'Art or Porn' Controversy...

Revealing Controversy Surrounds Art Basel Exhibit....MIAMI (CBS4) ―

December 3-An art display that's part of Art Basel is turning a lot of heads and raising the hackles of some people who walk by the display. The bare facts are that the exhibit is in a gallery window on Flagler Street and it's causing some to debate the naked truth of the meaning of art.
More-Full Story and video of the 'Controversy' over Eurydice's artworks...

Hip Hop Movie Screening and More!

ARTOCONECTO...PLUG IN PRESENTS:
CALENDAR OF UPCOMING EVENTS IN DOWNTOWN MIAMI. 2 WEST FLAGLER ST AND MIAMI AVENUE.
A-B(o)MB II Exhibition open to the public from Tuesday thru Saturday from 11 to 7



DECEMBER 16
PRESERVING ARCHIVING AND TEACHING HIP HOP HISTORY. FILM BY DAN PEREZ.
HOSTED BY: BRIMSTONE
SEE EVITE ABOVE FOR MORE INFORMATION.



DECEMBER 17
MEET AND GREET YOUR NEIGHBORS
HOSTED BY MIAMI BUSINESS PARTNERSHIP, DOWNTOWNMIAMI.COM AND ARTOCONECTO...PLUG IN
FOR RSVP PLEASE SEND E-MAIL TO ARTOCONECTO@GMAIL.COM


DECEMBER 19
KIDSART. Arts workshop event for children. FOR MORE INFORMATION E-MAIL US AT ARTOCONECTO@GMAIL.COM

DECEMBER 10, 11, 12
MIAMI MUSIC FESTIVAL 27 VENUES IN THE DOWNTOWN AND BRICKELL AREAS ARE PARTICIPATING. 7 TO 8 HALF PRICED DRINKS AND FREE CONCERT ENTRY

DWNTWN's Only Pop-Up Gallery for Basel on the Big Screen!

A-B(o)MB Drops on Black Friday!

Artoconecto Announces

'A-B(o)MB II: The Fallout'

The DWNTWN Basel/Miami

Satellite Art Fair
Artoconecto presents a VIP Sneak Preview of 'A-B(o)MB II (Art Basel (off) Miami Beach): The Fallout, a juried show of emerging national and international artists, on Friday, November 27, 2009, from 6-10PM, featuring a live performance by selected artist Gregorio Boscan, who will premiere ACQUA a site specific installation designed for the exhibition. There will be also be complimentary cocktails and hors d’oeuvres kindly provided by some of the hottest new spots in Downtown Miami. This will be an RSVP-only sneak preview event, in anticipation of the official Opening Reception, on November 28th, from 7-11PM, which will also feature the opening of the Oolite Visual Arts Showcase, Miami artists under 30. A-B(o)MB II will take place at the legendary Macy’s corner, 2 West Flagler Street NW, Miami, Florida, with the generous support of Macy’s and DWNTWN, and will present an exciting calendar of arts and cultural events that will run through the month of December in the heart of Downtown Miami.
'The Fallout' is Artoconecto's first satellite show in conjunction with Basel/Miami, and will be held at Macy's/Burdine's historic Flagler Street during Basel week. The jury includes artists Gregory de la Haba (NYC), Clifton Childree (Miami), and Christina Pettersson (Sweden/Miami), giving artists a true voice in the selection process.
This will be our second show in Miami, after over a dozen shows in Washington, DC, where Artoconecto was a National Endowment for the Arts Grantee. Artoconecto was awarded a grant from DWNTWN (Downtown Development Authority) for A-B(o)MB II: The Fallout, after receiving grants this year from Miami-Dade Cultural Affairs, for KIDSART, an arts program for children, and from the Miami Beach Chamber of Commerce for the Borscht Film Festival. According to Executive Director Alexandra Rangel, "Miami’s Downtown has evolved from a bustling business core to an international entertainment destination. Casual and upscale dining, lounges, nightclubs and music venues have created an excitement around Flagler Street, Downtown’s traditional ‘Main Street’. Arts venues are the latest addition, adding a cultural layer to an already thriving mosaic. ‘A-B(o)MB II: The Fallout’ will present the best that Downtown has to offer through a month-long celebration of the arts."

