CLIMA 2016 | Press

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Cortada worksDo Not Open | Climate Refugees | Hot for Hialeah | Psychoanalysis of Climate ChangeReclamation Project | Flor 500
LTER : Everglades (Florida) | HJ Andrews (Oregon) | Hubbard Brook (New Hampshire)

 

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For Immediate Release: 
November 30, 2016

For Immediate Release: 
November 30, 2016Media Contact:
Chief of Staff Arnie Alonso
Francys Vallecillo
305-883-5800

 

The City of Hialeah Presents CLIMA 2016

 

CLIMA 2016 features new works and participatory eco-art projects by Xavier Cortada from November 28, 2016 through January 14, 2017 at the Milander Center for Arts and Entertainment 

 

What:  Mayor Carlos Hernandez and the City Council invite our friends from the media to join us on December 2, 2016 for the kickoff of CLIMA 2016. During the kickoff, the community will enjoy an Artist’s Talk and Opening Reception celebrating the 10th anniversary of Reclamation Projectan eco-art effort to reforest mangroves.

CLIMA 2016 features new works and participatory eco-art projects by Xavier Cortada from November 28, 2016 through January 14, 2017 at the Milander Center for Arts and Entertainment. The CLIMA exhibit is presented by the City of Hialeah in partnership with Florida International University Sea Level Solutions Center (SLSC), Florida International University College of Arts, Sciences & Education (CASE) School of Environment, Society and the Arts (SEAS), the Florida International University College of Communication, Architecture + The Arts (CARTA).

CLIMA will feature the following science art works by Cortada:

·         The artist will be presenting “Do Not Open,” a participatory work aimed at connecting present-day South Florida residents and political refugees with climate refugees in the future.

·         Cortada will also present recent projects, including Hot for Hialeah and the Psychoanalysis of Climate Change.

·         Cortada will show works created at three Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) sites: Florida Coastal Everglades LTER (Florida),  Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest LTER (New Hampshire), and H.J. Andrews Experimental Forest (Oregon).

·         Cortada will also showcase two prior participatory eco-art projects:  FLOR500 (a wildflower reforestation effort commemorating Florida’s quincentennial) and the Reclamation Project (a mangrove reforestation eco-art project launched a decade ago in 2006 and now based at the Frost Science Museum). Cortada’s paintings and prints of wildflowers and mangroves will also be on exhibit.

 Who:  City of Hialeah, Artist Xavier Cortada

When: Opening Reception: Friday, December 2, 2016, 7:00 PM  |  Exhibition: November 28, 2016 through January 14, 2017

Where: Milander Center for Arts and Entertainment, 4800 Palm Avenue, Hialeah, FL

PANELS:

  • Monday, December 5th, 2016 (10 am):
    Panel discussion and Film Screening: South Florida’s Rising Seas Impact
    Dr. Todd Crowl,  FIU College of Arts, Sciences & Education SERC
    Dr. Juliet Pinto, FIU College of Communication, Architecture + The Arts
    Dr. Rene Price, FIU College of Arts, Sciences & Education
    Dr. Philip K. Stoddard,  FIU College of Arts, Sciences & Education
  • Tuesday, December 6th, 2016 (10 am):
    Panel discussion: The Art of Climate Change
    Xavier Cortada, FIU College of Communication, Architecture + The Arts and School of Environment, Art and Society
    Micheal Gray, FIU College of Communication, Architecture + The Arts
    Miriam Machado, FIU Frost Art Museum
    Dean Brian Schriner, FIU College of Communication, Architecture + The Arts
  • Wednesday, December 7th, 2016 (10 am):
    Presentation: “Do Not Open/ No Lo Abras
    Xavier Cortada,  FIU College of Communication, Architecture + The Arts and School of Environment, Art and Society

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City of Hialeah
501 Palm Avenue, Hialeah, FL 33010

www.hialeahfl.gov


HONORING THE FUTURE
PRESS RELEASE

 

For immediate release: November 28, 2016
Media only: Fran Dubrowski  (202) 295-9009; press@honoringthefuture.org

 

Alaskan Journey Art Exhibition Opens in Hialeah, Florida 

 

Artwork by two Philadelphia artists, who traveled to Alaska to meet with scientists, examine impacts of climate change, and paint and photograph what they saw, is featured in an Honoring the Future® exhibition opening Nov. 28, 2016 at the Milander Center for Arts in Hialeah, FL.  The exhibition, which is free and open to the public, will be on display through Jan. 13, 2017; the opening night reception is Dec. 2, 2016 from 7:00 pm to 10:00 pm.

