ART & CULTURE 2023 Edition

ARTS CULTURE

The Arts & Culture Insider for Greater Miami & Miami Beach

WELCOME

Greater Miami & Miami Beach is a best-in-class destination for arts and culture that inspires and captivates with its spirited energy and contemporary vision.

Every year in early December, Art Basel Miami Beach draws thousands of artists and collectors. All year long, the destination’s dynamic gallery scene encompasses mainstream, thoughtprovoking and emerging artists. Galleries abound in the Miami Design District, Allapattah, Little Haiti, Downtown Miami and South Beach.

In the Wynwood Arts District, a kaleidoscope of works by groundbreaking artists can be seen throughout the neighborhood and at Wynwood Walls. In Downtown Miami, the Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM) is a must-visit for its impressive collection of contemporary art of the Americas.

Miami is also a dynamic performing arts destination. The Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts in Downtown Miami hosts touring Broadway shows as well as performances by its resident companies: Miami City Ballet, Florida Grand Opera and the New World Symphony. The New World Symphony also performs at the New World Center, its cutting-edge space in South Beach designed by Frank Gehry.

Miami’s science and history museums open up new worlds for exploration. At the Phillip and Patricia Frost Museum of Science in Downtown Miami, you can visit the planetarium and check out the 500,000-gallon aquarium. Visit HistoryMiami to delve into our rich and vibrant past.

Explore Miami’s rich Caribbean and Latin American culture in Little Havana and Little Haiti as well as its fascinating Black history in Historic Overtown and Liberty City.

This publication was produced by:

GREATER MIAMI CONVENTION & VISITORS BUREAU

MiamiandMiamiBeach.com

MIAMI-DADE COUNTY DEPARTMENT OF CULTURAL AFFAIRS MiamiDadeArts.org

The Department and its 15-member volunteer advisory board, the Cultural Affairs Council, develop cultural excellence, diversity, access and participation throughout Miami-Dade County by strategically creating and promoting equitable opportunities for artists and cultural organizations and the approximately 2.7 million residents and millions of annual overnight visitors who are their audiences.

ARTS CULTURE

The Arts & Culture Insider for Greater Miami & Miami Beach

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Commissioned by the City of Miami Beach

CONTENTS

PUBLIC ART IN MIAMI BEACH

MIAMI’S OUTDOOR ARTS & CULTURE

OUR PEOPLE: A LOOK BACK AT MIAMI’S PIONEERS

THE BEST THINGS TO DO IN WYNWOOD

TOP MIAMI MUSEUMS TO VISIT

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PUBLIC ART IN MIAMI BEACH

By Shayne Benowitz

While Art Basel Miami Beach has shone a spotlight on Miami Beach’s art scene for the last 20 years, the city’s commitment to public art dates back almost another 20.

In 1984, Miami Beach’s Art in Public Places program was born as an initiative to bake art into the city’s projects by allocating a portion of its funds to commission public art pieces. As a result, Miami Beach now has captivating public art installations stretching from South Pointe Park to the Miami Beach Bandshell. You’ll find art in unexpected places here. For instance, as you stroll through Miami Beach, keep an eye out for manholes in the streets. These Urban Deco cast iron covers are emblazoned with symbols of sunshine, sea and architecture by local artist and designer Garren Owens.

With so much public art, visiting Miami Beach can feel like a cultural scavenger hunt. Read on for your guide to Miami Beach’s spectacular public art offerings.

SOUTH POINTE PARK

Two of South Pointe Park’s most distinctive features were created by Frankfurt-based artist Tobias Rehberger. In 2014, his “eloquent south pointe park pier gate” was installed at the entrance to the picturesque pier. The graphic aluminum-and-steel gate is painted pink, lime and black.

In 2011, his “Obstinate Lighthouse”

was erected 55 feet above Government Cut, a shipping channel between Miami Beach and Fisher Island. The structure can be viewed by pedestrians strolling in the park and boaters passing though the channel. Made of colorful aluminum and frosted glass discs piled atop each other in a wobbly composition, it’s illuminated by LED lights, “not to guide the ships, but to greet all the visitors to the city,” Rehberger says.