For more information or to RSVP, please contact Alexandra Rangel at Artoconecto@gmail.com or call at 786-246-2052.

A-B(o)MB to Examine 'Sense of Place'

ABOMB II: THE FALLOUT, will explore the dialogue that continues to evolve around the perception of place-internally, externally, and wherever the two intersect. Today's 'American Dream' has its own surreal waking life in art. With its dangerously twisting highways, the American narrative seems to have been building to a booming crescendo, only to end with a flatliner. Or as Texas-born sculptor Joel Ross famously said, "Everything I’m thinking about right now falls under an umbrella of examining a f**ked up place called America." In Miami, a city perhaps more truly American than any other, where the curvilinear skyscrapers with ocean views and thirty-foot balconies mock the more earthbound among us, we are challenged every day to make art out of America. The big question is, will there be a real narrative, one that is pieced together from those bold enough to risk poking their fingers into the whirling machine to remove some tiny, gritty granules of truth?

Highlighting The Jury

Gregory de la Haba

"There are few buttons that Gregory de la Haba's work does not push, few boundaries it does not transgress, few sacred cows and fewer horses it does not upend. The New York City-based artist and provocateur's wild hell-ride of a sculptural installation, Between Nothingness and Paradise, is a sprawling critique of politics, gender, and sexuality, cloaked in the mantle of old-school artistic swagger. To behold the dramatically posed, erotically assertive taxidermic equines at the heart of this formally and conceptually formidable installation is to be awed, attracted, repulsed, intrigued, piqued, and struck plain dumb."

for the full essay by Richard Speer http://delahaba.com/dlh_catalogue_essay.html

Gregory de la Haba and his work were the most talked-about sensation at last year's Art Basel/Miami Beach, with major pieces in both the Miami Herald and the Miami New Times. Gregory is a NYC-based artist, who has long been recognized as an exemplary practitioner of the more traditional asthetics of fine art; accolades and honors have come regionally and internationally and have firmly established the artist as a brilliant draftsman who proceeds with an acute conceptual edge. A cum laude graduate of Harvard University, as well as a star pupil at the Museum School of Fine Arts in Boston, MA; La Universidad del Sacrado Corazon in Santurce, PR; and Artes Plasticas in San Juan, PR, de la Haba's work has been displayed from the giant billboards of Times Square, to Caeser's Palace; and is in many private collections, including The New York Historical Society's permanent collection.

http://www.delahaba.com/

Clifton Childree

Miami resident Clifton Childree is a filmmaker/artist who in 2003 completed his six-year solo feature film project, The Flew, which Cashiers Du Cinemart Magazine named as one of the top 50 Midnight Movies made in the last ten years. In 2004 Childree received the South Florida Cultural Consortium Fellowship and presented an installation of The Flew at the Miami Art Museum. His recent projects include She Sank on Shallow Bank, a stop-motion animated/live action dance film, Something Awful, a slapstick comedy/gore film co-commissioned by the Miami Performing Arts Center and the Miami Light Project for their 2006 Here and Now Festival and It Gets Worse made with funding from his 2007 Legal Art Native Seeds Grant. Childree is a featured artist in the book Miami Contemporary Artists. Childree was the first recipient of the Hilger Artist Project Award and in September 2008 after working for 2 months installing at Locust Projects in Miami, presented his life-sized amusement park installation, Dream-Cum-Tru.

His films have been screened at dozens of national and international film festivals, as well as museums and galleries, and have won numerous accolades.

http://www.cliftonchildree.com/

Photo courtesy David Goldman/The New York Times. Arts Section-Front Page

{At New York's Armory Show, there are also special commissioned projects like the Miami artist Clifton Childree’s 'Miamuh Swamp Adventure'-at Pulse Art Fair- a rickety installation resembling a rotting silent-movie theater. Inside is a film about Miami real estate scams at the end of the 19th century.}

(March 6, 2009)

Christina Pettersson


{Self-Portrait}

The multi-talented and captivating artist Christina Pettersson was born in 1976 in Stockholm, Sweden and currently lives in Miami, Florida. She has been published multiple times in New American Paintings and Manifest Drawing, and was the most recent Miami Herald Art Basel Competition Winner. Her latest video was chosen for the Museum of Contemporary Art's Optic Nerve XI show. She works primarily in drawing, and also creates video and installation.

