Photo essay: Tampa Museum of Art

The Tampa Museum of Art begins a significant renovation and modernization later this spring as existing space is redesigned and additional space is added.

The plan is to make room for additional exhibition, gallery, and classroom space while upgrading the access, look, and feel of the museum for visitors. 

Among the most visible changes will be shifting the main front entrance to the west side of the building, enabling easy access from The Tampa Riverwalk. The current north and south entrances will be closed when that happens.

An ambitious fundraising campaign currently underway has raised $12 million toward an undisclosed overall goal, which will likely require several years of work and include state, county, and city funding. 

But before construction begins, visitors to the downtown Tampa museum can still see "Living Color: The Art of the Highwaymen,” a small but substantial collection of paintings by little known Florida Black artists who traveled the state beginning in the 1950s to capture landscapes, natural beauty, and the local scene. The last day to see this exhibit is March 28, 2021. 

Visitors can also see Her World in Focus: Women Photographers from the Permanent Collection and HerStory: Stories of Ancient Heroines and Everyday Women along with other Current Exhibitions found here.

The museum will remain open during construction. For more information, including plans for the redesign, hours, and membership levels, visit the Tampa Museum of Art website.

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Read more articles by Diane Egner.

Diane Egner is a community leader and award-winning journalist with more than four decades of experience reporting and writing about the Tampa Bay Area of Florida. She serves on the boards of the University of South Florida Zimmerman School of Advertising & Mass Communications Advisory Council, The Institute for Research in Art (Graphicstudio, the Contemporary Art Museum, and USF’s Public Art Program) Community Advisory Council, Sing Out and Read, and StageWorks Theatre Advisory Council. She also is a member of Leadership Florida and the Athena Society. A graduate of the University of Minnesota with a BA in journalism, she won the top statewide award for editorial writing from the Florida Society of Newspaper Editors while at The Tampa Tribune and received special recognition by the Tampa Bay Association of Black Journalists for creative work as Content Director at WUSF Public Media. Past accomplishments and community service include leadership positions with Tampa Tiger Bay Club, USF Women in Leadership & Philanthropy (WLP), Alpha House of Tampa Bay, Awesome Tampa Bay, Florida Kinship Center, AIA Tampa Bay, Powerstories, Arts Council of Hillsborough County, and the Greater Tampa Chamber of Commerce. Diane and her husband, Sandy Rief, live in Tampa.