Imagine Museum

The wider world of studio glass

⏱ 1-2 hours👤 All ages$$

The museum is the project of Trish Duggan, a philanthropist and glass artist herself, who bought the former home of the Imagine charter school on Central Avenue, kept the name, and opened the museum in January 2018. The collection was assembled with Corey Hampson of Michigan's Habatat Galleries, a leading studio-glass dealer, as a timeline of the American studio glass movement, the movement that began in the early 1960s when artists took glassblowing out of factories and into small studios. Walking the galleries, you can see that history play out: early experimental pieces, the technical leaps of the following decades, and contemporary work that uses glass for sculpture, portraiture and installation. Signature installations, such as the large Flight and Illusion piece, give the visit its showpiece moments. The museum is one anchor of what St. Pete now markets as a glass coast, alongside the Chihuly Collection downtown and working studios such as the Duncan McClellan Gallery in the Warehouse Arts District.

Visit craft: give yourself about ninety minutes, start with the permanent collection before the rotating exhibition, and look closely, since the casting and surface techniques reward a second look; reading a few labels on how a piece was made changes what you see. The museum is closed on Mondays and stays open later on some weekday evenings, which makes it a good post-beach stop. Tickets can be booked in advance online; walk-ups are usually easy outside special events. For a full glass day, the order that works is Imagine in the late morning, lunch in the Grand Central District, then the Chihuly Collection and its live glassblowing demonstration in the afternoon, about ten minutes east along the same avenue.

Practicals and fit: 1901 Central Ave., St. Petersburg, in the Grand Central District west of downtown, with parking nearby; the building is large (about 48,000 square feet) and the galleries are spacious and calm, so it rarely feels crowded. Allow an hour and a half. Honest drawback: if you have no interest in glass, a single museum of one medium can feel long, so pair it with the murals and shops outside. Fit: couples, families with curious kids, rainy-day planners, and glass fans pairing it with the Chihuly Collection downtown.