- Courtesy facebook.com/FloridaGulfCoastCenterForFishing
- Inside the Florida Gulf Coast Center for Fishing and Interactive Museum.
No, it’s not a News of the Weird headline. The former Gulf Coast Museum of Art in Largo has reopened as the Florida Gulf Coast Center for Fishing and Interactive Museum, a nonprofit art and education facility designed to teach children, teens and adults about the sport.
It’s the first time in three years that the 45,000 square foot building has been open to the public. In January 2009, GCMA closed its doors less than a decade after trustees raised more than $4 million to construct the facility, which includes an auditorium and classrooms as well as exhibition galleries and was designed by Boston-based architect Charles Rose.
Largo entrepreneur Jim Simons is behind the building’s new incarnation as fishing center. Last November, Pinellas County, which owns the facility, approved Simons’ proposal to re-purpose the unused space. On Monday, the building’s doors opened to reveal the new center as a work in progress.
This article appears in Apr 5-11, 2012.