CONTACT:
Amber Sesnick, Director of Communications & Marketing
amber.sesnick@unf.edu // 904.620.3224
MOCA Jacksonville Announces Two New Events Celebrating Local Art and Scholarship
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) Jacksonville, a part of Arts UNF at the University of North Florida, announces two October events celebrating current exhibitions. Both events are free to the public and include access to MOCA’s galleries, as well as the opportunity to engage with the artists and scholars featured in current exhibitions.
FALL ARTS CELEBRATION
On Saturday, October 18, 2025 from 12 to 2 p.m., MOCA will host its Fall Arts Celebration, a free community event celebrating the awards for its inaugural Jax Contemporary: MOCA Jacksonville Art Triennial exhibition featuring 64 Northeast Florida artists, along with the installation of two new exhibition—Project Atrium: Muralists in Action created by local muralists Dustin Harewood and Shaun Thurston, as well as Sebastian Vallejo: Where the Zephyrs Sleep in it UNF Gallery.
MOCA will announce five awards to artists featured in the exhibition, including the James W. Doyle Prize for Best in Show, as well as 2nd and 3rd place awards selected by the museum; a Visiting Curator’s Choice award selected by Adeze Wilford, the Blackmon Perry Curator of African American Art & Art of the African Diaspora at Memphis Brooks Museum of Art; and the People Choice award which has been voted on by the community. This brunch-style event, which takes place during VyStar Free Saturdays at MOCA, will feature live music, light bites, and a cash bar.
PROJECT ATRIUM: MURALISTS IN ACTION
Conceived as an exhibition accompanying Jax Contemporary, Muralists in Action showcases the vibrant muralist scene of Jacksonville. Led by veteran artists Shaun Thurston and Dustin Harewood, authors and collaborators of many murals around town, a group of apprentices and students will transform the Atrium Gallery into an engaging mural. During the run of the exhibition, observe how the work progresses, culminating in a final work of art. On view Sep 22, 2025 - Feb 15, 2026.
SEBASTIAN VALLEJO: WHERE THE WILD ZEPHYRS SLEEP
The internationally recognized artist is known for his dynamic and evocative artwork reflecting his Puerto Rican heritage, celebrating bold color and symbolic imagery, and addressing the nuanced dialogue regarding Puerto Rico’s status as a U.S. Commonwealth nation. On view Sep 6, 2025 - Feb 22, 2026.
BOOK LAUNCH & TALK: THE ARMORY SOUTH WITH DR. P. SCOTT BROWN
On Wednesday, October 29, 2025 from 7 to 9 p.m., MOCA will celebrate the launch of its newest catalog, The Armory South: The 1924 Jacksonville Woman's Club Exhibition Rediscovered, written and researched by guest curator and art historian Dr. P. Scott Brown, Interim Dean of the Hicks Honors College at the University of North Florida. The catalog provides an in-depth view of MOCA's current exhibition by the same name. This event will begin with a presentation by Dr. Brown in MOCA's Theater, followed by a book signing. The event is free to attend on a first come, first served basis. Seats may be reserved by pre-ordering a copy of the catalog.
The Armory South: The 1924 Jacksonville Woman’s Club Exhibition Rediscovered reassembles core works from a forgotten but seminal Modernist exhibition mounted in March 1924 by the Woman’s Club of Jacksonville and the newly founded Jacksonville Fine Arts Society (now MOCA). Planned to mark the beginning of the museum’s second century in 2025, The Armory South tells several related stories of essential importance to the history of women in Modern art, the introduction of Modernism to the American South, and the ideas and relationships shaping American art in the mid-1920s.
ABOUT DR. P. SCOTT BROWN
Peter Scott Brown, PhD, is an associate professor of medieval art history at the University of North Florida. He has a bachelor's degree from Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York, and master's and doctorate degrees in art history from Yale University. Brown is a specialist in medieval art history with particular focuses on Romanesque sculpture and the liturgical and popular receptions of medieval art. His research and publications address topics including the origins of medieval architectural sculpture, architectural sculpture and liturgy, spolia in medieval art, epigraphy in medieval sculpture, the restoration of medieval sculpture, and iconographies of women and the profane. Brown joined the faculty of the University of North Florida in 2005 and teaches widely on the critical interpretation of art and on the art of the Middle Ages and early modern period in courses including art appreciation, medieval art and architecture, Romanesque art, northern Renaissance and northern baroque art, and the apocalypse in art. He has served on MOCA Jacksonville’s Board of Trustees since 2015.
MEDIA PORTAL
To schedule interviews or request additional content, please reach out to Amber Sesnick, Director of Communications and Marketing at MOCA Jacksonville at amber.sesnick@unf.edu or 904-620-3224. Jade Delinger, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, and Michael Nardone are available for interview via phone or Zoom. Press releases, images, and credit lines related to each talk can be found through the link below:
https://www.dropbox.com/home/JAX%20not%20used/MOCA%20Jacksonville%20Team%20Folder/Media/Programs%20Fall%202025
ABOUT MOCA JACKSONVILLE
Located in the heart of historic Downtown, the Museum of Contemporary Art Jacksonville is one of the city’s most significant cultural assets. As the oldest art museum in Northeast Florida and one of the first contemporary art museums to be established in the United States, MOCA is focused on promoting the discovery, knowledge, and advancement of the art, artists, and ideas of our time.
In 1924, a group of visionary local women artists came together to imagine the kind of city they wanted Jacksonville to be — the kind of community they wanted to live in and be a part of. At the core of their vision for a rich, vital, dynamic city were art, culture, and education. Thus, what we now call MOCA Jacksonville was born — first as a series of exhibitions by artists of the day, used as a fundraising tool to support public school education; then as a guild; and later as an art museum and educational leader. In 2009, MOCA became a cultural institute of the University of North Florida and in 2025 the museum became one of only three percent of museums to achieve accreditation through the American Alliance of Museums, the highest national recognition afforded to American museums. More than century later, MOCA’s mission remains focused on the art, artists, and ideas of our time, with a vision that unites education, creativity, and community building in the heart of downtown Jacksonville.
Among the most prominent contemporary art museums in the Southeast, MOCA’s exhibitions and programs set the pace for arts and art-integrated programming on a regional and national stage, with an emphasis on works created from 1960 to the present. Renowned in this community, MOCA casts the spotlight on Jacksonville as a burgeoning, vital arts destination.
For more information including hours of operation, admission prices and upcoming exhibitions and programs, call 904.366.6911 or visit mocajacksonville.unf.edu.
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