"I am examining the notion of self as an evocation of the whole of one's history, not as one lives it in acts of circumstance, but as one's imagination creates it, in the mind and passions. Reality is not simply the world as it exists outside our minds but the product of the imagination as it shapes the world. Because it is constantly changing as we attempt to find imaginatively satisfying ways to perceive the world, reality is an activity, not a static object. We put together parts of ourselves in an attempt to make it seem coherent. To make sense of the world is thus to construct a world view of ourselves thru an active exercise of the imagination....In the end this work achieves what memory and the body cannot, a kind of immortality."

In 2006 she was awarded the South Florida Cultural Consortium Fellowship. In 1999 she returned to her native Sweden as a Fulbright Scholar, attending the Valand School of Fine Arts in Gothenburg. In 1997 Pettersson studied at the Studio Arts Center International in Florence, Italy as part of the study abroad program of the Maryland Institute, College of Art, where she graduated Magna Cum Laude in 1998. Among other grants and awards she received a graduate grant from the School of the Art Institute, Chicago in 1999 and a grant in painting from the Vermont Studio Center in 2008. Christina is in the permanent collections of Martin Z. Margulies at the Warehouse, Miami, FL, Marty & Cricket Taplin at the Sagamore Hotel, Miami, FL, and the Birmingham Museum of Art. Christina has exhibited work at the NADA, PULSE, SCOPE and Chicago Art Fairs, Museum of Contemporary Art in Miami, Birmingham Museum of Art, AL, Baltimore Museum of Art, MD, Rocket Projects, Miami, FL, Carol Jazzar Contemporary Art, Miami,FL, Farside Gallery, Miami, FL, Gallery Geskel, Gothenburg, Sweden, Ayer Lofts Gallery, Lowell, MA, Brent Sikkema Gallery, New York, NY, SACI, Florence, Italy, and the von Liebig Art Center, Naples, FL. She is represented by Spinello Gallery in the Design District of Miami.

'We Are No Longer In The Land Of Kings', graphite on paper, 86"x68" (top)

Still from the MOCA-selected video, 'Legend' (bottom)

For a recent interview with Christina, see Miami Photo.

http://christinapettersson.com/home.html

http://www.spinellogallery.com/

Alexandra Rangel-Brody


Photo Credit: David Lachapelle

Alexandra Rangel arrived in Washington, DC from Venezuela nearly twenty years ago. Upon receiving her B.A. in Mass Media Art and Television Production, from the University of the District of Columbia in 1999, Alexandra began her journey in the pursuit of the perfect Art Show. While working as a producer for National Geographic, Alex realized that she was dissatisfied with the conservative culture of many of DC’s art galleries and the DC art scene in general; and she sensed that many of the people who wanted to see exciting art by new or upcoming artists, had no options in the DC area. She also understood that many emerging artists, who had a burning desire to show their work, did not have any venues in which to do so. She recognized that she would have to create a space, and Artoconecto was born.
A recipient of the prestigious City Arts Projects grant three years in a row, Alexandra turned Artoconecto from a small, Adams Morgan neighborhood art show, into one of the premier ‘underground’ art shows in Washington, DC. Fifteen shows later, many produced with the help of the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, as well as the National Endowment for the Arts, Artoconecto took a three-year hiatus, as Alex moved to Miami, FL, and, with husband Danny Brody, opened Stop Miami. This notorious Wynwood/Design District wine & tapas bar became a local hangout for all manner of creative types, including writers, artists, gallery owners, and collectors, and was a showcase for many local artists and musicians. When it was sold in 2007, Alex formed a partnership with Bakehouse Art Complex to help finance and produce their Wynwood Art Walk openings, culminating, last October, with Miami's first A-B(o)MB. With this year's 'A-B(o)MB II: The Fallout', she will be producing Artoconecto's first art fair concurrent with Art Basel/Miami Beach.

Alex is currently producing 'Arte Kultura', an international art and culture show, for Voice of America Television. She also created and launched the very successful KIDSART, a Saturday morning arts program for kids, this past summer in Miami. Her mission is to continue to nurture and support the creative process, development, and growth, of artists.

