Artist and sculptor Mere Mason works on what will be a rainbow fixture to repurpose an abandoned payphone in Riverside ahead of Jax River City Pride on Saturday and Sunday. | Mike Mendenhall, Jacksonville Today
Published on October 1, 2025 at 6:18 pm
Free local news and info, in your inbox at 6 a.m. M-F. Sign up for the Jacksonville Today newsletter.
Artist and sculptor Mere Mason leaned over what looks like an oversized black horseshoe lying on a workbench Tuesday in her Riverside studio.
Wearing a pink respirator, the 45-year-old Mason brushed on a coat of resin to the fiberglass arch which by, this weekend, will display every color of the rainbow.
Jacksonville Today thanks our sponsors. Become one.
Mason plans to fashion the rainbow atop an abandoned pay phone stand in front of the Wendy’s at Park and Margaret streets in Five Points and retrofit it into a piece of public art and statement piece just in time for the Jax River City Pride festival on Saturday at Riverside Park and the parade Sunday.
The project is one of several planned in the Five Points business district in advance of this weekend’s Pride celebration and in the wake of Florida Department of Transportation order in June that resulted in the removal of six painted crosswalks and street paintings in Jacksonville, including a rainbow-painted crosswalk in Five Points.
“The crosswalks were painted over, and it deserved a response,” Mason told Jacksonville Today. “Any time art gets covered up, I think it deserves a response.”
Jacksonville Today thanks our sponsors. Become one.
Jacksonville city officials complied with the FDOT mandate and painted over the Five Points rainbow crosswalk and similar colorful street art the weekend of Aug. 30-31.
The decision by state officials followed a nationwide trend claiming that messages or images on crosswalks and pavement make “roads safer and easier to navigate.” Noncompliance could have led to the state’s withholding funding from cities.
The move was met with frustration by residents and responses from community groups. On Wednesday, the Jacksonville LGBT Chamber of Commerce announced the “Will Not Be Erased” campaign — a fundraising effort to preserve LGBTQ+ visibility in Jacksonville.
According to a news release and a Facebook post, the LGBT Chamber launched the effort by hanging rainbow banners Wednesday in partnership with the Five Points Association, the district’s business organization.
The release says the initiative will fund the creation of “vibrant murals,” sidewalk art and parking lot installations that “reflect the love, resilience, and pride of Jacksonville’s LGBTQ+ community. These works of art will serve as lasting symbols of inclusion and solidarity, ensuring LGBTQ+ stories and visibility remain firmly rooted in the city’s cultural landscape.”
The announcement included the launch of the campaign’s website.
“Our public spaces should reflect the diversity and strength of our community,” campaign organizer and Jacksonville LGBT Chamber Founder and CEO David Vandygriff said in the release. “By creating permanent, visible affirmations of pride, we are sending a clear message: Our community will not be erased.”
The LGBT Chamber says one of the first murals is planned for Lomax Street in Five Points, but the nonprofit business group plans to take the initiative into other neighborhoods. Artwork is planned for InCahoots in Brooklyn and Hardwicks in Downtown, the release says.
“While the total project cost is expected to reach several thousand dollars, the campaign will also support smaller-scale works across Jacksonville as funds are raised,” the Facebook post says.
“Five Points is a beautiful place for everyone. It brings the community together. What they’re doing supports businesses and it supports the LGBTQ community as well,” Five Points Association Board President Dori Thomsen told Jacksonville Today. “We’re on board with it.”
The artistic push comes as Five Points and Riverside prepare to host the annual Jax River City Pride events, which date back to the city’s first Gay Pride Festival in 1978, a picnic in Willow Branch Park.
This year’s festival will include live entertainment including the Jax River City Pride Cabaret, a Family Fun Zone and local vendors with artists, businesses and other nonprofits, as well as multiple food vendors, according to the event’s website.
Pay phone pride
Mason is chair of the Five Points Association Art Committee. The rainbow phone redo is not the first time she’s made public art with an abandoned public telephone. She got people’s attention earlier this year when she repurposed another defunct Riverside pay phone into a bright yellow banana.
The Jacksonville-based artist said it was a good proving ground for this type of outdoor sculpture, allowing for some trial and error on what materials would withstand Florida weather and to breathe some joy back into the artistic processes for her.
“I realized that I was not doing that project necessarily for myself, I was doing it for people — they just really loved it,” Mason said. “It almost feels like we’re all in survival mode right now in this country. I feel like joy is a really early thing to fall off the plate in terms of priorities when they’re in survival mode.”
Mason launched a two-week Indiegogo crowd-sourcing campaign that raised about $1,650 to help her pay for the roughly $6,000 rainbow pay phone project.
“I found so much joy in it,” she said. “You can just create joy. And maybe that’s the best thing we can do for each other.”
