The Dali Museum

Where do I begin?

The Dali Museum sits along St. Petersburg’s downtown waterfront. It’s three stories high and as it comes into view, your first response will most undoubtedly be… Wow… what is that?

Designed by architect Yann Weymouth of HOK, this stunning new building made its debut in 2011. Not only does it hold the world’s most comprehensive collection of Salvador Dali’s artwork outside of Spain, but its structure is often ranked among the most beautiful museums in the world. If you’re lucky enough to travel there, you’ll understand why.

Inspired by Dali’s surrealist art, the building itself is a 58 foot high, unfinished concrete block, disrupted only by a flowing, organic, triangulated glass atrium known as “the enigma”. The Enigma is composed of exactly 1,062 glass triangles. It’s also the name of one of Dali’s 1929 paintings. And it’s a powerful piece of art in its own right.

Whether you are standing outside The Dali Museum, or are cocooned within its walls, you are immediately drawn into the surrealist world of Dali through the architecture that encases it.

Upon entering through the glass doors, my children and I were magnetized to the sculptural spiral staircase that winds up the center of the building. We later learned that the shape of the staircase was intentional and an homage to Dali’s fascination with the double helix structure of DNA. It also just looks ridiculously cool from pretty much every angle. Which becomes clear by the sheer number of museum-goers snapping photos of themselves around it, above it, under it, over it…

But who am I kidding? We, too, were museum-goers and engaging in the exact same activity for approximately ten minutes. Below is what I like to refer to as A Triptych of Camilla Doing Just That, created in 2021.

And we can’t forget Kroy…

Moving on…

One of the experiences within the walls of the museum that stood out to me the most was the exhibit entitled Dali Lives, which is a series of screens throughout the third floor where a life-like Salvador Dali interacts and speaks with you. The creators of this experience were able to achieve an incredibly real Dali using revolutionary AI technology. If you watch Keeping up with the Kardashians, the exhibit is similar to the gift Kanye bestows Kim of her deceased father where the late Rob Kardashian has been recreated and is telling Kim how proud he is of her. The entire experience is incredibly realistic and, pun intended, surreal.

But to my surprise, my favorite part of The Dali Museum was the recently added Lee Miller Exhibit. While this exhibit is temporary and only there through January 22, 2022, it’s abundantly clear that the curators have a knack for picking out powerful and immersive installations. Before Lee Miller, Van Gogh Alive filled the space, an installation consisting of more than 3,000 Van Gogh images, enormous in scale, and synchronized to a classical surround-sound score. I’m really sad we missed the Van Gogh Alive installation, but really enjoyed viewing the video of it here.

Back to Lee Miller.

Prior to visiting, I had no idea who Lee Miller was. I had heard of her in passing, but wouldn’t have been able to tell you anything about her historical significance or the works she produced.

Thanks to The Dali Museum’s incredibly immersive experience, I can now share with you that Lee Miller was not only an American photographer and photojournalist, but also, as the image below states in massive type, a woman who broke boundaries.

And I am excited to have a photograph of her name in enormous letters atop my daughter’s head, precisely because she is an inspiration. A strong woman, who wasn’t afraid to get her hands dirty and capture some of the most extraordinary moments of the 20th century. These moments include documenting wartime atrocities and posing naked in Hitler’s bathtub after his suicide. Hopefully my daughter grows up with a bit of that grit and daring inside of her.

I could go on and on, but The Dali Museum is not to be missed. If you’re planning a trip to Florida, I would go so far as to tell you to plan a special afternoon in the Tampa Bay Area, just so you can experience this museum.

And it doesn’t hurt that the gift shop was equally as mesmerizing as the architecture. And the cafe equally as mouth-watering as the art.

Until next time.