Artoconecto Announces Call For Artists For A-B(o)MB II: 'The Fallout', and The CCCV: Oolite Visual Arts Showcase!

Artoconecto presents 'A-B(o)MB II: The Fallout', the second annual juried show of emerging national and international artists that will run during Art Basel/Miami Beach, from opening night preview November 27th, through the month of December. Last year's A-B(o)MB (Art Basel (off) Miami Beach), drew almost 300 entries from around the world, and 39 artists saw their work exhibited at this wildly successful show, with many works sold. 'The Fallout' is Artoconecto's first satellite show in conjunction with Basel/Miami, and will be held at Macy's/Burdine's historic Flagler Street location in the heart of downtown Miami during Basel week. The jury includes artists Gregory de la Haba (NYC), Clifton Childree (Miami), and Christina Pettersson (Sweden/Miami), giving artists a true voice in the selection process. Jury Prize Winner(s) will be announced during Art Basel, with full media and Internet exposure given to all selected artists and their work. Artoconecto is also proud to present, in conjunction with 'The Fallout', The CCCV:Oolite Visual Arts Showcase, for Florida artists under 30, as part of the annual CCCV: Borscht Film Festival. For more info, please visit www.borscht.info or email visualartsubmission@borscht.info



ABOMB II: THE FALLOUT, will explore the dialogue that continues to evolve around the perception of place-internally, externally, and wherever the two intersect. Today's 'American Dream' has its own surreal waking life in art. With its dangerously twisting highways, the American narrative seems to have been building to a booming crescendo, only to end with a flatliner. Or as Texas-born sculptor Joel Ross famously said, "Everything I’m thinking about right now falls under an umbrella of examining a f**ked up place called America." In Miami, a city perhaps more truly American than any other, where the curvilinear skyscrapers with ocean views and thirty-foot balconies mock the more earthbound among us, we are challenged every day to make art out of America. The big question is, will there be a real narrative, one that is pieced together from those bold enough to risk poking their fingers into the whirling machine to remove some tiny, gritty granules of truth?


Artists in all media are encouraged to apply, and we are also accepting proposals for a site-specific piece. Our shows take place in a festive and unique atmosphere, and include live music and performance. This will be our second annual show in Miami, after over a dozen shows in Washington, DC, where Artoconecto was a National Endowment for the Arts Grantee.


Deadline for submissions has been extended to October 30, 2009, with the opening reception to be held on November 28, 2009. The show will run through December.


Contact: Danny Brody
Media Relations
786-246-2047

Alexandra Rangel
Executive Director
artoconecto@gmail.com


Artoconecto…plug in

A-B(0)MB II: The Fallout...Guidelines and Entry Form

Artoconecto presents the Explosive 'A-B(o)MB II-The Fallout'
Art Basel (off) Miami Beach:In the Heart of Downtown Miami!

Artoconecto, the dynamic arts non-profit based in Miami, FL, presents a sequel to last year's wildly successful A-B(o)MB, Art Basel (off) Miami Beach. 'A-B(o)MB II: The Fallout', is an internationally-juried showcase of new and emerging local, national, and international artists, located in the heart of Downtown Miami, during Art Basel/Miami Beach. Open to all artists working in all media, this exhibition is devoted to the discovery and introduction of cutting-edge visual and performance art, and will feature Recent Works by each artist represented, as well as site-specific pieces created for this exhibition. The jury includes artists Gregory de la Haba (NYC), Clifton Childree (Miami), and Christina Pettersson (Sweden/Miami). The opening preview reception will be held on November 28, 2009, and the show will run through December, 2009. This exciting show is presented by Artoconecto, a federally-recognized 501(c)3 arts non-profit, and a National Endowment for the Arts grantee in 2001-2003 in Washington, DC.

CD/DVD'S ALLOWED FOR SUBMISSION: Submit CD/DVD'S, labeled with artist’s name, title of work (if untitled please number), media, and dimensions of work. Indicate top of work on abstract work. Self-addressed stamped envelope must be included with sufficient postage for the return of CD/DVD'S. CD/DVD'S will be returned within 30 days of show opening. Entries without a SASE will not be returned. All other formats will be considered on a case-by-case basis. Entries may also be submitted electronically, to Artoconecto@gmail.com, accompanied by completed entry form and handling fee.

