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Mandarin Museum News
April 2025
Embrace the Mandarin Experience
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Dear Friends,
April is National Volunteer Appreciation Month, and it's one of our favorite months! Volunteers are the lifeblood, the backbone, the heart, and the soul of Mandarin Museum. They greet you with a warm welcome when you visit, they provide countless guided tours, and they ensure our archives are carefully maintained. They brave mosquitoes and the humidity to wrangle the weeds and invasive plants throughout the park. They help plan and execute some of our most longstanding and favorite events. They sit on our board of directors and our committees. They think continuously about our community's past and care deeply about our present and future. And it's our honor to celebrate them at our annual Volunteer Appreciation Luncheon later this month.
Beyond the museum's walls, our entire community is alive, made possible through volunteerism! April 19th and 20th, our friends at the Mandarin Community Club will host their annual Mandarin Art Festival. An exciting weekend every year since 1968, it is organized and presented by - you guessed it - a dedicated team of volunteers. On Saturday, April 26th, our friends at Rotary Club of Mandarin will host their annual Run For The Hungry 5k and 1-mile Fun Run to benefit our community's food banks. The race will begin and end at the campus of our friends at Mandarin Presbyterian Church. They operate the Daily Bread Food Pantry through the work of many volunteer hands. They also graciously provide overflow parking for visitors to Mandarin Museum and Walter Jones Historical Park.
In this spirit of community, Mandarin Museum staff and volunteers will host a food drive during the entire month of April to benefit the Daily Bread Food Pantry. During our operating hours (Wednesday - Saturday, 10:00 am to 4:00 pm) and special events, bring your non-perishable goods to our marked collection bins inside Mandarin Museum. We'll deliver all contributions at the end of the month. I wonder how many pounds of food we can accumulate for the good of neighbors in need? We'll weigh it all before delivery and let you know next month!
All details regarding our friends' events can be found at the links below. And read on for Mandarin Museum's own slate of exciting programming in the coming weeks.
As always, I'll see you at the Museum!
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----Brittany Cohill
----Executive Director
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Throughout the entire month of April, visit the Museum Shop to enter for your chance to win this one-of-a-kind Maple Leaf Diver Mandarin Frog created by Don "Frogman" Bowden!
It is free to enter! One entry per visitor.
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Evolution in Clay: A Vina Schemer Retrospective
On display through April 19, 2025
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First Saturday @ the Museum
Saturday, April 5
10:00 am to 2:00 pm
Join Mandarin Museum the first Saturday of every month from 10:00 am to 2:00 pm when all historic buildings throughout Walter Jones Historical Park will be open to the public.
The young and young at heart can pick up a free scavenger hunt at Museum Guest Services to complete as you visit the museum's exhibits and stroll along the park's paved pathways.
Learn more about the area's 19th-century past as museum volunteers greet you at the 1898 St. Joseph's Mission Schoolhouse for African American Children, the 1892 Losco Winery, the 1876 Barn, and the 1875 Webb-Jones Farmhouse.
In addition, local artisan Ray Melvin will be here with his beautifully hand-turned wooden bowls, boxes, and trinket dishes. All proceeds from their sale benefit Mandarin Museum's programming and operations.
The historic Mandarin Store & Post Office, located just down the road at 12471 Mandarin Rd., will also be open to visitors.
Admission is free.
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Mandarin Frog Painting
Saturday, April 5
10:00 am
Museum Front Lawn
Limited spots remain! Purchase, paint, and take home your very own Mandarin Frog (or sea turtle). The cost is $22 + tax per person and all supplies are provided. Advanced registration is required, payment is due upon arrival to the event. To sign-up, please email info@mandarinmuseum.org.
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Meet the Maple Leaf Divers
Saturday, April 5
10:00 am to 12:00 pm
Maple Leaf Shipwreck Gallery
Meet the men who dove the Maple Leaf Shipwreck! On April 1, 1864, the Union steamboat Maple Leaf was sunk by Confederates in the St. Johns River just off Mandarin Point. In the 1980s, Dr. Keith Holland and his team of divers located and excavated the site. Now designated a National Historic Landmark, the nearly 3,000 artifacts they recovered have been entrusted to the State of Florida for preservation. Mandarin Museum displays many of these artifacts through a longterm partnership with the State Archives of Florida.
Dr. Holland and the Maple Leaf Divers will be in the gallery from 10:00 am to noon on Saturday, April 5th to meet with visitors. This is an informal, coversational-style event. Drop in to hear their story of discovery, recovery, and preservation.
New artifacts will be added to the exhibit. Will you be able to spot what's different?
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Music Under the Oaks
Sunday, April 6
2:00 to 4:00 pm
Museum Front Lawn
Join Mandarin Museum and North Florida Folk Network for a lively acoustic music jam underneath Mandarin's historic oak canopy. Bring your instrument and a song to share as part of this community jam session. Listeners are most welcome to attend! Bring a chair or blanket, set up outside the song circle, and enjoy!
