Salvador Dalí Museum

Overview

Since 1982, The Dalí Museum in St. Petersburg has been a hub for world-class art, community, and connection. Dedicated to the life and work of Salvador Dalí (1904–1989), the museum's collection includes more than 2,400 works from every period and every medium of his career — oil paintings, original drawings, book illustrations, artists' books, prints, sculpture, photographs, manuscripts, and an extensive archive of documents. The Dalí draws hundreds of thousands of visitors each year and is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.

An Artist's Museum

The Dalí is what the museum calls an "Artist's Museum": rather than surveying a style or an era, it is built around the art, archives, and biography of one creative individual, offering an entry into the creative process itself.

The Morse Collection

The museum was founded on the works collected by A. Reynolds and Eleanor Morse. In 1942 the Morses visited a traveling Dalí retrospective at the Cleveland Museum of Art, organized by the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and became fascinated with his work. On March 21, 1943, they bought their first Dalí painting, *Daddy Longlegs of the Evening, Hope!* (1940), and on April 13 of that year they met Salvador Dalí and his wife, Gala, in New York, beginning a long friendship. Over the next 40 years their acquisitions grew into the preeminent collection of Dalí's work in America.

The Morses first displayed the paintings in their home and, by the mid-1970s, decided to donate the entire collection. A Wall Street Journal article titled "U.S. Art World Dillydallies Over Dalí" caught the attention of the St. Petersburg community, which rallied to bring the collection to the city. The Dalí Museum opened in 1982.

The Building

The museum's current building, designed by architect Yann Weymouth to combine the rational with the fantastical, opened on January 11, 2011. Inside, a spiral staircase rises from the ground floor; outside, the Avant-garden is designed for quiet reflection. The museum also presents immersive experiences in The Dalí Dome.

Visiting The Dalí

The Dalí is open daily from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., and until 8 p.m. on Thursdays. It is closed on Thanksgiving and Christmas Day. On-site parking is $10, first come, first served, and card-only; members park free when space is available. Nine accessible parking spaces are in the lot next to the museum, with the main accessible entrance on the west side of the building. Street parking, city garages, the Downtown Looper Trolley, and the Cross Bay Ferry are other options.

Backpacks of any size, luggage, umbrellas, and large child carriers are not allowed inside; free lockers are available near the entrance. Personal photography is permitted on the first floor, in the gardens, and in the permanent collection galleries, without flash, selfie sticks, or tripods. Galleries are kept at 68–72°F, so a light layer is recommended. Quiet hours are offered on Sundays from 10 a.m. to noon.