Public Art at the Courthouse
49th Annual Arts Awards | Photos by PRI
49th Annual Arts Awards | Photos by Prattify
49th Annual Arts Awards | Photos by 904 Happy Hour
48th Annual Arts Awards
47th Annual Arts Awards
Jacksonville History In The Making
The Courthouse Art Project has evolved through a multi-year process involving the Cultural Council of Greater Jacksonville, the City of Jacksonville, artists, and other project stakeholders.
Like many large-scale public art projects, its development has required extensive planning, coordination, review, and collaboration at every stage. Each stage of the project reflects the coordination needed to bring a significant public artwork from concept to completion within a civic space. Throughout that process, the project has remained focused on creating a meaningful public artwork that reflects Jacksonville and serves the community for generations to come.
City council passed a bill in 1997 requiring that 0.75% of vertical construction projects over $100,000 be set aside for public art. The new Duval County Courthouse was approved by voters in 2000 as part of the Better Jacksonville Plan.
Ordinance 2016-250 appropriated the funding for public art at the Courthouse.
The scope of the project was developed through an extensive public input process with a variety of stakeholders, including the City’s Public Works department and the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office to understand the security issues at the Courthouse to inform the project’s vision, goals, and design parameters. An international Call to Artists was issued starting the competitive artist-selection process.
Cliff Garten Studio was selected by the Artwork Selection Panel and commissioned to develop These Truths: Voices of Jacksonville. The concept consists of stainless-steel scrolls with engraved and illuminated writings from foundational texts and original poetry by five local authors.
As the City determined the text would be a form of government speech, it took time for the Artwork Selection Panel to ensure that the local poets and historian’s interpretative text was appropriate with the foundational text on the sculpture and approve that component. Once that text was approved, the artist went under contract to develop a final design in November 2023. The final design contains more technical details including the construction drawings by a licensed architect, final specifications, an installation timeline and the identification of vendors, quotes and estimates.
The Final Design Package was received and reviewed by the Technical Advisory Committee including representatives from the City’s Public Works department, Division of Risk and Insurance Management and Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office.
The Final Design Package was slated for evaluation by the Artwork Selection Panel in late August but was directed to pause at the request of the FY24-25 Budget Hearing Finance Committee when budget and security concerns were raised.
The project remains paused pending direction from the City.
The Cultural Council's Role
The Cultural Council serves as the neutral, third-party administrator for the City of Jacksonville’s Art in Public Places program. In this capacity, the agency:
- facilitates the regulatory and design review process
- coordinates stakeholder communication
- oversees the fabrication and construction process
- submits artist/fabrication invoices to the City for payment
Authority & Decison-Making
The Cultural Council does not have the authority to relocate or cancel this public art project. Those decisions rest with the Jacksonville City Council through established municipal ordinances and processes.
Jacksonville’s arts and culture sector supports local jobs, small businesses, and our neighbors all across the city.
$6.1M In, $143M back into our local economy
Funding arts and culture is a public investment at a rate of return most private investment vehicles can’t touch, let alone a city budget line item.
This isn’t money that circulates once and disappears. It moves through restaurants, hotels, parking garages, and small businesses across the city, and 40% of the attendees generating that spending are bringing outside dollars in from beyond our five-county area. That’s new revenue entering Jacksonville’s economy, not existing dollars shifting between neighbors.
That economic activity generates tax revenue, sales tax, tourist development tax, property tax growth tied to a vibrant downtown and neighborhoods. Revenue that helps fund roads, schools, and public safety, all without asking residents to pay more.
Revenue that helps fund roads, schools, and public safety, without asking residents to pay more. So, the choice isn’t “fund arts OR.” It’s recognizing that a well-funded arts sector is part of how the city pays for roads, schools and public safety in the first place.
These aren’t ONLY arts and culture numbers. They are infrastructure numbers, restaurants, hotels, parking, retail, and rideshare all benefit from the 2.1 million people arts and culture bring downtown and into our neighborhoods.
Every one of those 6,000+ events is a night when local businesses see foot traffic they wouldn’t otherwise get, an average of 17.5 events a day, citywide, year-round.
And the spending isn’t marginal. At $87.24 per person beyond the ticket price, we’re outperforming the national average of $35 by more than 2 to 1.
40% of attendees come from outside our five-county area, and they spend even more once they’re here, $136.36 per person. Just as valuable as tourism, development and sports funding, the Cultural Service Grant Program draws visitors and captures new spending.
Arts and culture organizations funded by the Cultural Service Grant Program (CSGP) support more jobs than the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office and Jacksonville Fire & Rescue Department combined.
Real people hold these jobs: teaching artists, curators, box office staff, production crews, and arts administrators who keep Jacksonville’s cultural institutions running every day.
These roles also build tomorrow’s workforce. Creativity, adaptability, and problem-solving top every CEO’s hiring list, and they’re the same skills a strong arts sector cultivates. Every role funded through the Cultural Council is helping train the next generation of Jacksonville’s workforce to think, create, and compete at a 21st-century level.
The CSGP is a jobs program and a workforce development program, funded at a fraction of comparable city investments.
Behind every organization is a network of small businesses that make it happen: caterers, printers, sound and lighting techs, security staff, cleaning crews, and hundreds more.
A cut to arts and culture funding doesn’t just affect artists and institutions; it directly affects thousands of small business owners and their employees across the city, many of whom aren’t in the arts sector at all.
And unlike a single large employer or a one-time development project, this economic activation is distributed. It touches nearly every corner of Jacksonville’s small business community rather than concentrating benefits in one place.
Funding Structure
Funding for this project comes from the City’s Art in Public Places ordinance, which required that 0.75% of the original courthouse construction budget be set aside for public art from the voter-approved Better Jacksonville Plan.
All funding for the courthouse sculpture remains with the City. As a neutral administrator, the Cultural Council functions as a pass-through entity, submitting artist invoices to the City for payment.
Moving Forward
Based on the ordinances and voter-approved Better Jacksonville Plan associated with this project, it is the Cultural Council’s understanding that any significant changes to the project — including relocation or cancellation — would require formal legislative action by the Jacksonville City Council. Throughout this process, the Cultural Council has remained committed to serving as the agent and collaborative administrator for the City of Jacksonville. The Cultural Council stands ready to assist the Jacksonville City Council in implementing whatever course of action City leadership ultimately determines is most appropriate.