WASHINGTON AVE & 3RD ST

In 2010, artist Wendy Wischer installed “Liquid Measures” on the corner of Washington Avenue and 3rd Street. Consisting of three 4’ x 4’ x 4’ electrical boxes covered in hand-cut, blue mirror water glass tiles, the reflective piece references the area’s wind and water currents.

Artist: Wendy Wischer / Liquid Measures

Artist: Tobias Rehberger / eloquent south pointe park pier gate

LINCOLN ROAD

At the western end of Lincoln Road, artist Dan Graham created an homage to Miami Modern master Morris Lapidus – who landscaped Lincoln Road when it was turned into a pedestrian mall in 1960 – with his steel-and-glass “Morris” installation in 2010. Recalling the kidney shapes of 1950s Miami Beach swimming pools, this concave and convex fun-house style structure is meant to be interactive, contorting reflections as you move through it. Nearby, local artist Carlos Alves was commissioned in 2004 for an art intervention of a 1960s fountain originally designed by Lapidus. Overlaid with ceramic mosaic tiles depicting underwater scenes with fish, coral and seashells, “Save Our Reefs” is a message of conservation and a reminder of the natural beauty of Miami Beach’s shoreline.

In 1999, Alves installed a similar “Save Our Oceans” ceramic mosaic tile floor with an octopus, crabs and seahorses at nearby City Hall.

SOUNDSCAPE PARK

The New World Center, designed by Frank Gehry, is a work of art unto itself. The adjacent SoundScape Park is a beloved community gathering spot where visitors and locals enjoy musical performances and movies under the stars.

Thanks to Bill Fontana’s 2018 “Sonic Dreamscapes” sound and video installation, there is always something to see and hear in the park.

Throughout the day and evening, sounds and videos inspired by the local marine and natural environments are piped into the park’s 72-channel Meyer sound and projection systems.

Artist: Morris Lapidus / Steel-and-Glass

SoundScape Park

FILLMORE MIAMI BEACH AT THE JACKIE GLEASON THEATER

Pop Art master Roy Lichtenstein’s 1979 “Mermaid” sculpture resides on the south lawn of the historic Fillmore Miami Beach at the Jackie Gleason Theater, near Lincoln Road. Made of steel and concrete with Lichtenstein’s signature comic book-style abstraction, a mermaid in red diagonal stripes reclines on waves with sunshine streaming on her from above.

SCOTT RAKOW YOUTH CENTER

One of Miami Beach’s longeststanding public art commissions is found at the Scott Rakow Youth Center in the form of “Untitled,” a large-scale, orange abstract steel sculpture by Charles O. Perry from 1977.

MIAMI BEACH BANDSHELL

At the Miami Beach Bandshell, Miami Beach artist Kevin Arrow created a glass ceramic tile mosaic floor titled “Beatles Mandala (Amor=Love)” in 2014 to commemorate the 40th anniversary of when the Beatles arrived in Miami Beach to play “The Ed Sullivan Show” and stayed at the Deauville Beach Resort, near the Miami Beach Bandshell.

MIAMI BEACH CONVENTION CENTER

When the Miami Beach Convention Center underwent a $620 million renovation in 2018, the city considered hundreds of public art proposals.

The Art in Public Places advisory committee ultimately narrowed it down to seven works by artists from Brooklyn to Berlin, situated in and around the newly redesigned space by Arquitectonica.

“Bent Pool” by Elmgreen & Dragset is a mind-bending, large-scale sculpture that depicts an arched swimming pool as if it’s been lifted from the ground in Pride Park.

Presiding over Collins Canal Park are Joep van Lieshout’s enormous

stainless steel “Humanoids” sculptures, while Sarah Morris’ “Morris Lapidus” is an homage to the architect’s famed “stairway to nowhere” with custom-fabricated porcelain tiles overlaid on a grand staircase leading to the convention center.

Inside the lobby, Joseph Kosuth’s “Located World” is a neon text installation, Sanford Biggers’ “Somethin’ Close to Nothin’” is a multimedia work with paint on an antique quilt, and Ellen Harvey’s “Atlantis” is a map of Miami Beach etched on glass. Along the building’s exterior is Franz Ackermann’s “About Sand” abstract mural, which is bursting with color.

NORTH SHORE YOUTH CENTER

On the façade of the North Shore Youth Center, local Cuban-American artist Connie Lloveras’ mosaic clay tile “The Circle” was created in 2004 in collaboration with the North Beach community.

