Mandarin Museum News

September 2026

Embrace the Mandarin Experience

Dear Friends,

I had the distinct pleasure recently of being invited to talk about Mandarin Museum on the Schmooze with Suze podcast. I could talk about Mandarin Museum all day, so it was an easy invitation to accept.

As Suzie and I sat down in her recording studio at The Performance Academy, she posed the question: "So people often think museums are a place where history goes to rest. You've completely flipped that idea. What do you want people to feel when they walk through the doors of the Mandarin Museum?"

"Welcomed. I want them to feel welcomed. I want them to feel a sense of warmth, that they belong there, and we're happy that they've walked through our doors."

That is a sentiment shared by all of us at Mandarin Museum, from staff to volunteers. Perhaps the perfect illustration of this happened just this past week. One of our beloved docents, Dolly, knocked on my office door. To my surprise, she was carrying a chicken under her arm. To be honest, this was not entirely out of the ordinary, but I typically have advance notice when barnyard animals will be on site. It turns out this chicken (whom we named Clementine), wandered in with Nim, a technician with the City of Jacksonville's Mosquito Control, to cool off and get a drink of water. Nim began telling us about the City's use of sentinel chickens as part of their surveillance efforts to detect mosquito-borne viruses throughout the area. Clementine was receiving special treatment as she recovered from a hurt foot -- she'll be back at it soon. Right at that moment, a group from the North Florida School of Special Education dropped in. The timing couldn't have been more perfect. They, too, enjoyed learning all about Clementine and the City's sentinel chicken strategy. And one of the students, Koren, was very excited to introduce me to his classmates. Koren and I had met weeks earlier when he and his family attended our monthly Mandarin Frog Painting.

It was a magical morning, a morning in which we welcomed friendship, curiosity, laughter, learning, and connection through our doors.

Will you be the next friend we greet? Keep reading for so many valuable opportunities to engage with us in the coming months. I can't promise you there will be chickens, but I can promise you'll feel welcomed.

And as always, I'll see you at the Museum!

Warmest regards,

Brittany Cohill

Executive Director

𝐓𝐡𝐮𝐫𝐬𝐝𝐚𝐲, 𝐒𝐞𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐦𝐛𝐞𝐫 𝟏𝟕, 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟔 | 𝟔:𝟎𝟎 𝐏𝐌

𝐁𝐨𝐰𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐎𝐚𝐤𝐬 | 𝟕𝟕𝟒𝟑 𝐀𝐥𝐩𝐡𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐒𝐭.

Mandarin Museum & Historical Society is thrilled to host its 2026 annual fundraising dinner on Thursday, September 17th at the beautiful Bowing Oaks. With a theme of “Always the River,” the evening will be a true celebration of what has been foundational to our love for the community and its history – the St. Johns River!

Throughout the evening, guests will enjoy a fun-filled program of speakers and entertainment chronicling the river's central role in the history and culture of Mandarin, including a very special performance by Mandarin Museum house band, The Orange Pickers.

A delicious dinner & dessert menu has been prepared by Chef's Garden and our dear friend Chef Dennis Chan of Blue Bamboo.

And our silent auction features uniquely Mandarin experiences not found anywhere else.

We are thrilled to honor our 2026 Always the River Award (aka The Golden Manatee) recipient, Lisa "The Boatanista" Almeida, Co-owner of Freedom Boat Club Northeast Florida, for being a tireless champion of our beloved St. Johns River. She has made it her business to get as many people as she can out onto the water, cultivating a continued appreciation within the community for our most precious natural resource.



We expect a sold out evening!



Thank you to our Presenting Sponsor!

- Gold Sponsors -

- Silver Sponsors -

- Sponsors for Museum Volunteer Tickets -

Current Art Exhibition

According to Gamble: A Cartoonist's Take on American Public Life

On display through August 20, 2026 September 19th!

Ed Gamble (b. 1943) has called Mandarin home since 1980. That same year, he joined the Florida Times-Union as their first in-house editorial cartoonist, a position he held for three decades.

Known for his sharp takes, and often recognized as an independent thinker, Gamble’s visual rhetoric targeted everything from U.S. domestic and foreign policy to college sports, and everything in between. His tools were simple: ideas and a No. 2 pencil. One cartoon could take as little as 30 minutes. Those he colored with brush and ink might require no more than a few hours.

Gamble’s work has enjoyed national syndication and can be found in the permanent collections of five U.S. Presidential museums, the University of Tennessee, the University of North Florida, and Mandarin Museum. According to Gamble: A Cartoonist's Take on American Public Life invites visitors to consider how one artist’s voice helped shape public discourse surrounding the issues that defined his time.

