Our History TAC

The Art Center was formed to provide the Jacksonville community with a wealth of art opportunities.
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Established in 2006

The Art Center Cooperative, Inc. is a non-profit, 501(c)(3) corporation that provides the Jacksonville community with a focused group of professional artists and emerging artists in search of excellence and recognition at their craft.  Our membership is willing to work with anyone interested in growing the Jacksonville art industry in order to improve the quality of life for the people of Jacksonville, Florida

Our Mission

“To kindle, support and celebrate the artist, cultural and creative spirit of the community while promoting our member artists’ professional careers through exposures.”

Our History

It all Started in 2005

With very few galleries scattered across the 918 square miles of Duval County in Jacksonville, Florida, artists lacked a place to thrive, grow and share their work.  Recognizing a need for a unified place for artists to meet, a handful of artists met after an art summit in 2005.
 
The dedication of a small group led to the formation of what would become The Art Center Cooperative.

​In December, they organized a meeting to share their idea with other artists in the community. 
A second meeting was set to discuss the logistics of such an undertaking.  In the living room of one of the artists, each member contributed $10 to start a new company.  With $100 in hand a business license was secured, a name was chosen and a core group formed.  Over the next year, that group met and worked on defining what the art center would look like.

The Art Center 2006-2007

In March 2006, the first board of officers was elected.  Inspired by the Torpedo Factory and its programs in Alexandria, VA., and determined to succeed, this group of artists overcame many obstacles.  In October of 2006, the Main Gallery on Adams Street was opened to the public.  A new board of officers was elected, the name was changed and The Art Center emerged. 

In 2007, by-laws and articles of incorporation were filed and the Art Center received a 501(c)(3) status.

The volunteer-run Art Center Cooperative welcomed more than 500 people on Art Walk night at their downtown location.
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Today
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Today, The Art Center is led by a volunteer board of directors and currently has 25+ members.  The Art Center continues to grow and has relocated its main gallery to 320 East Adams Street.

​​​Although TAC has had additional gallery and studio space around downtown Jacksonville over the years, The Art Center II is currently located at 320 East Adams Street.  It houses studio spaces for established and emerging regional artists, room to conduct hands-on workshops, and presents special shows and fun programs for children of all ages.

The Art Center serves a unified gateway to a wealth of arts opportunities through its dedication and outreach to the community. 
 
Our artists come from and serve in Duval, Baker, Clay, Nassau, and St. Johns Counties.

See us in the Community!

History of the Annex

The Art Center has been in many locations over the years and we have striven to have a clearly defined space for our shows.  Sometimes we have had to carve it out of our gallery space, but for much of the time, we have been able to maintain a separate venue to display our show entries.
 
After we relocated to The Landing in 2015, we designated two walls of the gallery for our show displays.  However, we realized that the showpieces weren’t being set off as something special from the rest of the work our members.
 
We had a second location at The Landing that we had designated for studio rental space and workshops, we made the decision to convert the front room of that space into our show gallery, which we called the Annex.
 
As always it takes a lot of effort.  The walls weren’t appropriate and there were cosmetic issues as well as need for slightly more display space.  Thankfully with the help of our Building Committee and other TAC volunteers, we built new walls, painted and fixed a number of cosmetic issues and were able to get the space ready.  We also added new color balanced lighting and at the beginning of 2018 opened the Annex for our first show, called “Monumental” in the new space.

The Annex has been a great addition to The Art Center and held some of our favorite shows.  We were looking forward to many years in this fantastic space.  However, due to the closing of the Landing we were unable to continue in the Annex.  We are excited for a new chapter in San Marco.  So henceforth all future shows will be held at the San Marco Gallery  1225 Hendricks Ave.  Please go to our photo gallery page to see some of the fabulous shows that we had at the Annex.

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