Check out some of the newest educational and artful exhibits at museums around our area.
Written and Compiled by Melissa Peterson
From ancient dinos and Gainesville’s music history to colored glass insects and the water all around us, these museum exhibits celebrate art and culture in a way that everyone can enjoy.
Water’s Margins: Paintings of Florida’s Springs by Margaret Ross Tolbert
Appleton Museum of Art
On exhibit through June 2
Over the last four decades, Gainesville-based multimedia artist Margaret Ross Tolbert has traveled extensively throughout areas of Florida and many international destinations that boast exceptional springs, waterways and caves. Water’s Margins brings together a selection of Tolbert’s paintings created following visits and plunges into these waters, including some in Marion, Levy and Citrus Counties.
Antarctic Dinosaurs
Florida Museum of Natural History
On exhibit through April 21
Step back in time and discover life beneath the ice in Antarctic Dinosaurs. Today, Antarctica is a forbidding land of snow and ice, but 200 million years ago it was a lush, wooded habitat where dinosaurs thrived. Uncover the history of the world’s southernmost continent and the unique species that have called it home in this interactive, family-friendly experience.
Return to Forever: Gainesville’s Great Southern Music Hall
Matheson History Museum
On exhibit through May 4
Between 1974 and 1978, the top concert venue in Gainesville was the Great Southern Music Hall, located inside the historic Florida Theatre. The Great Southern played host to a who’s who of prestigious performers, including Jimmy Buffett, Ray Charles, Muddy Waters, Bob Seger, Steve Martin, Ike and Tina Turner and dozens more. This impactful exhibit showcases dozens of John Moran‘s performance photos from his two years as the Great Southern Music Hall house photographer.
INK! 50 Years of American Graphics
Orlando Museum of Art
On exhibit through October 27
INK! is a rotating exhibition of the Contemporary American Graphics Collection featuring limited edition lithographs, etchings, silk-screen prints and woodcuts collected over the course of the past 50 years. The works vary from realism to abstraction, reflecting, in the variety of techniques and styles, the revolution of fine art printing that has occurred in the last 50 years.
Glass in Flight 2
Leu Gardens
On exhibit through May 5
Experience an amazing outdoor sculpture exhibit of larger-than-life flying insects and birds hand-crafted into 28 works of art with Dalle de Verre glass and steel. Created by nationally known sculptor Alex Heveri, each piece captures the essence of flight. Sunlight through the colored glass mimics the transparency and iridescence of insect wings, intensifying the illusion of movement and life. The exhibit weaves together the beauty of art with the science of nature.
On the Road: Photographs of the Traveling Circus and Carnival
The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art
On exhibit April 6-August 25
This exhibition features the work of two photographers, Jill Freedman and Randal Levenson, who entered the world of traveling entertainers—circus (for Freedman) and carnival (for Levenson)—in the 1970s. Their images reveal the distinct sensibilities each brought to their projects and offer a glimpse of what life was like on the road with the circus and carnival.
Shaped By Water
Cade Museum for Creativity & Invention
On exhibit April 18-May 5
Every aspect of Florida life is influenced by the waters along our coasts, in our communities and those that flow in the aquifer beneath our feet—they shape our culture, passions, politics, economy, biodiversity and quality of life. The creative works in this exhibition explore how Florida is “Shaped by Water” literally and figuratively, on canvas, photo, sculpture and screen.