Museums, Gainesville

If you love art The Cornell Fine Arts Museum, located on the campus of Rollins College in Winter Park, is a must-see during your Orlando visit. An ancient sarcophagus, Renaissance and Baroque paintings, American abstraction, modern sculpture and 21st century art all are part of our collection. Temporary exhibitions exploring timely and thought-provoking topics rotate seasonally. In addition to works at the Museum, you can explore art from the Museum's collection nearby at the College's philanthropic boutique hotel, The Alfond Inn. The Inn is a one-of-its-kind in the nation, serving as a satellite location for an art museum. https://www.visitorlando.com/EN-GL/things-to-do/arts-culture-and-history/Cornell-Fine-Arts-Museum/30993/

Founded in 1924, the Orlando Museum of Art is a a 501(c)(3) institution and leading cultural institution in the region. Their mission is to inspire creativity, passion and intellectual curiosity by connecting people with art and new ideas. http://www.visitorlando.com/EN-GL/things-to-do/arts-culture-and-history/Orlando-Museum-of-Art/31259/

Owned and operated by the City of Orlando, The Mennello Museum of American Art was established in 1998 to preserve, exhibit, and interpret our outstanding permanent collection of paintings by Earl Cunningham. The Mennello Museum of American Art strives to enrich the public through renowned temporary exhibitions, exciting programs, educational initiatives, and publications that celebrate outstanding traditional and contemporary American art and artists across a broad range of disciplines. https://www.visitorlando.com/EN-GL/things-to-do/arts-culture-and-history/The-Mennello-Museum-of-American-Art/31389/

The Henry B. Plant Museum is housed in the 1891 Tampa Bay Hotel, the Victorian railroad resort that defined the elegant frontier, now a National Historic Landmark. Unlike most museums dedicated to lifestyles of the past, it contains the actual furnishings enjoyed by the first guests to visit here. The Museum accurately reflects the opulence of turn-of-the-century America and the vision of American transportation pioneer, Henry B. Plant. The Museum seeks to transport the visitor through educational exhibits and events to the late Victorian period, the beginning of Florida’s tourist industry, and the early years of the city of Tampa. http://www.plantmuseum.com/

The Florida Aquarium is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization whose mission is to entertain, educate and inspire stewardship of the natural environment. https://www.flaquarium.org/who-we-are

Hidden in modern North Miami Beach, the Ancient Spanish Monastery takes us back. An enclave of European architecture and history, this Florida Heritage site—which was originally built in Sacramenia, a municipality of Segovia in northern Spain—has endured a long and interesting history to become the South Florida monument we know and love today. “The Ancient Spanish Monastery is a little piece of Spanish history,” says Father Gregory Mansfield, Curator of the Ancient Spanish Monastery Museum & Gardens. “Construction began in 1133 AD, almost 360 years before Columbus left Spain and arrived in the Americas, and it took eight years to complete. There are over 35,000 stones, some of which weigh a ton and a half.” In the 21st century, the Ancient Spanish Monastery serves as both a peek into history and a tourist attraction. At the entrance to the property, there’s a museum with historic Spanish artifacts like a hymnarium and pieces of armor worn during the Crusades. In that same building, there is also a gift shop with souvenirs available for purchase. http://www.miamiandbeaches.com/attraction/ancient-spanish-monastery/100839

Perhaps the most important museum in Miami, PAMM opened its doors in December 2013 just in time for Art Basel. Dedicated to international art of the 20th and 21st centuries from the perspective of the Americas, the bayfront museum boasts an impressive permanent collection, as well as compelling exhibitions. The landmark building by Pritzker Prize-winning architects Herzog & de Meuron further solidified Miami’s place as a major city of the arts. http://www.miamiandbeaches.com/arts/perez-art-museum-miami/100797

Located in the heart of South Beach’s Art Deco District, The Wolfsonian-FIU is a museum, as well as a library and research center that examines “the persuasive power of art and design and explores what it means to be modern.” Their collection of 120,000 objects, dating from 1885 to 1945, focuses on American and European decorative and fine arts, in addition to fascinating exhibitions. From propaganda posters to World's Fair memorabilia, the array of objects offers visitors a thought-provoking journey through the modern age. http://www.miamiandbeaches.com/arts/the-wolfsonian-fiu/100802

