The 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...
She 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...
Beloved 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.
Not-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.
Improving Inclusivity in the Arts
There have always been talented artists of color in Jacksonville. But their ability to access opportunity and recognition has often been challenging. Few things are more affirming than access to support, so a barometer of the ascension of local BIPOC artists over the years could be one of the city’s oldest continuous arts philanthropies: Art Ventures, an initiative of The Community Foundation for Northeast Florida. While this year’s initiative saw the largest and most diverse pool of applicants in Art Ventures history, The Community Foundation decided to review Arts Ventures grantmaking over time to see just how BIPOC artists had fared since the program began in 1990.
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