St. Petersburg has rolled out a new online art tour tool designed to help residents and visitors learn about the artists behind the city's public artworks, explore an interactive map, and build their own custom tours. The launch gives art fans a digital alternative to flipping through brochures while tracking down the city's murals and sculptures scattered across downtown and beyond.
The tool was announced in a report from WTSP / 10 Tampa Bay, which described it as a new way for users to learn about artists, view an interactive map and create their own tour. It arrives alongside a public art ecosystem the city has been building for decades, including a dedicated Public Art Collection and the long-running SHINE mural initiative, both of which already offer their own self-guided tour resources.
Decades of Public Art Behind the New Tool
The City of St. Petersburg's Public Art Collection dates back to 1990, when the City Council adopted a Percent for Art Ordinance, according to the Public Art Archive. The city later reinforced that commitment in 2017 by adopting its Art in Public Places Ordinance, per the same archive. The collection includes works by local, national and international artists, the Public Art Archive notes, and the city's own site states its Public Art Collection consists of over 91 pieces, while the Public Art Archive separately describes the collection as close to 90 artworks.
Beyond the formal collection, St. Petersburg's mural scene has grown dramatically since 2015 through the SHINE Mural Festival. The city's own public art page states SHINE has created approximately 180 murals throughout downtown and the surrounding arts districts since 2015, while the St. Petersburg Arts Alliance puts that figure at nearly 200 murals over the same span. The Arts Alliance also offers a self-guided walking tour of more than 185 St. Petersburg murals complete with artist biographies, curated routes and offline maps.
Existing Tools Already Point the Way
Residents looking to explore the city's art on foot or by bike already have several options. The city's visitor page notes that guided biking or walking mural tours are available alongside self-guided mural tours, and the Public Art Archive hosts its own interactive Explore the St. Petersburg Collection Map where visitors can browse listings, locations and descriptions. SHINE, for its part, bills its technology as the first in the world to pair an accessible audio tour with the ability to instantly connect mural viewers to online content via PixelStix, according to the Arts Alliance.
St. Petersburg's self-guided tour model isn't limited to murals and sculpture. The city also maintains the African American Heritage Trail, a self-guided walking tour covering more than a dozen city blocks and featuring 19 historical markers, according to the City of St. Petersburg. That trail is split into two corridors, including the 22nd Street Trail, which runs roughly 1.25 miles and includes ten stops, and individuals, groups and classes can also arrange guided walking or trolley tours of the trail through the African American Heritage Association.
A Regional Pattern of Self-Guided Art Tours
St. Petersburg isn't alone in pushing self-guided art experiences. Across the bay, Tampa's Division of Arts & Cultural Affairs presented “Lights on Tampa” in March 2021 as a self-guided tour of new and existing public art installations in its downtown core, according to the City of Tampa. The timing of St. Petersburg's new tool also lines up with a busy stretch for the city's arts calendar, with the 2026 SHINE Mural Festival scheduled for November 8 through 17.
For now, the new online tool adds another layer to a public art network that already spans a formal city collection, hundreds of murals, guided and self-guided walking options, and a dedicated heritage trail. Whether the new tool draws from the full public-art collection, the SHINE mural catalog, or both has not been detailed beyond the initial announcement.