SITE-SPECIFIC WORK FOR A-B(o)MB II: The Fallout: Artists are encouraged to submit a proposal for a site-specific piece for this show. This is considered a separate entry, with a separate entry fee.

FEES: There is a $40.00 handling fee per entry for up to five images. Additional images are $5.00/each. Payment must be made by check or money order in dollars, payable to ARTOCONECTO, or may be made online at Artoconecto.org.

AWARDS: Jury Winner (or Winners) will be announced during Art Basel Miami Beach 2009, one of the most important international art fairs in the world. Full media and Internet exposure will be given to all selected artists and their work.

TERMS: Artoconecto encourages sales to the public and will charge a 25% commission on all work sold during the exhibition. Be sure to price your work accordingly. All work must be framed and suitable for hanging. 3-Dimensional work must be accompanied by a pedestal or stand.

LIABILITY: Artists are responsible for shipping and insuring their own work. Artoconecto will handle all work with extreme care. However, Artoconecto assumes no responsibility for damage or theft. Shipped work must be insured. All claims for works damaged in shipment are the responsibility of the artist and the shipper. Artists whose works are not sold will be financially responsible for arranging the return of their work. Artoconecto will send accepted artists detailed instructions on shipment and return of works. A pick-up date for artists in the Miami area will be assigned. Artoconecto will not be responsible for unclaimed artwork after assigned date.

DEADLINE: The final postmarked deadline has been extended to October 30, 2009. Entries must be postmarked by this date. Artists will be notified within two weeks.

{PLEASE PRINT]
ENTRY FORM
Name Telephone
Address email
City State Zip
Image List: please number images, and list title, medium, dimensions, and price below.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
SUBMIT BY MAIL OR ELECTRONICALLY, BY OCTOBER 23RD, THE FOLLOWING :
IMAGES, SIGNED ENTRY FORM, SASE, ENTRY FEE
MAIL COMPLETED APPLICATION TO:
ARTOCONECTO 941 NE 84th St, Miami, FL 33138
WE ENCOURAGE YOU TO EMAIL US TO RECEIVE MORE INFORMATION
Artoconecto@gmail.com
Submitting an entry form constitutes an agreement on the part of the artist with all of the conditions in this prospectus.
_______________________________________
(signed)

Miami Herald Lauds KIDSART!

Artoconecto to offer free art program for children throughout Miami-Dade

KIDSART, a new art program by Artoconecto, will bring out the inner artists in kids ages 7-13 -- and it won't cost a thing.

BY PATRICIA GONZALEZ

Special to The Miami Herald

Painting a color-by-number mural, decorating bottles to be hung on a tree and making a giant collage of family photos. These are some of the activities offered in a free art program for kids that takes place this summer.....more

Artoconecto Awarded Grant for KIDSART!

Artoconecto, the dynamic Miami arts non-profit, has been awarded a Community Grant from the Miami-Dade County Dept. of Cultural Affairs, to help launch KIDSART, a Saturday morning arts program where children ages 7-13 will visit artists' studios to attend workshops led by the artists themselves. Each week the children will be given a community-oriented theme, like recycling, or diversity, and guided through arts projects correlating to those themes, culminating in a public exhibition. "We are very excited to begin KIDSART, especially now, at a time when arts programming has been cut back so severely in our public schools," said Alexandra Rangel-Brody, executive Director of Artoconecto. "We are also very excited to partner with national volunteer group, City Year, and we hope to add the arts as an additional component to their current mentoring programs in our schools."


Artoconecto is actively looking to partner with local artists who would like to share their studio space one Saturday morning, giving kids an opportunity to experience the artist's working environment. Any artist that wishes to participate can contact Artoconecto. The workshops will be followed by lunch, sponsored by World Resources Cafe on Lincoln Road, which will allow the children to interact informally with the artists and each other. Art supplies and materials generously donated by Utrecht Art Supplies; photo services by Tropicolor. Additional sponsors, as well as matching funds for the Miami-Dade grant, are being actively pursued as well.