Mandarin Frog Painting

Saturday, September 5

10:00 am

Museum Front Lawn

Limited walk-up spots may be available.

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. Payment is collected upon arrival, cash or card.

To register in advance for October 3rd, please email info@mandarinmuseum.org. Include the your name, phone number, number of people in your party, and the number of frogs and/or turtles you would like to reserve. Our Operations Manager, Ed Tudor, will also be happy to answer any questions you many have.

First Saturday @ the Museum

Saturday, September 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 are open to the public. Admission is free!

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.

The historic Mandarin Store & Post Office, located just down the road at 12471 Mandarin Rd., will also be open to visitors.

Meet the Maple Leaf Divers

Saturday, September 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, September 5th to meet with visitors. This is an informal, conversational-style event. Drop in to hear their story of discovery, recovery, and preservation.

The Art Yard at Mandarin Museum, Session 4

Sunday, September 13

1:30 to 3:30 pm

Museum Front Lawn

Registration is open for FREE children’s art classes at Mandarin Museum! Geared toward kids aged 8 to 15, sessions are held the second Sunday of each month and continue through April 2027. Register for some or all sessions. A few spots remain for each session.

The Art Yard at Mandarin Museum was developed and is led by Nora Morrow, rising senior at Douglas Anderson School of the Arts and lifelong Mandarin resident.

For more info, including how to register, click HERE!

Music Under the Oaks returns!

Sunday, October 4

2:00 to 4:00 pm

Mandarin Museum Front Lawn

Hosted in partnership with North Florida Folk Network, it's the perfect opportunity to enjoy a lazy afternoon under the shade of Mandarin’s historic oak canopy. If you play an acoustic instrument and enjoy singing or playing with others, you are invited to join the song circle. This is an open jam for participants at any experience level. Song circle set up begins around 1:30 pm. Chairs for musicians are available inside the Museum.

Listeners are welcomed and encouraged! Bring your chairs or blanket and set up just outside the song circle. You’re in for a real treat!

Mandarin Museum and the 1898 St. Joseph’s Schoolhouse for African American Children will be open to visitors during the event.

October's Music Under the Oaks will be hosted in loving memory of our friend, Cee Cee Severin.

Crown Craftsmen: A Philosophy

Exhibit Opening Reception

Thursday, October 8

6:00 to 8:00 pm

Mandarin Museum

Mandarin Museum, in partnership with the University of North Florida Department of Art, Art History, & Design, is thrilled to present Crown Craftsmen: A Philosophy. Made possible with funding through a High Impact Practice Grant, with additional support from the Hicks Honors College, the exhibition represents the culmination of ARH3930: Crafting America student research, analysis, and interpretation of Jacksonville-based art and artists who - as a collective - made a significant contribution to the American Studio Craft Movement during the mid-to-late 20th century.

The evening will also feature the release of the Crown Craftsmen: A Philosophy Exhibition Catalog with curatorial essays by Crafting America students.

Curators:

Dr. Elizabeth Heuer, Associate Professor of Art History, UNF

Nofa Dixon, Associate Professor Emerita of Art and Design, UNF

Vina Schemer, Regional Director, American Craft Council Southeast Region, 1979-2009

Brittany Cohill, B.A. '14, M.A. '18, UNF, Executive Director, Mandarin Museum

Assistant Curators:

UNF Crafting America Students, Spring 2026

Emrys Hentish, Senior, UNF, Sociology & Interdisciplinary Studies (Humanities & Archives)

Destiny DeHart, Senior Master's Student, Library and Information Sciences, University of Southern Mississippi

Book Club @ Mandarin Museum

Monday, October 12

2:00 to 3:30 pm

Mandarin Museum

Light refreshments provided

Mandarin Museum will host a new quarterly program, Book Club @ Mandarin Museum. Spearheaded by Emeritus Board Members, Susan Ford and Sandy Arpen, Book Club @ Mandarin Museum will focus on titles that fulfill one of the following themes:

• Provides a deeper understanding of Mandarin’s history and culture
• Provides relevant greater context for Mandarin’s history and culture
• Is written by a local author, fiction or non-fiction with historical or cultural themes

The first session will focus on Mary B. Graff's Mandarin on the St. Johns. Originally published in 1953 by the University of Florida Press, it was the "definitive history of Mandarin," at that time. Much of Graff's narrative has stood the test of time, some has not. Among other themes, discussion will revisit often-repeated stories of the day that have since been reclassified as folklore.

