SPARK, 1991

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Explosion of the Arts and SPARK

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​Jacksonville, Florida, Late Summer 1991:  A City of Expression (ACOE), a new arts organization meeting on the Westside, sponsored its first art event named Explosion of the Arts. This art festival was held in 5 Points, a unique part of the city's historic Riverside-Avondale neighborhood.

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This festival quickly grew from a small core group of art lovers to a full-fledged arts event in only a few months. An article introducing ACOE founder Michael Miller and the art festival appeared in The Westside Community News section of The Florida Times-Union on Wednesday, August 7, 1991.  Readers were asked to attend the event on Saturday, August 10, 1991.  They were also encouraged to help the organization create this needed jumpstart for young artists to feature their work while gaining essential exposure to art enthusiasts.

Riverside was known as the arts hub of Jacksonville, an eclectic mix of architecture, attractions, and residents that witnessed an influx of younger, lesser-known artists during the 1980s and 1990s. The art scene in the neighborhood was comprised of more established artists who were the main participants in the well-known Riverside Arts Festival, before Riverside-Avondale achieved its historic district status in 1997.

During this time, the neighborhood experienced growth in the number of young couples and groups of friends that began to revitalize the old housing of residences constructed in the 1920s and 1930s. The early 1990s were the perfect time for the unity of young artists to create something special, like the Explosion of the Arts street festival.

This event blocked the traffic through the 5 Points area of Riverside by shutting down Park Street from the beacon to its intersection with Post Street and on Lomax Street from the beacon to Oak Street.

 

A stage on Park Street was built for dancers, musicians, poets, storytellers, and other varied artists, while Lomax Street contained partitions on which visual artists displayed and sold their artwork.

Eventgoers were stoked with the excitement generated on this day and evening.  The event, funded by neighborhood advertisers, is described in the ACOE Explosion of the Arts schedule of events, appropriately named SPARK.

 

SPARK was printed on two sheets of 8-½” x 17” folded paper, one light gray outer sheet and the other white inner sheet. It was created by three volunteers who were employees of The Florida Times-Union.

SPARK's name and its text are the creation of Editor Steven Gelsi.  The festival program contained display ads sold by Advertising Director Mark Gebhardt, and it had a stunning layout designed by creative director Clair Hartmann. Clair was intuitive with her decision to add the wording "the magazine of The City of Expression" under the beautiful logo she created.

 

Later, after the Explosion of the Arts festival, Michael Miller approached Mark and Clair about creating a more substantial art magazine. Group artists stepped up, and The Yellow Edition publication was created in late 1991.

A City of Expression sponsored more art events, including Explosion of the Arts II, during 1991 and 1992.  SPARK was renamed iD Magazine in 1991, and three editions of iD Magazine were published by late 1992: The Yellow, Red, and Green Editions.

 

For unknown reasons, A City of Expression disbanded in 1992, leaving many group members and some of the public disappointed and wanting more from the organization comprised of artists and art enthusiasts.

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TEXT FROM PAGES 1 AND 2 OF SPARK:

Jacksonville’s Big Bang For The Arts
- Steven Gelsi

This is it. The next big thing. So, it seems as the City of Expression campaign rigs its first festival into a major blowout appropriately dubbed, EXPLOSION OF THE ARTS.

It’s happening just a couple of months after the City of Expression was launched by a young artist who decided to create more venues for the arts in the River City.

So, he talked to friends, organized meetings, and people came. Hundreds of them. Black and white. Young and old. From the northside to the southside to the beaches.

They set a meeting spot in Five Points and got an organization running.

The result is The Explosion of the Arts Festival, soon to be part of a series of festivals; part of a movement.

And why not? Everybody wins from this. The artists win and the city wins. Jacksonville gets more culture. The culture creates more value & magnetism for the bigger and more prosperous.

“The City of Expression will not only offer a more pleasant Jacksonville in which we live, it will also create opportunity for economic growth, national recognition and a new role of leadership for the city,” said Michael Miller, the young artist who sparked the explosion.

New York City has its Broadway and its Greenwich Village; San Francisco has its North Beach and Noe Valley; Athens, Ga. has its rock and roll. The attributes – architecture, music, visual arts, schools, and other culture – draw people and business to cities and make them more commercially viable and alive.

Jacksonville needs to follow suit. It needs to shine. And that’s what the campaign is about.

So far, it’s off to a strong start. Lots of people come out to meetings and organizational hurdles are being overcome. Nor is the group acting alone. It’s forging ties with the Arts Assembly, the media, art galleries, and neighborhood groups.

In these times of economic hardship, racial tensions, a crack epidemic, and other problems, the only thing that’ll turn things around is to promote positive alternatives.

You can’t just say no to drugs.

You have to say yes to your dreams, too.

And that’s why so many people are getting involved with this.

Michael Miller was the spark, but the fire already burned in the hearts of Jacksonville’s people hungry to express themselves and share their music, artwork, dance, poetry, sculpture, and drama. There is still much to do, but the first big bang – the birth of a new universe in Jacksonville has begun.