THE MANY FACES OF MIAMI

THE MANY FACES OF

MIAMI

EARLY

Small, coastal

The Bay of Biscayne

Until ’94-‘95

Epic nineteenth century winter freeze

Julia Tuttle and William Brickell invited

Henry Flagler responded

Extending his American Riviera Dream

The Florida East Coast Railway

Found a warm spot

South of the freeze line

And put to work his Standard Oil Money

The father of Miami

Today the bay’s oldest buildings recall

Lower tech times

Hand built boats at Ralph Middleton’s

Barnacle House

Sturdily withstanding hurricanes since 1891

TODAY

Biscayne Bay

High-end real estate

Gateway to the Caribbean

For world class cruise lines

And mid sized freighters

Coconut Grove

Miami’s oldest   

Spanish architecture and landscaping styles

Influenced early Miami

Coral Gables, its neighbor

George Merrick’s vision

Achieved “upscale”

With broad avenues

Mediterranean revival architecture

And strict zoning codes

The Kampong

            Malay/Javanese, “cluster of buildings”

Eleven acres of tropical plants and flowering trees

Now a private park open to the public

The home, laboratory and gardens of

Dr. David Fairchild

An early twentieth century botanist

Traveled the world

Promoting tropical plants  

And brought 30,000 varieties and species

To Florida and the U. S.

LITTLE HAVANA

Castro’s revolution

Sent waves of Cubans to Miami

Making it the “Capital of the Americas”

These early immigrants, aggressively anti communist

Have been politically conservative

Today’s younger Cuban Americans,

Less burdened

Are more liberal and socially conscious

Walk through Little Havana and meet

Cigar rollers

Quietly at work behind small wooden desks

Stuffing, wrapping, twisting and clipping

Their aromatic products

On to the humidor

And, soon, out the door

Florida’s smallest state park

One city block

Complete with park ranger

Overseeing daily tournaments

Between serious dominoes players

Several mom and pop stores

Sample 

Fresh fruit, goodies from the bakery

And servings of potent, spicy

Cuban coffee

Lunch at El Cristo

Introduced to Cuban style
Rice and beans with fried plantains

Pulled pork

Roast chicken in a citrus marinade

Hard to duplicate

When we tried

Homemade

ART MUSEUMS

PEREZ ART MUSEUM

On an elevated platform

Anticipating rising seas

Glass walls bring the bay and park indoors

Its art displays shaded by

A living canopy of irrigated hanging gardens

Plazas and verandas

No need to stand in line

Choose one of several trajectories

Through a network of open areas

Displays

Arranged thematically

Miami’s diversity displayed

Today, Cuban heritage

Sarah Oppenheimer

Two movable glass boxes

Rectangular, rotating

Floating on angled metal shafts anchored in floor and ceiling

Sometimes transparent

Sometimes switching our attention

From reflected images of the bay and park

To the museum’s interior features or its spectators

Always encouraging critical questioning

Our most fundamental impressions

Seemingly hard-wired

Can under-perform

David Reed

High saturation color

Paint placed on by hand
Blue

TV influence 
Miami Vice

Driven by visual effects

A challenge to abstract expressionists

Art reflects the outside world

Gallery windows bring bay and park images

Into the viewing experience

DE LA CRUZ ART MUSEUM

Private family collection

Now open to the public in Miami’s design district

Free programs for schools, scholarships and travel opportunities

            Its 2015 show, “Beneath the Surface,” was ranked as the second

            Best show worldwide by “Artnet News”

Current exhibition -- “Progressive Praxis:  Ideas Moving Forward”

Putting artistic theory into practice

Interpreting the shifting contemporary visual culture
Of a world filled with contradictions

A kind of reverse painting process

Is used to build up layers of a collage

And then sand it away

To reveal covert messages

Novel possibilities are explored
For interaction between artist and audience

Piles of candy for kids

Stacks of paper handouts with messages 
Materials that disappear
Or are to be consumed 

Designs with paper napkins

Emphasize change and lifespans

Contemporary technology highlighted

By printouts from computers

Fed musical notations

Using software not designed to read them

ART TOURS

Walking tour of South Beach

“Art Deco,” since 1968

Architectural eye candy

With symmetry

Pastel buildings

Built between 1923 and 1943

Porthole windows, ship-like railings,

Sleek curves, glass blocks, shined chrome

And terrazzo floors

Lunch, Cuban style, Puerto Sagua

Walk through Wynwood’s

Win-win neighborhood

Street art to the max

We are drawn in by the work of artists

Who compete to show their work

OTHER TREATS

           

Al fresco dining at Monty’s Raw Bar

Marina setting

Beautiful January evening

Barely sweater cool

Bin no. 18 -- Downtown     

Urban chic, nice wines, appetizers and menu

Afternoon trip to the beach on Biscayne Bay

Main quality, not Miami Beach

           

FLAMENCO

Dancer and Guitarist

The many faces of Flamenco music and dance

Adapting over the years to shifting cultural settings

Jazz, Jewish, Cajun and more

DRK
Road Scholar Trip, 1/15/17 – 1/20/17