J Magazine Spring 2019

Imagine … Well, first imagine for a moment
being a child in Jacksonville in the 1930s when there
was no MOSH. You couldn’t conceive of anything
like television, and there was not even a sciencefiction
notion of an internet. You learned what you
could about your world from stale textbooks and
word of mouth.
All else you had was looking forward to going
Downtown once a month and experiencing
the displays in the windows of the Barnett Bank
building, produced by three school teachers
dedicated to finding a new way to stimulate
children’s learning.
Creating a real museum
Even for the time, it was very limited and static,
so the teachers interested a group of people who
created the Jacksonville Children’s Museum in a
small space on the second floor of the Duval County
Armory.
After World War II broadened Americans’
horizons, the Jacksonville Journal reported that “the
museum had grown to such an extent and attracted
so much community interest (that) it was able to
open its own building,” taking over a 44-year-old
former private home in Riverside. By the early 1960s,
the museum was drawing 80,000 visitors a year.
So, again, the community responded and raised
$1 million to build a much larger and modern
museum on MOSH’s current site overlooking
Friendship Fountain on the Southbank.
At the opening in 1969, one national authority
called it “the finest, most modern, beautifully
equipped children’s museum in the entire United
States.”
Quickly, its community appeal broadened to
include all ages, so in 1977 its name was changed
to the Museum of Arts & Science, then in 1988 to
MOSH, reflecting that Jacksonville already had two
art museums nearby and really needed a museum
dedicated to helping us understand where we came
from and the world we live in.
MOSH had a major expansion in 1988, including
the planetarium, and various renovations, and
today the museum stands as ... an awkward
building offering exhibits and experiences that are
interesting, educational and fun, even fascinating
and important, but collectively fall short of
appropriately stimulating a major 21st century city
and a Downtown with our ambitions.
Now the community is being asked to buy into
a vision worthy of those ambitions. The new master
plan envisions MOSH transforming into a campus of
experiencing, learning, exploring and family fun that
will cost $80-90 million.
Consider some context
Before you roll your eyes at that price tag and
change the subject, think about how museums have
changed since the first one you visited, at a time
when, according to the Association of Children’s
Museums, “exhibits were only static displays, not
interactive engagements; education meant exposure
to edifying examples and occasional curios, not
the sparking of true learning and the introduction
to wonder; the display of the collections was more
important than the experience of the visitors.”
Today, among national trends identified
by museum consultant Jeanne Vergeront,
museums are finding new ways to engage visitors;
accommodating informal learning; collaborating
with others; utilizing technology throughout;
displaying real-world, authentic objects and
developing “maker spaces” in which visitors can
create their own learning.
Vergeront emphasized the power of place:
“As daily life becomes more global, museums are
recognizing that being local is increasingly valued.
Experiences grounded in place connect with what
an audience finds distinctive and meaningful,
build on local knowledge and deepen a sense of
connection and identity.”
MOSH, in hindsight astoundingly, was designed
as a virtual fortress, with its entrance off a side street
“As daily
life becomes
more global,
museums are
recognizing
that being
local is
increasingly
valued.
Experiences
grounded in
place connect
with what
an audience
finds
distinctive
and
meaningful,
build on local
knowledge
and deepen
a sense of
connection
and identity.”
JEANNE
VERGERONT
MUSEUM
CONSULTANT
WINTER SPRING 2018-19 2019 | J MAGAZINE 19 57