Although the term “cow town” may be more of a Midwestern thing these days, Jacksonville was originally known by the European settlers of this state as a great place to get your cattle across the river. Hence the name “Cowford.” But Jacksonville has come a long way since Isaiah Hart’s original survey, and we here at EU do believe that Hart would be proud of what has come of that piece of land he gave to the city in the middle of downtown, known as Hemming Plaza.
Although the homeless problem will never be resolved (don’t watch the You Tube videos) the city has begun to climb out of its stupor and is rapidly becoming a crown jewel to our perpetually sprawling Duval County. First, there were all of the initiatives from city hall and area businesses that looked for many years to be fruitless and wasteful endeavors, such as employing the pith-helmeted orange shirt people and building a monorail. Okay, those still seem pretty useless, but since the Jacksonville Museum of Modern Art, now called the Museum of Contemporary Art Jacksonville (see the article to follow), came into the urban core and the new library opened its doors, we’ve seen the culture of our city expand exponentially.
What started off with strange block parties in Hemming Plaza has become an active art scene that we have watched rapidly evolve. There was the Brooklyn Art Center that introduced artists into the failing real estate of the urban core a few years back, and the movement to bring old buildings back to life with new tenants interested in urban living. These things started the ball of progress a-rolling. Then there was the gentrification of Springfield (still in progress) and the rise of property values in neighborhoods near the urban core, such as Riverside and San Marco. Now the average Jacksonville wage-earner can barely afford to live in once ghetto-fied sides of town.
The lesson learned was this: let the artists get into an area and they can make it chic. Once it is chic, the non-artists (ie. people with money) will want to move in and then the economy gets the jumpstart it so desperately needs.
Unfortunately, the consequences are that the artists may no longer be able to afford to live in the place they brought to life, but in the end they have a community that is suddenly capable of purchasing their art or attending their performances. As the crown jewel of Duval County, the art-ification of downtown has made the whole city crazy about art. Suddenly no one cares about how to transport cows, or why to use the monorail, everyone just wants to be part of this vital new scene. Learn how to get around artsonville with EU and really enjoy your River City.
It seems silly to some people to go through the trouble of changing the name of the Jacksonville Museum of Modern Art, fondly referred to as JMOMA, to the Museum of Contemporary Art Jacksonville, but in the art world there is a large difference between the two terms.
“Modern art, in academic terms, dates all the way back to the late 1800s, around 1890, so many of the post-impressionist artists, like Matisse, would be considered modern. Contemporary art begins around 1960, although some historians differ slightly, dating it’s beginnings to 1945. Using a gauge, other contemporary art facilities around the country are 1940s to present. MOCA Jacksonville is one of the largest contemporary art museums in the southeast.”
George Kinghorn is the director of the museum, and he has seen the institution through a multitude of drastic changes since its days in the Koger Center on Art Museum Drive.
“We have an important role to play in the region. We’ve been attracting innovative artists from the entire region, from Miami to Atlanta, to come and display their work in our museum. One of the important aspects here at MOCA is that we are always changing and innovating. The shows opening on January 26th will include four exhibitions opening in one evening. It is keeping with our philosophy to maintain diverse exhibitions so that there is more of a reason to come downtown and be part of the enthusiasm. People can keep coming back because there is always more to see.”
So in addition to limiting the scope of their objectives to focus on art created since 1960, MOCA Jacksonville is also establishing themselves on the national radar by aligning their institution with contemporary art instead of modern art. Not only does this put them in a unique position in the Southeast, but it is a more accurate representation of what their permanent collection has always represented. Even before they were in the new building on Hemming Plaza, the museum brought exhibits such as Nam June Paik’s The Electronic Super Highway exhibit to Jacksonville. By creating a sort of electronic landscape constructed of televisions, wires, metals and plastics, that exhibit changed the way I perceived art at the time. Paik obviously does not fit into the “modern” category as it is academically defined. So some things will not necessarily change, but you can expect to see changes with the new name and brand.
From the new website (www.mocajacksonville.org), which was re-designed in conjunction with nGen Works and funded by the Jesse Paul duPont fund, to the renovations inside the museum that will facilitate a more active environment, there are definitely new things afoot at the museum. Whereas the website redesign was done in an effort to be more in line with other contemporary art museums around the country, the physical renovations are an attempt to escape the traditional museum trappings.
