Last updated: 9/27/2023
Jacksonville, Florida
Address
829 Riverside AvenueJacksonville, FL 32204
phone: 904-356-6857
fax: 904-353-4101
e-mail: alevine@cummermuseum.org
web: www.cummermuseum.org

Hours

Monday
closed
Tuesday, Friday
11 AM - 9 PM
Wednesday - Thursday, Saturday
11 AM - 4 PM
Sunday
12 PM - 4 PM

Admissions

Adults $10
Seniors & Military $6
Students $6
Members & Children under 5 Free

Staff

Dr. Andrea Barnwell Brownlee
phone:
Holly Keris
phone: 904-899-6018
Lisa Kaspar
phone: 904-899-6029
Dulcie Hause
phone:
Susan Tudor
phone:
Kim Kuta Dring
phone:
Deborah Pierson
phone:
Rachel Bradshaw
phone:
Kimberly Noble
phone:
Description

The Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens is located on the St. Johns River and is noted for its collection of more than 5,000 masterworks of American and European paintings, beautiful historic gardens, outstanding collection of Meissen porcelain and Art Connections, the museum's national award-winning art education center.

Mission

To engage and inspire through the arts, gardens and education.

History

The Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens, located on the banks of the St. Johns River in Jacksonville, Florida, was founded in 1958 and formally opened to the public in 1961. Its creation was due to the bequest of Mrs. Ninah M. H. Cummer, a prominent resident and patron of the arts. The Museum houses the broadest collection of art in Northeast Florida, encompassing a chronological span from approximately 2000 B.C. through the Twentieth Century, with representations from every significant historical and aesthetic period. Built of the site of the original Cummer home, the Museum maintains Mrs. Cummer's formal English and Italian gardens created by her in 1910 and 1931. Visitors experience a representative survey of the history of art: Egyptian, Greek, Roman, and Etruscan antiquities; art of the Middle Ages; early Renaissance through Mannerish; the Baroque period; Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries; and American Impressionism and Twentieth Century.

Research Collections

Institutional Archives are documentary evidence of internal documents of the Cummer family, museum and garden’s history, governance, executive administration, collections and curatorial activities. All institutional records are kept permanently.

Educational Programs
Art Connections

A multidisciplinary interactive center that combines art, music, literature, history, dance and poetry through a series of low-tech and high-tech learning stations, ranging from a collage table to a state-of-the-art virtual canvas.

School Tours

Tours allow for first-hand examination of original works of art and are based on an integrated curriculum that supports state standards in the visual arts, math, science and language arts for students in Pre-K through 12th grades.

Weaver Academy of Art and Cummer in the Classroom

Comprehensive art education programs for ten inner city schools. The program includes: visits to the museum, outreach in the classrooms, teacher trainings/professional development, Arts and Literacy Festival at each school, FREE Cummer memberships for students and their families, FREE admission to art classes and Camp Cummer.

VSA Arts Festival

Provides hands-on art experiences and the chance to view original works of art to over 2,200 children with disabilities. Students in the Exceptional Student Education (ESE) program rotate through art stops in the museum’s galleries and gardens to create art projects, view the collection and listen to live musicians and storytellers.

Art Beyond Sight

Provides especially designed art education and art making experiences for individuals who are blind or experience low vision. - Women of Vision: This program is a unique initiative that brings the visual and literary arts to adult women who are blind and/or experience low-vision. - Museum tours for students who are blind and/or experience low-vision. Tours include time in the galleries and gardens, as well as art-making and experiences in Art Connections. - Touch Tours for The Blind: Visually impaired visitors can experience the Museum’s collection through a variety of hands-on experiences. - Art Beyond Sight Open House: In October, events are held at The Cummer and simultaneously throughout the world, to highlight museum programs for people who are blind.

Teacher Trainings/Professional Development Workshops

Workshops provide instruction in the ways which art can be integrated into various subject areas, especially literacy initiatives.

Family Night

Visitors are admitted FREE to the Museum on four evenings per year. Families are invited to participate in a variety of hands-on art activities, listen to live music, and tour the galleries and gardens.

Free Tuesdays

Visitors are admitted FREE to the Museum every Tuesday evening from 4 to 9 p.m.

Student exhibitions

Artwork from students in a variety of programs are exhibited in Art Connections throughout the year.

Art Classes/Camp Cummer/Slumber at The Cummer

Junior Docents

Provide middle and high school-aged students with learning experiences in the visual arts beyond the offerings of a traditional classroom.