KIDSART will include a partnership with 'City Year', the national service organization already working in 8 Miami-Dade public schools, who will have senior corps members attend the workshops and also write evaluations of the program for Miami-Dade, Artoconecto, and for the potential inclusion of KIDSART in their own volunteer programs. KIDSART will take place for five Saturday mornings from July 18th through August 15th, and culminate on September 12, 2009, when the participants will experience the Second Saturday Art Walk with a public exhibition of their creations.
KIDSART BLOG Coming Soon!
For more info and registration forms, please contact:
Danny Brody
Community Relations
artoconecto@gmail.com
786.246.2047

KIDSART made possible through the support of the Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs and the Cultural Affairs Council, the Miami-Dade County Mayor and Board of County Commissioners

PLAYWRIGHT COMPETITION

ARTOCONECTO ANNOUNCES: 

DON'T MISS THIS OPPORTUNITY

FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION, GUIDELINES AND PRIZES GO TO:

For more information, please contact:

Ana Nuchowich

General Producer of the Hispano-American Playwriting Competition

E-mail address: TEATROBID@iadb.org

Or visit our website: www.teatrobid.org

e) We will not accept phone inquiries or scripts sent by e-mail.

THE HISPANO-AMERICAN

PLAYWRITING COMPETITION

In celebration of the

Fiftieth Anniversary of the IDB

The “Bárbara Simon” Theater Club of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) Staff Association invites playwrights to participate in the Hispano-American Playwriting Competition in celebration of the Fiftieth Anniversary of the IDB. The IDB Staff Association is an organization that represents employees

of the IDB. One of its purposes is to promote their wellbeing through social, cultural, sports, and recreational activities.  Contemporary Hispano-American playwrights have an arduous task in convincing theaters to premiere

their plays. This is where literary competitions play a crucial role: by endorsing the quality of a playwright, they create an opportunity that has the potential to advance his or her artistic career. The public has the

final word, deciding the fate of the playwright’s work by either accepting or rejecting it, but first, the curtain must rise. Competitions today are an important door to the stage for playwrights.

To participate in the competition, authors may choose one of the following categories:

a) Great Hispano-American Comedy for a minimum of seven characters (Written in Spanish)

b) Hispanos in the U.S.A., pero without stereotypes (Written in Spanish, English, or “Spanglish”)

c) Children’s Theater (Written in Spanish)

Participation in the competition is open to native citizens or foreigners with proof of more than five years

of residence in any of the IDB member countries:

Argentina, Austria, the Bahamas, Barbados, Belgium, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Croatia, Denmark, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Finland, France, Germany, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Mexico, the Netherlands, Nicaragua, Norway, Panama, Paraguay, the People’s Republic of China, Peru, Portugal, the Republic of Korea, Slovenia, Spain, Suriname, Sweden, Switzerland, Trinidad and Tobago, the United Kingdom, the United States of America, Uruguay, and Venezuela.

ARTOCONECTO ANNOUNCES

Artoconecto is excited to announce the opening of the Miami World Cinema Center. We recently created a partnership with the Borscht Film Festival, for which we obtained a grant from the Miami Beach Chamber of Commerce.  Artoconecto, in conjunction with the Borscht's Visual Arts Committee will oversee the visual arts aspect of the Festival.  We are currently accepting donations. For more information please contact us at artoconecto@gmail.com.

