The Beaches Museum & History Park and Visit Jacksonville solidified their new partnership Thursday, April 26, with the official unveiling of Visit Jacksonville’s new Beaches Visitor Center, located inside the museum’s lobby.
“We’re so excited to welcome the newest Visit Jacksonville Visitor Center here to our museum,” said Christine Hoffman, executive director of the Beaches Museum & History Park. “It has been years of hard work to fully realize the dream of a fully-staffed visitor center. We’re excited to finally make it a reality.”
Members and officials of the Jacksonville and Beaches community applauded as staff of both the museum and Visit Jacksonville held a ceremonial ribbon cutting to celebrate the new visitor center, which will be open seven days a week — even when the museum is closed.
“It’s a mutually beneficial relationship,” Hoffman said. “We bring in new visitors to the visitor center — and also into the museum — and vice versa, and we’re going to continue to work together to grow this relationship and make this one of the top spots for visitors coming to our Beaches.
“We’ve seen quite a bit of change here at the museum in the past few years, including more engaging programs and exhibits, more opportunities for community groups to utilize the museum and the history park, and more importantly, free admission to the museum,” Hoffman continued. “Now visitors that come into the visitor center can not only stop here and get their information, but they can stay and learn about the history of the area that they’ve chosen to visit.”
With the addition of its new Beaches Visitor Center, Visit Jacksonville will now have a total of three information centers throughout the city, including one at Jacksonville International Airport and another at 208 N. Laura St. in Downtown Jacksonville.
“This is more than just a visitor center,” said Katie Mitura, vice president of marketing and communications for Visit Jacksonville. “This is a great partnership with a great existing attraction and we’re so excited for that. And this is also giving those visitors that come in more than just a brochure or someone to talk to, but an opportunity to be interactive in an existing, fantastic museum that tells you about the history of the Beaches, not to mention this wonderful history park we have out here in all the uniqueness that it is.”
The Beaches Museum & History Park is located at 381 Beach Blvd. in Jacksonville Beach. To learn more about the museum and its exhibits, visit www.beachesmuseum.org. For more information about Visit Jacksonville and its visitor centers, visit www.visitjacksonville.com.