The exhibition is part of the annual Clima celebration inspired by Miami artist Xavier Cortada and sponsored by Cortada, Honoring the Future, and the City of Hialeah to coincide with Miami Arts Week. Clima, inaugurated in December, 2015, provides a visual and storytelling platform for reflecting upon, and expressing, the community’s experience with climate change and rising seas.

Clima’s 2016 theme, Art, Science, and Insight, focuses on artist-scientist collaborations to communicate the impact of climate change on humans. It also seeks to transport Floridians to corners of the globe they may never have the opportunity to visit – to empower them to “see for themselves” early manifestations of climate change elsewhere.

Clima 2016 contains three interrelated exhibitions.

Honoring the Future’s Alaskan Journey exhibition puts Hialeah’s experience in a national context. “Alaska is warming faster than any other state,” said Fran Dubrowski, Director of Honoring the Future, “so the impacts of climate change are more readily seen there.  These two artists are expert storytellers: they deliver a powerful visual image of what is at stake in a rapidly warming Alaska, foreshadowing the enormity of the challenges Florida faces as rising temperatures reshape its landscape too.”

The two artists, Peter Handler and Karen Singer, a husband-wife team, capture Alaska’s breathtaking natural beauty – Handler through photography and Singer through watercolor painting.   “To know what we want to save, we need to know what we savor,” observes Handler.

Both artists also portray how climate change is remaking Alaska.  Singer paints an aerial view of a raging wildfire, part of over 5,000,000 acres which burned in Alaska in summer 2015 after the hottest Alaskan spring in 91 years of record-keeping.  Handler’s ground level photograph shows firefighters standing in the smoldering ashes and thick smoke that caused outdoor activities in Fairbanks to be cancelled. “These artworks are especially poignant when so much of the southeastern U.S. is battling drought-induced wildfires,” said Dubrowski.

Both artists focus on how, as temperatures rise, thawing of the “permafrost” or frozen soil destabilizes the ground, causing trees to tilt or fall.

A Handler photograph shows a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers underground research facility normally open only to research scientists. The “permafrost tunnel” exposes frozen soil, bedrock, plant and animal fossils and bacteria accumulated over 40,000 years. Scientists study how climate changed here (evidenced by freezing and thawing) over 40,000 years and ponder how long permafrost can remain frozen as temperatures rise.

“We wanted to bear witness to climate change,” says Singer, “and to bring the lessons from Alaska home to other States while there is still time to act.”

Xavier Cortada’s exhibition focuses on Florida’s unique climate challenges. Art-science exhibits include “Do Not Open,” a participatory work aimed at connecting present-day South Florida residents and political refugees with future climate refugees, and eco-art restoration projects for Florida wildflowers and mangroves.

Local artist Michael Gray presents Phylum Floridian, drawings, paintings and monotype prints fusing Floridian species of animals with local human characters. Gray intended to “illustrate people as being not so different from the creatures we share this earth with.” He framed the artworks in discarded wood or thrift store frames, “a metaphor for how the everglades are currently being treated by our local and state governments.”

Honoring the Future is a nonprofit project which harnesses the power of art to educate, empower, and engage the public on climate change. We aim to build a better world for our children and grandchildren by creating resilient, environmentally responsible, “climate smART” communities.  Honoring the Future is a project of the Open Space Institute. www.honoringthefuture.org

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Please see last year’s press release and press here

El artista Xavier Cortada en su exposición de arte en el Milander Center, muestra su colección

El artista Xavier Cortada en su exposición de arte en el Milander Center, muestra su colección “CLIMA”, el viernes 11 de diciembre de 2015. C.M. GUERRERO

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