Art & Culture Features
Honoring the Role of Art in Healing
Molly Cones and John Beard, “The Village” New book highlights artwork at Baptist MD Anderson Cancer Center, with proceeds benefiting the center. From its inception in 2015, art has been a critical component of the vision for Baptist MD Anderson Cancer Center, a vision centered around the belief that when curated with purpose and intention, works of art can have a profound effect on the health and well-being of patients, families, and staff alike. The link between art and medicine goes back centuries, but only over the past few decades...
read moreRebecca Louise Law: The Journey
British artist Rebecca Louise Law’s new site-specific installation was created for the Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens. Using more than a million dried flowers collected throughout her career, as well as 10,000 fresh stems hand-wired by a team of local volunteers, “The Journey” forms an immersive visitor experience that explores the relationship between humanity and nature.
read moreBehind the Mask: Sept 11 – Jan 2, 2022
Nonprofit organization Art with a Heart in Healthcare (AWAHIH) provides personalized art experiences to enhance the healing process for patients and families at Wolfson Children’s Hospital, Nemours Children’s Clinic, St. Vincent’s, Mayo Clinic, and Baptist Medical Center. Each year, now for eleven years, patients collaborate with AWAHIH Artists-in-Residence (AIR) to create artwork on a unique theme, then exhibit the body of work in a cohesive exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) Jacksonville. The theme is prompted by a question, and this year’s question is all too appropriate for these pandemic times: “What are you thinking or saying behind your mask?”
read moreEverything Speaks Design
The entryway to a building is often spoken of as a face—it holds the features that connect to what’s inside, both literally and figuratively, both making an impression and providing access. Baptist Health, Baptist Medical Center Jacksonville, and Wolfson Children’s Hospital have a new entryway that is the face of the flagship medical complex.
read moreLaFond’s Heart, Hands, and Soul
An internationally recognized sculptor whose works are in private collections around the globe, LaFond earned her undergraduate BFA degree in studio arts, with double minors in theology and philosophy from Manhattanville College in Purchase, New York (formerly Manhattanville College of the Sacred Heart). She studied sculpture with Clara Fasano and Jean DeMarco and took postgraduate studies in painting and sculpture with Eric Isenberg and Adolph Block at the National Academy of Design School of Fine Arts, later studying marble carving in Pietrasanta, Italy, where Michelangelo saw “David” in the marble and carved until he “set him free.”
read moreFinding New Freedom in the Mountains
Liberty is defined as the quality or state of being free. The Special Liberty Project understands that, for veteran families, this word has specific impact. Many veterans and Gold Star families are not free from the struggles and grief of losing loved ones during or after active-duty military service. There is a place designed for them that hopes to foster a special liberty—a state of mentally being free brought about through therapeutic experiences in nature.
read moreSound Salve
It looks like a UFO and its sound is described as otherworldly. It has built-in harmonics, making every note sound great with the next. Thanks to John Guinta, it’s bringing tranquility to people of all ages, in contexts ranging from yoga studios to hospitals to houses of faith. It’s the handpan, a unique instrument that is relatively new to music and sound therapy. Guinta’s nonprofit, Streams of Sound, is the first to bring handpans to the Jacksonville area, and the ethereal sound is now streaming all over the city.
read moreEbb and Flow: A Tide of Resilience
We talk of the ripple effects from an event, a point in time that affects the flow of subsequent events in ways that are often below the surface. There is no doubt that the ripple effects of the COVID-19 pandemic will be felt for a very long time. The quarantine time period in particular left many feeling isolated in a way that was unfamiliar. Local artist Clifford Buckley, along with Congregation Ahavath Chesed, a long-standing, San Jose-area synagogue referred to as the Temple, used this time as an opportunity to create something together.
read moreHillary Whitaker Gallery’s Fall Exhibition
Hillary Whitaker Gallery’s highly anticipated annual fall exhibition will feature the works of nationally recognized and collected painters Page Jones Davis, Erin Gregory, and Jennifer JL Jones.
read moreNavigating Our Local Arts Landscape
“For nearly three decades, CAP has worked to make sure every child has access to an arts-rich education with tremendous progress,” says The Rev. Kimberly L. Hyatt, CAP President and CEO. “Now, with the launch of the LEAD artlook® map, it will be easier than ever for our community—rich in quality arts learning resources—to come together on behalf of our children.”
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