Museum Brings UNF Back Downtown

[Metro Jacksonville]

Museum Brings UNF Back Downtown



Big Changes are taking place at the Jacksonville Museum Of Contemporary Art. It will be partnering with University of North Florida, bringing students and art classes into the urban core.  It will also finally transform into a legitimate museum.

Full Article
http://www.metrojacksonville.com/content/view/1073

[Charles Hunter]

Back in the day, when working in an office downtown, I took a couple classes in the UNF Downtown Campus, in that very building.  The headline of the excellent article hints at that, but the last paragraph says the building was only "considered" for a DT campus.

[Deuce]

This could be incredible synergistic (yeah that's right I used this word) for both parties. Hopefully those students coming downtown will translate into more money spent in the core and more vibrancy around Hemming park.

the University has the right to sell off the art collection to pay back its loan

This scares me a bit though.

[Bike Jax]

One thing the Museum could do to help it's cause is lower it's ridiculously high fees for membership. I can join any number of other museums for less than half of what they want and get a reciprocal membership to JMOCA.

If they want more people through the turnstiles then must make it affordable to a city that doesn't put much thought into art and culture in the first place. They must end their elitist attitude and get the general public to  feel like a welcome part of museum.

That being said, I think they have some amazing people working for them now and I have seen a complete shift and feel within the entire staff for the better since the replacement of the former director. (golf clap)

I'm looking forward to seeing what this new partnership brings.

[Joe]

the University has the right to sell off the art collection to pay back its loan

This scares me a bit though.

Don't worry too much. Most of the collection isn't very good!! That's the biggest problem in the first place!

Hopefully this partnership will allow them to build a more important collection eventually, which would probably help fix the rest of their problems. Right now, although the facility is marvelous, the collection isn't really worth the price of admission.

[TPC]

I'm glad to hear this will bring some students downtown a few days a week. When I attended UNF I was shocked at the amount of students who had never been downtown. The school has really isolated itself from the rest of the city. Hopefully this will be the beginning of UNF having a bigger presence downtown. Just imagine if UNF took a few notes from SCAD and embraced downtown.

[stjr]

I remember taking drawing classes with John Bunker in the early 70's when this was the Jacksonville Art Museum on Art Museum Drive by the Koger Center/Midtown Office Park.

Also, took a business class at UNF Downtown in the early 80's in this building.  That was a good program for the corporate community needing advanced or continuing education classes, especially lawyers and CPAs.  After work, could just walk from the office to class.  Maybe eat a dinner downtown in between or afterwards.  They should take another look at reactivating this now that they have this building under their control again.  Might even introduce some new patrons to the museum.

[brainstormer]

UNF is in such a bubble that it doesn't really feel a part of this community.  Every other college town I've lived in, the university was downtown and more a part of the community.  I've lived here 2 years and I've never even been to the UNF campus let alone an event there.  Getting there is so inconvenient.  I used to attend art shows, music concerts and athletic events when I lived in other cities, even though I wasn't an alum of the university.  I think this new partnership has great potential.  Art students at UNF should be very excited about the new exposure.  I would probably never attend an art show at UNF, but walking to one downtown...definitely.

[thelakelander]

There is an old photo of the Western Union (JMOCA) Building, with UNF's logo on it, somewhere on this site. 

[CMG22]

Maybe I've missed it somewhere else, but from where is this $500,000 coming?  Surely not the state's decimated higher education budget... 

[mtraininjax]

Maybe I've missed it somewhere else, but from where is this $500,000 coming?  Surely not the state's decimated higher education budget... 

From UNF funds. Delaney is great at begging the state legislature to keep funds in place for education, when he is out spending it on questionable investments. 500,000 would do more for facilities on-campus than having one so far from its main HQ. I can understand a fashion college building at Town Center, near fashion, but one so far from ALL of its campus?