Lloveras held a workshop where participants created their own etchings onto one of the 368 square tiles that make up the artwork.

Artist: Elmgreen & Dragset / Bent Pool

Miami Beach Bandshell

Artist: Connie Lloveras / The Circle

MIAMI’S OUTDOOR ARTS & CULTURE

By Taima Hervas ArtBurstMiami.com

You’ve heard about Miami’s arts & culture scene? Well, we’re here to tell you about everything to be found outdoors – sculptures, murals, music festivals and more.

Stunning natural beauty. A rich biodiversity. And a vast and varied tapestry of outdoor events and programs dedicated to the visual arts, dance, music and more. Greater Miami & Miami Beach has it all and invites you to breathe in the fresh air while you behold the spectacles all around.

ART IN PUBLIC PLACES

Are you a cultural explorer? Then you’re in luck because we have installations by best-in-class artists tucked away in parks, near the beach and in front of a stadium.

They’re just about everywhere –and they’re ready to be found. Thanks to Miami-Dade County’s Art in Public Places program, the region is home to one of the largest public art collections in the United States. So you can go on the hunt for treasures such as Erwin Redl’s “Volume Miami,” Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen’s “The Dropped Bowl, with Scattering Slices and Peels,” and Forrest Myers’ “Lazers Maze.” The official website (Miamidadepublicart.org) has a handy map, so you can curate your own tour.

WYNWOOD

Don’t feel like driving around from piece to piece? Get a one-stop visual experience at Wynwood, one of our top arts destinations. Casually walk the neighborhood and revel in the ever-changing wall murals, or join a guided tour at the Museum of Graffiti

or at Wynwood Walls. No matter which way you look, Wynwood has something to see and do.

PARKS

In Greater Miami & Miami Beach, finding art al fresco is a walk in the park. Literally. (And not just because the aforementioned Art in Public Places program has pieces placed at parks.)

Take Everglades National Park, for example. Once you’re done marveling at the great outdoors, take a tour through one of its art

Want to enjoy art outdoors? Miami is brimming with creativity al fresco.

Artist: Coosje van Bruggen / The Dropped Bowl

exhibitions. The park has an Artist In Residence In Everglades (AIRIE) program that welcomes writers, curators, choreographers, musicians and other creatives to develop unique interpretations inspired by the 1.5 million-acre wetland and its inhabitants. Some exhibitions start at the Ernest F. Coe Visitor Center and wind along trails and boardwalks throughout the park.

Of course, music is also art – and several parks host music festivals and events throughout the year. At Greynolds Park in North Miami Beach, join an open jam session every first Sunday of the month as part of a bluegrass festival. Greynolds was considered a hippie hot spot back in the day, and today it also hosts the annual Love-In Music Festival – a full day of tunes from the ’60s through the ’80s, plus food vendors, costume contests and classic car displays.

And speaking of music festivals, you don’t want to miss the annual Blues Concert BBQ festival at Homestead’s Fruit & Spice Park. This 37-acre subtropical oasis invites you to a world of exotic fruits, herbs, spices and nuts from around the world plus great melodies. Who could ask for anything more?

DEERING ESTATE & VIZCAYA

The grand Deering Estate in South Dade’s Palmetto Bay neighborhood is architecturally impressive and features the largest virgin coastal tropical hardwood hammock in the United States. As if that weren’t enough, it’s also home to an Artist in Residence Program. That means on any given day, you have visual, performing, literary and crossdisciplinary creatives working at their craft, inspired by their surroundings and engaging with the public. The estate – once home to

industrialist Charles Deering – offers exhibits, films, concerts and more. By the way, if you think gardens are also works of art, which we do, be sure to visit Vizcaya Museum & Gardens. The creation of Deering’s half-brother, James, the inner workings of the home are dazzling in and of themselves, but the views outside are even more breathtaking, if that’s possible.

Museum of Graffiti

Deering Estate

Deering Estate

OUR PEOPLE: A LOOK BACK AT MIAMI’S PIONEERS

By Arva Moore Parks

Douglas should know. She lived in and loved South Florida for 83 of her 108 years. When she arrived from Massachusetts in 1915, Miami was already calling itself “The Magic City,” but it was, in reality, a small, second-rate tourist town with 3,500 residents; sun-blistered, white crushed-rock streets; and one building taller than four stories.

