Friday, November 4, 2016

November 2016 Around Town Happenings



November is a time to be Thankful and this month includes VOTING!  Take time to schedule events this month “Around Town With Ms. “V” and get your calendar together as we see you at the poles and at these venues in Jacksonville, Florida.  Click the link on each event to see all the information pertaining to that particular affair.

Events:                
12th Pearls and Cufflinks event to benefit Clara White Mission
Stage Aurora's 'Dreamgirls' at two new venues in Florida (2 locations)
Mannheim Steamroller Christmas is coming back to JAX town
Tracy Morgan coming to Orange Park, Fall of 2016
The Aluminum Show will be in JAX
‘Annie Get Your Gun’ opening at the Alhambra Theatre and Dining
NE Florida Artists featured in TH Galleries
Cummer Museum exhibiting African American historical artifacts

The Florida Theatre upcoming 2016 end of the year events
Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens presents Folk Couture
Cummer Museum showing a work of David Ponsler

Don’t forget that some of October’s events may still be going on.

Locations: Alhambra Theater & Dining, Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens, Florida Theatre, The Ritz Theater, The Thasher-Horne Ctr., Times Union Center Performing Arts.

Cummer Museum showing a work of David Ponsler


The Cummer Museum of Arts & Gardens presents David Ponsler: Chasing Shadows, on display November 5, 2016 through October 4, 2017 in the J.Wayne & Delores Barr Weaver Community Sculpture Garden & Plaza.  A Jacksonville native, Ponsler describes himself as “a blacksmith, and a metalworker.” He specializes in sculpture and architectural designs forged in wrought iron, steel, bronze, and copper.  For each project, Ponsler seeks to bring out an elegance of form to an otherwise rigid and resistant material.

Born in 1961, Ponsler first learned the trade of metalworking in his father’s shop, ‘Wonderland Products’.  He spent the next 25 years designing and crafting objects and architectural elements for both private citizens and corporate ventures. In 2004, he opened Ponsler Metal and Design near the Museum, in what used to be a police precinct and jail.  Ponsler continues to create functional objects, like railings and gates, but his artistic activity has grown steadily.  While architectural work requires careful planning, his sculptures allow for a more spontaneous, creative process.

(Photo - David Ponsler: Overlord, Chasing Shadows Series, Forged and fabricated steel
Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens
  829 Riverside Avenue
  Jacksonville, Florida 32204
  (904) 356-6857
  
Hours of Operation & Admission

Wednesday, November 2, 2016

'One Spark' resurfaces with some local good news


It may have been awhile since we’ve heard from the crowdfunding corporation “One Spark”, yet the agency has posted a company that has successfully benefited from the 2016 campaign.  A new, innovative device designed to enhance the training of nurses, paramedics, and other clinical specialists has begun a two-week series of field tests at the University of Florida’s Center for Simulation Education and Safety Research (CSESaR) and the University of North Florida in the Health Sciences and Nursing division.

Elizabeth Benson, RN, co-founder and CEO of B & G Educational Innovations (BGEI) delivered a Beta proto-type of the company’s wearable sleeve to help students learn and practice starting an intravenous injection (IV).

BGEI designs low cost, reusable, wearable simulation devices for training clinical students in hands-on skills and provider/patient interaction.  The wearable sleeves, legs, gloves, etc. include sensors, as applicable, to record and store student performance when drawing blood or starting an IV.  The devices include microphones to record the student provider/patient communication and identification codes to track the progress of each user.

Following their earlier success as one of the winners at One Spark’s “Spark Tank” innovation competition in April, the team at BGEI has since relocated their business, their ReaLifeSim subsidiary and half their management team from Maryland to Jacksonville, Florida.

Citing the “favorable business climate, significant healthcare workforce, educational institutions and supportive entrepreneurial network,” Elizabeth Benson, co-founder and CEO, explained why “it made perfect sense to make Jacksonville the home for our business.”

Co-founder Linda Goodman reported, “BGEI gained significant national recognition recently when Nurses.com featured our business in an article citing the potential impact our training tools will have on clinical simulation education.”  For further information see their Website.

About One Spark: One Spark is a non-profit committed to fostering environments of creativity and innovation through crowdfunding.  The company does this by connecting artists, entrepreneurs and innovators from around the world with the human and capital resources they need to move their ideas forward.  The One Spark festival is one of the most efficient ways for individuals, teams and large companies to receive market validation.  The event is the world's largest crowdfunding festival that brings together hundreds of thousands of people to support ideas and projects that inspire them via rewards-based crowdfunding. One Spark Jacksonville 2016 took place April 7 - 9, 2016 in Downtown JAX, FL.  The event was not covered by this columnist, because One Spark seemed to be going through a change in leadership.