Tag Archives: Museum of Contemporary Art Jacksonville (MOCA Jacksonville)

And MOCA Jacksonville marks the occasion by going back to the drawing board. Literally. In 2010, artists Christina Foard and Dolf James conceived of Imagination Squared, an exhibition featuring works by local artists of all ages, walks of life and skill levels.The concept was a huge hit, attracting 5,000 visitors for its opening and inspiring the creation of Project Atrium, a 40-foot-tall gallery space showcasing site-specific and site-sensitive installations on the museum’s first floor. The idea to revisit Imagination Squared was sparked by MOCA Executive Director Caitlín Doherty and Senior Curator Ylva Rouse who wanted to engage the public in expressing …

Jacksonville’s Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) will be hosting Drowning World from world-renowned photographer Gideon Mendel. The series features photographs he’s captured from around the world of floods and the people affected by them, including some from locals in Jacksonville and Middleburg after Hurricane Irma hit the First Coast, which he did as part of his winning the Jury Prize of the 2016 Greenpeace Photo Awards. I spoke to him to learn more about his work and his hopes for the reception of the exhibition. What led you to this photo series? Why did you choose flooding? The project emerged …

The invites autistic children to a morning of creating. Their Art Aviators Family Workshop is geared toward children with Autism Spectrum Disorders and their families. heads Family and Children’s Programs at . He organizes the Art Aviators workshop to encourage children with Autism Spectrum Disorders to get creative on their own terms. “Folks on the spectrum can’t always communicate verbally or through the written word,” says Aiuppy, “so giving them access to drawing and painting is a way for them to get their thoughts and feelings out in a really safe space.” With Art Aviators, the MOCA educational staff strives …

Courtesy of our friends at the Cultural Council of Greater Jacksonville We, as a society, sometimes have an unhealthy, or at the very least an unproductive, response to the success of others. Social media, which certainly has its benefits, is riddled with examples of this type of behavior, which includes destructive criticism, unjustified public shaming, and passive aggressive commentary. Online networks can be a black hole where individuals can lose their sense of time, civility, and the impact of their words. That isn’t always the case, however, as was recently illustrated through a post made by abstract expressionist painter Rob Middleton. Rob’s entry, which was posted …

I go looking for ’s studio space during an evening soiree at the . The smiling girl at the front check-in points me to the elevator in the back, so I dart around waitstaff offering trays of appetizers, devoured daintly by freshly-shaved gentlemen in sport coats, and ladies in reflective jewelry and pointy shoes. Away from the crowd, on the 5th floor, I find Mary, a tiny woman in jeans and a t-shirt with a vaguely Indian-inspired print. She’s crocheting a navy yarn chain, sitting comfortably in a papasan piled with pillows. I’ve come to talk with her about her …

When it comes to enriching the arts scene here in Jacksonville, sometimes it’s a little hard to be in the know when it comes to projects outside of the more storied institutions such as or the . One such series of projects that should be on your radar is . Simply, it’s “an artist residency, exhibition, and edition program dedicated to providing a platform for contemporary artists from diverse backgrounds, for mounting exhibitions and engaging with a community outside of their own.” Co-Founders and founded LRP in 2015. Like many in our community, they recognize that Jacksonville can be a …

What makes you happy? Often times, a young person’s hospital stay can be confusing, and so much of what happens with illness and the treatment of it can leave the patient feeling powerless. That’s where art comes in, reaching the part of the patient that still gets to be the decider, creator, inventor. is a non-profit arts-in-healthcare organization providing personal fine art experiences to enhance the healing process for patients and their families. The team of mostly visual artists works primarily with Wolfson Children’s Hospital and Nemours Children’s Clinic to facilitate art sessions with the young patients, as well as …

When interviewing some of the various artists for , there were two words that kept cropping up from the artists: physicality and color. Jill Nathanson says, “The two things together are central to the way the color moves through us. The paint has to move to engage you in that process.” And so, the artists have to move and use their bodies to achieve that. Fran O’Neill dons a raincoat and gloves to her elbows, using her arms as giant brushes. Jackie Saccoccio says that her process is something like a dance. She works on multiple canvases, using the drips …