Douglas, like most Miamians past and present, came from someplace else to start a new life here.

EARLY PIONEERS

From the beginning of time to our day, our rich subtropical abundance, sun, sand and beautiful bay have attracted a diverse group of seekers and dreamers. First came the Tequesta people, who founded it more than 10,000 years ago and had it all to themselves until the Spanish — men like Juan Ponce de León and Pedro Menéndez de Avilés

— claimed it in the 16th century.

In the early 19th century, enterprising wreckers from the Bahamas came to South Florida and the Florida Keys to pick up the remains of an international array of ill-fated ships that crashed onto the treacherous Great Florida Reef. The Bahamians who stayed became South Florida’s first permanent residents.

At about the same time, the Seminole and Miccosukee Indians, seeking freedom from white man’s encroaching civilization in Georgia and North Florida, arrived in South Florida along with a group of runaway African American slaves, who found sanctuary with the Seminoles. With this small, polyglot population, it is no wonder that, when the Spanish flag was lowered and the Stars and Stripes raised over Florida in 1821, the United States paid little attention to South

Florida. In fact, one government official summed up the nation’s perception with his comment that South Florida was “a place of half-deluged plains, deep morasses, and almost inaccessible forests ... a home or shelter only for beasts, or for men little elevated above beasts.”

The Seminole and Miccosukee Indians, however, got the government’s attention when they refused to leave Florida and fought to stay.

Thus, from 1836 until 1858, South Florida was a war zone, and most of its non-Indian residents were soldiers stationed at Fort Dallas, an army outpost on the Miami River. At war’s end, many of the Indians remained in the Everglades. Some of the soldiers and a few other hearty frontiersmen gave South Florida another new, mostly foreign-born, population.

“Miami is the most maddening, stimulating, life-encouraging city in the world,” wrote Florida’s favorite environmentalist, Marjory Stoneman Douglas. “Nothing human is foreign to it.”

Coconut Grove home of Kirk and Mary Barr Munroe, ca. 1886

IMPACT OF THE CIVIL WAR

The outbreak of the U.S. Civil War also had an impact on South Florida life. Although Florida was in the Confederacy, Federal blockaders controlled the South Florida coast, and few people were allowed in or out. At war’s end, one officer described those who remained as being “all armed, a more motley crew never trod Captain Kidd’s ships … deserters from the Army and Navy of both sides, a mixture of Spanish and Cubans, outlaws and renegades.”

Following the Civil War, the next group of newcomers to discover South Florida were carpetbaggers and homesteaders. Almost all of what would become Miami was available to citizens or would-be citizens in 160-acre bites if the homesteader would live on and cultivate the land for five years or, in the case of state land, purchase it for $1.25 an acre. Those who came, including some former slaves, were an interesting mix.

COCONUT GROVE’S FIRST SETTLERS

South Florida’s first real community began in Coconut Grove, when Charles and Isabella Peacock, who came from England, opened a hotel in 1884. Coconut Grove soon attracted a variety of people: Northern intellectuals, European nobility, American industrial magnates, displaced Southerners as well as Bahamian fishermen. Black Bahamians established the settlement called Kebo in Coconut Grove, the remnants of which are still visible today on historic Charles Avenue.

JULIA TUTTLE’S LEADERSHIP AND HENRY FLAGLER’S RAILROAD

Although Coconut Grove was developing rapidly, along with Lemon City in today’s northeast Miami, the land that would become Downtown

Miami had experienced little change from the time of the Spanish.

This was soon to change after a feisty Cleveland widow named Julia Tuttle purchased 640 acres on the north bank of the river in 1891 and moved her family into the abandoned Fort Dallas buildings. Within four years, she had convinced Standard Oil co-founder Henry Flagler to extend his railroad to Miami, build a luxury hotel and lay out a new town.

