The Gallery of Arts and History is a small cultural exhibit space inside EPCOT’s Morocco Pavilion. Located near the pavilion’s entrance in World Showcase, the indoor gallery is easy to overlook, particularly because it does not have a ride vehicle, scheduled performance, or conventional queue. Its understated character is part of its appeal. Guests can step inside at their own pace, escape the Florida heat, and explore an exhibit designed to provide a more substantive look at Moroccan culture than the surrounding restaurants and shops alone.
The gallery’s current exhibit is Race Against the Sun: Ancient Technique to Modern Competition, which opened in 2019. The presentation examines the ingenuity required to live and compete in the harsh environment of the Sahara. One section focuses on the Amazigh people, referred to in the exhibit materials as Berber tribes, and the traditions that have allowed their communities to thrive in the desert for centuries. Other sections explore two demanding modern competitions: the Marathon des Sables, a six-day, 155-mile ultramarathon, and the Rallye Aïcha des Gazelles du Maroc, an all-women off-road rally that emphasizes navigation, endurance, and teamwork.
The exhibit uses authentic race equipment, photographs, trophies, a desert diorama, and an interactive rally-car vignette to connect traditional survival knowledge with contemporary athletic competition. The result is more immersive than a conventional display of artifacts. Visitors can examine the equipment used by competitors and pose for photographs inside a simulated rally vehicle framed by a Sahara backdrop.
The Gallery of Arts and History has been part of the Morocco Pavilion since the pavilion opened on September 7, 1984. Morocco was the first country added to World Showcase after EPCOT Center’s debut and was constructed with the assistance of Moroccan artisans, whose tilework, carved plaster, geometric ornamentation, and architectural details remain among the pavilion’s defining features. The gallery itself reflects that craftsmanship, with patterned ceramic floors, intricate wall treatments, and decorative ironwork lighting fixtures.
The gallery periodically changes its exhibits. Before Race Against the Sun, the space housed Moroccan Style: The Art of Personal Adornment, which highlighted traditional clothing, jewelry, henna, ceremonial accessories, and fantasia equestrian attire.
Today, the Gallery of Arts and History remains one of EPCOT’s most rewarding hidden gems: a quiet, beautifully detailed museum space that preserves the original World Showcase ideal of introducing guests to the art, history, and traditions of another culture.
