Sarasota Art Museum

As the region's first museum dedicated to contemporary art, the Museum offers a place to see thought-provoking, boundary-pushing exhibitions and participate in dynamic educational programming with global thought leaders. The facility is a resource for learning about global art discourse and deepening appreciation for 20th and 21st-century art and artists.

The Sarasota Art Museum transformed the historic Sarasota High School into a modern art museum and visual arts educational center. The museum comprises the 1926 Elliott Collegiate Neo-Gothic former Sarasota Senior High School, the 1957 Paul Rudolph support building for the "New" Sarasota High School, and the 1959 Victor Lundy former Galloway's Furniture Store, as well as 5 acres of contained perimeter publicly available exterior space for Museum programming. The Museum has 15,000 square feet of dedicated exhibition gallery space, a bistro, classrooms, and an auditorium for educational events. The sculpture courtyard and extensive grounds and facilities provide a platform for engaging with site-specific and site-responsive experiences.

Marie Selby Botanical Gardens

Marie Selby Gardens is the only botanical garden in the world dedicated to the display and study of epiphytic orchids, bromeliads, gesneriads, ferns and other tropical plants. Since 1973, scientists from Selby Gardens have ventured into some of the world's wildest places to identify, study, collect and learn from these resourceful, remarkable plants. There is a significant focus on botany, horticulture, education, historical preservation, and the environment.

Selby Gardens maintains a plant collection representing specimens collected from New World Tropic locations during research expeditions and acquisitions from international institutions. The collection numbers more than 20,000 greenhouse plants, plus thousands more in the outdoor gardens. Eight greenhouses include the stunning Tropical Conservatory - the only greenhouse that is open to the public where unusual flora can be seen year-round.

Marie Selby Botanical Gardens was founded in 1973 when Sarasota resident and passionate gardener Marie Selby bequeathed her former home and property "for the enjoyment of the general public." The 15-acre original Downtown Sarasota campus features botanical highlights such as a captivating banyan grove planted by Marie and her husband, William, nearly a century ago. Selby Gardens has, in short, become a respected center for research and education, as well as a famous showplace that delights more than 200,000 visitors each year.