Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens

Highlights & Collections:

Today, the Cummer is the largest museum in northeast Florida with a permanent collection of more than 4,000 objects.  The museum also features over two acres of English and Italian gardens.

The formal gardens are filled with beautiful sculptures and flowers and border the St. Johns River.  Visitors can walk under wisteria arbors or find an open bench to sit and enjoy the view of the magnificent Cummer live oak, which has a canopy of 175 feet.

The collection of fine art and antiques are featured in 10 different galleries throughout the museum.  The collection includes American and European paintings and sculpture from ancient, medieval, Renaissance, Baroque, Rococo, 19th-century Impressionist and Modern Art.

Pre-Colombian ceramics and Japanese inro, netsuke, and woodblock prints are also part of the permanent collection.  The most outstanding recent addition to the collection is Thomas Moran’s painting, Ponce de Le?n in Florida, recently purchased by the Cummer.

 Another notable addition to the collection is the Constance and Ralph Wark collection of Meissen porcelain.  It is one of the foremost collections of Meissen in the world, second only to a collection held in Germany.  At the Cummer, more than 700 pieces of the 18th-century porcelain are on display.

Art Connections is the museum’s award-winning educational center, where art, science, technology and imagination unite.  The facility is the prestigious winner of the Museum Services Award, making it the premiere facility of its kind in the United States.  More than 50,000 students visit the center annually, and practice interactive learning in areas such as mythology and literature in art, cultural techniques and relationships, and computer technology for painting.

Art Connections offers classes, programs and tours and exhibitions to art lovers of all ages and is home to the Very Special Arts Festival where more than 600 community volunteers assist the disabled community in experiencing and creating art.

In 1903, the Cummers began their garden in their backyard, along the St. Johns River in Jacksonville, Florida. At that time, it involved seasonal bulbs planted throughout the woodland setting of trees and ground cover.  Being from the northeast originally, Mrs. Cummer grew to be more and more interested and experimented with plants that she found could thrive in the Florida climate.  The devotion to her garden was so contagious that the project eventually became a vocation for her husband as well.  The couple’s favorite gifts to one another became garden sculptures, ornaments, or rare plant specimens. As the Gardens grew over time, Mrs. Cummer became an advocate and resource for her friends and community on Florida gardening.  In 1922, she founded and became the first Chairperson of the Garden Club of Florida.  Now known as the Garden Club of Jacksonville, the association is the largest in the country.

By the late 1950s, her plan to create an art museum with a public garden was organized and implemented.  While the home was torn down to construct the present Cummer Museum, the Gardens that were so lovingly planted remain as an enduring legacy of the horticultural vision and talents of Mrs. Arthur G. Cummer.

The Upper Garden. 

The Upper Garden maintains the original view out to the St. Johns River, which the Cummers enjoyed from their home. It is bordered by Agapanthus, (Lily of the Nile), which at the time was a rare plant from Egypt and was one of the first gifts Mr. Cummer gave his new bride.

The Tea Garden.  The site of many an afternoon tea party for Mrs. Cummer and her friends, the Tea Garden features an interesting collection of garden furniture.  This terrace area was where Mrs. Cummer shared her gardening expertise, and later evolved those gatherings into the first meeting of the Garden Club of Florida.  The garden is a wonderful shady spot to look out onto the lower garden and enjoy its blooms and fragrances.

The English Garden. 

Originally planted in 1910, the English Garden contains and outstanding display of Azaleas in early spring, followed by a spectrum of blooming annuals and perennials throughout the spring and summer months.  At one time, in her meticulous records, Mrs. Cummer noted having over 300 varieties of Azaleas in her gardens. Along the waterfront, magnificent Wisteria vines entwine on a curved arbor and create a cool place for peaceful contemplation in the breezes from the river.

The Putting Green.  The Putting was not only a gift for Mr. Cummer from his wife, but also was heralded as the first private green in Florida. The river view from this area of the gardens offers a spectacular glimpse of the Jacksonville skyline and the San Marco community riverfront across the way.

The Italian Garden. 

In 1930, Mrs. Cummer traveled through Italy for a number of months. She most favored visiting the traditional eighteenth-century elegant villas and formal gardens of Florence. A concept inspired by the Villa Gamberaia made her decide to develop in her own Italian Garden in Florida.  Still in its original design, commissioned by the well-known landscape architect, Ellen Biddle Shipman, the Italian Garden features a vine-covered “Gloriette” (archway), a garden shed, crisscrossed brick pathways, symmetrical reflecting pools and sculpted shrubbery. The Italian Garden is has been renovated to its exact original design and was completed in the summer of 2000.

The Great Cummer Oak Tree.   When the Cummers initiated developing their riverfront yard, it was originally a woodland setting filled with many Live Oak trees of various sizes.  As the Gardens slowly claimed space on the grounds, trees were removed to clear out areas for new plantings.  Over the years, one specimen grew to expand in width to over 100 feet in caliper, a height of an estimated 75 feet, and an incredible limb spread of over 185 feet. The trunk circumference is currently 221 inches. This awe-inspiring tree is estimated to be between 150-200 old. The Great Oak tree is protected by braces, cables, and a lighting rod system.  It is the central feature and most prized possession of the Gardens and grows every year to participate in the nearby landscapes.   The tree offers shade to the south reflecting pool of the Italian Garden, a cool splash of color onto the Putting Green Garden, and an umbrella of screening in the Upper Garden.  The tree also has its own endowment which is used for yearly maintenance. Cummer Curator of the Gardens, Benoit Lapalme said, “The Great Cummer Oak is my living library in the gardens, providing me with so much knowledge of the past. It is a joy to be in its presence from day to day.”

All of the gardens at the Cummer have been made fully accessible. For more information or to visit the museum, please call 356-6857.

Art Connections is the national award-winning educational center at the Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens where art, science, technology and the imagination unite.  The center, winner of the prestigious Museum Services Award, is a premiere art education facility of its kind in the United States.

More than 50,000 students participate in educational activities annually.  Learning is hands-on  and interactive as students discover the history and beauty of the Cummer’s permanent collection.

Within the facility, viewers learn about concepts from color to perspective and enjoy the use of  computers, an the inter-disciplinary Sculpture Timeline and an electronic Studio of the Future that features Lightstrokes II, one of four hands-on painting computers in the world.

Art Connections offers classes, programs, tours and exhibits to art lovers of all ages.  Volunteer opportunities are also available.

The Docents are members of a volunteer program available to teach both students and adults as they guide tours through the museum.  Training is provided for docents as part of the Art Connections curriculum.

Art Connections houses two galleries, which hold traveling exhibitions. 

In Art Connections regularly scheduled programs take place each month and include such events as scavenger hunts, films, and Art in the Afternoon and Art Adventures, where children, students and adults can work in the studio, creating their own art.

Numerous classes are held for students, children and adults who wish to participate in book-making, sculpting, painting and more.  See the calendar for more information and scheduling details.

Art Connections is the site of the Very Special Arts, a program dedicated to bringing the arts to persons with disabilities.  Each year more than 2000 students participate in the Very Special Arts Festival which is held to honor and celebrate those artists and guests from the disabled community.  Both amateur and professional artists display their works for the entire community to enjoy.  The annual celebration recognizes these works with awards offered in various mediums including pottery, drawing and photography and more.

Hours:

Admission & Directions:

Free to Members, Adults $6; Seniors and Military with ID $4; Students, $3; Children age 5 and under, $1.