Southlight Gallery Information

The Southlight Gallery is heralded as one of Jacksonville’s prominent fine art galleries. In fact, we are named Jacksonville’s “Best Gallery” in Folio Weekly’s annual Best of Jax poll. For the past seven years our Northeast Florida’s premiere artists’ collaborative, has showcased the works of 52 select local art professionals. We have curated 117 fine art exhibitions, including 8 annual UNF student and faculty shows since UNF ArtSpace joined us. Our popular monthly ArtWalk openings that have featured over 100 local performing artists in the areas of music, theater and dance. Since 2014 we have enjoyed a resounding response to our juried Summer Guest Series, with over 200 local artists participating. The Southlight Collaborative was founded in 2009 by local Architect, Michael Dunlap, and Artists Jim Draper and Mark Howard, as a space where local and emerging artists may exhibit and sell their own work without incurring a gallery commission. The majority of our esteemed members are Jacksonville’s leading artists, each with more than 30 years of experience. Half of our members have been current or retired art professors from the University of North Florida, Florida State College of Jacksonville, and local art teachers from Bolles, Stanton and Douglas Anderson School for the Arts. All we have achieved has been through the efforts of a 100% volunteer team of managing artists and a total of 43 college students through our highly coveted internship program. Southlight has occupied four key downtown locations. We have helped to boost the revitalization of downtown Jacksonville by attracting full-time leases to all the spaces we have held. We are seeking a facilities grant to create a home for Southlight in the art core where we will best represent local art exhibitions, artist studios, classes, workshops, and venue events.