Art & Culture
The Liminal Space Between Presence and Remembering
By Vanessa Harper When I first laid eyes on Caitlin Flynn’s body of work, I felt transported in time. Some paintings took me to the rustic beaches of old Florida or Cape Cod in decades past, while others open like a doorway to what comes next. Her work suspends you between memory and imagination and captures fragments of a shared nostalgia with scenes that feel like they belong equally to someone else’s story and to your own.Caitlin’s art is reminiscent of influential 20th-century artists like Wolf Kahn, Joan Mitchell, and Mark Rothko,...
read moreThe Conversation Mari Kuraishi President of the Jessie Ball duPont Fund
Mari Kuraishi is president of the Jessie Ball duPont Fund, where she leads work to create communities of belonging in Jacksonville and beyond. Named one of Foreign Policy’s Top 100 Global Thinkers for “crowdsourcing worldsaving,” she cofounded the crowdfunding platform GlobalGiving after many years at the World Bank, where she created and managed some of its most innovative programs. Fluent in several languages and having lived in multiple countries, Mari brings a unique global perspective to her work in philanthropy and community building....
read moreGrief in Bloom
How a Public Garden Helped Me Find My Way After Loss By Mary Mantey Photos by Rachel Bradshaw When the world feels shattered, where do you go to put the pieces back together? After losing my brother and father within a short period, grief settled in as an unwelcome but constant companion. Their absence left an ache too vast for words—a silence that threatened to swallow everything. I struggled to find footing in a world that kept turning, even as mine had unraveled entirely. What saved me—what held me—was my work. During this...
read moreThe Art of Music When Creativity Heals
By Brooke McKinney Artist & Communications Manager for Art with a Heart in Healthcare Art and music are more than creative outlets—they are essential parts of the healing process. For pediatric patients at Wolfson Children’s Hospital (WCH), the arts offer a powerful way to express emotions, process challenges, and rediscover joy during medical treatment. In collaboration with Art with a Heart in Healthcare (AWAHIH), young artists have transformed wooden guitars into vibrant visual interpretations of their favorite songs,...
read moreProject Atrium: Muralists in Action Dustin Harewood & Shaun Thurston
Local artists Dustin Harewood and Shaun Thurston have teamed up to lead the creation of a mural inside the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) Jacksonville. Their collaborative installation, part of the museum’s ongoing Project Atrium series, is more than a mural—it’s a living process, unfolding over weeks in full view of museum visitors. Harewood and Thurston have both contributed to the development of Jacksonville’s now vibrant mural scene, which even a decade ago looked quite different. Think back to 2010 or 2015 and you might remember...
read moreFrench Moderns: Monet to Matisse, 1850 – 1950
Courtesy of the Harn Museum of Art In honor of the Harn Museum of Art at the University of Florida’s 35th anniversary celebration, the museum is presenting “French Moderns: Monet to Matisse, 1850 – 1950.” The exhibition showcases 56 works, including paintings, drawings, and sculptures, from the Brooklyn Museum’s esteemed collection of European art. The Harn’s presentation of “French Moderns” will also feature Claude Monet’s “Waterloo Bridge,” on loan from the Lowe Art Museum,...
read more
PHX JAX: A Springfield Protopia
Phoenix Arts & Innovation District By Sherry Magill The Road to Utopia runs through Jacksonville. Not the 1945 comedy featuring Bing Crosby and Bob Hope, but rather a 2024 documentary film featuring the repurposing of Springfield Warehouse District into a regenerative community. This Road to Utopia is found on Food Matters TV via Prime Video and highlights the Phoenix Arts & Innovation District (PHX JAX), south Florida developer Tony Cho’s Jacksonville dream and prototypical demonstration project. A native of a...
read moreCutting Culture
Slashing arts and humanities programs may balance budgets today, but will it bankrupt the soul of higher education tomorrow? By Sheri Webber In recent years, the study of fine arts and the humanities has faced an unprecedented and destructive tide of scrutiny and defunding, as colleges and universities across the United States respond to shifting market pressures and political rhetoric. Once considered the heart of a well-rounded education, these disciplines are more often labeled expendable—leading to shocking program eliminations,...
read moreTwo Artists, Many Stories
Peter K. Philbin Brilliant Studio The Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens’ fall exhibitions highlight landscapes as sites of inspiration and remembrance. By Holly Keris, J. Wayne & Delores Barr Weaver Chief Curator The Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens brings two impressive solo exhibitions to Northeast Florida this fall—Andrew Wyeth, one of America’s most prolific and important artists of the 20th century, and Calida Rawles, a contemporary artist considered to be a “rising star.” Despite very different artistic and stylistic bodies...
read more
