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ABOUT THE CUMMER MUSEUM OF ART & GARDENS

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

Vision
The Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens is a vital community partner that reaches out to diverse audiences through outstanding artistic offerings, dynamic learning experiences, and opportunities to participate in the beauty of the natural world. The Museum is an environment in which joy and discovery infuse all that we do. Arts, gardens, and education converge to create meaningful personal experiences and open a world of new possibilities. We honor our rich history, embrace the energy of our time, and commit to a vibrant future through the advancement of resources to grow and deepen our mission.

About the Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens
The Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens is the largest fine arts museum in Northeast Florida, and a pillar of arts, culture, and community engagement for the greater Jacksonville community.

The Museum was established in 1958, when art collector, garden enthusiast, and civic leader Ninah M.H. Cummer bequeathed the art collection and riverfront home she shared with her husband Arthur, to create the Museum. Its art collection is one of the finest in the Southeast, and its 2.5 acres of historic gardens, set against the backdrop of the St. Johns River, are a cultural and artistic focal point. In addition, the Museum is nationally recognized for its interactive educational programs. Located in the historic Riverside section of Jacksonville adjacent to downtown, the Cummer Museum is the perfect blend of art, gardens, and education that inspires imagination and excitement for all ages.

As a beacon of arts and culture in the Jacksonville region, the Cummer Museum is broadly embraced by the community and supported by its most prominent philanthropists. It has a membership base in excess of 2,300, and in 2016, more than 7,700 volunteers devoted nearly 31,000 hours of time and talents to the Cummer as it welcomed more than 165,000 visitors.
The Museum employs 40 professionals and has an annual operating budget of $4 million that covers the Museum’s operations. The budget is funded through contributions, grants, events, earned income, and a distribution from the institution’s $30 million endowment.

Art
Throughout the institution’s history, the Permanent Collection has served as the cornerstone in the Cummer Museum’s desire to serve as “a center of beauty and culture” for the benefit of “all of the people,” in accordance with the wishes of its founder.

The Museum’s art collection has grown from the original group of more than 60 works bequeathed by Mrs. Cummer to nearly 5,000 works acquired by gift, purchase, and bequest. The Permanent Collection offers world-class art spanning from 2100 B.C. through the 21st century and includes masterpieces created by Peter Paul Rubens, Winslow Homer, Thomas Moran, Norman Rockwell, and Romare Bearden. It is also home to the Wark Collection of Early Meissen Porcelain, as well as six other special collections that add great depth to specific aspects of the Permanent Collection.

The Cummer Museum believes strongly in the connection between art and the natural environment. As a result, several sculptures that are part of the Permanent Collection have been integrated into the landscape throughout the campus. These include Janet Scudder’s playful Running Boy, on view in the courtyard, and Riis Burwell’s Entropy Series #26, nestled above the Italian Garden. A sculpture of Mercury by an unknown artist takes center stage in the Olmsted Garden. Diana of the Hunt, by American artist Anna Hyatt Huntington, is located in the Upper Tier and was a gift to the Cummer Museum by the artist.

In addition to its Permanent Collection, the Cummer Museum hosts diverse special exhibitions that exemplify its focus on high-quality offerings that have the power to engage audiences and provide a platform for building community through the arts.

Gardens
The Cummer Museum boasts some of the most important and delightful gardens in Northeast Florida. The Gardens, once part of the private residences of the three Cummer families, have a fascinating history stretching back more than 100 years and bear the imprint of some of the foremost names in landscape design and horticulture, including Ossian Cole Simonds, Ellen Biddle Shipman, Thomas Meehan and Sons, and the fabled Olmsted firm. The involvement of these prestigious firms gives national importance to the Cummer Gardens, which are listed in the National Register of Historic Places. In addition to the lush plantings, features such as reflecting pools, fountains, arbors, antique ornaments, and sculptures help create a special outdoor space that provides a perfect complement to the Museum's Permanent Collection.

English Garden
Upon the completion of their Tudor-style home in 1903, Arthur and Ninah Cummer engaged Michigan based landscape architect Ossian Cole Simonds to create the first plan for their estate. Simonds’ initial scheme, with naturalistic sweeps of native trees and shrubs, enhanced the stands of majestic live oaks along the riverfront property. These plantings provided the backbone for later development. In 1910, the Cummers turned to Philadelphia nurserymen Thomas Meehan and Sons, who created the basic design configuration that exists today. The garden is rectangular in shape, with beautifully-laid brick paths alternating with grass walks and a striking semicircular cypress-beamed pergola overlooking the St. Johns River.

Italian Garden
The jewel in the crown of the Cummer Gardens is the Italian Garden, one of only a handful of extant gardens designed by Ellen Biddle Shipman. Designed in 1931, this garden was conceived as the ultimate display garden for Ninah’s large collection of Italian marble garden ornaments and hundreds of azaleas. Two long reflecting pools frame the view to the green, ficus-covered gloriette that resembles the famous water gardens at the Villa Gamberaia in Tuscany.

