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VISIT FLORIDA > Florida KEys
Only in the Florida Keys
By Sabrina Pirillo
The Florida Keys is your one-stop-shop for embracing quirky and unique art and culture. Key Largo, Islamorada, Marathon, the Lower Keys and Key West are the five major fantasy islands in this island chain where the natural scenery draws on the artistic creations. It’s time to imagine, be inspired and start to create, thanks to these dreamy surrounds.
Classic Key Largo
This northernmost island gained fame when the 1948 movie classic Key Largo starred Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall. Today, Key Largo presents musicals, comedies and Broadway productions like the hit, The Addams Family: The Musical, running next spring by The Key Players, a local theatre troupe. In a duo outdoor concert blast, one held in Islamorada the other in Key Largo, music lovers can spread a blanket during the Florida Keys Community Concert Band’s Pops in the Park season, running from January to April.
Historic Discoveries in Islamorada
Over at the Islander Resort, your cultural cravings are sure to be satisfied at the on-site interactive Keys History & Discovery Center. Learn about the Florida Keys’ early Native Americans, pirates and salvagers and view films inside the 35-seat theatre. Arts enthusiasts, meanwhile, can take an artsy walkabout in the Morada Way Arts and Cultural District, a popular gallery hub.
Natural and Romantic Wonders in Marathon
Best known for the Seven Mile Bridge, your sense of cultured curiosity continues at the Crane Point Hammock Museum and Nature Trails. Among this 25-hectare property is the Adderley House, one of the oldest homes in the Keys. Celebrating its 80th season, the Marathon Community Theatre kicks off the new year with playwright Neil Simon’s romantic comedy Barefoot in the Park.
Refuge and Paradise in Big Pine Key
This is wild Florida! The National Key Deer Refuge in Big Pine Key protects the endangered Key Deer in this natural mangrove wilderness. Indoors, let the Artists in Paradise Gallery whisk you away into a wonderland of art from oil, acrylic and watercolour to a broader array of jewellery, pottery and sculptures.
Authentic Key West
History and inspiration live in Key West with a potpourri of private residences of America’s finest writers now open as museums. The Ernest Hemingway Home & Museum brims with Papa Hemingway’s personal mementoes. Take a guided house tour and see Key West’s first swimming pool. The Tennessee Williams Museum, which was the Pulitzer-Prize-winning playwright’s former home, has a treasure chest of literary artifacts. Now as the sun sets at Mallory Square, the curtain rises at the Waterfront Playhouse while the Truman Waterfront Park Amphitheater boasts a 223-square-metre band shell.
Lights, camera, action! Around Florida, nobody does original arts better than the Florida Keys.
TRAVEL PLANNER
For more arts-inspired info about the Florida Keys, see fla-keys.com/arts-culture
