Page 19 - Cummer Museum News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

When an old Western Union office building in downtown Jacksonville was renovated into a six-floor art museum in the early part of the 21st century, no one knew quite what to do with the walls of the central staircase, which rise 40 feet above the lobby. Enter Marcelle Polednik. Polednik, now director of the Milwaukee Art Museum in Wisconsin, was hired as director of the Museum of Contemporary Art Jacksonville in early 2006 and immediately started thinking about what she could do with those big white walls.  "What made this one unique from my perspective was the staircases going up, the visi...

Letters from readers: Zanele Muholi exhibit at the Cummer Letters from readers Zanele Muholi exhibit at the Cummer The Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens recently debuted Zanele Muholi: Somnyama Ngonyama: Hail the Dark Lioness, an internationally touring exhibition organized by Autograph, London and curated by Renée Mussai. The exhibition features more than 80 self-portraits by Muholi: a world-renowned photographer and visual activist whose work addresses race, identity, representation, human rights and social justice. The exhibition’s arrival is especially timely, as these themes are at the f...

Nobody takes better selfies than Zanele Muholi. In the portraits, the South African artist poses with a wide variety of common household objects — a three-legged stool, sponges, an extension cord, a vacuum cleaner, clothespins, mirrors, inflated latex gloves, bicycle tires, safety pins and plastic bags. The portraits are all in black-and-white, with the contrast pushed to emphasize the artist's dark skin. "The black becomes blacker, the white becomes whiter," said Holly Keris, the Riverside Avenue museum's chief curator. The gallery walls were painted in shades of white and gray to emphas...

Cummer Museum debuts new race and representation photography exhibition Emily Boyer, Morning assignment manager, Traffic reporter Published:  Updated:  Tags:  The photography exhibition Somnyama Ngonyama, Hail The Dark Lioness opens Thursday, April 15 at the Cummer Museum. Visual activist Zanele Muholi uses their body as a canvas to confront the deeply personal politics of race and representation. The collection of black and white photos poses a question about social injustice, human rights, and also expresses what they call a reclaiming of their blackness-- and how others can do the same....

I say this because Alison is losing her eyesight. I’ll come back to that. But on the way to meet her, it hit me that it has been two years since a few dozen people joined me when I walked into the ocean near the pier, finishing a series that involved crossing Jacksonville by foot. Some days it feels like those two years have been more like 20. I’m guessing you know the feeling. I miss doing those weekly walks. Not just the part involving putting one foot in front of the other. The part that involved doing it all over town, taking a few thousand steps and ending up in places like the bar t...