Museums & Culture

Miami Beach offers more than just Art Deco buildings; it is also blessed with diverse cultural institutions.

The Hotel Astor is located right across the street from the Wolfsonian Museum-Florida International University, housed in a 1927 Mediterranean-Revival building designed by Edwin Robertson and Lawrence Patterson. This isn't your typical museum.

Founded in 1986 to preserve the collection of Mitchell Wolfson Jr., it zeros in on advertisements and design from the height of the Industrial Age (1885-1945).

With a discerning eye, the museum looks at the cultural influences behind everything from old radios and furniture to posters and propaganda - including several galleries dedicated to the influence of design in social reform.

The Hotel Astor is also within walking distance from the new Cultural Campus, which houses the Bass Museum of Art with its permanent collection of important European art, the Public Library, the Miami City Ballet headquarters, the South Florida Art Center and the future New World Symphony.

We are also near the Sanford L. Ziff Jewish Museum of Florida, housed in a beautifully restored Art Deco synagogue, and the Holocaust Memorial, which is built around a stark sculptured hand pointing skyward.

Crossing the bridge to Miami, you will enjoy the Miami Art Museum, the Miami Museum of Science and Space Transit Planetarium, the Miami Museum of Contemporary Art, the Lowe Art Museum - University of Miami, the Historical Museum of Southern Florida, the Miami University Art Museum, the Latin American Art Museum, and also the Miami's Children Museum.