Destination” by American Style Magazine. Tampa cherishes its art and history and keeps it a unique and powerful tool to showcase the Tampa Bay’s heritage and diverse culture. With independent and foreign film, critically acclaimed opera and orchestra, a stellar Broadway series and an eclectic collage of museums featuring everything the surreal masterworks of Salvador Dali to traveling exhibitions from the Smithsonian – the Tampa Bay area is fast becoming the cultural core of Florida’s Gulf Coast.
In Tampa, art is everywhere. Even when visitors arrive at the Tampa International Airport they will immediately recognize the city’s ardor for the arts. Travelers will enjoy flights of imagination while moving through the airport thanks to a multitude of sculptures, tapestries, acrylic and oil paintings created by local and international artists that are on display in high traffic areas.
In addition, the new Airside E is home of seven original Works Progress Administration (WPA) murals painted by St. Petersburg artist George Snow Hill in 1939. The stunning 9 X 9-foot and 9 X 27-foot oil paintings depict figures who contributed to flight - Archimedes, Icarus and Daedalus, the Montgolfer Brothers, Otto Lilienthal, The Wright Brothers - and Tony Jannus, the pilot who made the world’s first commercial flight, a trip from St. Petersburg to Tampa in 1914 that cost $400 per person.
Many of Tampa’s cultural centers are clustered downtown along the Hillsborough River. Amidst high-rise office buildings and fine hotels, the Tampa Theatre, Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center, Tampa Museum of Art, Henry B. Plant Museum, Tampa Bay History Center and many displays of public art can be found to peak one’s cultural curiosity. Discover the culture of our city and the wonders that await you.
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