Open Day at the Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens

As the Northeast eagerly waits for spring, Open Days will soon head south to Jacksonville, FL, for the launch of our 2015 season.

This year, on Saturday, March 28, our first garden visit of the year will be held at the Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens, situated on the coastline of St. Johns River. The site’s 2.5 acres of historic, riverfront gardens are magnificent examples of early 20th-century garden design. The 19th century Tudor-style residence and surrounding campus also showcases one of the finest art collections in the Southeast – more than 5,000 objects in its permanent collection spanning from 2100 B.C. through the 21st century.

The Cummer Gardens, acknowledge by the National Register of Historic Places, have a fascinating history 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 Museum holds seven special collections within its permanent collection, of which several sculptures are integrated into the landscape outside. Special exhibitions that run concurrent with our Open Days event include: sculptures by American artist Chaim Gross; a private collection of British watercolors from the late 17th century; and more than 25 works by some of the most important abstract painters in the 20th century, including Helen Frankenthaler, Franz Kline, Willem de Kooning, Joan Mitchell, Robert Motherwell, Robert Rauschenberg, Gerhard Richter, Mark Rothko, and more.

A sculpture of Diana, the huntress, at the Cummer Museum. Photo by Jensen Hande.