Art & Culture Features
Jeff Whipple: Life in Art
By Madeleine Peck Wagner Watching Jeff Whipple draw is like observing an origami crane unfold across a page: sure and inevitable, each form seems to follow the previous. It is watching the subtlest of magic. While reading Drawn into Something, the first of three planned memoirs, his lifelong dedication to this specific thaumaturgy is palpable. A visit to MetaCusp studios—the warehouse space he shares with artist Liz Gibson—underscores this life spent in art. A life dedicated to peering metaphorically around and under, to...
read moreThe Power of Stories
Weaving Tales to Show the Truth By Laura Bennett In 2010 Basma and her family were forced to flee their home in Iraq as the American occupation wound down. Her husband Ali’s life had been threatened for providing assistance to the United States following the invasion of Iraq. The goal of his work: to limit the overwhelming collateral damage to innocent civilians as a result of our poor understanding of Iraqi culture and Iraqi families. When they learned of their associates being killed, Ali and Basma knew they had to leave. They needed to...
read moreFive Years of Hope
By Laura Riggs When Hope McMath founded the Yellow House in 2017, it was with the intention to create a space for artists to connect with the community, where empathy is inspired and civic engagement is sparked. Five years later, that mission remains very much the same, but how it has manifested has been full of surprises. Although connecting wellness and the arts has been a part of Hope’s lifelong practice, this was not necessarily at the center of Yellow House’s mission. Yet, community care is very much an integral part of Yellow House’s...
read moreShe Dared to Dream
Crumbling scrapbook pages yield historical insights. By Kate A. Hallock Jacksonville Historical Society During the first semester of the 1963-64 school year Jean Pope (also known as Mrs. Edgar Pope), first grade teacher at Central Riverside Elementary School, approached fellow members of the Garden Club of Jacksonville with a challenge. Would the club take on the project of designing a garden specifically as a learning tool for the blind and visually impaired students at the school? Chairman of the Garden Club’s HANDS Beautification Committee...
read moreBeloved Beaches Fine Arts Series Turns 50
Jim Johnson moved to the Jacksonville beaches from Chicago in 1967 to take the post of choirmaster and organist at St. Paul’s by-the-Sea Episcopal Church (SPBTS). Finding a dearth of classical music in the beaches area, Johnson sought to change that. He founded the Beaches Fine Arts Series (BFAS) in 1972, offering free concerts in the church’s acoustically renowned sanctuary and built on his “belief in the power of great music to positively affect all people.” Fifty years later, BFAS continues to offer North Florida the chance to enjoy free performance seasons featuring world-class music and dance concerts, along with visual art by regional artists. Programming includes an eclectic mix of styles from classical to contemporary, jazz to world music, and traditional to avant-garde. BFAS’s mission is to be inclusive, diverse, and artist driven.
read morePast, Present and Future: Rivers, Threads, Pockets and Bubbles
“Past, Present and Future: Rivers, Threads, Pockets and Bubbles” is a concept store opening at The Corner Gallery in celebration of Jacksonville’s bicentennial. This is the latest Moving the Margins: Artist-in-Residence project, and the store will feature photography, graphic design, drawings, and paintings by artists Dustin Harewood, Malcolm Jackson, Toni Smailagic, and Jordan Walter. While three of the four artists were born and raised in different communities of Jacksonville, each is seeking to sell their unique perspective on what the city was, is, and can be. The overall concept highlights Jacksonville as a collection of communities, cultures, places, and spaces. Contemporary creations, from remixes of historic Jacksonville photography to streetwear apparel, pay homage to local businesses and institutions, while contemporary portraits of figures from different eras feed directly into the exhibition name,”Past, Present and Future.”
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Harn Museum of Art Launches Exciting Two-Year Season of Exhibitions
When individuals are exposed to art, it can be a transformative experience. An experience that lasts a lifetime and which deepens and furthers their personal connection to the people, places, and things around them. Since opening in 1990, the Harn Museum of Art at the University of Florida has been a cornerstone of the North Central Florida arts and culture ecosystem and is dedicated to providing these art experiences through free admission.
read moreMaud Cotter: what was never ours to keep
Irish artist Maud Cotter came to Northeast Florida in July to install her first commissioned artwork in the United States for the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) Jacksonville’s Project Atrium. Cotter is a prominent contemporary sculptor who lives and works in Cork, Ireland, where she cofounded the Irish National Sculpture Factory and is a member of the venerated Irish Association of Artists Aosdána. She has exhibited internationally and lectures extensively in architectural and arts colleges throughout Europe and America.
read moreNot-So-Damn Yankees Found Museum of Science & History
One of Jacksonville’s oldest museums, the Museum of Science and History, began in the mid-1930s as an educational program for schoolchildren. In 2021, the Southbank-based museum celebrated the 80th anniversary of its charter, but one of the most interesting “Did You Knows?” about this Jacksonville institution is the who’s who behind the formation of the museum.
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