City-of-Miami-Beach-Announces-Artists-in-Miami-Beach-Open-House
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City of Miami Beach, 1700 Convention Center Drive, Miami Beach, FL 33139, www.miamibeachfl.gov
OFFICE OF MARKETING & COMMUNICATIONS, Tel: 305.673.7575 PRESS RELEASE
Tonya Daniels, E -mail: tonyadaniels@miamibeachfl.gov
Melissa Be rthie r, E-m a il: m e lissa be rthie r@m ia m ibe a chfl.gov
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 5, 2021
City of Miami Beach Announces Artists in ‘Miami Beach Open
House’ on View Through Summer 2021
— Initiative Artists Creating Projects in Vacant Miami Beach Retail Spaces—
Miami Beach, FL – The City of Miami Beach is pleased to announce the participating
artists and properties for Miami Beach Open House, a city-led investment in the
revitalization of its commercial corridors with experiential artist residencies utilizing
vacant spaces. The program will feature indoor and outdoor temporary public art
installations throughout the city.
Miami Beach Open House activates empty spaces throughout Miami Beach to support
local artists and the arts community which were greatly impacted by the pandemic and
subsequent economic downturn. Privately-owned vacant spaces serve as workspaces,
studios, exhibition space and communal areas that encourage dialogue and
collaboration. In partnership with participating property owners, Miami Beach Open
House provides the space and support necessary for artmaking and peer-to-peer
exchange, supporting growth for the city’s entire arts community. Participating properties
range from vacant storefronts, city offices, former restaurants, nightclubs to public parks
and cultural venues.
“The City of Miami Beach is dedicated to art and culture, and we will not allow the
challenges of the past year to diminish that status,” explained Miami Beach Mayor Dan
Gelber. “It is with this in mind that we are exceedingly pleased to be able to present
programs like Open House, which will provide a platform to allow our local businesses
and artists to mutually support each other.”
The program provides a heavily subsidized space and financial support to 71 artists and
nonprofit cultural organizations. A stipend of $2,500 was given to each artist with
participants paying a nominal fee for their space. Working alongside the city, each artist
agreed to lease terms with property owners. Open House formally runs through early
Summer 2021, with select artists working with property owners to stay at their locations
for the indefinite future.
Working in the context of each of these spaces, artists have the opportunity to exhibit
and sell their works, build networks, and collaborate with Miami Beach institutions and
their constituents. Through this project, property owners are able to positively support
innovative cultural work in Miami Beach, and expose their properties to the public while
creating new, accessible spaces and platforms for cultural tourism.
Project Highlights
Selected highlights among Open House installations currently on view include Phrases
by Juan Requena at 640 Collins Avenue. Through his multimedia work, Requena tells
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tropical, historic community.
stories of situations related to racial discrimination, post gender thinking, human
relationships and our behavior in the natural habitat. Currently working with textiles,
powder, video & sound, his glow in the dark floor installations present phrases made of
powder that are at once fragile and ephemeral. The statements are taken from books,
movies and the artists’ personal conversations.
At the Rotunda in Collins Park, Najja Moon has installed an abstract sound sculpture
titled, My mother would say I lack discipline. Commissioned by The Bass Museum for
New Monuments, as part of a five-year initiative supported by the John S. and James L.
Knight Foundation, the work will use a wide range of voice recordings of women
speaking maternal affirmations, reminders and critiques. The Rotunda will also serve as
a meeting point to conduct those interviews. Moon is also developing a second project,
where she is transcribing her drawings into music. An array of musicians will be working
to perform the scores she writes [on site].
At 7409 Collins Avenue, Michelle Weinberg is presenting Night Drawings for
Pedestrians, which converts the storefront into a light box. The work is composed of
invented architectures, using carbon paper to create wayward symmetries. After the
drawings are completed, the black carbon papers that contain layers of drawing marks
are illuminated at night, revealing the skeletal architecture of the drawings, like an X-ray
or a blueprint. The installation appears as a long, illuminated graphic novel winking back
at the community.
Founded in 2018, in collaboration with the City of Miami Beach, the Department of Reflection is a foil (or reflection) of municipal entities that produces creative moments of
exchange (and reflection) between the municipality and its residents. As a post-
governmental agency, the Department of Reflection collaborates internally but maintains
its autonomy, pushing and interrogating the work of the government while creating
bridges between it and the residents of Miami Beach. Its work brings new perspectives
to important local conversations, ideally even leading to solutions. The Department of
Reflection is located at 800 Ocean Drive.
Sunset Archive, a collaboration with FIU curator Yi Chin Hsieh and visual artist Juan
Requena, will present a 20-minute video installation by Reqena titled, Galaxy View. The
video - cast on the exterior doors of 431 Washington Avenue - was shot in the first-
person perspective, collecting sunset scenes for years at a beach in Mumbai, India. The
artist placed a camera on a small remote-controlled car and monitored it at Bandra
West, Mumbai, documenting the sunset. While enjoying the view from far, the video also
walks the viewer through piles of garbage and encounters with wild animals at the
beach, providing the audience multi-perspective views and thoughts on environmental
issues, urban lifestyles, and mental stability. In the artist’s words “The video pays
homage to the lush but fragile, threatened natural resources of this region.”
A curatorial advisory committee, composed of members of the Art in Public Places
Committee and Cultural Arts Council, selected 71 applicants to participate in Miami
Beach Open House.
Participating Artists
● Studio AMLgMATD
● Jason Aponte
● Jenna Balfe
● Ballet Flamenco La Rosa
● Bas Fisher Invitational
● Thomas Bils
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tropical, historic community.
● Liene Bosque
● Scott Brennan
● Belaxis Buil
● Laura Casanas
● Domingo Castillo
● Beatriz Chachamovits
● BABA Collective
● Coral Morphologic
● Penny Crane
● Cuban Classical Ballet of Miami
● Carolina Cueva
● Dance Now! Miami
● Cara Despain
● Bernadette Despujols
● Gianna DiBartolomeo
● Dimensions Dance Theatre
● Dimensions Variable
● Giannina Dwin
● Jenna Efrein
● Christian Feneck
● Fiber Artists Miami (FAMA Art)
● Chris Friday
● Lucila Garcia de Onrubia
● Mauricio Giammattei
● Jessica Gispert
● Kristin Guerin
● Jacquelyn Guerrero
● Alan Gutierrez
● Hispafest
● Rachel Hovnanian
● Yi Chin Hsieh
● Carla Jerez
● Summer Jade Leavitt
● Justin Long
● Monica Lopez De Victoria
● Laura Marsh
● Juan Matos
● David McCauley
● Miami Beach Urban Studios-FIU
● Miami Dance Hub
● Najja Moon
● Charo Oquet
● PATH to Hip-Hop
● Edison Peñafiel
● Devora Perez
● Peter London Global Dance Company
● Lee Pivnik
● Project Art
● Juan Requena
● Timothy Reyes
● Adee Roberson
● Dinorah de Jesús Rodriguez
● George Sanchez-Calderon
● Nathaniel Sandler
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tropical, historic community.
● Tom Scicluna
● Barron Sherer
● Magnus Sodamin
● Misael Soto
● Erin Thurlow
● Eric Trope
● Alejandro Valencia
● Joshua Veasey
● Michelle Weinberg
● Michael Williams
● Young Musicians Unite
The Miami Beach Open House program is made possible through the generosity of the
property owners listed below. All spaces are available for long-term leasing
opportunities. Additional property owners will be added throughout the duration of the
program.
420 Lincoln Road Development
Robinson Properties
Ocean Terrace Holdings
Goldman Properties
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