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The announcement came after philanthropist Beth Morean and developer Jimmy Aviram agreed to donate a $6 million Chihuly collection.

The original plan was to create a gallery of Chihuly's complex, colorful sculptures that would help promote sales of his glass, much like a high-end retail showroom and retail store.

Now that Morean and Aviram have agreed to donate the collection outright, the Chihuly component is being redesigned to be a more integral part of the Arts Center, said its executive director, Evelyn Craft. “Jimmy and Beth giving us the collection on the front end enables us to create a museum that will be permanently and forever linked to St. Petersburg,” she said.

The new Chihuly museum, slated to break ground in fall 2008, “could be as big a draw as the Dali, which attracts about 200,000 visitors annually,” said Marshall Rousseau, director emeritus of the Dali Museum, who will lead the new glass museum.

St. Petersburg Times: Chihuly exhibit will be museum, not just gallery