“We feel very strongly that the museum provides the opportunity to open a dialogue about art and culture in a warm, inviting, and inclusive environment. One thing that is important to me is that this institution will be welcoming for people of all walks of life. An environment that everyone can be comfortable in. We really want people to feel free to ask questions and we want to provide an active environment for people to come and congregate.”
The museum is also taking over the operations of Café Nola, the restaurant inside of the lobby. Chef Kathy Collins will improve café operations by adding a Sunday brunch and a Wednesday dinner, as well as an enhanced 3 menu. Any venture downtown would have been risky not too long ago. In Jacksonville, the idea of a successful contemporary art museum seemed like a dangerous enough venture alone, but to include an upscale restaurant on Hemming Plaza would have been preposterous.
“The city has evolved over the last five years. As people have moved into the city, we have seen an increase of interest in art and culture. People that move into the city are accustomed to attending museums and are used to seeing new things. Also, our museum is perfectly situated in downtown between the library and city hall. We have created a true civic and cultural complex.”
Kinghorn hopes to solidify MOCA Jacksonville’s place in the national art scene. It may surprise you to know that Jacksonville has a place in the national art scene, but tracking this has been one of Kinghorn’s primary objectives.
“Well, the museum’s reputation has grown in awareness nationally. The museum has evolved as an institution, the art community has become aware of our exhibitions, and our publication has been distributed more widely. As our institution grows, we are able to attract higher profile artists, and that will be very beneficial to the community.”
One of those high profile artists is Nick Cave, whose exhibit is one of the exhibitions opening on January 26th.
“Nick Cave is an artist who has gained a national reputation very quickly. His elaborate constructions are a fusion of fashion, sculpture, and art. He is an interesting person because he has been a modern dancer, a fashion designer, and an artist. He has created these Soundsuits that use various fabrics and materials to create art that can be worn. They are often eight to nine feet tall. We are very fortunate to be able to present his work, because his work is so popular at this point, the pieces are unique, and they are so well-crafted. This exhibition will speak to a wide audience.”
Kinghorn describes Caves’ work as something of a nature that most people in Jacksonville have never seen before. His Soundsuits are such a unique take on art, that “they have that ‘wow’ factor to them.”
Although it may be seen as a limiting their focus, contemporary art is in fact the most open form of art with few limitations on what can be considered art. Many cities have museums of contemporary art, so people coming from larger metropolitan areas will look for a local MOCA, and now we have one. But even more importantly, people can count on seeing more art, better art, and plenty of new ideas in their theater, on their stage, hanging on their walls, displayed on pedestals, placed on the floors, and even served on their plates.
“To have a Museum of Contemporary Art in this growing city is an important part of enhancing the overall cultural landscape of our community.”
With all the holiday events going on in December it might be easy to overlook a gallery opening, and that’s a shame, since the Jane Gray Gallery should be on every art lover’s list of things to do in Jacksonville.
The principals of the gallery are Missy and Thomas Hager, both of which have a good pedigree in the art world. Missy is known on a local level as the director of the House Gallery, and Thomas is known for his photographic works on an international level. The duo has partnered in this venture with Daryl Bunn, who has helped to build support for the artistic community in Jacksonville. Look for seminars and artist talks from the gallery, as they hope to educate the public about art. Their main focus is to bring fine, sophisticated art to Jacksonville. Much of their art features locals, but they plan on bringing National and International artists to the gallery in the future.
The gallery, housed in two story New Orleans Style brick building has an impressive 5,600 square feet of art space and an even more impressive line-up for their first show, Elements. Besides showcasing the photographic talents of Thomas Hager’s Shell series, they’re also featuring the vivid abstracts of Tonya Lee, the bare naturalism of Joe Segal’s sculpture and the captivating life of John Bunker’s oils.
Jane Gray Gallery is located at 643 Edison Avenue (one block off Riverside Avenue). The exhibition runs through January 31, 2006. Gallery hours are 10am. -5pm.Monday through Friday and weekends by appointment (904)-338-5790.