Olmsted Garden
In the early 1930s, Arthur and Ninah Cummer’s brother and sister-in-law, Waldo and Clara Cummer, inherited an adjacent family property and engaged William Lyman Phillips, a partner in the Olmsted Brothers firm, to incorporate this new property into their existing gardens. These gardens were partially obliterated in the early 1960s following an acquisition by a local bank. The property was purchased by the Cummer Museum in 1992, and was fully restored based on archival material from the Olmsted Brothers firm as well as historic Cummer family photographs. Today, this structure houses the education and art
connections and administrative offices for the Museum, and was completed in 2013.

J. Wayne and Delores Barr Weaver Community Sculpture Garden
In 2013, the Cummer Museum completed a major campus-wide landscape and beautification project that culminated in the creation of the J. Wayne and Delores Barr Weaver Community Sculpture Garden, located in the front lawn of the Art Connections building. The Sculpture Garden features four permanent installations from the Cummer Museum’s Permanent Collection: William Zorach’s Spirit of the Dance; Sir Jacob Epstein’s Seventh Portrait of Kathleen; Archie Held’s Lovers; and Takashi Soga’s Sea of the Ear Rings. In addition to these, the Sculpture Garden hosts one temporary exhibition annually.

Education
The Cummer Museum offers a robust array of educational programs designed to engage, inspire and provide access for individuals of all ages and backgrounds. These programs help define the Museum’s essential partnership with the community.

Art Connections, the Museum’s nationally recognized interactive education center, sets the stage for learning that takes place throughout the rest of the Museum, providing the opportunity to explore art in a different way and gain a better understanding of works in the Collection.

Classes, workshops and camps provide adults and children with skills, techniques and perspective to enjoy a lifetime of artistic expression. Educational school tours use an integrated curriculum that supports state and national standards in the visual arts, math, science, language arts, and social studies.

Cummer in the Classroom and the Weaver Academy of Art are two comprehensive art education programs at the Cummer Museum that serve more than 3,000 children (pre-kindergarten through fifth grades) and nearly 200 teachers in nine Title 1 schools. This initiative, the largest educational program in the history of the Cummer Museum, provides outreach into the classroom, Museum tours, teacher trainings, free art classes, classroom resources, free family passes to the Museum, and a scholarship program for Camp Cummer.

The Cummer Museum is home to the Jacksonville affiliate of VSA, an international organization that provides opportunities in the arts for individuals with disabilities. The annual VSA Festival invites Jacksonville-area students with disabilities to visit the Cummer Museum for a chance to experience art through all of their senses. Over the course of four days, nearly 1,800 children, 700 teachers and chaperones, and 1,300 volunteers fill the Museum to engage in art viewing, movement, and art-making activities throughout the entire campus.

Other education and outreach programs include an initiative to bring the visual and literary arts to adult women who are blind and/or low-vision; an early childhood education program that integrates science, technology, engineering, art and math; and an NEA-funded program that provides adaptive art-making equipment to individuals with different levels of abilities.

About Jacksonville
Jacksonville, Florida has been named one of the 50 best places to live in America by Business Insider. With abundant waterways, parks and ecological preserves, Jacksonville’s natural beauty is complemented by a thriving, modern and vibrant city with cosmopolitan dining options, attractions, museums and cultural institutions, a burgeoning downtown district and a unique history.

Jacksonville has a thriving business, higher education, military and healthcare infrastructure. The city is home to CSX’s corporate headquarters, Fidelity National Financial, the PGA Tour’s corporate headquarters and the Jacksonville Jaguars. The University of North Florida and Jacksonville University are two leading higher education institutions, alongside the region’s major hospitals, including the Mayo Clinic and Baptist Health. Nearby Naval Air Station Jacksonville, Naval Station Mayport, and Naval Submarine Base Kings Bay distinguish Jacksonville as the 3rd largest naval presence in the country.

The largest city by square mileage in the continental U.S., Jacksonville was recently selected by TripAdvisor users as a top 10 emerging destination, and has been featured by Forbes and Travelocity. The Jacksonville region includes countless artist communities, historic towns and beaches along the Atlantic coastline, and a sophisticated and burgeoning cultural landscape in the city’s downtown. Within striking distance of Jacksonville’s center are the historic community of St. Augustine, the oldest occupied European settlement in the continental Unites States; Ponte Vedra, a seaside community and a major golfing locale; Amelia Island, an island beach community home to numerous cultural events; and Jacksonville Beach, a popular beach destination known for fishing and outdoor recreation.

Jacksonville has become one of the nation’s prominent cultural hubs, with a surprising and diverse culinary scene, and a vibrant panorama of visual arts, theater and music. The Jacksonville Jazz Festival is the second largest in the country, and the Jacksonville Symphony, one of Florida’s long-standing orchestras, offers live symphonic music for audiences throughout the region. In addition to the musical landscape, visual art is everywhere in Jacksonville, including the gardens and masterpieces at the Cummer Museum, the Museum of Contemporary Art’s world-class contemporary art collection, and a
flourishing local gallery scene. The local government invests heavily in arts and culture, granting more than $2.5 million annually and funding a noted Art in Public Places program.