Just across Biscayne Bay, Coconut Grove is home to the gorgeous Vizcaya Museum & Gardens, a National Historic Landmark that was once the winter home of agricultural industrialist, James Deering. Nestled on 10 acres of shoreline and located directly on the water, the mansion has been beautifully restored to its Gilded Age heritage. European antiques and art adorn the main house and lush tropical gardens surround the property. http://www.miamiandbeaches.com/arts/vizcaya-museum-and-gardens/100789

The Delta Flight Museum offers a one-of-a-kind experience. Features include interactive exhibits and rare artifacts, cutting-edge technology, unique event spaces and an innovative focus on the future of aviation. At the Museum guests can get an up-close look at historic aircraft dating back to the 1920s, fly the only Boeing 737 flight simulator open to the public, host events in a distinctive setting that offers historic glamour with modern appeal and shop for unique aviation souvenirs. http://www.deltamuseum.org/

xperience a world of adventure filled with dinosaurs, live animals, cultural artifacts, hands-on science explorations and films in a state-of-the art 4K Giant Screen Theater Take a walk on the wild side as you explore 75 acres of new outdoor nature adventures featuring elevated tree pods, boardwalks, interactive exhibits and giant old-growth trees. http://fernbankmuseum.org/

The Museum of the Jimmy Carter Library provides a unique experience for the visitor. Through immersive exhibitions of objects, documents, and photographs, videos, and beautiful gifts from world leaders, visitors can get a close-up view of the modern American Presidency. Highlights include a life-size replica of the Oval Office, a dramatic “Day in the Life of the President” presentation on 13 ft. screens, a walk-through cabin setting for the crucial Camp David Meetings exhibition, and an Interactive Map Table that takes you with the Carters to monitor elections and fight diseases. The Presidential Library is nestled between two lakes on 30 acres of parkland and provides a tranquil setting with a view of the Atlanta skyline. Changing exhibits are drawn from the library and museum collection or are based on themes relating to the presidency and American history. https://www.jimmycarterlibrary.gov/museum/

The Center for Civil and Human Rights is an engaging cultural attraction that connects the American Civil Rights Movement to today’s global human rights movements. The Center uses interactive exhibits and cutting-edge technology that enables visitors to find inspiration in each story. The Civil Rights gallery presents the brave fight for equality during the American Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s. Sit at a lunch counter and experience the intensity of a replicated sit-in. The Human Rights gallery aims to help visitors achieve a deeper understanding of human rights issues and how they affect the lives of every person. https://www.civilandhumanrights.org/

A modern day world marvel, it’s worth the journey down south to the Coral Castle Museum in Homestead. As a tribute to his long lost love, a tiny Latvian immigrant who only weighed 100 pounds, moved and sculpted more than 1,000 tons of coral rock for nearly 30 years, until the project was completed in 1951. The feat has baffled scientists and engineered for years. Since 1923 Scientists, Engineers, Scholars continue to be amazed! See a hand-carved 9-ton gate, a Polaris telescope, the world’s only Sundial with seasons. Enjoy a movie short about the mysteries of Coral Castle, its creator; Edward Leedskalnin. Relax at the Coral Castle Café and enjoy the delicious gourmet menu. Visit the unique gift shop with Coral Castle collectables, science, natural stones, jewelry and much more! http://www.miamiandbeaches.com/attraction/coral-castle-museum/102397

From a stately home on Peachtree Street to its current award-winning buildings in a spectacular setting, the High Museum of Art in Midtown Atlanta has become the leading art museum in the Southeastern United States. The High boasts a celebrated collection of classic to contemporary art, as well as renowned architecture by Richard Meier and Renzo Piano. With a dynamic schedule of special exhibitions, an extensive collection, innovative educational and family programs, meeting and event facilities, the Museum Shop, and several dining options, there is something for everyone at the High. https://www.atlanta.net/partner/high-museum-of-art/185/

