Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens unveils permanent galleries

The Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens today announced the completion of several updates to its permanent galleries. The Museum’s curatorial team initiated these updates while the galleries were closed to the public from March 14 through July 21. The temporary closure provided a unique opportunity to refresh these spaces to showcase the diversity of artists, perspectives and styles within the Museum’s permanent collection.

“While the Museum places attention and emphasis on our special, traveling exhibitions each year, we also work hard to keep our many other galleries lively and relevant through loaned works of art, new acquisitions and gallery reinstallations,” said Holly Keris, the J. Wayne and Delores Barr Weaver Chief Curator of the Museum.

Recent acquisitions and gallery updates include:

The Joan Wellhouse and Martin Stein, Sr. Gallery: Inspired by historical documents and field research, “ISW: Isis Control, attack, support zones as of Oct 2018; HIU, UNHCR: Regional Displacement – numbers & locations of Syrian refugees and IDPs as of Sept-Oct 2018,” by Tiffany Chung, is an intricate, unconventional cartographic rendering of Syria and surrounding countries, showing the effects of military conflict and the resulting displacement of people. This gallery also features three untitled drawings by James Castle, a self-taught American artist who was born deaf and learned to communicate at a young age by creating art.

The Betsy and William D. Lovett Gallery: The Museum acquired a new work that complements the historically significant Wark Collection of Early Meissen Porcelain: “Large Monolith” by Broached Commissions, a narrative and research-driven furniture and object design studio based in Australia, which harvests antiques for their useful parts and repurposes them into a range of furniture typologies. The monolith, which was created for Broached Recall, is indicative of the entwined notions of aesthetics, ecology, environmentalism and conservation – both of historic objects and of natural resources.

The Helen Murchison and Edward W. Lane, Jr. Gallery: Three of the Museum’s most popular sculptures have returned from national exhibitions, including “Gamin” and “The Diving Boy” by Augusta Savage, a gifted sculptor who was born in Green Cove Springs and later became a significant teacher, leader and catalyst for change. These sculptures were part of the Museum’s 2018-2019 exhibition, Augusta Savage: Renaissance Woman, which was presented in partnership with guest curator Jeffreen M. Hayes, Ph.D. Additionally, “Portrait of a Woman,” a sculpture by William Artis, has returned.

Members and guests are required to reserve a timed ticket in advance of their visit at cummermuseum.org/admission. Tickets are available in two-hour time increments, with dates and times for the coming week updated every Monday.

The Museum has implemented many safety and sanitation measures, including hand sanitizer stations throughout the campus, plexiglass guards for the front desk area and expanded daily cleaning and sanitation policies for all common areas and surfaces according to the Centers for Disease Control and Occupational Safety and Health Administration guidelines. All galleries now feature routes to direct the flow of movement and support social distancing. Museum staff, members and guests are required to wear masks.

For more information about the Museum’s permanent collection, internally curated gallery spaces and special exhibitions, visit cummermuseum.org/visit/art. The Museum’s digital gallery experiences, virtual tours and online resources remain available to the community at cummermuseum.org/engage.