Press release

Miami, Florida – On December 1st, 2008, the John S. and James L. Foundation recognized the Miami World Cinema Center (MWCC) as one of the 31 recipients of the Knights Arts Challenge Grant with a matching-funds grant of $750,000 over four years. Out of 1,643 entries, Patrick de Bokay – Former Director of the Miami International Film Festival – and University of Miami graduates Josh Miller and Sam Rega, directors of the documentary Miami Noir: The Arthur Teele Story, proposed to create a hub for creative talent in filmmaking and promote local production. Today, after much research and planning, the Miami World Cinema Center inaugurates its new offices in Wynwood, Miami„s newest up-and-coming arts district. As the first non-profit film studio in Miami, MWCC‟s mission is to provide tools for filmmakers and ensure an increased production of high quality films. In order to achieve these goals, MWCC has assembled a Board of Directors comprised of established professionals in the industry with ties to Miami. Their role is to ensure that MWCC will fulfill its mission with the strongest support and guidance. The members are: South Florida resident David Frankel, director of films such as Marley & Me and The Devil Wears Prada, Ben Odell, Partner and Head of Production for Miami based feature film company Panamax, Sam Grogg, Dean of University of Miami School of Communication, Deborah Liebling, President of Production at Fox Atomic and Steve Krams, President and CEO of Continental Film and Digital Labs. “Miami is a young emerging metropolis with about 100 years of film history and plenty of creative artistic talent. Since films only exist because of creative artistic talent, our mission is to find it and facilitate the filmmaking process”, said de Bokay, CEO of Miami World Cinema Center. “We are delighted to have such a distinguished group of professionals on our board of directors. We hope that MWCC will be the catalyst for the South Florida industry to become compact and cohesive.” 

The MWCC lot welcomes the Borscht Film Festival, a yearly event held at iconic Miami venues showcasing the work of local filmmakers under the age of 30 who specialize in telling Miami stories that go beyond the typical portrayal of the city. MWCC and Borscht have teamed to transform the underground festival‟s fifth year into one of national recognition. This year‟s festival unites acclaimed local directors with Miami‟s top emerging talent in the creation of Miami-centric films. 

Robert F. Merton's 'Temperatures' Coming to Miami!

ROBERT F. MERTON’S 'TEMPERATURES' 

 

Artoconecto is excited to present painter Robert F. Merton’s first solo exhibition ‘Temperatures’, on Thursday, April 9, 2009, for a sneak VIP preview, followed by an exhibition open to the public on Saturday, April 11, at The Buena Vista Building in Miami’s Design District. The painter, who resides in the colder climes of New England, in the seaside village of Cohasset, will unveil his exciting new work in the tropical climate of Miami, where his work has received considerable early attention. His vibrant work, like his family name, demands historical perspective-his grandfather, Robert K. Merton, was a groundbreaking sociologist, who coined terms like 'self-fulfilling prophecy', and 'unintended consequences'. His father, Robert C. Merton, won a Nobel Prize in economics in 1997 for his work on a new method to determine the value of derivatives. And his own study of 15th-17th century European history, when a human-powered economy evolved into a mechanized economy (and a mechanized society), has influenced his understanding of the transitions through whi ch society and its members must evolve. "The transition period is what interests me," says Merton. "We are in an era of change, and we must embrace that."

Perhaps the natural progression of generations, from preeminent sociologist, to Nobel Prize winner, to visual artist, to whatever the future may bring for the youngest Merton, his son, Robert A. Merton, not only defines Robert F. Merton's work, but bestows upon it its enduring resonance. "Not everything has an immediate 'cause and effect'. But everything in the past has an effect on the present." Through his exacting work he alludes to the creative sweep of time; but Merton remains firmly rooted in the present, while acknowledging the ever-evolving and challenging journey towards our future.

 

Artoconecto, the dynamic arts non-profit based in Miami is adding a new layer to its mission statement of promoting emerging artists with Robert F. Merton’s Temperatures, by providing one artist with the tools to prepare for their first solo exhibition. “We would like to be able to create the first solo show for artists whose work we believe in; and who also have the drive, the talent and completed works ready to exhibit, but have not yet been approached or selected by a commercial gallery”, says Alexandra Rangel-Brody, Executive Director of Artoconecto, which has been operating since 1999 in Washington, D.C.

Robert F. Merton’s Temperatures is made possible by the generous support of Ms. Cosette Alves, President and Chairperson of the Board of Trustees of The Inter-American Culture and Development Foundation and the support of Dacra. For more information, please visit:

www.robertfmerton.com

When: VIP reception, Thursday, April 9. Second Saturday opening, April 11
Where: The Buena Vista Building, 180 NE 39th Street, Gallery 120, Miami, Fl, 33137
Private viewing: by appointment only.

Ends: Thursday, April 30

Contact: Alexandra R. Brody

R.S.V.P:  (786) -246-2052

artoconecto@gmail.com

www.robertfmerton.com

www.artoconecto.org