Projects

2009 – present

Mapping Miami, a public art and archive project

Mapping Miami is a community-based cultural art and scholarship project. We are creating an interactive web-based archive of Miami’s cultural arts history to facilitate understanding and education about our history and the arts. The focus of the project is to locate, research, and share cultural art history through geographic spaces or ‘landmarks’ – sites where artists, including visual artists, dancers, musicians, and actors/actresses, have lived, produced work, or visited. The landmarks are the touchstone of the project as they provide real places to visit and learn about Miami’s cultural arts history. Miami has been touted as the new “hot arts destination” by the New York Times, Art News, and the Miami Herald for its contemporary arts scene and we want to recognize the historical foundations of our thriving arts environment. The 1930s – 50s will be the initial focus; a time period sandwiched between the founding and development of Miami (1896 – 1920s), and the population boom after the 1960s. Many significant artists visited, lived, and produced artistic works here (including Desi Arnaz, Esther Williams, and Zora Neale Hurston), and these sites hold a great deal of value for the community and for our visitors. Locating the landmarks in Miami’s social and physical geography creates a sense of history and place.

This project was created by Lara Stein Pardo, a Miami-based artist and PhD Candidate in Sociocultural Anthropology. Mapping Miami was awarded a Community Grant to develop the infrastructure for the project under the auspices of Diaspora Vibe Cultural Arts Incubator from the Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs and the Cultural Affairs Council, the Miami-Dade County Mayor and Board of County Commissioners.

Find the Beta version of the website at http://mappingmiami.com.

2010

Miami Art Salon

Miami Art Salon is a project bringing artists together to inspire, provoke, and produce.

The inaugural sessions of Miami Art Salon in 2010 meets biweekly from August 17 – October 26, and will have an open to the public event on November 2. All gatherings are held at 801 Projects located at 801 SW 3rd Avenue, Miami, FL 33130. The biweekly gatherings are an experiment in active, participatory, organic, spontaneous, collaborative art. Each time we meet different participating artists will bring key words, ideas, images, movements, sounds, tools, etc., to the group to inspire thought, dialogue, and production. Miami Art Salon encourages participation by artists working in all media, discipline, and format including, but not limited to, visual artists, sound artists, dancers, poets, writers, and filmmakers working in the Miami area, and is especially interested in artists whose work engages with ideas about the city as a concept and place.

The name and idea for “Miami Art Salon” comes from the general concept of the “salon” which has, throughout history, been a space for people to gather for discussion about wide ranging topics including art and literature. Over time and place the “salon” has transitioned from a way to integrate cultural elites in 18^th century Paris to more diverse gatherings such as those of the Harlem Renaissance that energized art and scholarship in the public sphere. One of primary goals of the Miami Art Salon is to encourage an atmosphere for dialogue and exchange about contemporary art practice and growth in artistic skill, craft, concept, and production among artists in the Miami area, or more briefly, to inspire, provoke, and produce.

Website: http://miamiartsalon.com

If you would like to be involved in the project, please email us at blackbirdartsorg@gmail.com.