On Monday, March 4th, 2013, beginning at 5:45 p.m. Xavier Cortada will make a presentation about FLOR500 at the South Regional Library, 8065 Lely Cultural Parkway and dedicate a FLOR garden onsite.

FLOR500s a participatory art, nature, and history project created by Miami artist Xavier Cortada to commemorate Florida’s quincentennial in 2013. The project marks the importance of the moment when the history of our state changed forever and gives us a glimpse of what its landscape was like 500 years ago.

Five hundred Floridians are being invited to depict 500 native wildflowers – the same ones that grew in our state when Juan Ponce de Leon landed in 1513 and named it “La Florida”–from “flor,” the Spanish word for flower. The artwork, along with information about each flower, is being posted on the project website (www.FLOR500.com).

After his FLOR500 presentation, Cortada will invite participants to transform his original drawing of a Florida wildflower on exhibit at the library into 100 living gardens. His drawing was cut into 100 tiled pieces; each tile comes with a packet of Florida wildflower seeds.  Participants are asked to take the drawing and seeds home and plant a garden dedicated to a Floridian that is special to them.  In the process not only will they pay tribute to someone special in their lives, but they will also help improve Florida’s biodiversity by growing native plants.

Cortada serves as Artist-in-Residence at Florida International University’s College of Architecture and The Arts.

Joining Cortada will be Ray Hernandez and 18 other artists from Southwest Florida who have contributed original art works for the FLOR 500 project.  Their work will be on exhibit.

For directions or information call 239-252-7542 or visit www.colliergov.net/library.