Art & Culture Features
Stand for Something, Communicate It
The pandemic upended everything about our daily lives, from how we learn to how we shop; how we dine to how we work; and how we communicate and receive information to how we think about the world. As consumer demand inundated the supply chain, a labor force flush with stimulus cash contracted. Businesses and organizations fundamentally changed their operational models to adapt to this increasingly complex marketplace. With more consumers getting information from their digital devices than ever, many companies have been forced to make a digital transformation long embraced by larger brands.
read moreFinding Wellness at the Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens
Nestled up against the St. Johns River in Riverside, the Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens provides a respite for those who want to stroll through the galleries or meander through the exquisite gardens to be inspired by the beauty of the natural world. Did you know that visiting the Cummer—one of the community’s top attractions—can also positively impact your health and well-being? After the past two years of pandemic struggles, there is no better time to take advantage of the documented benefits of immersing yourself in art and nature.
read moreA Life in Art
From bright and colorful abstract works to photography of the rivers of Northern Michigan, there’s a little bit of everything in Jesse “Jay” Wright’s “A Retrospective Exhibition” at Jacksonville University’s (JU) Alexander Brest Gallery until July 20th.
read moreJacksonville Quilt Show—Artful Fabric Creations
Today’s quilts are works of art, as appropriate on the wall as on a bed or as a pop of intrigue in the living room. Contemporary fabric artists have embraced the traditions of the past, created new patterns, found new techniques to express themselves in diverse ways, and incorporated a full spectrum of options to yield stunning outcomes.
read moreKara Walker: Cut to the Quick
Kara Walker (b. 1969) is an American contemporary artist, best known for her massive installations of cut paper silhouette tableaux. Her striking silhouette cutouts fill entire walls with imagery that is at first beautiful, then on closer inspection tell a story of deep trauma, hurt, and exploitation. She employs a medium that has traditionally been used by the white elite to depict docile, pleasant scenes and turns it on its head to depict the other side of history—a side that is less palatable, often painful, and frequently left out.
read moreThe Florida Art Collection Spans Two Florida Museums
The Harn Museum of Art at the University of Florida (UF) is presenting a new exhibition, “Painting St. Augustine: Selections from the Samuel H. and Roberta T. Vickers Collection,” at the Governor’s House Cultural Center and Museum in St. Augustine, Florida. The exhibition, featuring works by more than 20 artists who captured vibrant landscapes and city views of St. Augustine opened May 13, 2022, and will be on view through May of 2023.
read moreOf Ships and Shears
Jacksonville is a vast city—the largest incorporated city in landmass within the contiguous United States—and it’s also a complicated city, as Jacksonville Historical Society CEO Alan J. Bliss likes to say.
“It’s complicated, it’s authentic, and it has many stories,” he shares on the lecture circuit in any given week, visiting business and civic groups from early morning to evening and spreading the word about Jacksonville’s Bicentennial, an occasion which the citizens of Jacksonville are encouraged to commemorate, celebrate, and elevate during 2022.
The Art of Commissioning
Almost everyone is familiar with an artist’s commission for a painting, sculpture, wedding gown, or bespoke jewelry. You discover an artist’s work who you truly love and want an original piece that no one else has. More often an exhaustive search takes place to find that perfect piece that, in your mind, does not exist. Yet.
read moreFinding Your Voice
“I’ll know what I like when I see it.” I have heard that phrase over and over again during my interior design career. I must tell you—this statement illustrates the challenges faced when trying to zero in on a direction for the look, feel, and quality of your design project, whether it’s a new corporate build-out or a home renovation. Short of hiring a team of dedicated psychologists, therapists, color theorists, and sociologists, here are some tips on how to find your way.
read moreFrieseke in Florida
A new exhibition at the Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens celebrates a noted American Impressionist painter and shines a light on 1880s Jacksonville. Frederick Carl Frieseke moved to northeast Florida in 1881 at the age of seven. He lived just outside the Jacksonville city limits along with his father and sister. The young boy was enchanted with his new surroundings. His family stayed four years before returning to Michigan. Although he would not return, Frieseke never forgot his time on the First Coast. Later in life, while living near Giverny, France, he created a series of watercolors and paintings inspired by his childhood. He exhibited the paintings in Paris at the Galeries Durand-Ruel in 1926 and the Salon des Tuilleries in 1927, then in New York at the Brooklyn Museum of Art in 1927 and at the Macbeth Gallery in 1929. Assembled from the Cummer’s permanent collection, the Harn Museum of Art at the University of Florida, the Museum of Arts and Sciences in Daytona Beach, and private lenders, the exhibition brings together 16 of Frieseke’s 18 Florida watercolors and five of their companion oil paintings. Shown alongside a series of historic photographs, the exhibition is a charming snapshot of our city’s past through the eyes of a child who ultimately became an internationally respected artist.
read more