Vivid original paintings cover the walls of this small gallery. Leo, owner/artist and Nassau native, uses the space as a studio as well as a showroom, which somehow makes it more inviting. Leo has been painting since a very young age, and was officially discovered when the late GBPA Chairman, Mr. Edward St. George, saw his work and immediately offered him a scholarship to the school of his choice. Leo's paintings themselves depict exotic wildlife and religious scenes. As the artist is happy to explain, nearly every element of every painting is deeply symbolic, but even at first glance, the pictures are striking, colorful and complex. https://www.bahamas.com/vendor/leos-art-gallery

The Atlanta History Center is located in one of Atlanta’s most vibrant neighborhoods where the stories, mysteries and crusades of our region thrive. Our 33-acre experience features award-winning exhibitions, historic houses, enchanting gardens, interactive activities and a variety of year-round adult and family programs. http://www.atlantahistorycenter.com/visit-us

The Billy Graham Library is a 40,000-square-foot experience where you’ll discover the life and legacy of America’s Pastor. Designed to reflect Billy Graham’s journey from a humble farm boy to an international ambassador of God’s love, the barn-shaped building is situated on 20 landscaped acres, only miles from where Billy Graham grew up in Charlotte, N.C. The tour begins and ends with multimedia presentations, the first to lay a foundation for what guests will encounter in the exhibits and, at the end, another to consider the same call Billy Graham has extended to millions of others in 185 countries. The Billy Graham Library is not a memorial, nor is it a museum. The Billy Graham Library is a ministry, prayerfully planned with the intention of communicating the unchanging, life-giving message of Jesus Christ to hundreds of thousands of visitors each year who may never attend a Crusade. https://billygrahamlibrary.org/

Conveniently located in Uptown Charlotte, North Carolina, the NASCAR Hall of Fame is an interactive entertainment attraction honoring the history and heritage of NASCAR. The high-tech venue, designed to educate and entertain race fans and non-fans alike, opened May 11, 2010, and includes artifacts, hands-on exhibits, a 278-person state-of-the-art theater, Hall of Honor, Buffalo Wild Wings restaurant, NASCAR Hall of Fame Gear Shop, NASCAR Productions-operated broadcast studio and an attached parking garage on Brevard Street. The 5-acre site also includes a privately developed 19-story office tower and 102,000-square-foot expansion to the Charlotte Convention Center, highlighted by a 40,000-square-foot ballroom. The NASCAR Hall of Fame is owned by the City of Charlotte, licensed by NASCAR and operated by the Charlotte Regional Visitors Authority. The goal of the facility is to honor NASCAR icons and create an enduring tribute to the drivers, crew members, team owners and others that have impacted the sport in the past, present and future. https://www.charlottesgotalot.com/things-to-do/attractions/nascar-hall-of-fame?ad_placement=featured-section?ad_placement=featured-section

Located in Charlotte's Center City, the Bechtler Museum of Modern Art brims with works by Miró, Giacometti, Calder, Warhol and a wealth of other 20th century notables. The previously private collection of the Bechtler family of Zurich, Switzerland was, until now, mostly unseen by an American audience. http://www.charlottesgotalot.com/art-museums-galleries/bechtler-museum-modern-art

Carolina Raptor Center is a 57-acre living museum and avian medical facility displaying over 25 species of raptors in a zoo-like setting. Located in Latta Plantation Nature Preserve, our 3/4 mile Raptor Trail features eagles, owls, falcons, hawks, vultures and other raptor species. http://www.charlottesgotalot.com/animal-parks-zoos/carolina-raptor-center

