Downtown Tampa's Riverwalk carries you to the Tampa Museum of Art. This institution opened its first exhibit on November 22, 1920, when it was called the Tampa Museum of Fine Arts. Today it exhibits modern and contemporary art as well as Greek, Roman, and Etruscan antiquities. After many address changes during the museum’s first several decades, the institution debuted an award-winning new building in 2010 as its permanent location along the Riverwalk on the banks of the Hillsborough River.
Museum planners long knew the original building was too small for its collection, and proposals for expansion or relocation were the subject of discussion and controversy for years. Plans proposed by the city or the museum board included a dramatic 2001 design by architect Rafael Viñoly for a $76 million building with a huge metal canopy overhanging nearby streets; that project proved too costly and perhaps unsafe in a hurricane. From 2003 to 2005, Mayor Pam Iorio proposed relocating the museum to one of several abandoned or underutilized buildings downtown.
The museum's 2010 façade and the Riverwalk lead onward to the waters of the Hillsborough River, ready for your next steps.