The railroad arrived in April 1896, the City of Miami was incorporated in July and the first tourist season was inaugurated in January 1897 with the opening of Flagler’s fabulous Royal Palm Hotel. That same year, the city brought in its first convention, the International Tobacco Growers Association, and set its future as a town built to please the tourists. Tuttle, however, saw Miami’s future as more than just a tourists’ mecca. She envisioned a major gateway city that would become a center of international trade and commerce. Before the turn of the century, Flagler’s steamships were running between Miami and Nassau and among Miami, Key West and Havana, beginning a cruise industry that today has made Greater Miami & Miami Beach the “Cruise Capital of the World™.”

As soon as the railroad arrived, the South Florida wilderness came to life as if by magic, and all kinds of people flocked to the raw-boned new city. These early Miamians were a variegated lot but with a predominant Southern streak. Even though “Mi-am-a” had a Southern accent, it was never your ordinary Southern town. Miami’s first mayor was an Irish Catholic, most of the merchants were Jewish, and Blacks made up one-third of the city’s incorporators, even though they were forced to live in a separate part of town known as “Colored Town.”

Julia Tuttle statue at Bayfront Park and Fort Dallas at the mouth of the Miami River

Arva Moore Parks (1939-2020) was a prominent historian who wrote numerous books about Miami.

EARLY VISIONARIES

Miami never lacked for visionaries. One such dreamer was John Collins, a New Jersey Quaker, who embarked on an agricultural venture on a spit of oceanfront beach and started a causeway across the bay to link the beach to the mainland. Joined by Prest-O-Lite king Carl Fisher, the bridge opened in 1913, and the transformation of mangrove coast and avocado grove into Miami Beach began.

At about the same time, Geder Walker, an African American, built the Lyric Theater as the center of the cultural activities on Northwest 2nd Avenue, Miami’s “Little Broadway.” By 1925, the area that became known as Overtown had a thriving business district and several hotels, including the Mary Elizabeth, later joined by the Calvert and Sir John.

The 1920s brought the Great Boom, and Miami’s population quadrupled in only four years. George Merrick, who came to South Florida with his parents from Massachusetts, developed a planned Mediterranean-themed suburb called Coral Gables on his family’s grapefruit plantation.

Other boom-time themed cities included the fantasy dream of Scheherazade — Opa-Locka — developed by legendary aviator Glenn Curtiss.

DEPRESSION-ERA LEADERS

When the bust came after the great hurricane of 1926, South Florida plunged into a deep depression ahead of the rest of the nation. The Depression, however, didn’t stop Pan American Airways from launching its “Flying Clippers” from Miami’s Dinner Key, now Miami City Hall.

The airline advertised Miami as the “Gateway to the Americas,” which, in fact, it was becoming.

Pan Am brought in large numbers of Latin American tourists as well as a variety of deposed Latin American leaders.

During the Depression, a new group that was predominantly Jewish came to Miami Beach and built a large number of small hotels and apartment buildings with stark “Streamline Moderne” lines along lower Collins Avenue and Ocean Drive. This building boom helped bring South Florida out of the Depression, and, 40 years later, these distinctive hotels became the nucleus of the Art Deco District.

WORLD WAR II POPULATION BOOM

World War II brought another hundred thousand new people into South Florida when the Army Air Corps took over Miami Beach and the Navy took over Miami as major training centers. Many soldiers returned after the war to make South Florida their permanent home. By the end of the 1950s, Miami had doubled its pre-war population.

CUBAN EXILES IN MIAMI

When Fidel Castro took over Cuba in 1959, no one dreamed that the revolution would change Miami as much as it changed Cuba. Miamians didn’t know it yet, but the Cuban exiles, who were just beginning to pour into the area, were bringing the next Miami with them. Even by South Florida standards, the 1960s and 1970s brought mind-boggling change as more than a half-million Cuban exiles fled to Miami to start new lives. These enterprising refugees were the catalysts who launched Miami into its future as an international city and the “Capital of Latin America.”

EVER-CHANGING SKYLINE

The 1980s brought a beautiful new skyline and a new way of life to Greater Miami & Miami Beach. Although Miami had changed almost beyond recognition, the new Miami had thrived amid change and overcome many difficulties. We entered the 1990s alive and beautiful and full of promise. Off we went, unafraid, believing in a different kind of future that would surpass the wildest dreams of its most visionary pioneers.

Now no longer at the end of something, we have become the center of everything — the connector of the Americas, the center of the New World. Today, Greater Miami & Miami Beach is a best-in-class 21st-century destination.