The Heritage Museum of The Bahamas opened in July 2014 and is the foundation of Graycliff new Heritage Village. Located in the historically preserved Mountbatten House opposite the Graycliff Hotel on West Hill Street, the museum offers visitors an in depth look at the history and heritage of The Bahamas, ranging from the prehistoric times to the present. Browse the collection of Hamilton White, a well-known British antiques collector, his expansive collection greatly complements the history of West Hill Street with fossils, relics and treasures spanning the centuries. The oldest of artefacts being a slice of a meteorite, which is approximately 4.5 billion years old! The timeline explores natural history, the days of Columbus, the piracy era, slavery and plantation life, the Maritimes of the 18th century, life in the Out Islands during the early 1900’s, the days of the Duke of Windsor, the Royal Air Force, Bahamas Speed Weeks, and so much more. http://www.graycliff.com/heritage-village-at-graycliff/

Castillo de los Tres Santos Reyes del Morro (Morro Castle) was erected between 1589 and 1630 to protect the mouth of the Havana port from pirates and invaders. The fortress stands on a rocky promontory known as El Morro, over the Atlantic. It was the King of Spain who ordered the castle to be built and appointed Juan de Texeda, a field commander, and Batista Antonelli, a military architect, to lead the works. The castle was originally planned to have an irregular polygonal shape, with three-meter-thick walls and deep moats. The castle is an perfect example of renaissance military architecture, and is endowed with an harmonic elegance that melds with its natural surroundings through a series of terraces fused to the rock. Nowadays, the castle offers impressive views of the sea and Havana. The lighthouse that crowns its tower was added in 1844 and helps guide ships docking in the port. https://www.tripcuba.org/morro-castle-havana

Castillo de la Real Fuerza Castle in Old Havana, Cuba, one of Cuba’s most ancient castles. It is a great sample of military architecture during the Spain's rule over the Caribbean. It is located in the Plaza de Armas Square in Old Havana facing the sea. The Castle, as well as the rest of the old city’s fortifications, has been declared World Heritage Site by UNESCO. The Castillo de la Real Fuerza Castle is the oldest fortress still preserved in all the Americas. It was built between 1558 and 1577, in the same location where a fort was destroyed by French pirates in 1555. The west tower is crowned by the copy of a well-known bronze weathervane called La Giraldilla. The original was made in Havana in 1630 and is quite similar to the Giralda of Seville. https://www.tripcuba.org/castillo-de-la-real-fuerza

Discover the Planetarium of Havana in Cuba and let it take you on a journey through time and space! The Planetario de La Habana (Planetarium of Havana) is a must-visit place in Cuba. It was built in 2009 with the help of the Japanese government and is located in Calle Mercaderes, near the Plaza Vieja Square in Havana. The Planetarium has exhibitions including a scale model of the Solar System inside a huge sphere, a Big Bang simulation, and a theater where it is possible to see more than 6,000 stars. The Planetarium has several telescopes, a projector that can lock onto more than 6,500 stars, a library of astronomy, a theater, interactive games, and a staff made up of physicists and astronomers. https://www.tripcuba.org/planetarium-of-havana

Discover the Rum Museum in Old Havana, Cuba, to learn more about and taste famous beverage! The Havana Club Rum Museum ( Museo del Ron ) is located next to the Colonial Plaza de San Francisco de Asis Square , right in front of Havana harbor. It is not necessary to drink alcohol to enjoy this wonderful museum , because by visiting it you'll still be able to delve into Cuban culture. This museum offers an interesting guided tou r exhibiting the complex rum-making process in old machines . This tour is available in Spanish, English, French, German and Italian. It explains the entire process, from the manufacturing white oak barrels to the rum's fermentation and ageing process, as well as a scale-model copy of a sugar mill. https://www.tripcuba.org/rum-museum-of-havana

El Capitolio, or the National Capitol Building is one of the most visited sites in Havana. This majestic construction, located in the Centro Habana, is similar to that in Washington D.C, but a meter higher, a meter wider, and a meter longer, as well as much more rich in detail. It was started to be built by Gerardo Machado in 1926 supported by North America. Formerly, it was used as headquarters of the Cuban Congress, but since 1959 it has hosted the Cuban Academy of Sciences and the Science and Technology National Library. The entrance is sheltered by 6 huge Doric columns, on top of a 55 steps granite staircase. In both sides on top of the stairs there are two amazing sculptures in bronze, a masculine and a feminine one, both 6,70 meters high, by the Italian Angelo Zanelli. When you cross them you’ll arrive to the Hall of Lost Steps, named in this way due to its wonderful acoustics, and in which center is the Republic statue, a huge woman in bronze 14,60 meters high and more than 30 tons weight, representing the virtue of the nation and work. https://www.tripcuba.org/el-capitolio-havana

