Advertisement

Chihuly Collection plans to move off Beach Drive in August

 
Ken Rigsby  and Jim Dando enjoy the colorful glass forms of Dale Chihuly's Mille Fiori at the Morean Arts Center's Chihuly Collection. LARA CERRI   |   Times

Ken Rigsby and Jim Dando enjoy the colorful glass forms of Dale Chihuly's Mille Fiori at the Morean Arts Center's Chihuly Collection. LARA CERRI | Times
Published July 5, 2016

The Chihuly Collection will leave its current home on St. Petersburg's Beach Drive on Aug. 1.

The board of trustees of the Morean Arts Center, which owns the collection, announced the date Friday after months of planning. The center will be closed for about six weeks before opening in a new space in October.

The new location, 720 Central Ave., will be adjacent to the Morean Arts Center. It will occupy 11,000 square feet of a building under construction that also will house a Publix supermarket and three upper decks of parking. The new, larger location will include an exhibition space, a gift store and 4,200 square feet of outdoor space for events. In addition to Dale Chihuly's signature glass works, quarterly exhibits will showcase nationally acclaimed glass artists. The large "rock candy" sculpture in front of the Beach Drive location will also make the move.

In a press release, the collection's executive direction Andy Schlauch, said he was "ecstatic to be located within the Central Arts District and the heart of the arts and culture scene in St. Petersburg."

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction: The Chihuly collection will reopen in October 2016, but no specific date has been announced. An earlier version of this story gave an incorrect date.