Army recruits in Miami Beach during WWII

Downtown Miami in the 80s

THE BEST THINGS TO DO IN WYNWOOD

By Patricia Azze

Cutting-edge Wynwood is one giant art installation. Most famous for its towering outdoor murals, Miami’s arts and entertainment district also displays its creative vibe on the walls of scores of art galleries. And hungry or thirsty visitors won’t have to settle –Wynwood’s innovative bent extends to the dishes and drinks served in its hip restaurants and bars.

MUST-SEE WYNWOOD STREET ART & GALLERIES

When in Wynwood, it’s all about the art. What was once a manufacturing and warehouse district has transformed over the past decade or so into a world-class art destination.

Start at the Wynwood Walls, the outdoor art exhibition that has been an iconic attraction ever since it opened in 2009. Its outdoor space is dedicated to some of the world’s most renowned graffiti and street artists.

Wynwood Walls features more artists than ever, and its eye-catching murals rotate frequently.

Looking to dive deeper into the art scene? Learn about the different types of graffiti, the history of this once-maligned movement and the artists behind it at the Museum of Graffiti.

Later, head to the Bakehouse Art Complex, a community art space that was founded in 1985. It’s housed in an Art Deco building that began its life as a bakery. Visit from noon to

5 p.m. daily to see the work of more than 100 artists, from painters to performance artists, who work in the onsite studios.

Another must-see is The Margulies Collection at The Warehouse, a nonprofit art institution that’s open to the public from late October through April. It features works by some of the most prominent artists of the 20th and 21st centuries. In the past, it has included pieces by Joan Miro, Willem de Kooning and Jasper Johns. The 50,000-square-foot space also houses educational programs and special exhibitions.

For an even more intimate – and fun – way to get to know the area’s art scene, sign up for a tour with Wynwood Tours. Rest your tired legs and zip around the area on the ever-popular Graffiti Golf Cart Tour. Various tours are offered, including small group tours, private tours

Plastic Mom n Baby Monkeysby Bordalo II

and – for those with artistic leanings – the hands-on Wynwood Graffiti Experience.

WYNWOOD’S TOP BARS AND RESTAURANTS

Wynwood’s foodie scene is just about as exciting as the art scene, making it the perfect place to start your day (Panther Coffee, anyone?) or to fuel up between rounds of galleryhopping and mural-gazing.

A food hall set in industrial digs, 1-800-Lucky houses seven vendors offering Asian specialties, including poke, sushi, bubble tea and Vietnamese sandwiches.

After dark, the food hall is transformed into a nightlife and karaoke hotspot.

Stock up on Miami’s most popular artisan bread and pastries at Zak The Baker. Zak Stern, who’s somewhat of a local celebrity, runs

this bakery and deli serving kosher food and baked goods every day except Saturday.

Zak’s isn’t the only must-stop for those with a carb craving. With delicious spots like The Salty (over-the-top donuts) and Fireman Derek’s Bake Shop (Key lime pie and much more) drawing repeat customers for their signature treats, Wynwood is a dessertlover’s paradise.

Getting thirsty? Sample seasonal beers at Wynwood Brewing Company, which was Miami’s first craft production brewery, or Cerveceria La Tropical, which serves classic Cuban beers in a beautiful garden setting.

EVENT SPACES IN WYNWOOD

Home to multiuse venues and event spaces aplenty, Wynwood is always buzzing with cutting-edge happenings.

Mana Wynwood, a 30-acre multiuse campus that houses both a convention center and an event space, hosts events ranging from music festivals to large industry events and technology showcases.

A serene oasis, The Sacred Space Miami has flexible indoor space surrounded by a tropical garden and guava grove – perfect for wellness gatherings, social happenings and educational programs.

Cerveceria La Tropical

Wynwood Walls • Credit Nika Kramer

TOP MIAMI MUSEUMS TO VISIT

By Shayne Benowitz

Greater Miami & Miami Beach offers a wide array of museums for art, history and science lovers alike. Choose the perfect museum to provide you and your family with an entertaining and educational experience. Here are a few of our favorite museums to help you decide which to visit while you’re here.

