Art Unbound
The Future of MFA, St. Petersburg
Building on the legacy of founder Margaret Acheson Stuart, who conceived of the MFA as a world-class “place for the people,” Art Unbound marks a profound, multi-phase evolution of the museum, including its permanent collection, indoor galleries and transitional spaces, and outdoor campus. The initiative introduces a human-centered visitor journey that invites curiosity and reflection. Designed to be accessible, the reimagination of the MFA will encourage visual conversations across time, culture, and geography to reveal the universal human themes connecting our shared world.
Art Unbound transforms the MFA into a community-centered artistic space, ensuring the collection, exhibitions, programs, and campus continue to inspire, educate, and connect Tampa Bay’s community in meaningful, globally minded ways. Together with community leaders, educators, artists, and stakeholders, the transformed museum experience positions the MFA as a regional and national leader in museum innovation, scholarship, and civic engagement.
Support Art Unbound
The transformation of the Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg into a dynamic cultural hub is made possible through visionary philanthropy. Your support fuels this initiative.
The Launch: Yvette Mayorga and the Historic Great Hall
Following the extraordinary public response to the installation of Yvette Mayorga’s outdoor sculpture, Magic Grasshopper, directly in front of the MFA, Art Unbound moves inside the museum walls with Yvette Mayorga: Goddesses of the Great Hall. Mayorga’s immersive installation activates the museum’s historic 1965 entrance hall, serving as the first in a series of exhibitions to inaugurate The Great Hall Project, a brand-new curatorial initiative designed to engage the MFA’s spaces through contemporary art interventions.
“Yvette Mayorga is the perfect choice as the inaugural artist for The Great Hall Project,” said Senior Curator of Contemporary Art Katherine Pill. “She is a deeply research-based artist who expands the traditional art historical canon. Her work creates an exciting juxtaposition of time periods that we will emulate across the entire museum campus.”
Fall 2026: Reimagining the Collection Galleries and Visitor Spaces
Designed to be accessible to everyone from the seasoned scholar to the first-time visitor, the collection galleries shift to a thematic model that encourages visual conversations. Visitors will experience historical works from across cultures in intentional dialogue with modern and contemporary works. By moving beyond traditional chronological and geographical frameworks, universal human themes are revealed in a shared history. The MFA Shop and Café Clementine will also be redesigned to reflect this world-class, cohesive vision.
Winter 2026: Creativity Commons
The Creativity Commons, the MFA’s third space, will consist of two new areas—the Education Gallery and the MFA Studio Classroom—designed for creative learning, informal gatherings, story times, and artist meetups. The spaces foster connection across generations, bring together artists and learners through hands-on collaboration, and respond to the fundamental human need for shared creative activity and intellectual stimulation.
Spring 2027: Beyond the Gallery Walls
By placing art in accessible spaces, the MFA becomes a place to live with art, not just view it. The Mary Alice McClendon Conservatory becomes a hub for digital and experimental art forms as well as redefined spaces that are comfortable and inviting, transforming seamlessly from a brunch vibe to meeting spot to jazz night. Beyond the walls of the museum, public art transforms outdoor areas around the museum into welcoming, community-gathering spaces. These non-gallery spaces create a radical sense of welcome that begins at the city’s edge and carries the visitor through every touch point at the museum.
Support for Art Unbound
Art Unbound transforms the MFA into a community-centered artistic space, ensuring the collection, exhibitions, programs, and campus continue to inspire, educate, and connect Tampa Bay’s community in meaningful, globally minded ways.
Yvette Mayorga (American, b. 1991), Self Portrait of the Artist After Élisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun, 2025, collage, stickers, gold flakes, silver flakes, pen, lace, buttons, acrylic nails, nail charms and acrylic piping on canvas, 72 x 60 inches