Art & Culture
Na’Zir McFadden Jacksonville Symphony Assistant Conductor
Photo: ©Andrej Grilc Audience connection is at the heart of your work. From the podium, how do you create those powerful moments of connection? I try to create moments that feel personal and alive—where the orchestra and audience breathe together. It’s about honesty and presence, letting the music unfold naturally so everyone feels part of the same journey. When that connection happens, the performance becomes something shared, not just witnessed. Your career has already seen impressive milestones at such an early stage. Is there one moment...
read morePublisher’s Note
Hello 2026! With a new year brings hope. Hope for the new year elevates feelings we experience when we foresee a path to a better future. At the moment, with rising health care costs looming, many are feeling hopeless. For those concerned, feeling frustrated, or feeling hopeless, we wish you good health and the strength to cope. Enhancing Education With The Arts The arts play a pivotal role in education. Involvement in the arts supports a student’s social and emotional learning and empowers them to succeed inside school and...
read more35 Years of Art Ventures at The Community Foundation for Northeast Florida
By Laura Jane Pittman If you have visited the Jacksonville REI lately, you may have admired the North Florida park posters displayed near the check-out counter that are modeled after 1930s-era national park posters of old. These are the brainchild of Kathy Stark, a local artist who was recently recognized with the 2025 Ann McDonald Baker Art Ventures Award by The Community Foundation for Northeast Florida. A Jacksonville native, Stark has specialized in fine art, mainly oils, watercolors and acrylics, of North...
read moreEnhancing Education With The Arts
The arts play a pivotal role in education. Involvement in the arts supports a student’s social and emotional learning and empowers them to succeed inside school and out. Not only do arts programs motivate children to come to school, but they also help reduce stress, sharpen communication, and fuel social and emotional development. Jacksonville is fortunate to have a wealth of arts education programs across all art forms that allow our students to not only learn how to express themselves in the classroom but support their future career growth....
read moreSuccess in Love & Art How Creative Couples in Jacksonville Achieve Both
Compiled by Cinda Sherman Love and marriage are two of the most perplexing subjects ever debated in human history. For instance, the Greek philosopher Plato declared, “At the touch of love everyone becomes a poet.” Yet the curmudgeonly English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge said, “The most happy marriage I can picture would be the union of a deaf man to a blind woman.” So, what makes a relationship work? The answer, to most, is self-evident: Relationships are work, period. They are risky investments that can bring about life’s most astonishing...
read more2025 Shop Local Gift Guide
Here are ways to make shopping for gifts this holiday season feel super festive. Our beloved independent local businesses need our support. In thinking of things to make your dearest people smile, let’s try to shop our values and make our community smile as well. Each year, Arbus Magazine presents our Shop Local Gift Guide so that you can see what locally owned businesses are offering and be inspired to enjoy shopping for gifts. Enjoy browsing through the following pages and soak in the tradition and sparkle of the season. Be safe, be...
read moreStorytelling in Words & Paint
By Jim Draper My earliest childhood memories find me sitting in a stuffy, smoke-filled, mid-Mississippi living room. Lining the walls sitting on a hodgepodge collection of brought-in chairs was a collection of ancient relatives. Over the pings of silver forks on china plates and the clanks of ill-fitting teeth on caramel cake, I listen to their stories. The tales were mythic, colorful, dramatic, and sensual. Good bulls and big trees, goat butts and stupid mules, turned-over boats and big fish, untimely deaths, and champion flowers. Always the...
read moreNewBeginnings for a Treasured Tradition
WJCT’s mission is: “To provide programming and services that celebrate human diversity, encourage joyful learning, and promote civic participation, all to empower citizens to improve the quality of their lives.” That mission has been met and exceeded for more than six decades, with ever-increasing participation and support of the North Florida community. Recently, dramatic federal and state funding cuts to WJCT and affiliates have necessitated and resulted in greater community support than ever before for the vital programming it...
read moreCreative Haven A Conversation with the Wall Street Journal’s Noli Novak
Interviewed by Sheri Webber From Hallways to Galleries Q: Congratulations on your new space. What makes this gallery different from other artist collectives? A: Thank you. Many collectives operate like studios with long hallways and closed doors. While those workspaces are useful, they don’t allow art to be properly displayed. We wanted to do something more intentional. From the beginning, we committed to creating not just individual studios but also two dedicated gallery rooms where exhibitions could be presented professionally. Our...
read moreCover Artist: Casey Matthews
Although a native of San Antonio, Texas, Casey Matthews has considered the Southeast her home for over 30 years. She studied art and art history at Texas Christian University and the University of Alabama. Her many subjects are approached with light-hearted enthusiasm and delivered with singular verve and style yet are introspective and spiritually enlightening. For Matthews, it is important not to become complacent and not to be afraid of challenge or risk. Her artwork is a direct outgrowth from her life events and past remembrances....
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