GREEN COVE SPRINGS – The City of Green Cove Springs will be the site of a new Augusta Savage museum after a 3-1 vote by the Board of County Commissioners during their Dec. 10 meeting.
GCS Vice …
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GREEN COVE SPRINGS – The City of Green Cove Springs will be the site of a new Augusta Savage museum after a 3-1 vote by the Board of County Commissioners during their Dec. 10 meeting.
GCS Vice Mayor Van Royal presented the city’s plans for this museum, including its cost, where it would go, what would be included and most importantly, what it would do for the surrounding community. Not only would it serve as a museum for the Green Cove Springs-born artist who fought for equal rights for African Americans in the art community, but as a community center.
“The building, along with the rest of the complex, is not only going to serve as a high point for us for the community showing off Augusta Savage, not only will it continue to help aid the redevelopment of this particularly historic neighborhood, but it’s going to help us in the educational process and ... bring people in,” Royal said.
Royal joked during his presentation how many times in the past the proposal was voted down by the BCC. This time, the BCC approved spending $300,000 to help bring the project to life with a 3-1 vote, with commissioner Wayne Bolla dissenting and BCC Chairman Gayward Hendry absent from the meeting.
Royal said the total cost of the building will be $600,000. The $300,000 that the BCC approved will be given to the city as a reimbursement as work is completed.
Royal hopes the museum and community center will become a prestigious park like one dedicated to the late Lynyrd Skynyrd founder Ronnie Van Zant. He wants people to do the same for Savage.
“She was an incredible woman, not just here but nationwide and worldwide with an incredible history...and this will serve as a landmark reminder to everyone ... of what they can become,” Royal said.
The building will include a museum, mentoring centers for teachers, tutors and volunteers to use, a computer lab, a soundproof room for music lessons and a dance studio if everything goes according to plan.
“It will be a place to play, to learn and to be a community,” Royal said.