Layers and condensed imagery make Jacksonville Beach native Tonya Lee’s work some of the hottest abstract art in Jacksonville. EU got a chance to speak with her about her art and influences.
EU: Where do you get the sense of concentrated motion that’s in many of your pieces?
Lee: Most ascetics are about having ideas of emphasis and ideas of pause, that’s a lot of life, so what I try to do in my paintings is have some sort of built up imagery that leads to a fluid narrative, which can often be kind of lyrical and it gives it that…forced emphasis.
EU: How did your UNF experience shape you, both as a student and a teacher?
Lee: As a student, of course, it was my shaping, it was everything that I am today, basically. As professor it certainly helped define what I want to do and what I don’t want to do with my life. And teaching is something I want to steer away from.
EU: What would you say to the opinion that your work seems to reject artistic pretension?
Lee: It’s certainly approachable, but you know, I think all aspects of art has pretension to it because it’s a very exclusionary type of world…I think that my paintings are very painterly, they’re not realistically painterly, but my paintings are about the application of paint, which in many instances that is the definition of painterly. They go away from any historical application of paint, it’s not traditional in any sort of way, which gets away from the academic approach. I think that can strip it of some of the pretension.
EU: How has living in the South influenced you?
Lee: I was raised in the South, so it is who I am…There are stereotypes of what Southern is and I think a lot of that goes along with storytelling and mythmaking…and the idea of artists being mythmakers—that certainly plays into it. And I have a taste for Sothern food.
EU: You grew up in Jacksonville Beach, how has the beach culture influenced you?
Lee: I think that really defined my ascetics and sense of color. I think maybe that ties into the idea of a lack of pretension because it’s a very laid back kind of culture. I did the New York thing and it’s not my pace. I like metropolitan… but I like West Coast metropolitan a lot more than East Coast metropolitan and I think that really stems from being raised at the beach.
EU: Graffiti art seems to have an influence on your art, where did you pick that up?
Lee: I seek it out all the time…I think that graffiti is feeding a lot of fine art lately anyway, so it’s not anything that’s unique to me by any means, but again, it’s that idea of forced concentration put onto a blank wall and the way that they play against each other. I think that the colors are beautiful, the immediacy is very alluring…
EU: You do a lot of layering in your work, what do you hope to achieve when you do that?
Lee: Well the layering…[makes] something obvious and takes it away, [in] that constant push and pull of creating a focus and then denying a focus. Just in the process of painting, I enjoy trying to hide the steps…It’s really hard to decipher what was the first and what was the last…It creates illusionistic space, which is very traditional to art history but it also is subversive…because it flattens it and pushes it at the same time. And it’s also just an obsession with materials. I like pouring a lot of stuff on a painting.
Tonya Lee’s work can be viewed at the Jane Gray Gallery through January 21st. Call (904) 338-5790 for more info.
The pay as you display Open Gallery in San Marco has drawn quite a few people to the ostensibly quiet residential Dewey Street. They’ve held popular artist demos in the past, wherein the artists actually create art as art-lovers view their work. The gallery is run by Jennifer Price, a familiar face on the Jacksonville art scene.
Guests at the gallery get complimentary wine and scrumptious finger foods catered by Chai Tea House Catering as they meander through the gallery, which is less like a gallery and more like a home with no furniture, which just happens to display art. The idea, apparently, is to give people a sense of what a piece of artwork might look like in a home.
Artists can display their work for two weeks at a cost of $150. Ten percent of money from the art sold goes back into the gallery. Gallery owner Jennifer Price says that her venue gives artists “a soapbox to stand on in order to get recognized by finer galleries…[our aim] is to support local artists, break-out artists and even established artists that need a base through providing an excellent venue in San Marco.”
Two vets from the first show are the artists Michael Baum and Joanelle Mulrain who display very different types of art, a testament to the diversity of the gallery. Baum displays colorful nudes and multi-panel pieces that belie your expectations about the shape of art, with their unusual geometric configurations. Mulrain mostly paints vital Florida landscapes and wildlife. Since Open Gallery opened a few months ago, these two have been a part of the gallery’s experience. Baum had this to say about his experiences at the gallery: “Jennifer [Price] is very good at marketing and gets a lot of people in the door [for openings] once a month.”
