George is leaving his longtime position with the Museum of Contemporary Art in Downtown Jacksonville.
He has accepted a position at the University of Maine Museum of Art in Bangor, Maine.
George should be celebrated, feted and thanked for his contributions to the arts here.
He was one of the few true believers that stuck through the closing of the former Museum of Art after its disastrous board split following the dismissal of Bruce Dempsey, (long time fundraiser and presently with the Johnson Gallery at the Beaches) and the loss of its space on Art Museum Drive.
He and Jane Cravens kept the organization alive until opportunity knocked during the Delaney Administration and the long time dream of opening a downtown headquarters became a reality at the Hemming Park location which presently houses the Collection.
It was George, who after a fitful start trying to create a Museum of Modern Art, took an active role and changed the mission of the Museum to Contemporary Art, thereby rescuing the institution from obscurity in an art Genre whose expense virtually guaranteed that it would never be able to build a substantial collection.
Instead, he chose Contemporary Art as the focus of the Museum, a living developing art form. With the new designation, Jacksonville actually has a chance at being able to contribute something meaningful as well as helping to develop the many contemporary local artists.
He has never been properly recognized for his vision or his contribution, in part because of his quiet and unassuming nature.
Jacksonville will truly miss him.
His last day at the Museum is the 30th of this Month.
George Kinghorn Stepping Down?
http://www.metrojacksonville.com/content/view/408/
George is an artist too right?
I've seen some of his work...Good stuff. I'm sorry I don't have one of his in my collection.
I'll be sorry to see him go. He and I graduated high school together. I know he has put his heart and soul into the art museum. I wish him well on his next project.
We weren't ready for him here yet. he was attacked by provincialism on all sides- by the local "artists" and by the average man on the street.
Being selective = elitism = exclusionary - - -> see ya,
everyone here is a genius and everyone here knows art when they see it. Don't go jamming your liberal ideas about enlightenment and culture down our throats. We either want pretty palm trees or things we see in juxtapoz. Don't try to educate us. That isn't what art is for.
Art is for decorating our rooms or for showing off how edgy and lowbrow cool we are. ;)