Art & Culture
FemArt Gallery
FemArt Gallery Executive Director and founder Kim Miller was inspired to create a space for women artists while she was finishing her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. Her art education had made her acutely aware of the strong bias toward male artists throughout history. She sent out a call to local women artists she knew and two of them joined her in creating a nonprofit that would support women artists through exhibition opportunities, educational programs, and community outreach designed to elevate their work.
read moreForging a Bold City One Sculpture at a Time
Probably most famous for the photograph that appeared in national news during Hurricane Matthew, “Spiritualized Life” was created by Charles Adrian Pillars to honor those lost during World War I. The piece was privately commissioned by the Citizens Committee in 1920 and unveiled in Memorial Park on Christmas Day, 1924. It is one of the first pieces of public art in the city and still stands as one of the most iconic sculptures in Jacksonville.
read moreStatue of Limitations
The ongoing process of racial reckoning that’s been taking place around the country over the past few years has occurred on many different fronts, be it the classroom, the pulpit, or the streets of hundreds of cities from coast to coast. This process has peaked (so far) with the social protests we saw sweeping the nation after George Floyd’s murder in 2020. Locally, there were protests here in Jacksonville, St. Augustine, the Beaches, and beyond.
read moreIt was Crooked. It was Blurry. It was Mad.
Local author Tim Gilmore, Florida State College at Jacksonville (FSCJ) English professor, historian, and creator of jaxpsychogeo.com, knows a lot about bizarre, local lore and our city’s most idiosyncratic characters. Virginia King is certainly one of those—she spent decades feverishly documenting 1960-80s Jacksonville by word and photo, ultimately writing some 8,000 pages by hand in an effort to “capture the city,” as Gilmore puts it. Gilmore wrote a book about King in 2015, titled The Mad Atlas of Virginia King, that has now been adapted into a play by the same name.
read moreThe Strategy For What You See
What role do exhibitions serve at an art museum? Museums, after all, are a particular type of institution defined in large part by the presence of a permanent collection. There are institutions without (or with limited) collections that focus exclusively on exhibitions. Known as kunsthalles (literally, “art halls” in German), these spaces are more popular in Europe, although there are some notable examples in this country.
read moreModern Hunter-Gatherer
Gabrielle Gould is a self-described “modern hunter-gatherer” who uses small wonders of the natural world to create jewelry art. Based in historic St. Augustine, Gould’s art form has caught the eye of the producer of PBS’s art and craft documentary series Craft in America. The show airs just once or twice a year, and typically features craft arts in conceptually themed episodes. The episode featuring Gould will be the first medium-specific one, shining the spotlight on jewelry. The episode will air on PBS stations on December 10. (For our area, check WJCT’s listings for airtime.)
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 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 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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