Price says that she’s currently looking for someone to help run the gallery, since her baby is due in March, and she already has a toddler. “I need someone heading up a co-op that would like the space and…it’s just a matter of gathering enough artists for the space.” Just because she might be hoping for some help with her venture doesn’t mean she won’t still be using her extensive contact list to promote the Gallery, it just means she might not always have a chance to be there physically.
The Open Gallery gives you a chance to see local artists that you might not otherwise see anywhere else in Jacksonville, from established artists with galleries of their own to up-and-comers looking for exposure in the Jacksonville scene. The Open Gallery is located at 1838 Dewey Place in Jacksonville’s San Marco neighborhood. The next opening night will be from 5-9PM on January 18th. Mark it on your calendar and visit the Open Gallery.
The fact that his name is mactruQue doesn’t make him an eccentric artist, it’s his given name and it is even on his driver’s license. The fact that he asks that it be spelled with a capital ‘Q’, could be a little eccentric.
“If being a classical artist is eccentric, then I guess you could call me that.”
In 2006 Mac has seen a lot of attention to his work, his philosophies, and his personality. By now he is practically a Jacksonville celebrity, although perhaps he is one of those celebrities that has as many people that dislike him in town as like him.
“I want to escape. I’m tired of getting death threats. You wouldn’t believe the amount of love/hate that I’ve developed over the last ten years.”
If you don’t already hate Mac, I refuse to let this article give you any reason to. He is articulate, intelligent, and a little overwhelming, on a personal level, but he prefers to let his art represent his dialogue. Working largely with oils on canvas, although he is adept with many mediums, Mac is not formally trained. He simply decided to try it and found that he had a natural ability. This is a back story that you would never guess looking at his work.
“I don’t do anything on impulse. It may look impulsive, but all of my work is part of a psychological experiment with those around me. Part of my relationship with the public at large is their reaction to my work. I am the mirror everyone else can look into when they need to check their hair.”
Mac has been prolific over the past year and his paintings could easily hang next to any artists’ work of a national or international caliber. It is skilled and approachable. Most pieces would fit in an office next to a Draper as easily as they would a makeshift gallery in ArtWalk or right next to your head while you dine at 9th & Main. Sometimes his projects are more contemporary, with text and abstractions, but the main body of his work is classical. They feature characters in their environments. Although they probably always have a subtext that you are only partially aware of, it isn’t so didactic as to overshadow the work.
“The nature of the dialogue is inherent in the work. There is the space between the work and the title that leaves room for interpretation. That interpretation is the essence of the dialogue between me and the person looking at the work. Like in high art, a Roschenberg piece may not seem to say anything specific, but the title tells you that he means to say something. It speaks. Commercial art tends to leave that out.”
MactruQue’s work is currently on display at 9th & Main and he is working on an ambitious project that incorporates music, poetry, and visual art. He would prefer that you judge him based on his work and not based on articles you read in free weekly papers. As he said to Folio Weekly’s Owen Holmes and myself at ArtWalk this month, “The media pits an artist against his peers. The true artist’s job is to make sure they understand that it is tragic.”
by donald dusinberre
Anybody can hang paintings on the walls of an otherwise empty room and call it an art gallery. We can never be sure that we won’t waste our time looking at something we don’t consider art and that unfortunate fact can lead many of us to question the legitimacy of the works displayed. Art galleries require us to decide two things on the spot: First, whether we will consider a given work “art”. Second, whether we like it. Museums hold an advantage for those of us who do not wish to contemplate whether a work should be considered art.
Often, the difference between a gallery and a museum is consensus. There is no empirical formula that can ever definitively classify a painting or sculpture as art, and that fact may indeed be the only universal thing about art. So most of us rely on consensus to indicate whether paint on canvas or molded clay has become art. When an establishment calls itself an art museum, it leans on many years and countless voices that proclaim its contents to be veritable works of art.
Thankfully, Jacksonville is home to the Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens. As the largest fine arts museum in North Florida, it boasts more than six thousand treasured works of art from all over the world. Whether you truly appreciate great artwork, or you must grudgingly write a paper about it, the Cummer Museum is Jacksonville’s final word in world-renowned art.
