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Underwater Museum of Art Adds New Artwork in Sixth Installation

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WALTON COUNTY, Fla. – Aug. 14 – The Cultural Arts Alliance of Walton County, South Walton Artificial Reef Association and Walton County Tourism celebrated the installment of the newest group of jury-selected sculptures for the Underwater Museum of Art on Aug 8.

The 2024 deployment off the shore of Grayton Beach State Park included the following sculptures:

  • Reef Goddess by Raine Bedsole (Santa Rosa Beach, Fla.)
  • Deep Sea Three by Matthew Gemmell and David Showalter (Baltimore, Md.)
  • Sea How We Flow by Elise Gilbert (Santa Rosa Beach, Fla.)
  • Poseidon’s Throne by Nathan Hoffman (Highlandville, Mo.)
  • Bubby Barnacles by Donna Conklin King (East Orange, N.J.)
  • Sunken Spores by Ashley Rivers (Gulfport, Fla.)
  • Ring My Bell by Bradley Touchstone (Santa Rosa Beach, Fla.)

Featured in publications such as National Geographic and Smithsonian Magazine and named one of the 100 “World’s Greatest Places” by TIME Magazine in 2018, the Underwater Museum of Art is the first underwater sculpture collection of its kind in the nation. The museum is also an ecotourism attraction, creating an artificial reef for marine life to thrive, scientists and students to study, and divers to explore.

“Having a dive site that grows and changes annually is especially unique,” said Melissa Wheeler, vice president and director of Marketing and Strategy at the Cultural Arts Alliance of Walton County.

The reef’s development has sped up over time. According to Wheeler, “more than 3,000 divers have visited the UMA site since its opening in 2018, and as new sculptures are added, the time it takes for the pieces to become encrusted with marine growth has been significantly reduced.”

The museum’s first installation took six to eight months for marine growth to anchor to the sculptures’ surfaces, but with current growth thriving, it now takes about three weeks. The nutrient-rich habitat continues to attract a variety of marine life.

The 2024 installation joined the 40 sculptures already on display on the one-acre permit patch of seabed off Grayton Beach State Park.

To view more information on the deployment, including artists’ concepts and bios, visit https://www.visitsouthwalton.com/underwater-museum-art/ or UMAFL.org.

To watch a livestream of the 2024 deployment, click HERE.

 

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