by Beth Slater
Staff Writer
Modern art in Jacksonville has the touch of George Kinghorn in it.
Kinghorn, deputy director and chief curator for Jacksonville Museum of Modern Art, is such a fan of abstract expressionism that he earned a Master of Fine Arts degree in the subject and taught studio classes at Jacksonville University prior to joining the Jacksonville Museum of Contemporary Art, as JMOMA was known previously.
While at JMOCA, Kinghorn helped design and plan the museum’s move downtown from its former location on Art Museum Drive.
“It was on Art Museum Drive for many years. As the geographical areas of the city changed with downtown revitalization, this seemed to be a natural location for the museum,” said Kinghorn.
“I’ve been with the museum over six years and I came on board (with) the decision of moving downtown. I had the good fortune of working with the architects on the museum design.”
Not only did he help design the structure and programming of the museum in general, but Kinghorn also contributed to one unique area of the museum.
“I managed the design and construction of the Art Exploration Loft, our family center on the fifth floor,” he said.
Kinghorn typically has everything to do with the exhibits on the walls of JMOMA, from planning and selection to care and safe keeping.
“I’m responsible for developing concepts for exhibitions and developing exhibition programs for the museum. I very often work directly with artists and galleries to put on an exhibition,” he said.
In general, JMOMA’s focus is to display the work of artists with national and international reputations in modern art, Kinghorn said.
“We do exhibit the works of local and regional artists, but we largely focus on national and international artists,” he said.
All artists whose work is selected start by submitting a proposal to the museum.
“I determine if it (the artwork) is in the museum’s mission,
if they have the proper credentials, and judge the quality of
the work. If that’s all there, we offer an exhibition opportunity,” said Kinghorn, adding that
any local artists who show their work are given space on the fifth floor.
Kinghorn also handles much of the day-to-day business of the museum.
“I primarily am in charge of artistic affairs and developing the permanent collection. I do many other operational aspects, facility operations and things like that,” he said.
Although JMOMA has been reopened for more than two years now, Kinghorn said there is still plenty to do.
“There is still quite a lot of work to be done developing the museum and developing programming. We’re growing substantially in terms of what we offer to the community,” he said.
As for his favorite memory of working with the museum, Kinghorn didn’t hesitate.
“The highlight of my career was the opening of the new museum, when over a thousand people flooded in the doors,” he said. “It was an incredible feeling of potential of the visual arts to unite people in the city. It was really a magical evening, a great landmark for the city and downtown revitalization.”
As a longtime resident of Jacksonville — Kinghorn grew up here before studying art at Michigan State University and now lives in Riverside/Avondale — the curator is glad to see the past and future changes to downtown.
“Another exciting aspect of downtown is that it’s great to see a downtown that’s growing in vibrancy. To see people downtown at night is really a signal of all the wonderful things to happen as downtown is hopefully transformed to a 24-hour destination,” he said.