Art & Culture
Jacksonville Arboretum & Gardens: The Green Jewel of Arlington
Inspiring. If one word could describe the Jacksonville Arboretum & Gardens, it would be inspiring. These one-hundred and twenty acres in a nearly forgotten corner in Arlington inspired a fiercely determined group of citizens to realize their dream of creating an arboretum in Jacksonville with the mission of “cultivating a unique environment for recreation, education, and inspiration.” This green space is free for all guests and the trails have inspired plein air landscape painters to pilgrimage from far away to spend many a spring day...
read moreHope at Hand, Inc.
During the April Art Walk, an intimate collection titled “I am still me” will be on display from 5 to 9 p.m. at the Cathedral Arts Project’s (CAP) office located at 207 N. Laura Street, Suite 300. This display, presented by local non-profit Hope at Hand, showcases therapeutic poetry and art that reveals the love, pain, hope, and voice of many underserved members of our community. It will continue throughout the month. The uniqueness of this exhibit lies in the depth of the backstory behind each and every photo. The stories told through the...
read moreOne Spark Art Experience
One Spark, The World’s Largest Crowdfunding Festival, is back for its third iteration in Downtown Jacksonville April 7-12, 2015. This year, One Spark has six categories: art, education, health & science, music, social good, and technology. One Spark, like Arbus Magazine, bring together art and business, and creates and environment for collaboration between creatives and innovators from across the country. This year, we wanted to give our readers a guide to the art experience at One Spark that includes don’t-miss projects and...
read moreTyveze Littlejohn: Born to Dance
Nearly sixty years after Arthur Mitchell became the first black male ballet dancer in a major company (New York City Ballet, 1955), and thirty years after Bill T. Jones formed his own dance company, the number of Black (and Asian) ballet dancers worldwide still remains starkly low. In 2012, Olivia Goldhill and Sarah Marsh wrote in The Guardian, “Classical ballet celebrates pale princesses and fair swans. It’s a world where dancers cake their limbs in white powder, and where performers with darker skin don’t always feel...
read moreThrough the Lens of History
Local fine art photographer Mary Atwood’s new book captures the images and stories of historic North Florida homes When Jacksonville photographer Mary Atwood visited Dudley Farm in Newberry, Florida, she was transported back to her favorite chilldhood spot —her grandfather’s farm and its log home. In this state of reverie, she captured an image at Dudley Farm that she titled Comfort, and thus began her photographic series of historic homes. As Atwood would attest, she is prone to the romantic, to finding a narrative within a space or artwork,...
read more“Silence Is a Bully’s Best Friend”
New campaign to change the culture of bullying Once considered a teenage rite of passage, bullying – thanks largely to the pernicious and relentless nature of social media taunting – has become a mental health issue for many children. The stakes are high. According to a research review conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, youth who are bullied are more likely to be depressed, think about suicide, and actually attempt suicide. Coming up with a workable plan to stop bullying has proven difficult. The approaches are all...
read moreThe Arts Give Us the Opportunity to Grow
As you enter the signature atrium at Douglas Anderson School of the Arts (DA), it’s easy to see how this high school is set apart from most. Just behind the warm, smiling front desk attendant, there is a wall covered in beautiful art work. In fact, when you look around, you will see paintings or photos placed on each wall of the lobby. The atrium itself houses a small art gallery with amazing sculptures, stunning photography and breathtaking paintings. Each piece is a gift from a student, created while attending school here. At a time when...
read moreA Jacksonville Gem
The Florida Ballet’s Laurie Picinich-Byrd leaves her legacy in their performance of The Nutcracker While talking over the phone one night, Laurie Picinich and Michael Byrd, two accomplished ballet dancers working in New York City, lamented the fact that there were so many dance opportunities in NYC and so few elsewhere in the country. Byrd, a Jacksonville native, specifically cited the need for more dance in his hometown. By the end of the conversation, they had decided to start a dance company in Jacksonville and call it The Florida Ballet....
read moreGardens, and Tigers, and Butterflies! Oh My!
The massive male Malayan tiger jumps lightly from rock to rock, powerful muscles rippling beneath its coat, until he finally settles in the shallows of the gurgling stream to bask in the mist from the waterfall directly behind him. “See what I mean by the connection of art and nature?” I am at the Jacksonville Zoo and Gardens on a stifling hot summer day and Tony Vecchio, the zoo’s executive director, is remarking on the picture-perfect moment we are witnessing at their newest exhibit, Land of the Tiger. I have to agree that the scene...
read moreHow Local Artists Claimed Space
KING STREET STUDIOS At first glance, 600 King Street appears to be a commercially-zoned eyesore for gated grunge and junk. But it’s not. The royalty-titled address is home to King Street Studios – a 1969 skating rink converted into a 2,400- square-foot space situated beneath the maniacal buzz of I-10 traffic, with scattered industrial businesses as neighbors. Venture inside and you’ll see walls sprawling with innovation; yet another example of how local artists find space to create art. Leading the eclectic pack of artists is the...
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