Mandarin on the St. Johns is available for purchase now in the Museum Shop. Book Clubbers receive 10% off. Just tell our Museum Volunteer at checkout that you have RSVP'd for Book Club @ Mandarin Museum!

To RSVP or for more information, please email Susan Ford at susansford@aol.com.

Third Thursday Lecture & Book Signing

Thursday, October 15

6 pm - Refreshments & Book Signing

7 pm - Live Reading

Please join Mandarin Museum as we host an exciting installment in our Fall 2026 Third Thursday Series. Writer, storyteller, and curator of the curious, Tim Gilmore, will launch his newest and much-anticipated book, Memphis Wood and the Sanctified Fecund.

Copies of the book will be available for purchase at the event, with book signing before and after the presentation.

From the Author:



They called Memphis Wood everything from “the first lady” to “the high priestess” of art. Her work evolved through Abstract Expressionism and the Studio Craft Movement to new heights of lyrical abstraction in fiber arts. Born in tiny Dacula, Georgia in 1902, Memphis moved to Jacksonville, Florida in her 20s to become one of the first public-school art teachers in Duval County. She exhibited art from Florida to New York and knew and worked with the internationally known potter Charlie Brown and architect Robert Broward. Among her most famous work is her 22-foot-tall magnum opus in Broward’s Unitarian Universalist Church of Jacksonville, her iconic Belshazzar’s Feast series and Night Bloom, for which the Orlando composer Stella Sung wrote a chamber music quartet. Based on dozens of interviews and hundreds of articles and reviews, Tim Gilmore’s 26th book, Memphis Wood and the Sanctified Fecund, tells the story of one of North Florida’s most enigmatic and influential artists.

Mandarin Museum's August 2026 Third Thursday presentation & book signing featuring Jacksonville's Gullah Geechee Heritage with authors Ennis Davis and Adrienne Burke is now available on our YouTube Channel. Thank you to all who attended, and thank you to Ennis and Adrienne for an engaging evening!

Copies of Jacksonville's Gullah Geechee Heritage are on the shelf in the Museum Shop. Get yours today!

Photo credit: Olis Garber Photography

History is alive! And it is powered, in part, by community-based archives committed to ensuring the voices of everyday people are fueling the historical canon.

In this spirit, Mandarin Museum's archive is not static. It concerns itself as much with the recent past as it does with the more distant. It reconciles individuals' memories with the recorded past, and by doing so, is the custodian of the community's collective memory that shapes its collective identity over time.

Mandarin Memories: An Oral History Project serves this effort. Enjoy Episode 1 featuring Bill Morrow, Sam Folds, Jr., and Joe Walsh as these lifelong Mandarin residents recall days gone by.

Much gratitude for Olis and Jo Garber for lending their talents to this initiative.

Mandarin Museum is also pleased to showcase more of the valuable work completed by our Summer 2026 Interns!

Yahli Salzman, a junior studying history and throwing shot put at Hillsdale College, spent his summer learning more about the history of the Jewish community in Jacksonville and Mandarin. The result is our new online exhibit, Here We Shall Share Joy & Sorrow: The Story of Jewish Jacksonville. Like our archives, Yahli intends for the exhibit to serve as a framework to which more can be added through further community involvement.

Be a supporter of arts & culture in our community through the purchase of an annual membership! 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!

Read 2026 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.

Until next time, make community

involvement a family affair!

Thank you to our Mandarin neighbors, the Castleman Family, for grabbing a stack of E-bike + E-Scooter Safety Pamphlets to hand out to kids in the neighborhood. Mandarin Museum and our Mandarin families are proud to help the Duval Traffic Safety Team and FDOT achieve Target Zero -- Zero traffic-related serious injuries and fatalities. As a JFRD family, the Castlemans know firsthand the importance of traffic safety education! Pamphlets are available at Museum Guest Services. Pick yours up today!

The Fleet Family makes education a family affair! We were thrilled to learn that Bob and Janis Fleet's granddaughter, Emma, recently gave a presentation on the Maple Leaf Shipwreck to her classmates. Emma chose the topic because it makes her think of her grandparents and spending time at their house in Mandarin.

Thank you to all our community partners!

A thriving creative economy enhances the quality of life for us all. Supported in part by the Merit-Based Cultural Service Grant Program, administered by the Cultural Council of Greater Jacksonville with funding from the City of Jacksonville and our elected officials, we extend our gratitude to all partners who make this possible.

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