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
