|
|
Guild History
Originally called the Halifax Children’s
Museum, the institution opened Oct. 1,
1955 in a 250-square foot
 Quonset hut on
the grounds of the Mary Karl Vocation
School on White Street, between Milligan
and Second Avenue. The Museum was not
designed to conflict with public school,
but rather to enhance the educational
experience after school. The first big
event was a parade featuring children
dressed up like nursery rhyme characters.
Miss Bo Peep won. By
1967, the Museum had a new name and a new
home. It moved into former Cuban President
Fulgencio Batista’s home on North Halifax
Ave. after merging with the Cuban Museum.
Batista had brought the art with him after
leaving Cuba in 1959. His widow eventually
asked the city to run the facility. City
fathers turned to the Museum to handle
that task. As a result, Cuban Art remains
a major component of the Museum’s
permanent collection.
By the late 1960’s, however, the Museum
had begun to outgrow the mansion.
September 27, 1970, ground was broken for
a $300,000 complex on the south end of
Tuscawilla Park. In keeping with the
environmental component of a building next
to a park, the groundbreaking included a
woodchuck, which declined to cooperate and
scurried into the woods.
The museum really grew in the 1980’s and
1990’s with the addition of the Prehistory
of Florida wing, the Abraham and Dorothy
Frischer Sculpture Garden, a library, the
Chapman S. Root Hall and Gallery, the
North Wing and the Arts and Humanities
Wing.
The newest permanent exhibit, the Klanke
Environmental Education Complex, opened in
March, and plans are in place to add at
least an additional wing for children’s
resources.
In addition, the Museum has acquired two
other sites: Gamble Place/Spruce Creek
Environmental Preserve in Port Orange and
Old St. Augustine Village in St.
Augustine.
As a result, the Museum was voted the
“Best Museum in Florida” in 2004 by
readers of Florida Monthly magazine.
In November 2005 we made history again
with an impressive exhibit of ancient
Egyptian artifacts, Brown & Brown presents
Glories of Ancient Egypt. Mummies, reliefs,
coffins and artifacts dating back close to
4000 B.C. comprise the more than 200
works, which are part of a massive
collection from the Museum of Fine Arts,
Boston.
|
|
