Florida decided long ago that there was room on the beach for a thriving arts scene. And while it may surprise the traveler to learn that culture is an institution here, it’s no surprise to the Floridians who flock to local symphonies, theaters, opera houses and museums to catch the best home-grown and visiting talent. Meanwhile, gallery hopping and art collecting are just as popular here as they are in art-centric enclaves like New England, New Mexico and Northern California.
Accordingly, the state is filled with cultural venues that double as creative settings for group events to "take attendees out of their usual environment," as Tom Lang, director of the Kissimmee CVB, puts it. (Kissimmee is home to the 2,000-seat Osceola Performing Arts Center, among other venues.)
"It’s also a way for groups to get involved with the community, which more meetings are trying to do," he says.
Depending on the size of group and whether you need the large-scale seating of a grand auditorium or the intimate reception space of a small gallery, Florida’s cultural venues are well versed in the art of the meeting.
Halls of Fame
In the former category, count the magnificent 2,193-seat Dreyfoos Concert Hall at the Kravis Center for the Performing Arts in West Palm Beach, which also boasts a banquet center with catering by the famed Breakers hotel.
Across the state, the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center can seat between 130 and 2,600, while Sarasota’s Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall boasts a similar versatility, handling up to 5,500 in a variety of spaces. Meanwhile, the Times-Union Center for the Performing Arts in Jacksonville boasts a total seating capacity of nearly 3,000.
Heading due south, the Ziff Ballet Opera House and Knight Concert Hall at Miami’s Adrienne Arsht Center can seat up to 2,400 and 2,200, respectively, with catering and production by event designer and caterer Barton G. On the horizon in Miami is a new home for the renowned New World Symphony—the Frank Gehry Campus, where performance spaces also will be available for group rentals.
Miami’s neighbor Fort Lauderdale weighs in with the Broward Center for the Performing Arts, where the Au-Rene Theater seats 2,688 and includes a custom-designed and fabricated orchestra shell. For something on a more intimate scale, the city’s 500-seat Miniaci Performing Arts Center is on the Nova Southeastern University campus and, like all Fort Lauderdale performance venues, "is configured with state-of-the-art audiovisual equipment to be utilized and rented," says Christine Tascione, vice president of convention and group sales for the Greater Fort Lauderdale CVB.
High-Performance Venues
But plus-size halls are hardly your only option for artistic settings in the Sunshine State. For every venue like Naples’ magnificent Philharmonic Center for the Arts, with a main auditorium seating 1,425, there are places like the nearby Sugden Community Theatre, home of the Naples Players and a 326-seat auditorium.
North of Naples, Fort Myers’ Broadway Palm Dinner Theatre can accommodate between 20 and 450 for private events, or groups can make a night of it and enjoy dinner and a show.
The Tampa Theatre is a restored historic gem dating to 1926. The ornate ambience provides the setting for meetings, conferences, receptions and other events.
Whether you stay for the show or your group is the show, Orlando’s Mad Cow Theatre welcomes private events to Stage Left, a fully equipped theater with 100 fixed seats, and Stage Right, a "black box" theater with flexible seating for up to 60.
In Northwest Florida, minutes from Destin and Fort Walton Beach, the Mattie Kelly Fine & Performing Arts Center is set within the verdant landscape of Northwest Florida State College and offers a 1,650-seat main stage theater as well as a new amphitheater with permanent seating for up to 500 or up to 3,500 on the lawn.
A new outdoor amphitheater is also available in St. Augustine. The 16-acre facility can host up to 4,000. To the south, Daytona Beach’s historic Oceanfront Bandshell, set right on the sand with the Atlantic beyond, accommodates up to 5,000. (Ocean breezes and ambient wave sounds are complimentary.)
The ambience is all indoors at Pensacola’s historic Saenger Theatre, which was built in 1925 in the opulent Rococo style and seats 1,802 but also offers a small amount of meeting space.
In addition to its many performance spaces, though, don’t forget the state’s countless museums and art galleries also open to group gatherings, including options such as Punta Gorda’s Visual Arts Center, Tampa’s new Museum of Art, Hemingway Home in Key West, the magnificent Ringling Museum in Sarasota and Vizcaya Museums and Gardens, a National Historic Landmark.
