Institutional Archives are documentary evidence of internal documents of the Cummer family, museum and garden’s history, governance, executive administration, collections and curatorial activities. All institutional records are kept permanently.

A multidisciplinary interactive center that combines art, music, literature, history, dance and poetry through a series of low-tech and high-tech learning stations, ranging from a collage table to a state-of-the-art virtual canvas.

Tours allow for first-hand examination of original works of art and are based on an integrated curriculum that supports state standards in the visual arts, math, science and language arts for students in Pre-K through 12th grades.

Comprehensive art education programs for ten inner city schools. The program includes: visits to the museum, outreach in the classrooms, teacher trainings/professional development, Arts and Literacy Festival at each school, FREE Cummer memberships for students and their families, FREE admission to art classes and Camp Cummer.

Provides hands-on art experiences and the chance to view original works of art to over 2,200 children with disabilities. Students in the Exceptional Student Education (ESE) program rotate through art stops in the museum’s galleries and gardens to create art projects, view the collection and listen to live musicians and storytellers.

Provides especially designed art education and art making experiences for individuals who are blind or experience low vision. - Women of Vision: This program is a unique initiative that brings the visual and literary arts to adult women who are blind and/or experience low-vision. - Museum tours for students who are blind and/or experience low-vision. Tours include time in the galleries and gardens, as well as art-making and experiences in Art Connections. - Touch Tours for The Blind: Visually impaired visitors can experience the Museum’s collection through a variety of hands-on experiences. - Art Beyond Sight Open House: In October, events are held at The Cummer and simultaneously throughout the world, to highlight museum programs for people who are blind.

Workshops provide instruction in the ways which art can be integrated into various subject areas, especially literacy initiatives.

Visitors are admitted FREE to the Museum on four evenings per year. Families are invited to participate in a variety of hands-on art activities, listen to live music, and tour the galleries and gardens.

Visitors are admitted FREE to the Museum every Tuesday evening from 4 to 9 p.m.

Artwork from students in a variety of programs are exhibited in Art Connections throughout the year.

Provide middle and high school-aged students with learning experiences in the visual arts beyond the offerings of a traditional classroom.

Partnership with students and teachers at Douglas Anderson School of the Arts.

A collaboration with St. Vincent’s HealthCare, allows The Cummer to provide an arts program for children whose parents are coping with cancer.

Program of tours for ESE students in Duval County Public Schools self-contained classes, teacher training for ESE teachers and therapists and classroom outreach. In addition, this initiative will bring back Arts for All, an art-making concept that allows children and adults with profound physical disabilities to participate in the joy of painting and drawing using specially adapted equipment and materials.

Provide classes, tours, workshops, camps and access to VSA Arts Festival for children on the autism spectrum and their families.

Programs for adults in the areas of art and garden appreciation and art production, through lectures, art-making workshops, concerts, multi-week courses in a variety of art media, volunteer training and accessible classes and tours for adults with disabilities.

Provide exhibition interpretation during Member Openings and other events through multi-arts programming that infuses music, dance, poetry and social commentary in the galleries and gardens.

Especially for Seniors Seated Gallery Talks

Private Non-Profit

Two Cummer Garden publications released in 2009. The Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens presents the inaugural garden publication, A Legacy in Bloom: Celebrating a Century of Gardens at The Cummer by garden historian and writer Judith B. Tankard. In words and pictures, this book tells the story of the gardens at The Cummer from their inception in 1903 by Ossian Cole Simonds, a prominent Midwestern landscape architect to Belgian landscape artist, Francois Goffinet’s far-reaching visions 100 years later. Throughout the story runs the determined Ninah Cummer, founder of the museum, without whose foresight in hiring an incomparable team of experts and her own passion for horticultural knowledge, the gardens would never have existed. In the book, A Tale of Two Gardens, Sally Barnett tells the story of two gardens, one in Italy and one in Jacksonville, Florida at the Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens. Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Cummer visited Italy and the Villa Gamberaia in 1930. Upon her return, Mrs. Cummer worked with noted landscape architect Ellen Biddle Shipman to create her Italian garden, which one can still visit today. Pictures of both gardens are included in this lovely 37-page publication.

The Cummer is a national leader in accessibility and has been recognized by the National VSA Arts office, the Cultural Council of Greater Jacksonville, Art Education for the Blind, The Brooks Health Foundation, the City Office of Disabled Services and most recently the State of Florida Division of Cultural Affairs, for creating programs that make adaptations and accommodations for people with disabilities. As the home of the local VSA Arts affiliate, The Cummer has fifteen years of experience in designing programs for people of all abilities, many of which are mentioned in other areas of this application. The Cummer has been invited to speak on a number of occasions as a model of accessibility around the country, including major markets such as New York City and Miami. All new construction in the facility is ADA compliant, including Art Connections, the inter-active area, most areas of the original structure and the 1992 additions are compliant. Based on an ADA self-assessment guide for museums, designed by the NEA and Smithsonian Institution, many areas exceed compliance guidelines with other area requiring upgrades. The museum has a designated ADA Coordinator who supervises the adherence to the ADA and manages the board approved plan for upgrading all areas of the museum. To date, upgrades as recommended by the self-assessment have been completed for 1) parking areas, with consultation with the City office of Disabled Services; 2) automatic assists on entry doors to the museum (front and Art Connections entry) and the new Mason Gallery; 3) fire evacuation chairs for the 2nd floor. Additional upgrades will continue. All projects in the Master Plan--building and gardens--are closely scrutinized with most decisions leading to solutions that exceed the basic requirements as articulated in the ADA code.