By Jennifer Agress
Everyone knows Miami has good shopping. But did you know there are good museum shops? For eclectic gifts designed to inspire, turn your shopping day into a museum one—and head to one of these six carefully curated gift shops below.
Vizcaya Museum and Gardens
Café and Shop
Once the early-20th-century winter home of James Deering—an industrial executive whose family created some of the most beautiful estates in South Florida—the enchanting Vizcaya Museum and Gardens is, today, a National Historic Landmark. Sitting on ten acres of formal gardens and century-old plants, this estate has an elaborate Main House with 34 individually decorated rooms, American art, European antiques and views designed to inspire. Just next to the Main House, overlooking the beautiful estate pool, visitors will stumble upon a Café and Shop worth stopping in. The food at this all-in-one spot is helmed by the award-winning team at A Joy Wallace Catering, and on the store shelves, there’s everything from calendars, postcards, books and souvenirs, to bespoke jewelry and items inspired by Vizcaya’s architecture, gardens and collections.
Vizcaya Museum and Gardens is located at 3251 South Miami Avenue. The store is open to visitors with paid museum admission from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily, except Tuesdays. Vizcaya members get a 10% discount in the Café and Shop. Free parking is available onsite.
Marjory Stoneman Douglas Biscayne Nature Center
Gift Shop
Sitting at the north end of Crandon Park, the Marjory Stoneman Douglas Biscayne Nature Center overlooks Key Biscayne’s beautiful sand dunes and ocean. Part exhibit space, part gift shop, this is where visitors can go to find nature-inspired objects like books about marine animals and The Everglades, handmade jewelry, wooden animal toys, knick knacks and more.
The Marjory Stoneman Douglas Biscayne Nature Center is located at 6767 Crandon Boulevard. The gift shop is open during office hours, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily. Self-parking is available, and is free during the week and $7 on the weekends.
Phillip and Patricia Frost Museum of Science
Science Store
After many years of ups and downs, the Phillip and Patricia Frost Museum of Science has finally opened in all its glory—and after so much anticipation, none of us are disappointed. Towering over Biscayne Bay, this six-floor museum is filled with interactive exhibitions, a lunar terrace with a telescope, a solar terrace with an urban farm, a freestanding planetarium and a 500,000-gallon aquarium, among other things. And because you’re sure to be fascinated by everything you see in there, you’ll want to snag a piece of it to come back home with you. Cue: Science Store, the museum gift shop, which has a wide range of science tools, fun toys, Frost Science memorabilia, exhibition-related gifts and more.
Phillip and Patricia Frost Museum of Science is located at 1101 Biscayne Boulevard. The store is open during the museum’s hours, from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., daily. Admission to the museum is not required to visit Science Store.
Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM)
PAMM Shop
At this point, the Herzog & de Meuron-designed Pérez Art Museum Miami (or as we Miamians all know it, “the PAMM”) is a Magic City staple. Poised on Biscayne Bay—making up Museum Park, along with Frost Museum of Science—this modern and contemporary art museum is dedicated to international art of the 20th and 21st centuries. In addition to jazz nights, interactive exhibits, art lectures, the delicious Verde restaurant and more, visitors will find the PAMM Shop. Here, they can shop a unique selection of art books, furnishings and handmade items.
The Pérez Art Museum Miami is located at 1103 Biscayne Boulevard. The gift shop is open while the museum is open, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Mondays, Tuesdays, Fridays and Saturdays, and 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Thursdays. The museum and the gift shop are closed on Wednesdays. Parking is available in the museum garage during regular museum hours for $8 for the first hour and $4 for each additional hour.
Miami Design Preservation League (MDPL)
The Official Art Deco Gift Shop
First launched in 1976, the Miami Design Preservation League (MDPL) is a non-profit organization committed to preserving, protecting and promoting the cultural, social, economic, environmental and architectural integrity of Miami Beach. In other words, it’s the sole organization responsible for making sure the Art Deco movement stays a part of Miami’s past and its present. And to make sure you don’t forget how beautiful it is, this same organization opened The Official Art Deco Gift Shop to let you take a part of it home with you. Here, visitors will find original Art Deco Weekend posters, t-shirts, books, cards, vintage items, jewelry, memorabilia and one-of-a-kind art.
The Official Art Deco Gift Shop is located at 1001 Ocean Drive. The store is open from 9:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily. All purchases benefit the ongoing work of the Miami Design preservation League.
The Wolfsonian Museum
The Wolfsonian Museum Shop
This art museum is home to nearly 180,000 objects from 1850–1950—like furniture, industrial-design objects, glass art, ceramics, metal, rare books, paintings, textiles, medals and more—from the height of the Industrial Revolution to the aftermath of World War II. In The Wolfsonian Museum Shop, visitors can browse through thoughtful, provocative and design-oriented gifts, from design journals, previously-banned books and innovative desktop, personal and travel accessories, to kitchenware and tabletop items, watches, jewelry, clocks, children’s gifts and more. Unlike most museums, this one also has it’s own line of merchandise related to the themes and periods of the exhibits currently on display.
The Wolfsonian Museum is located at 1001 Washington Avenue. The store is open during regular museum hours, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays; from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Fridays; and from Noon to 6 p.m. on Sundays. Admission is free from 6 to 9 p.m. on Fridays. Paid parking is available in nearby city garages and parking lots.
2 Responses
Many thanks from Isabel at Isabel, Fine Home Accessories in So. Miami. You did a beautiful job for all of us!!
Hope to see you for the Holidays! Great merchandise coming!
All the best,
Isabel
Can’t wait to see it! It’s never too early to start looking for holiday gifts!