Mandarin Museum and the 1898 Schoolhouse will be open to visitors during the event. Admission is free.
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Third Thursday Lecture
Artist Vina Schemer
Thursday, April 17
6:00 to 8:00 pm
Mandarin Museum
Join Mandarin Museum and Artist Vina Schemer for a wonderful evening in her current exhibition, Evolution in Clay: A Vina Schemer Retrospective. With a career spanning more than 50 years, Evolution in Clay documents Vina’s evolving interests and techniques, from raku pottery to the perfecting of photo-transfer on clay. Her body of work reflects the Studio Craft Movement in the United States in the decades following World War II. The Movement’s hallmarks – creativity, artist self-expression, uniqueness, and hand-made techniques – were a response to post-war mass production.
During refreshment hour at 6:00 pm, Vina will be available in the gallery to speak with guests.
At 7:00 pm, Vina will deliver a presentation giving insight into her inspiration, techniques, and the stories behind some of her favorite pieces.
Admission is free. Donations at the event support Mandarin Museum’s programming.
| | Thank you to Endless Summer Roofing Co. for generously sponsoring our Spring 2025 Third Thursday Lecture Series! | | New in the Museum Shop! Longtime Mandarin Museum volunteer and founding member, Susan Ford, has restocked the shop with fan favorites -- her handmade Mandarin Orange Bracelets and Historic Mandarin Point Necklaces. One-hundred percent of proceeds benefit the museum's programming and operations. Buy for yourself or as a gift! | | |
Exhibit Opening Reception
Thursday, May 1
6:00 to 8:00 pm
Mandarin Museum
Join Mandarin Museum for a wonderful evening as we open artist Kathy Stark's exhibition, "SEE JACKSONVILLE," featuring a series of 1930s WPA National Park Service-inspired local park posters, designed and painted in the style of silk-screened NPS posters created by The Federal Arts Project poster division during FDR’s New Deal program.
During the reception, we will unveil Kathy Stark's newest original piece - a WPA NPS-inspired poster for Walter Jones Historical Park!
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Miss Aggie Day 2025
Saturday, May 3
11:00 am
Historic Mandarin Store & Post Office
Miss Aggie Day is celebrated annually each spring and an award is presented to a resident or residents who have contributed to the Mandarin community in the areas of business, civic, educational, and/or charitable accomplishments. This year's honorees will be announced in the coming days!
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Third Thursday Lecture
Thursday, May 15
6:30 to 8:00 pm
Mandarin Community Club
Recently retired Florida Times-Union Senior Staff Photographer Bob Self will recount his four decades of work documenting the stories, people, and events that have shaped Jacksonville's more recent past. Perhaps no Third Thursday Lecture has had or will have a PowerPoint presentation as stunning or poignant. You won't want to miss it!
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Be a supporter of arts & culture in our community through the purchase of an annual membership! Benefits at the individual, family, and patron levels include free guided walking tours of Walter Jones Historical Park, reciprocal benefits at other museums across the nation, discounts in our Museum Shop, and more!
Every contribution made through the purchase of an annual membership enables us to fulfill our mission!
| | Mandarin Museum members at the Family Level and above automatically enjoy the benefits of NARM (North American Reciprocal Museum Association)! By supporting your favorite museum, you receive reciprocal member benefits at almost 1,500 museums, botanical gardens, aquariums, and more across the United States, Canada, Mexico, Bermuda, and The Cayman Islands. Simply show your Mandarin Museum membership card at participating locations! | | |
Mandarin Newsline
Read 2025 issues of the Mandarin Newsline online now!
This free newspaper allows Mandarin Museum to share history, events, and programs with the public. The newspaper remains free to readers due to the robust local advertising. Please visit, shop, and eat at those businesses who support the community in this way.
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...get outside and enjoy Mandarin's natural resources!
In March, hundreds of school children visited Mandarin Museum as part of their schools' field trips. Hundreds more will visit in April. We love seeing the students enjoy their picnic lunches on the front lawn -- and they love our new picnic rugs! There is nothing better than the sights and sounds of a park full of young people conversing, laughing, and learning together.
| | More ways to stay up-to-date! | | | |
Thank you to all our community partners!
Mandarin Museum is supported, in part, through the Cultural Service Grant Program administered by the Cultural Council of Greater Jacksonville and funded by the City of Jacksonville.
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OUR MISSION: Mandarin Museum & Historical Society shares the stories of Mandarin's history, culture, and natural resources by providing engaging programs that educate, entertain, and inspire.
VISIT. JOIN. VOLUNTEER.
Mandarin Museum & Historical Society
904-268-0784
info@mandarinmuseum.org
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