Salvador Dalí Museum facts for kids
The Salvador Dalí Museum has a giant glass bubble at its entrance (2011).
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| Established | 7 March 1982 |
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| Location | St. Petersburg, Florida, US |
| Type | Art museum |
| Accreditation | AAM |
| Architect | HOK |
| Structural engineer | Walter P. Moore & Associates Inc. |
The Salvador Dalí Museum is an art museum in St. Petersburg, Florida, that is all about the amazing artwork of Salvador Dalí. It's located right on the waterfront in downtown St. Petersburg. The museum's building, designed by Yann Weymouth, is a work of art itself!
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A Building as Unique as the Art
The museum's building is famous for its strange and wonderful design, inspired by Dalí's surrealist art. It cost over $30 million to build. The most eye-catching part is a huge glass bubble at the entrance called the "Enigma." This glass structure is 75 feet tall and is made of thick glass.
Inside the Enigma, a spiral staircase twists upwards. The rest of the building is made of 18-inch thick concrete walls. These strong walls are designed to protect the priceless art collection from the powerful hurricanes that sometimes hit Florida.
The museum also holds fun events for visitors and families. These include movie nights, workshops for making art, and talks where you can learn more about Dalí and his work.
How the Museum Began
The story of the museum starts with a couple named Reynolds and Eleanor Morse. In 1942, they went to see an exhibit of Salvador Dalí's art and were amazed by his skill and imagination. A year later, they bought their first Dalí painting.
This was the beginning of a 40-year friendship with the artist. The Morses became his patrons, or supporters, and collected a huge amount of his work. For many years, they kept the art in their home in Cleveland, Ohio.
In 1971, they opened a small museum next to their office building in Ohio. Salvador Dalí himself was there for the grand opening. But the museum became so popular that it needed a bigger space.
A newspaper article about the collection caught the eye of people in St. Petersburg, Florida. The community worked together to bring the museum to their city. In 1982, the museum opened in a renovated warehouse, where it stayed for almost 30 years.
By 2008, plans were made for a brand-new building. The new, larger, and more storm-proof museum opened on the downtown waterfront on January 11, 2011.
What's Inside the Museum?
The museum's collection is huge. It includes 96 oil paintings, over 100 drawings and watercolors, and 1,300 other items like photos, sculptures, and art objects. It also has a large library of books and documents about Dalí.
The museum has more of Dalí's large, famous paintings, called "masterworks," than any other museum in the world. Some of these famous paintings include The ... Toreador and The Discovery of America by Christopher Columbus.
Besides showing Dalí's art, the museum's goal is to teach people about art. It wants visitors to enjoy and understand the work of Dalí and other artists who had a similar creative vision.
Outside of the Dalí Theatre-Museum in Dalí's hometown in Spain, this museum in Florida has the largest collection of his art anywhere in the world.
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The Discovery of America by Christopher Columbus is one of Dalí's most famous paintings.
Fun Ways to Experience Art
The museum has some cool high-tech exhibits. One uses augmented reality (AR). Visitors can use a special app on their phones to scan some of Dalí's largest paintings. The app makes parts of the artwork move and gives more information about what you're seeing.
Another exhibit is a virtual reality (VR) experience called Dreams of Dalí. Visitors wear VR headsets and feel like they are stepping right inside one of Dalí's paintings. You can walk around the strange landscapes that Dalí created in his art.
Helping the Community
The museum works with local schools to teach kids about art. During the 2021-2022 school year, its art program visited 20 schools. It also runs a summer program for children and sends volunteers to schools to talk about art.
Temporary Exhibits
The museum often hosts temporary exhibits featuring other famous artists. In 2022, it had an exhibit called Picasso and the Allure of the South, which showed how Southern Europe influenced the art of Pablo Picasso.
Each year, the museum also displays art created by local middle and high school students. This gives young artists a chance to have their work seen in a real museum.
See also
In Spanish: Salvador Dalí Museum para niños
- Dalí Theatre and Museum – museum of Dalí in his home town of Figueres, Catalonia, Spain
- Gala Dali Castle Museum-House – in Púbol, Spain
- Dalí Paris – in Paris, France, museum of Dalí's drawings and sculptures
- Dalí – Die Ausstellung am Potsdamer Platz – in Berlin, Germany: more than 450 original artworks by Salvador Dalí
- List of single-artist museums