Known for "naive" and "childlike" style, Cuban artist José Fuster created colorful, dream-like houses covered entirely with ceramic tiles. Go back in the history, after successful gallery tours across Europe, Fuster was struck with a desire to recreate something like Gaudi’s public works in Barcelona and Brâncuși’s across Romania in his own homeland. He wanted to put his artistic reality into his real-world surroundings, and he began in his own neighborhood. In 1975, after moving into a modest wood house in the rundown neighborhood of Jaimanitas outside Havana, Fuster set about decorating his studio in colorful mosaic. Once he was done there, he asked his neighbors if he could decorate their homes and business as well. A few accepted his offer and the tile creations grew. Over the course of a decade, doctors’ offices, bus stops, fountains, benches, gateways, and more were enveloped by Fuster’s whimsical imagination. Today, his artwork coats the neighborhood in a rainbow of strange, enchanting fantasy. Jaimanitas was an economically depressed area before Fuster arrived, and now it has turned into an artist’s paradise. Tourists are bussed into the neighborhood to admire Fuster’s still-growing kingdom, which has spawned a new generation of artists inspired by the surroundings they came up in. https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/fusterlandia

Located on the Mississippi River adjacent to the French Quarter Audubon Aquarium of the Americas immerses you in an underwater world. The colors of a Caribbean reef come alive in our walk-through tunnel, while our penguins and Southern sea otter enchant you with their antics. Touch a stingray, feed a parakeet, and marvel at our gigantic sharks and rays in the 400,000-gallon Gulf of Mexico Exhibit. Watch for sea turtles throughout the Aquarium as coordinator of the Louisiana Marine Mammal and Sea Turtle Rescue Program, prepared many of them for release to the wild. Also take an underwater adventure into a submerged Maya city! The 4,200 square-foot Great Maya Reef at Audubon Aquarium of the Americas is a walk into a submerged Maya city of the Yucatan peninsula. The adventure begins as visitors walk through the 30-foot-long tunnel into a submerged Maya city of mysterious ruins, surrounded by exotic sea creatures. This underwater world of the ancient, flooded metropolis is alive with lion fish, yellowtail snapper, moray eels, spiny lobsters and more all at home among stunning coral, sunken artifacts and forgotten treasure. https://audubonnatureinstitute.org/aquarium

Offering a compelling blend of sweeping narrative and poignant personal detail, The National WWII Museum features immersive exhibits, multimedia experiences, and an expansive collection of artifacts and first-person oral histories, taking visitors inside the story of the war that changed the world. https://www.nationalww2museum.org/about-us

Experience the wonders of an aquarium, zoo, science museum, and 3D theatre all in one attraction! See sharks, penguins, otters, stingrays, a fishing cat and other amazing animals from around the world in NEW The Wiseman Aquarium. Get eye-to-eye with tigers, meerkats, monkeys, crocodiles and other unique animals in Animal Discovery Zoo. Roam through Dinosaur Gallery, take a journey through the human body, experience extreme weather, and have fun in Kid’s Alley in the Museum. Watch amazing 3-D shows that pop out of the screen in the OmniSphere Theatre. https://www.visitgreensboronc.com/things-to-do/animal-discovery-zoological-park-at-the-greensboro-science-center/

The Country Music Hall of Fame® and Museum is the definitive home of America’s music, safeguarding more than 2.5 million priceless artefacts, including countless recordings and photographs, numerous stage costumes, musical instruments, and more. http://www.visitmusiccity.com/visitors/thingstodo/listing?bid=3912

Officially authorized by the estate of Johnny Cash, the museum features the most comprehensive collection of Johnny Cash artefacts and memorabilia in the world. https://www.nashvilledowntown.com/go/the-johnny-cash-museum