{"id":404699,"date":"2026-09-19T16:04:08","date_gmt":"2026-09-19T16:04:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/404699\/"},"modified":"2026-09-19T16:04:08","modified_gmt":"2026-09-19T16:04:08","slug":"st-petes-woodson-museum-highlighted-on-free-museum-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/404699\/","title":{"rendered":"St. Pete’s Woodson Museum highlighted on Free Museum Day"},"content":{"rendered":"

PINELLAS COUNTY, Fla. \u2013 The Woodson African American History Museum in St. Petersburg<\/a> celebrated Free Museum Day on Saturday, welcoming visitors as museum leaders sought community support for a larger, purpose-built museum.<\/p>\n

The museum\u2019s outdoor garden includes a statue of Harriet Tubman leading to the North Star, as well as a fountain and other features. Visitors can use a QR code to experience virtual recreations of events lived by enslaved people on the Underground Railroad.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s going to take you on a journey,\u201d said Terri Lipsey Scott, executive director of the Woodson African American Museum.<\/p>\n

Inside, the museum is currently home to a national collection. Scott said the museum is currently hosting national exhibit.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are more than proud to be a part of \u201cMany Voices One Nation – Our community,\u201d in partnership with the Smithsonian, Florida Humanities and others who have dedicated and committed resources,\u201d Scott said.<\/p>\n

The museum\u2019s stated goal is to educate, advocate, and host the community. Scott said they need a place dedicated to those causes.<\/p>\n

\u201cA purpose-built museum is one designed for actually carrying out the mission,\u201d Scott said. \u201cMuseums have unique character requirements, and needless to say, without it, we limit our ability to bring in world-class exhibits.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Statue<\/p>\n

Statue of Harriet Tubman at the Woodson African American History Museum. (Spectrum News imag)<\/p>\n

Volunteer and yoga instructor Clayton Sizemore helped as the museum marked Free Museum Day. He said opening the museum to more people can help grow support over time.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe more you give people the opportunity to see what\u2019s going on here, the greater the opportunities are,\u201d Sizemore said. \u201cI tell people all the time, it\u2019s a process. It doesn\u2019t happen right away. But you give it time, you build it, you create it, you nourish it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Scott and Sizemore said they hope visitors leave wanting to see the museum expanded into a space built specifically for its work.<\/p>\n

Scott wants to see the museum shown in a rendering become a reality. The plan has changed several times in recent years, and museum staff said only time will tell if it will happen.<\/p>\n

Some of the exhibits, like the Harriet Tubman statue in the garden, are owned by the museum and will be there indefinitely.<\/p>\n

Others, like the Many Voices, One Nation – Our Community exhibit, are only set to stay until early January next year, according to the museum\u2019s website.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PINELLAS COUNTY, Fla. \u2013 The Woodson African American History Museum in St. Petersburg celebrated Free Museum Day on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":404700,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[274,146935,17784,115,596,202,204,203,199,201,200,135,106,278,835],"class_list":["post-404699","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-app-top-stories","tag-jt-lynch","tag-lifestyles","tag-news","tag-pinellas-county","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news","tag-tampa","tag-things-to-do","tag-top-stories","tag-vod"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404699","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=404699"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404699\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/404700"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=404699"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=404699"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=404699"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}