Duval Displaced / Duval Dis Place

Jacksonville is a city constantly evolving, moving through time in a regular rhythm of fits and starts.A rich and complicated history rubs up against the promise of progress.This place – its river, marshes, woodlands, and built environment – has been held by peoples including the Timucua, indigenous to this land, colonizing settlers, enslaved people of African decent, immigrants, the Union and the Confederacy, and a diverse population of nearly 1 million people today. This sprawling county, which is one in the same with the borders of the city, is not unlike communities throughout the US South where culture erasure and community resilience in the face of climate and development pressures play out daily in people’s lives, cultural practices and policies.

This exhibition is the result of a partnership between MDC’s State of the South, LISC Jacksonville, Yellow House and 16 Jacksonville-based visual artists and poets.Created as a core part of State of the South’s annual convening taking place here for the first time, the exhibition amplifies themes of displacement, climate justice, community identity, racism, economic equity, wellness, and the reimagining necessary to create a more just society – here and throughout the region.The show is both a critique and a celebration of this place we call Duval.

We invite you to breathe in the art, read about the creators, and add your voice to the dialogue through art making and conversations that happen in this space and beyond.