New View

Partnership with students and teachers at Douglas Anderson School of the Arts.

A collaboration with the Jewish Community Alliance, allows The Cummer to provide art education to Pre-K students.

A collaboration with St. Vincent’s HealthCare, allows The Cummer to provide an arts program for children whose parents are coping with cancer.

Program of tours for ESE students in Duval County Public Schools self-contained classes, teacher training for ESE teachers and therapists and classroom outreach. In addition, this initiative will bring back Arts for All, an art-making concept that allows children and adults with profound physical disabilities to participate in the joy of painting and drawing using specially adapted equipment and materials.

Provide classes, tours, workshops, camps and access to VSA Arts Festival for children on the autism spectrum and their families.

Programs for adults in the areas of art and garden appreciation and art production, through lectures, art-making workshops, concerts, multi-week courses in a variety of art media, volunteer training and accessible classes and tours for adults with disabilities.

Provide exhibition interpretation during Member Openings and other events through multi-arts programming that infuses music, dance, poetry and social commentary in the galleries and gardens.

Especially for Seniors Seated Gallery Talks

Facilities
Auditoriums
Governance

Private Non-Profit

Library
Access: Staff Only
Appointment required: No
Publications

Two Cummer Garden publications released in 2009. The Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens presents the inaugural garden publication, A Legacy in Bloom: Celebrating a Century of Gardens at The Cummer by garden historian and writer Judith B. Tankard. In words and pictures, this book tells the story of the gardens at The Cummer from their inception in 1903 by Ossian Cole Simonds, a prominent Midwestern landscape architect to Belgian landscape artist, Francois Goffinet’s far-reaching visions 100 years later. Throughout the story runs the determined Ninah Cummer, founder of the museum, without whose foresight in hiring an incomparable team of experts and her own passion for horticultural knowledge, the gardens would never have existed. In the book, A Tale of Two Gardens, Sally Barnett tells the story of two gardens, one in Italy and one in Jacksonville, Florida at the Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens. Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Cummer visited Italy and the Villa Gamberaia in 1930. Upon her return, Mrs. Cummer worked with noted landscape architect Ellen Biddle Shipman to create her Italian garden, which one can still visit today. Pictures of both gardens are included in this lovely 37-page publication.

Services
Gift Shop
Special Event Rental
Restaurant
Group Tours
ADA

The Cummer is a national leader in accessibility and has been recognized by the National VSA Arts office, the Cultural Council of Greater Jacksonville, Art Education for the Blind, The Brooks Health Foundation, the City Office of Disabled Services and most recently the State of Florida Division of Cultural Affairs, for creating programs that make adaptations and accommodations for people with disabilities. As the home of the local VSA Arts affiliate, The Cummer has fifteen years of experience in designing programs for people of all abilities, many of which are mentioned in other areas of this application. The Cummer has been invited to speak on a number of occasions as a model of accessibility around the country, including major markets such as New York City and Miami. All new construction in the facility is ADA compliant, including Art Connections, the inter-active area, most areas of the original structure and the 1992 additions are compliant. Based on an ADA self-assessment guide for museums, designed by the NEA and Smithsonian Institution, many areas exceed compliance guidelines with other area requiring upgrades. The museum has a designated ADA Coordinator who supervises the adherence to the ADA and manages the board approved plan for upgrading all areas of the museum. To date, upgrades as recommended by the self-assessment have been completed for 1) parking areas, with consultation with the City office of Disabled Services; 2) automatic assists on entry doors to the museum (front and Art Connections entry) and the new Mason Gallery; 3) fire evacuation chairs for the 2nd floor. Additional upgrades will continue. All projects in the Master Plan--building and gardens--are closely scrutinized with most decisions leading to solutions that exceed the basic requirements as articulated in the ADA code.

Wheelchair Accessible
Parking
Restrooms
Exhibitions
Museum Events
DISCLAIMER
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MUSEUM CONFERENCES

Museum Trustee Association Spring Forum 2024

April 10 - 14, 2024

Atlanta, Georgia

Texas Association of Museums 2024 Lubock Annual Conference

April 14 - 17, 2024

Lubbock, Texas

2024 Colorado-Wyoming ANNUAL MEETING

May 1 - 4, 2024

Worland, Wyoming

West Virginia Association of Museums 2024 Conference

June 6 - 8, 2024

Shepherdstown, West Virginia

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