Miami Dade College’s (MDC) Museum of Art + Design (MOA+D) in collaboration with Word + Image Lab (WAIL) presents the new exhibition Downtown Miami: The Ground Beneath Our Feet, showcasing a one-of-a-kind artists book created by 24 south Florida writers and artists. The exhibition opens to the public on Friday, May 8 and on view through August 16. A public reception and panel discussion with the artists will be held on Sunday, June 7th from 1-2 p.m. at MDC MOA+D located within the College’s Historic Freedom Tower. The exhibition and events are free and open to the public.
The book, Downtown Miami: The Ground Beneath Our Feet, An Artists’ and Writers’ Collaboration, is a project of Word + Image Lab (WAIL), a group of artists and writers interested in community conversations and opportunities for collaboration around writing and the visual and performing arts. Collaborating together on twelve unique page spreads, each artist/writer team focused on an architectural site located in the downtown Miami vicinity. Writers participating in this book are Jaswinder Bolina, Adrian Castro, John Dufresne, Denise Duhamel, Luis Luis Eligio D Omni, Andrea Gollin, Lori Colleen Kelly, Molly Mcgreevy, Nadege Green, Michael Hettich, Jessica Machado, and Susan Weiner. Participating visual artists are Jenny Brillhart, Rosemarie Chiarlone, Felice Grodin, Gary Moore, Lea Nickless, Ernesto Oroza, Brian Reedy, Onajide Shabaka, Sara Stites, Carol Todaro, Tom Virgin, and Michele Weinberg.
Sites referenced in the book are the Miami Circle Archaeological Site, Plantation Slave Quarters, City of Miami Cemetery, D. A. Dorsey House, First Federal Courthouse and Post Office, Scottish Rite Temple, Brickell Mausoleum, Huntington Building, Freedom Tower, Olympia Theatre, U.S. Post Office and Courthouse, and the Alfred I DuPont Building.
This project was made possible by funding from The Villagers Inc., an organization dedicated to the restoration and preservation of historic sites.