Nestled behind two beautiful formal gardens on the St. Johns River, the Cummer Museum features a large permanent collection of 19th century American landscapes and European Old Master paintings, as well as an impressive collection of Egyptian, Etruscan, Greek, and Roman antiquities. Unless you’ve decided in your tiny brain that art has no value or purpose, they’ve got something you’ll appreciate. In fact, they have such a wide variety of styles and periods on display, even the most passionate art lovers will likely find something they don’t particularly like.
For instance, you may enter a gallery full of fine Meissen porcelain that truly strikes you as beautiful. This writer, on the other hand, saw only a room full of dishes. As a former prisoner of the food service industry, I immediately began sweating while my hands instantly became wrinkled and pruny. While dishes don’t strike my fancy, the vast collections of European and American paintings (specifically the American Impressionist works) were more than enough to keep me enraptured for hours on end. There is a distinct comfort in seeing a work of art in person that one otherwise sees only in art books.
For those who love to learn, the Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens offers a host of special lectures, walking tours, and lessons for children and adults. Just like at the Smithsonian, you can even take a personal audio tour by checking out an audio device at the front desk. Complete with a children’s wing, the Cummer Museum offers people young and old a chance to learn and enrich their understanding of art in an engaging way.
The Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens is located at 829 Riverside Avenue, Jacksonville, Florida 32204. Contact them by phone at 904.356.6857, or visit them online at www.cummer.org to find out more about viewing hours, upcoming events, visiting collections, lectures, art lessons, and even special musical performances.
“I had to fight to get into art class. They tried to put me into shop. The art teacher was schitzophrenic so she would give me referrals for mishandling the fruit.”
Shaun Thurston has been drawing as long as he can remember. His mother, who has a degree in fine art, used to give him a sketch pad during church and he would draw demons. The reaction that resulted made him enjoy art and he has been perfecting his craft ever since.
“The Jacksonville art climate consists of about fifty people. It’s growing. It’s better than it was last year, and last year was better than the year before.”
Shaun went to Douglas Anderson, and then to the Florida School of the Arts for college. He enjoyed the benefit of great teachers in college. Older teachers that he respected, were great artists of their own accord, and encouraged him to just stick with it. He knew he would have to be poor, but if he stuck it out and really devoted himself to it, eventually he would find success.
“I’ve gotten negative and positive responses. It comes in waves. People will dislike something I do, then a year later they’ll be asking me to do the same stuff.”
Shaun is a genuine and nice guy. It would be almost impossible to peg him as an eccentric artist. He enjoys a great deal of support from other local artists, especially lately. Thurston and mactruQue worked together to paint the mural on the side of Burrito Gallery downtown. If you haven’t seen it, look for it the next time you are at the corner of Main and Adams Street.
“I’ve been obsessed with Japanese wood block artists. I’m influenced by artists I don’t even know the names of because I just spend so much time staring at art that strikes me. I subconsciously record a lot of work and it becomes a part of me. Like Tonya Lee. You might not see it, but the subtle layers of light colors to create darker colors, that comes from her.”
You can find Thurston’s art currently on display at Anomaly. When EU caught up with him, he was working on a backdrop for the new Venus Swimwear commercials, proving that commercial art isn’t always shallow and void of talent. Sometimes commerce employs the finest artists in the city.
“It seems cheesy, but nature makes me want to paint when I walk through the park and see light coming through the trees.”
Thurston, or Thursto, as he signs his work, usually features nature or wild animals in his work. On the side of the new Shanty Town Pub in Springfield you will find a baboon of his. The old shoe store in Five Points, Milo, had a large mural of a puppy above their store that Shaun painted, and he is somewhat locally famous for his fish paintings. His work is usually identifiable by the graffiti and comic book look it brings to fine art.
by kellie abrahamson kabrahamson1@aol.com
Our football players aren’t the only over-sized kitties on the prowl in Jacksonville. In September a new breed of feline made its way downtown and is hanging out until May. The Otis Smith Foundation’s community art project/fundraiser Big Cats for Kids is now on display in downtown Jacksonville and beyond.
