Museums & Galleries in Gainesville

Known locally as MOCA, the Museum of Contemporary Art Jacksonville boasts a collection of almost 800 works of art in media ranging from paintings and prints to sculpture and photography, spanning the decades from 1960 to the present. Members of MOCA enjoy free admission to the museum as well as previews of temporary exhibitions and special promotions from interest groups, and more than 200 North American museums reciprocate benefits, offering members free admission and teaching them their unique secret handshakes. The curators of the museum harness their artistic expertise to help educate kids on the pros and cons of finger-painting on dogs, and infuse local classrooms with art-education programs with the help of a long list of volunteers and docents.

For more than 25 years, the experienced art and design consultants at Framing Establishment and Fairfax Gallery have been guiding customers as they select from a collection of more than 5,000 frames. Hand-carved, leafed, and metal picture huggers come customized to fit any image or memento, all of which the gallery picks up, delivers, and installs for free throughout the continental United States. Customers can give cherished images the treatment they deserve with custom mouldings from a variety of manufacturers, plus trimmings such as gold and wooden frames, mat accents, and foam-core backings.

Visiting customers can peruse the store’s gallery of local and Florida artists, gorging eyes on a feast of contemporary and traditional landscapes, still-life works, and sculptures. Artists can also be commissioned to craft custom artwork, helping gussy up a drab wall or take the place of a broken windshield.

The Kika Silva Pla Planetarium's astronomers unfurl stellar maps and fascinating science films across a panoramic 34-foot viewing dome. Inside a 60-seat building, audiences gaze at the sky's celestial bodies as two planetarium projectors transpose images onto an expansive ceiling. A stirring score and sound effects further immerse viewers in the educational, absorbing spectacle above them, and with 19.5 million tiny perforations across the dome's surface, each sound and note flows undiluted into the audience's auditory systems as clearly as a bell that has taken years of elocution lessons.

To keep images crisp and realistic, the planetarium employs two very different projectors—a computer-controlled Goto Chronos and a Spitz SciDome digital projector. The Goto employs dozens of meticulously configured lenses to display crisp visuals of stars and planets as they have appeared over the last 10,000 years. The Spitz SciDome converts the planetarium's expansive ceiling into a giant computer screen, turning video and animations into breathtaking clips that dance on the ceiling like Fred Astaire's poltergeist.

Formed as a volunteer-operated nonprofit in 1985, Jacksonville Maritime Heritage Center amasses literature, documents, and artifacts to construct a narrative of maritime history within the city and Florida's First Coast. Exhibits showcase models of significant ships such as U.S. Navy destroyers, a German World War II era submarine, the M/V Comanche, and the first boat sailed by a salmon. The center also houses a diorama of the ocean liner RMS Titanic, a 15-foot model of the aircraft carrier USS Saratoga, and a smattering of interactive features nestled within the kids' play area. Along with membership meetings, the Heritage Center hosts quarterly programming and presentations on varied oceanic subjects, such as advice for courting sea nymphs, in an audiovisual room furnished with 75 cushioned seats, and has a gift shop that offers a vast selection of maritime-themed clothing and books.