Gainesville, Florida

History, Historical Society

Gainesville, Florida

Archaeology, Natural History, Science

The Florida Museum is Florida's state museum of natural history. The museum's two main facilities are located in Gainesville, FL on the University of Florida campus.

Powell Hall, the education and exhibition center, is home to the permanent and traveling exhibit programs, adult and children's classes, group tours and special events. Visitors can enjoy hundreds of butterflies, witness a South Florida Calusa Indian welcoming ceremony, experience a life-sized limestone cave and see a mammoth and mastodon from the last Ice Age. More than 200,000 people visited the museum in 2008.

Dickinson Hall houses the majority of the Museum's research activities and vast collections containing more than 40 million specimens and artifacts.

Gainesville, Florida

Art, Culture, University

The Harn Museum of Art at the University of Florida opened in 1990. The Mary Ann Harn Cofrin Pavilion opened in October 2005 and includes exhibition space, a café and classrooms. An expansive addition dedicated to the conservation, display and interpretation of Asian art opened in March 2012.

Gainesville, Florida

History, Historic House, Historical Society, Library, Park

The Matheson History Museum is a non-profit museum and archives dedicated to preserving and interpreting the history and culture of Alachua County.

Gainesville, Florida

Gainesville, Florida

Art, Historic House

Owned and operated by the City of Gainesville's Department of Parks, Recreation and Cultural Affairs, the historic William Reuben Thomas Center is a beautifully restored Mediterranean Revival-style building that was once a private home, then a hotel. Currently the Thomas Center serves as an arts and cultural resource for Gainesville and Alachua County. The Thomas Center is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and contains art galleries, 1920's period rooms, local history exhibits, performance space, banquet rooms, and meeting rooms. The Thomas Center is surrounded by the lovely Thomas Center Gardens and the Grace and Sidney Knight Children's Theatre. The Center is the site of a variety of art exhibits, performances and musical events.

Gainesville, Florida

Gainesville, Florida

Science, Specialized

To inspire creative thinking, future inventors, and early entrepreneurs. The Cade Museum for Creativity + Invention - located in Gainesville, Florida - is named for Dr. James Robert Cade, the physician, musician, researcher and inventor best known for leading the University of Florida team that created Gatorade, to honor his creative spirit and passion for new ideas. The Cade Museum is a hands-on solution to some very real problems. American Creativity Quotient (CQ) scores have been steadily and significantly declining since 1990*, coupled with falling academic performance in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). We propose to help change that by highlighting the link between creative thought and breakthrough ideas.

Gainesville, Florida

Archaeology, Natural History, Science

Visitors to the Florida Museum, on the University of Florida campus in Gainesville, can enjoy hundreds of exotic butterflies in a rainforest setting, witness a South Florida Calusa Indian welcoming ceremony, experience a life-size limestone cave, and see a mammoth and mastodon from the last Ice Age. Permanent exhibits include Northwest Florida: Waterways and Wildlife, South Florida People and Environments, Hall of Florida Fossils: Evolution of Life and Land, and the McGuire Center for Lepidoptera and Biodiversity, which features the screened, outdoor Butterfly Rainforest exhibit with hundreds of live butterflies.

Dickinson Hall houses the museum's other research activities and vast collections containing more than 40 million natural history specimens and artifacts.

Gainesville, Florida

Botanical Garden, Science

Kanapaha Botanical Gardens is a 62 acre facility developed and operated by the North Florida Botanical Society, a non-profit educational organization. In 1978, the Society signed a lease agreement with Alachua County whereby it gained access to a 33 acre tract of land for the development of a public botanical garden; in 1982, an additional 29 acre parcel was added to the lease, bringing Kanapaha Botanical Society to its present size. The Gardens' name is derived from its proximity to 250 acre Lake Kanapaha. The word Kanapaha is derived from the Timucua Indian words for "palmetto leaf" and "house." Taken together, they refer to the thatched dwellings that were home to the original residents of a small Timucua village on the western shore of Lake Kanapaha.

Gainesville, Florida

Natural History

Gainesville’s premier nature park, Morningside Nature Center, is one of the last remaining examples of fire-dependent longleaf pine woodlands in the area. More than seven miles of trails wind through sandhill, flatwoods, cypress domes, and areas where native vegetation is being restored. Morningside boasts a spectacular wildflower display and opportunity to see a diverse array of wildlife.

Gainesville, Florida

Science, University, Zoo

The Santa Fe College Teaching Zoo is the local zoo for the Gainesville area and the laboratory for the Zoo Animal Technology program. Set in a naturally wooded environment, the 10-acre facility is open to the public and has a diverse collection of mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians and invertebrates. Home to over 75 different species of animals, our diverse collection contains both native and exotic species that everyone can enjoy. Some family favorites are the Bald Eagle, White-throated capuchin monkeys, Matschie’s tree kangaroos, Asian small-clawed otters and the White-handed gibbons. We are open to the public 7 days/week from 9 a.m. – 3 p.m.; last entry at 2:30 p.m.

Gainesville, Florida

Art, University

THE UNIVERSITY GALLERIES are an essential component of the research and service missions of the University of Florida. Exhibitions enhance and challenge the bodies of knowledge in various studio disciplines.