It's hard to believe that just a year ago, St. Petersburg was celebrating the much-anticipated grand opening of the new Salvador Dali Museum. With great fanfare, the doors to the new Dali were opened, bringing great pride to our community and another jewel to downtown's cultural crown.

Last Wednesday, the museum celebrated their one-year "birthday" with a large cake in the shape of Dali's iconic mustache and a Salvador Dali look-alike who rappelled from the museum's ceiling to the floor. Museum director Dr. Hank Hine reveled in the first year success:

• Roughly 370,000 people -from more than 50 different countries - visited the museum in its first year (double any previous year)
• 17,000 students in tour groups experienced the Dali in its new home.
• Increased attendance generated $52 million in direct spending in Pinellas County.

So what's on the horizon for the Dali in 2012 and beyond? The first major visiting exhibition debuts in October, with contemporary American neo-pop artist Jeff Koons displaying his sculptures and paintings in the Hough wing of the Dali. Next year, the museum will host works from Basque sculptor Eduardo Chillida and in 2014, a Pablo Picasso exhibit from Barcelona will feature sculptures and paintings from the legendary artist.

One hundred works demonstrating the artistry and craftsmanship of the Ancient Egyptians are on display at the Museum of Fine Arts in the exhibit "Ancient Egypt: Art and Magic: Treasures from the Fondation Gandur pour l' Art". The exhibit opened December 17th and runs through April. Featuring mummy cases (sarcophagi), papyrus fragments, alabaster vessels, a limestone sphinx and one of the highlights of the exhibit - a magnificent red granite torso of Rameses the Great, the exhibit is a coup for the museum. Internationally respected Egyptologist Dr. Robert Steven Bianchi is the guest curator for the exhibition.