Jacksonville Public Art Conservation

The City of Jacksonville, Florida and the Cultural Council of Greater Jacksonville have been working together since 1997 on the Arts in Public Places Program. The goal of the program is to acquire, install, maintain, restore, and perform responsible stewardship of the city’s public artwork. Together with the Arts in Public Places Committee, the city has acquired over 115 public artworks and memorials throughout the city. The artworks date from the late 1890s to the early 2000s and range in style, size and material. The collection included wall murals, sculptures, memorials, mosaics, integrated seating, and an archway.

In 2020, our conservators headed to Jacksonville to perform conservation treatments on 15 of the Cultural Council of Greater Jacksonville’s public artworks. EverGreene performed conditions assessments of several artworks under the purview of the Cultural Council in 2019, at which time these 15 were identified as needing treatment. The goal of the work was to clean and stabilize the works, as they displayed material deterioration and/or aesthetic issues which would have been exacerbated by further deferred maintenance, with one work displaying imminent danger of loss or accelerated deterioration. Treatments varied between artworks, but general treatments included cleaning and removal of soiling and/or biological growth (such as moss); infilling and repair of large cracks and missing grout; removal or treatment of corrosion and/or failing coatings or finishes; reinstatement of decorative finishes and patination; and application of protective coatings.