• Trouble logging in? Send us a message with your username and/or email address for help.
New posts


The Cultural Arts Alliance of Walton County (CAA) in partnership with the South Walton Artificial Reef Association (SWARA) will join two of SoWal's most beloved attractions - the arts and the Gulf of Mexico - by creating The Underwater Museum of Art (UMA), North America's first underwater permanent sculpture exhibit. The project has support from the National Endowment For The Arts.

Continue reading...

What do you think? We all need community feedback, ideas, suggestions ... please share!
 

Beauford

Beach Lover
Jun 23, 2015
126
76
First Underwater Museum in the U.S. Opens in Grayton Beach, Florida

Swim Through the First Underwater Museum in the U.S.


Opening this month, the museum features sculptures beneath the surface–intermingling responsible tourism, environmentalism, and creativity.


underwater-museum-02.adapt.1900.1.jpg


The Cancun Underwater Museum, pictured here, already welcomes visitors. Scuba divers will find a new museum off the coast of Grayton Beach in Florida, which opens in summer 2018.
Photograph by Luis Javier Sandoval, VWPics/Redux


By Alex Crevar


PUBLISHED June 1, 2018

The phrase “barren sand flat” does not typically inspire creativity. It is this condition, however, that makes the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico the perfect spot for the United States’ first Underwater Museum of Art (UMA). Located about three-quarters of a mile off the Florida panhandle and the sugary-white shoreline of Grayton Beach in Walton County, the UMA is scheduled to open at the end of June 2018.




Like similar undertakings near Cancun and the Museo Atlantico Lanzarote in the Canary Islands, the experience is best suited for scuba divers. On clear days, snorkelers will also be able to enjoy the submerged journey, which showcases seven sculptures at a depth of around 60 feet and intermingles responsible tourism, environmentalism, and creativity.


The public space–which will be free of charge for all visitors–is a collaboration between the Cultural Arts Alliance of Walton County (CAA) and South Walton Artificial Reef Association (SWARA)—with support from the Walton County Tourist Development Council and the National Endowment for the Arts. The creations resting on the Gulf’s floor will include an homage to Jacques Cousteau’s Aqua-lung, a hollow pineapple, a skull, and an anamorphous octopus. All have been designed to facilitate and encourage the integration of sea life like coral growth, schools of fish, and embryonic oysters.


must-dive-sites-barracuda-point-malaysia.adapt.1900.1.jpg

must-dive-sites-thistlegorm-egypt.adapt.1900.1.jpg





Above the surface, a partnership between an arts alliance and artificial-reef-building environmentalists may be curious. But, creativity is, by definition, unpredictable and layered with epiphanies. In this case, the inspiration came to CAA board member and artist Allison Wickey, who, in 2017, was snorkeling above one of SWARA’s artificial reefs—this one shaped like a turtle—which the organization built to promote marine wildlife diversity while increasing sustainable ecotourism. (In total, SWARA has deployed four snorkeling and nine dive reefs in the area. Each reef is composed of dozens of structures and 700 have been in place since 2015). “[It was a] huge lightbulb moment” remembers Wickey, who discussed logistics with SWARA and then proposed the idea to the CAA. “The faces in the room lit up, and that has been the same reaction we get from everyone who hears about the project.”


The UMA’s sculptures are set in 3,500 to 5,000 pounds of concrete and contain no plastics or other toxic materials. When the weather window is correct, the collection will be shuttled to its final resting spot on a barge. After, the pieces of art are gently lowered into position, by crane, about 20 feet apart at the bottom of the Gulf. As soon as delivery is complete, the exhibits are open for this unique museum’s rare breed of art patron.




“When you dive down and view the exhibit and see the marine life clustered around the structures you gain appreciation,” says Andy McAlexander, the president of SWARA’s board of directors, about the philosophy-changing power of the UMA, which will deploy a new set of creations annually. “When you see small fish taking refuge inside a piece of art you see more than just the beauty of the Art, you experience the beauty of life in general and how each of us has a part to play in preserving something so fragile.”

 

Beauford

Beach Lover
Jun 23, 2015
126
76
Also made Newsweek
Check out America's first underwater art museum opening in Florida

Scuba divers will soon swim through an art museum in the Gulf of Mexico, the first of its kind in the United States. The permanent art exhibit is opening in late June off the Florida panhandle and it’s free to anyone willing to take the plunge.

The sculptures in the exhibit at the Underwater Museum of Art are made of natural materials and will work like artificial reefs, housing sea life, on an otherwise barren and flat sandy ocean floor. Allison Wickey, one of the artists, told Newsweek that snorkelers should have no problem seeing the exhibit from the surface of the water on clear days, but it’s meant to be seen 60 feet underwater at eye-level.

“You will be able to see wildlife up close. When you look down into the water you will be able to see schools of fish,” she said.
 
New posts


Sign Up for SoWal Newsletter