MIAMI’S ACCLAIMED ART MUSEUMS

THE BASS

Set inside a landmark Art Deco building from the 1930s featured on the National Register of Historic Places, The Bass houses 16,000 square feet of exhibition space. This South Beach institution in Collins Park is dedicated to international contemporary art and has added public art acquisitions to its permanent collection, including Ugo Rondinone’s massive “Miami Mountain” limestone boulders in the park and Sylvie Fleury’s “Eternity Now” neon sign on the museum’s façade.

INSTITUTE OF CONTEMPORARY ART, MIAMI (ICA)

With free admission, an alluring location in the stylish Miami Design District and a collection of cutting-edge contemporary art, the Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami (ICA) is a must-visit for anyone who wants a taste of culture in Miami. Dedicated to continuous experimentation and intellectual exchange throughout Miami and internationally, the museum’s programming focuses on local, emerging and under-recognized artists, guaranteeing there will always be something new and exciting to discover when you visit.

Courtesy of The Bass • Miami Beach

Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami

PÉREZ ART MUSEUM MIAMI (PAMM)

Situated in Maurice A. Ferré Park overlooking Biscayne Bay in Downtown Miami, the Pérez Art Museum Miami was designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architects Herzog & de Meuron, drawing inspiration from the iconic Stiltsville homes built offshore in the 1930s. The structure alone, with abundant outdoor space and swoon-worthy views, is worth the visit. Inside, the museum’s thought-provoking collection focuses on international modern and contemporary art exploring the U.S. Latino experience, the African diaspora, Latin America and the Caribbean, showcasing the diversity of the 20th and 21st centuries.

Feeling hungry? There’s also a lovely cafe onsite providing more inspiring views.

HISTORY & CULTURE MUSEUMS

CORAL CASTLE MUSEUM

While you may hear a lot about Miami’s diverse architectural styles, the Coral Castle Museum in Homestead is a singular structure. As the story goes, the 1,100-ton castle was built single-handedly in secret by one man inspired by lost love. It’s a mystery on par with Stonehenge, just with a Miami coral rock twist. You can tour this unusual site with coral sculptures that were built between 1923 and 1951.

CORAL GABLES MUSEUM

Once a police and fire station, the Coral Gables Museum boasts a 3,000-square-foot gallery and a 5,000-square-foot public plaza that centers around permanent and

Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM) / Design: Herzog & de Meuron / Photo: Daniel Azoulay

Courtesy of Coral Gables Museum

Coral Castle Museum

traveling art and design exhibits, lectures and concerts.

The museum also offers walking tours of downtown Coral Gables twice a month at 10 a.m. (dates vary) as well as Gables Bike Tours every third Sunday of the month at 10 a.m., giving visitors a chance to get to know even more of The City Beautiful.

HISTORYMIAMI MUSEUM

One of the largest private regional history museums in the southeast U.S. and part of the prestigious Smithsonian Institution Affiliations Program, HistoryMiami Museum in Downtown Miami entertains and educates with more than 37,000 artifacts dating back to pre-Columbian times.

Immerse yourself in the permanent and temporary exhibits exploring everything Miami, ranging from immigration and tourism to development and technological advancement. Be sure to make a stop at the Visitors Research Center to take in its collection of one million photographs, drawings and documents.

JEWISH MUSEUM OF FLORIDA-FIU

This museum is set in a stunning 1936 Art Deco masterpiece in South Beach with 77 stained glass windows, a Moorish copper dome, Art Deco chandeliers and a marble bimah. It’s listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Inside, explore more than 250 years of Jewish history at the Jewish Museum of Florida-FIU as well as its permanent exhibit, MOSAIC: Jewish Life in Florida.

Through audio-visual presentations, films, photos, documents and artifacts, you’ll discover how the Jewish people have maintained their history, tradition and culture in Florida.

Courtesy of HistoryMiami Museum

HistoryMiami Museum

Courtesy of Jewish Museum of Florida - FIU

ART IN THE GARDENS

VISIT AND EXPLORE

HORTICULTURE AND ART

On view year-round ETERNITY

Metal Sculpture by Santiago Medina. Located in the lily pond in front of Lakeview Terrace.

About Pinecrest Gardens: Pinecrest Gardens is a premier venue for the arts, education, entertainment, horticulture, and recreation. On any given day, one can experience a live performance in its 530-seat amphitheater, tour the 14 acres of botanical beauty that includes native forested wetland, tropical hardwood hammock and cypress slough, or participate in a horticulture, cultural arts or conservation workshop.

