Publishers Note
As the question of what to do with downtown remains, there is little doubt that green spaces are important for mental health and community growth. Parks are more than just green spaces in a city—they are crucial components of a healthy, vibrant community. For the Blue Zones Project Jacksonville, parks play a central role in promoting well-being and longevity. (Read more about Blue Zones initiatives on page 12.)
A Riverfront for All (Part 2)
It’s been demonstrated in many other markets that well-designed, maintained, and programmed public spaces strengthen the real estate market while positively impacting the local economy. Understanding that any plans must also take into account various past visioning exercises, the Jessie Ball duPont Fund convened a diverse coalition of business leaders, change makers, planners, and visionaries in 2021 to steward plans for a riverfront that best serves the needs and wants of the community. (Laura Riggs’s article starts on page 14.)
Why did the cultural future matter to Jacksonville a hundred years ago?
The Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) Jacksonville is one of the oldest museums for contemporary art in the country. Most museums look to the past, curating our knowledge of cultures that came before us. Such historical museums tell us, selectively, about where we’ve come from. They make arguments about what we should admire and remember about the past, as models and examples for our present. A contemporary art museum is a different species altogether, concerned with where we are now and where we are going next. It is a brainstorm, a beginning without an ending. Contemporary art may delight. It may inspire, irritate, confuse, or amuse us. But it always poses implicit questions about our present directions and aspirations. So, why did our founders invest in art’s future rather than in a comfortable vision of the past like most museums established in America in those days? (Find out on page 22.)
Don’t miss the long-awaited collaboration between the Florida Theatre and Theatre Jacksonville August 24 & 25 as they put on Mame: The Broadway Musical ~ in Concert! Mame will feature award-winning Broadway, film, and television actress Linda Purl in the role of Mame Dennis and opera and theater standout Dorothy Bishop, a Jacksonville native, in the role of Vera Charles.
Enjoy putting a little culture and fun in your life.
Cinda Sherman, Publisher
It’s all somewhere on every corner!
