Cummer Museum of Art and Gardens meets NEH challenge

The Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens recently reached the first fundraising goal associated with receiving the 2015 Challenge Grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH).  The Challenge Grant is a matching grant program; in order to receive the full $500,000 award, the Museum must raise an additional $1.5 million from the community by 2020.  This year, Donors and Trustees generously gave $375,000 to match the first $125,000 from the NEH to complete year one of the challenge.  The Museum was one of only 15 institutions to have received the grant from the NEH, an independent federal agency dedicated to supporting research, education, preservation, and public programs in the humanities.  This funding will create a $2 million Programming Endowment that will provide sustained funding for multi-disciplinary programming including lectures, workshops, symposia, and bringing scholars and artists to Jacksonville.

“We are honored that this grant award validates the important work happening at the Cummer Museum, along with that of multiple collaborators and partners, to make the power of the humanities accessible to all.  This endowment will help support our ability to provide more public programs like those we have presented over the past several years, which empowered conversations about history, race, cultural values, and other challenges facing our community,” says Chief Operating Officer & Chief Curator Holly Keris.

The endowment will allow the Cummer Museum to create innovative programs that more deeply impact its diverse audiences by examining art through the lenses of literature, philosophy, religion, history, and more.  It will also allow the Museum to fully develop and share best practices in accessibility for individuals with disabilities, building on an area of strength while benefitting other institutions and the broadest cross-section of people who desire access to art and cultural content.  By creating in-depth, accessible, humanities-based programming, this endowment will create a regional hub for exploration and sharing ideas in an area where these opportunities are far too rare.

“The Cummer strives to transmit the profundity, joy, and humanity of the arts to the greater communities of Northeast Florida. In over fifty years of service to its constituents and stakeholders, the Cummer is one of the great jewels of art and culture in our state,” said Dr. Debra Murphy, Chair of Art & Design, University of North Florida.

Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens
  829 Riverside Avenue
  Jacksonville, Florida 32204
  (904) 356-6857
  Hours of Operation & Admission