Pinecrest Gardens is a designated Historic Place on the National Register. Visit www.pinecrestgardens.org to learn more.

Find Us Love Us Share Us @PinecrestGardens 11000 Red Road, Pinecrest, FL 33156

VIZCAYA MUSEUM AND GARDENS

Modeled after grand 18th-century Italian villas, Vizcaya Museum and Gardens in Coconut Grove was built between 1914 and 1922 as the private waterfront estate of millionaire industrialist James Deering. Taking in the views of the elaborate, manicured gardens will transport you to another time and place. The east terrace overlooking Biscayne Bay feels like it’s part of a palazzo in Venice.

The Mediterranean Revival villa is filled with elaborate Renaissance tapestries, Rococo furniture, Chinese objects d’art, Roman sculptures and early 20th-century paintings.

Rooms are styled after different Italian cities: Milan in the Music Room, Palermo at reception and Venice in various bedrooms. It’s a totally transporting experience.

THE WOLFSONIAN–FIU

Situated in a historic Mediterranean Revival building in the heart of South Beach, The Wolfsonian–FIU is a museum, library and research center with an intriguingly specific scope and mission. The collection of 200,000 artifacts, photographs, design objects and artworks dating from 1850 to 1950 sheds light on “the persuasive power of art and design and explores what it means to be modern.”

Curators work with historical advertisements, posters, clothing, photographs and film to illustrate their theses.

MUSEUMS OF SCIENCE, DISCOVERY & IMAGINATION FOR ALL AGES

PHILLIP AND PATRICIA FROST MUSEUM OF SCIENCE

Miami’s landmark Phillip and Patricia Frost Museum of Science anchors a corner of Maurice A. Ferré Park overlooking Biscayne Bay in Downtown Miami. It’s one of only a few science museums in the world to boast both an aquarium and planetarium under one roof. The hands-on, interactive exhibits make for a perfect family-friendly outing. The Gulf Stream Aquarium spans three floors and includes an open tank at the rooftop. You’ll spy hammerhead sharks, stingrays and mahi-mahi swimming in the 500,000-gallon tank.

MIAMI CHILDREN’S MUSEUM

For the young – and the young at heart – Miami Children’s Museum is a must-visit attraction.

Located midway between Downtown Miami and Miami Beach on Biscayne Bay along the MacArthur Causeway on Watson Island, the museum is filled with fun activities that emphasize art, culture, community, communication, imagination and creativity.

It’s also home to a two-story sandcastle of dreams, a Curious George gallery, a cruise ship exhibit with a replica of a navigational station, and Pet Central, a special gallery that allows kids to learn what it’s like to be a veterinarian.

MUSEUM OF ILLUSIONS

For an eye-popping, social media-worthy adventure, visit the Museum of Illusions, where guests interact directly with surreal 3D installations created by some of the world’s top artists.

Located on Lincoln Road in South Beach, this mind-bending attraction features 40+ illusions inspired by current events, movies and pop culture.

Let your imagination run wild with fun-for-all-ages experiences, such as walking on the edge of a skyscraper, flying on a magic carpet, surviving the lava bridge and more.

TRANSPORTATION WONDERS

GOLD COAST RAILROAD MUSEUM

Have a love for “The Little Engine that Could”?

The Gold Coast Railroad Museum in South Dade is a must-see for train enthusiasts and collectors. With more than 40 passenger cars, freight cars, locomotives and antique railway equipment, you’ll want to hop aboard! Ride one of the many historic railway cars (offered on weekends), view the Ferdinand Magellan (the private railroad car built for President Franklin D. Roosevelt) and explore the vast array of model trains while learning about Miami’s locomotive history.

WINGS OVER MIAMI AIR MUSEUM

Ready for takeoff? You will be upon visiting Wings Over Miami Air Museum, a tribute to veterans, aviators and aircraft history. See the evolution of flight at the museum’s location in Kendall as well as restored and maintained military and classic aircrafts, some of which even take off into the wild blue yonder on weekends. Be the pilot of your own aircraft after a visit to the gift shop, which features model kits, videos and clothing for adults and children.