You may remember there being sea cows on the loose a few years back. Those big lugs were auctioned off on April 2, 2005 and all of the proceeds, more than $215,000, went to the Otis Smith Foundation, a non-profit organization that provides programs and services to disadvantaged children here on the First Coast. Because the Sea Cows for Kids benefit was so successful, the foundation decided to try it again, this time with Jacksonville’s favorite animal as the massive canvas: the jaguar.
Businesses all over town were given the opportunity to “adopt” a Big Cat early last year for $5000, which included all production and instillation costs as well as a donation to the foundation and an honorarium to the artist working on the giant kitty. More than 50 blank fiberglass cats were adopted and local artists helped give them their spots. The first litter of kitties found their way into their designated habitats on September 6th and by November all of the colorful felines were in their temporary homes. Most of the Big Cats can be found downtown, however there are a few that made it as far away as Ponte Vedra Beach. A map with a listing of all the Big Cat locations can be found at Daily’s Convenience Store locations or online at www.bigcatsforkids.com. The cats will be on display until mid-May and will be auctioned at a gala event in June. Tickets to the auction are $50 per person, which includes dinner and entertainment as well as a chance to make one of these undeniable conversation pieces yours. The proceeds will go toward education and life-skill initiatives for underprivileged children in our community.
In addition to simply enjoying the Big Cats on display, residents and visitors can participate in events, activities and contests throughout the project. Walking tours, a scavenger hunt and a photo contest are all slated to begin in the near future. Keep an eye on the project’s official website (www.bigcatsforkids.com) for more information on the Big Cats and the community-wide events planned around them.
Besides all the galleries you’ll find art-friendly, Jacksonville, there are also lots of other places to find art, if you know where to look. Many restaurants and even bars display artwork from local artists, and they are a great place to check out art as you chow down on some quality food. At London Bridge downtown, I like to eat the best Scotch eggs in town while I peruse the art from cutting-edge local artists like Jimmy Pines, who produces oils in a cartoonistic pop-art style. Also downtown, you won’t want to miss Burrito Gallery, an established hotspot for art. Out in Springfield the place for art and eats is 9th and Main. In Murray Hill, I chow down on pizza at Moon River, while I check out the canvases of Liz Burn and other artists. At Avondale’s somewhat upscale, but never pretentious, Brick you can enjoy excellent ribs while checking out their walls. From there, it’s just a short hop to Five Points, where Ragland’s serves up food and art, currently from Clair Hartmann’s In Hell series. For a fabulous beach dining experience, a great martini and a rotating gallery, I head to Ocean 60.
But eateries aren’t the only out of the ordinary places you can find art. Pepper Rama sells hot sauce and displays hot art. Most of the public libraries have some sort of art instillation, in particular the Main Library, downtown. Even the Jacksonville International Airport has its share of art, with a huge bronze from renowned Javier Martin outdoors and a rotating gallery next to the bookstore inside the airport. In the Times-Union Center for the Performing Arts check out the enormous glass sculpture completed by JU students. Most of the larger buildings in the downtown area will have some sort of original art displayed and some even have rotating mini-galleries.
Want to pick up some artistic skills? Here’s a small sample of some of the art classes you can take outside the Universities.
Call 355-0630 for more info.
Egyptian Culture & Art
Wednesdays, February 7 through February 28, 4 to 5:30 p.m. Children will explore Egyptian culture by celebrating the art, literature, mythology and science of one of history’s most influential cultures. Classes will include gallery tours and art-making activities.
Ages 6 to 12. Members $55, Non-Members $75, Active Junior Docents $32
Gallery Drawing Workshop
Saturday, February 3, 12 to 4 p.m.
This instructed drawing workshop is designed for intermediate and higher level art students and will take place inside the gallery of Temples and Tombs. Ages 13 to Adult. Members $32, Non-Members $59,
Active Docents $32
MOCA Studio Classes Contact MOCA’s Education Department at 366.6911 x 204 for more information.
