Leepa-Rattner Museum of Art

The Leepa-Rattner Museum of Art sits inland from the Sponge Docks at 600 Klosterman Road, on the St. Petersburg College campus in Tarpon Springs, and it holds one of the more unexpected art collections you will find in a small Gulf Coast city. The museum opened its doors on January 22, 2002, built around a remarkable gift. In 1996, the artist Allen Leepa, an abstract expressionist and longtime Michigan State University professor, donated his art collection to St. Petersburg College. That collection included not only his own paintings but also the estate of his stepfather, Abraham Rattner, a respected twentieth century modernist who had run in the same Paris circles as Pablo Picasso during the years between the world wars.

What resulted is a museum with more than 2,000 works in its holdings, a scale most cities the size of Tarpon Springs never see. Rattner’s retrospective output makes up more than sixty percent of the collection, spanning lithographs, tapestries, sculpture, paintings, and stained glass across a long and varied career. Alongside that core, the museum holds pieces by modernist figures including Picasso, Henry Moore, Marc Chagall, and Max Ernst, work that connects Tarpon Springs to a much larger story of twentieth century art. Because the full collection is far larger than any gallery could show at once, exhibitions rotate, with pieces cycling out of storage so that repeat visitors regularly find something new on the walls.

The museum keeps regular hours, open Tuesday through Saturday from 11 in the morning until 5 in the evening, and closed Sunday and Monday. Admission runs on a donation basis, with a suggested amount of ten dollars, which keeps the collection accessible to a wide range of visitors rather than pricing out casual art lovers. Because the museum sits on a college campus rather than downtown, it makes for a slightly different kind of stop than the historic district venues, quieter and more purely focused on the art itself, without the souvenir shops and sponge boats crowding the view.

For visitors building a full day around Tarpon Springs arts and culture, the Leepa-Rattner Museum is worth the short drive out from downtown, especially for anyone with an interest in modernist painting and sculpture who did not expect to find a serious collection in this part of Florida. Its connection to St. Petersburg College also means the museum periodically hosts lectures, workshops, and programs tied to the school’s art curriculum, adding an academic layer that the smaller, more purely local museums in town do not offer. Call ahead at 727-712-5762 to confirm current exhibitions before making the trip, since the rotating collection means the museum rarely looks the same twice.