Gold Star Restaurants
This annual list features top-notch, locally owned eateries that are favorites of Arbus staff, friends, and readers. Our list is based on more than the quality of food—it is service, consistency, atmosphere, hospitality, and value. Places that make you smile with their sense of community, indefatigable restauranteurs, and excellent food. All are worth visiting for an exceptional meal and a unique regional...
35 Years of Art Ventures at The Community Foundation for Northeast Florida
By Laura Jane Pittman If you have visited the Jacksonville REI lately, you may have admired the North Florida park posters displayed near the check-out counter that are modeled after 1930s-era national park posters of old. These are the brainchild of Kathy Stark, a local artist who was recently recognized with the 2025 Ann McDonald Baker Art Ventures Award by The Community Foundation for Northeast Florida. ...
Enhancing Education With The Arts
The arts play a pivotal role in education. Involvement in the arts supports a student’s social and emotional learning and empowers them to succeed inside school and out. Not only do arts programs motivate children to come to school, but they also help reduce stress, sharpen communication, and fuel social and emotional development. Jacksonville is fortunate to have a wealth of arts education programs across all art forms that allow our...
Success in Love & Art How Creative Couples in Jacksonville Achieve Both
Compiled by Cinda Sherman Love and marriage are two of the most perplexing subjects ever debated in human history. For instance, the Greek philosopher Plato declared, “At the touch of love everyone becomes a poet.” Yet the curmudgeonly English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge said, “The most happy marriage I can picture would be the union of a deaf man to a blind woman.” So, what makes a relationship work? The answer, to most, is...
NewBeginnings for a Treasured Tradition
WJCT’s mission is: “To provide programming and services that celebrate human diversity, encourage joyful learning, and promote civic participation, all to empower citizens to improve the quality of their lives.” That mission has been met and exceeded for more than six decades, with ever-increasing participation and support of the North Florida community. Recently, dramatic federal and state funding cuts to WJCT and...
Cover Artist: Casey Matthews
Although a native of San Antonio, Texas, Casey Matthews has considered the Southeast her home for over 30 years. She studied art and art history at Texas Christian University and the University of Alabama. Her many subjects are approached with light-hearted enthusiasm and delivered with singular verve and style yet are introspective and spiritually enlightening. For Matthews, it is important not to become complacent and not to be...