For adults and teens (15 and up) Introduction to Acrylic Painting 8-week session every Wednesday, beginning January 17th 6:30 pm to 8:30 pm in MOCA Jacksonville’s 5th floor Education Center $120 for members, $170 for non-members Introduction to Drawing 8-week session every Thursday, beginning January 18th 6:30 pm to 8:30 pm in MOCA Jacksonville’s 5th floor Education Center $100 for members, $150 for non-members Introduction to Silkscreen Printing 8-week session every Saturday, beginning January 20th 11:15 am – 1:15 pm in MOCA Jacksonville’s 5th floor Education Center $120 for members, $170 for non-members
Reddi Arts is both a place for artists to pick up supplies as well as a gallery. They also teach classes there. Currently, Alison Watson (who also teaches at the Cummer) will be teaching her acrylics class. Call (904)398-3161 for information on future classes.
Renowned Raku pottery artist Tim Bullard teaches at studios for creating every Monday at 6:00 pm. All ages are welcome. Call (904) 399-2556 for details.
Gina Martinelli, a former artist-in-residence for the Florida Department of Cultural Affairs, offers private Art Studio Sessions in drawing, painting, sculpture and pottery, but can also accommodate groups. She’s very flexible about scheduling, so you don’t have to worry about when classes start. She can teach 6-year-olds through adults. Her rates for private classes are as follows: 6 hours - $100.00, 10 hours - $150.00, 20 hours - $275.00 and 30 hours - $350.00. With her group classes, ten to twenty students can be accommodated at the location of your choice. The fee is $10.00 per hour per student for a minimum of a two hour session. The facilitator of the group can place one student in the group for half price. Call (904) 981-8588 for more info.
by kellie abrahamson kabrahamson1@aol.com
If your child seems attracted to visual or performance art, now is the time to look into our area magnet programs. Duval County magnet schools are now accepting applications for the 2007-2008 school year and many of them focus on nurturing and developing your child’s interest in art.
Those interested in enrolling their child into one of these schools are required to go through an application process. All applications received are then processed in the magnet lottery, a computerized program that randomly selects students. Most schools just need a filled out application to put your child in the running, but both LaVilla and Douglas Anderson also require an audition and additional paperwork. The deadline for all magnet applications is February 28, 2007.
Here’s a list of all the visual/performing arts schools in the area, their tour dates and any special application requirements they may have:
Brentwood Elementary School of the Arts- Offers traditional arts and movement classes including band, chorus, dance, drama, piano, orchestra, guitar, creative writing and visual art.
School Tours: January 25 at 9:00 am, 11:00 am, 1:00 pm and 5:30 pm; February 5 at 9:00 am; February 8 at 9:00 am; February 15 at 9:00 am. Other times by appointment (904-630-6630)
Fishweir Elementary- Offers beginning band, advanced band, chorus, dance and theater
School Tours: January 23 and 30, February 6, 13, and 20 at noon.
Lake Forest- Offers classes in visual arts, dance, drama, chorus, band, strings, piano, PE, media, and computers.
School Tours: Every Thursday in January and February 1:00 pm-2:00 pm and every Wednesday in January and February 10:30 am-11:15 am
Pine Forest- Classes include art, dance, drama, television production crew, chorus and strings.
School Tours: January 9, 16, 23 and February 13 and 20 at 10:00 am
LaVilla School of the Arts- Classes include band, chorus, dance, drama, piano, orchestra, guitar, creative writing and visual arts for beginning and advanced students.
School Tours: January 25 at 8:45 am, 11:00 am, 1:00 pm and 6:00 pm; January 29 at 8:45 am and 6:00 pm; January 31 at 8:45 am and 12:30 pm; February 1 at 8:45 am and 12:30 pm
Special application requirements: Entrance to grades 7 and 8 is gained only by audition. Sixth grade students are also invited to audition for advanced placement. Auditions will be held on February 5 and 6 at 6:00 pm.
Douglas Anderson School of the Arts- Offers intensive arts programs in creative writing, piano, dance, film/TV, instrumental music, performance theater, visual art, and vocal music.
Tours: Provided year round by appointment (call 904-346-5620 to set a date)
Special application requirements: Prospective students are required to audition for their spot. Audition dates are February 1 at 6:00 pm or February 5 at 6:00 pm. Application packets are available online at http://www.educationcentral.org/dasota/ and must be filled out and returned to the school before the student’s audition. Two letters of recommendation are required as well as a copy of the student’s most recent report card.
For more information on these and other area magnet schools visit www.magnetprograms.com.
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