Take a journey into old Florida on September 21, 2019 by visiting a Florida museum. You don’t even have to spend a dime!
Museum Day
Museum Day is an annual one day event hosted by the Smithsonian magazine and this year it falls on September 21, 2019.
Participating museums and cultural institutions across the country provide free entry to anyone presenting a Museum Day ticket. That ticket is for free general admission for two people.
What’s really cool is that Florida has 72 museums participating! So if you live in Florida, you don’t have to go far to take advantage of this special deal.
Here’s where you can get your ticket to the free Museum Day.
Museums We Love
We have a special place in our heart for many of these museums and history centers that are participating. I have spoken at many of them while on tour with my show, Patrick Smith’s Florida IS A Land Remembered.
The beautiful Tampa Bay History Center has it’s own area inspired by A Land Remembered. It includes a replica pioneer cabin, original artifacts and a hands-on Discovery Center.
Chairs and items are “child size” so kids can get an idea of what life was like 100 or more years ago. Your children can play in the cabin and pretend they are Florida pioneers. It’s really a fun experience.
After I presented there, they told me that my show drew the largest attendance they had ever had for such an event.
If you want to see some excellent examples of old “cracker” buildings, the Cracker Country is the place to go. My show packed in so many people that I had to do a 2nd performance for all of the disappointed folks who couldn’t get in the first time.
Kim and I enjoyed a wonderful rainy day at The Ringling in Sarasota. I had been there way back when I was about 18. I had forgotten what a huge, stunning collection of masterpieces it offered (also, I wasn’t mature enough back then to appreciate it).
Not only does it offer beautiful art, but you can dive into the history of the circus and have some fun pretending your a circus performer.
We definitely will return the next time we’re in Sarasota.
Children’s Museum of the Treasure Coast is a unique museum that includes a pirate ship when kids can climb on and fire foam cannon balls. Well, that is if their parent’s don’t hog the cannons!
The IMAG History and Science Center has a virtual reality exhibit of the fort of Fort Myers along the banks of the Caloosahatchee River. You put this helmet on and you can see and move around in a world of long ago. We had a blast here.
These are just a few of the museums we’ve personally enjoyed. I look forward to returning to some of them and getting invited to new ones.
So where will your curiosity take you this museum day?
Thanks !