Art & Culture Features
How Museum Shops Shape Our Experience
Many people enjoy shopping in museum stores because of the unique items they know they can find. From books to jewelry to children’s products to home accessories and gourmet food, there is something for everyone. Most importantly, however, museum stores perform integral and multifaceted work for their institutions—from earning income and extending mission-related programs, to visitor engagement and educational outreach through store products, programs, and experiences.
read moreWhy I Create
Art making has been the only constant activity in my life. I lose interest in things easily; yet I have always made time to create. Creating art feeds my soul and grounds me both mentally and physically. It is my intention to live a creative life and create work that is original, honest, and authentic and that is an extension of my personality: multilayered, colorful, playful, and adventurous. I am always learning and pushing myself to be the best artist that I can possibly be and not become too complacent.
read moreA Decade of [P]ARTnership
![A Decade of [P]ARTnership](https://arbus.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/AHH-Eliana-11_k-184x184.jpg)
For ten years the art of healing has been on display at the Museum of Contemporary Art Jacksonville (MOCA). Each year young patients at area hospitals have seen their artwork on museum walls, thanks to the partnership between MOCA and the extraordinary nonprofit Art With a Heart in Healthcare (AWAHIH).
read moreCome To Your Census, Jacksonville
Local artist, gallery owner, and arts advocate Shawana Brooks, who is behind the 6 Ft. Away Gallery and the Color Jax Blue mural project, joined Art+Action and recruited local artists to create artwork for billboards that would help disseminate information on and incite inspiration for filling out the 2020 census. For Come To Your Census, Jacksonville, painter Marsha Hatcher and photographer Toni Smailagic were chosen to create pieces that are now on billboards, visible from Interstate 295.
read moreCharvot? Who is Charvot?
In 1999, Jacksonville resident Yvonne Charvot Barnett approached the Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens with a simple question, “Would the Museum be interested in exhibiting the work of her father, the French artist Eugène-Louis Charvot?”
“Charvot? Who is Charvot?”
This quiet beginning resulted in a 20-year project at the Cummer Museum to research, reevaluate, and resurrect the work of Eugène-Louis Charvot (1847-1924), a distinguished painter and printmaker.
read moreThe Greatest Gift of All
Canceling The PLAYERS started a chain reaction that would keep many local workers employed while feeding thousands of needy Northeast Florida residents. When golfer and Ponte Vedra Beach resident Billy Horschel heard the tournament was canceled, he asked The PLAYERS if the food could be donated to Feeding Northeast Florida. The PGA Tour then called Susan King, president and CEO of Feeding Northeast Florida, to see if the regional food bank would accept the food. The hand off event took place on March 13th, and the next day trucks began transporting the goods. That’s when Jon Insetta, owner of Orsay, Black Sheep, and Bellwether restaurants, reached out to King and asked how he and his staff could be of service.
read moreFrom France to Florida
Marguerite Castaing was born on September 28, 1900, in Pau, a small town at the foot of the Pyrenees mountains in southwestern France. She was the youngest daughter of Joseph Castaing and Rose Picamilh. Joseph, a well-known painter and pastelist of his time, had a long career of teaching and painting commissions for churches and chateaus—often using his wife and children as models for paintings. Two of the Castaing children would follow in Joseph’s painterly footsteps: his son René-Marie and daughter Marguerite.
read moreRBG, Our Torchbearer by Marsha Glazière (2019)
Personifying RBG as the Statue of Liberty, which depicts Libertas, the Roman goddess of liberty, made perfect sense to me as a way of honoring the essential values of integrity and liberty for all that Ruth Bader Ginsburg embodied and fought for.
read moreArt As Action
In March, 2020, the world changed. Here in the United States, along with elsewhere across the globe, the COVID-19 pandemic shut down businesses, schools, and even natural spaces like beaches and parks. With the exception of healthcare and other essential workers, most of us hunkered down and lived our lives moving very little and in small orbits. But, traumatic events were still unfolding as spring turned to summer, and new tragedies of racial injustice took place that sparked a surge in protests for equity. Within this swirl of inaction meeting action, artists everywhere were commenting on the times just as they have historically done.
read moreThe Critical Importance of Philanthropic Support and Participation in the Arts as an Investment
Art museums are community anchors. They bring people together, help the community address challenges in times of crisis, and serve as beacons of light and hope that provide connection and conversation.
The Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens began with one woman who firmly believed that art, in all forms, provides a lasting and positive impact on society. Nearly 60 years later, the museum continues to promote Ninah Cummer’s legacy by connecting Jacksonville’s diverse community to the arts and each other.
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