Will Ryman "Icon." Courtesy Paul Kasmin Gallery

We have hit the peak cultural season in South Florida. There is so much going on, most people will only be able to catch a fraction, from theater, dance, music and visual arts. Another round of Second Saturdays art openings is around the corner, as is the inaugural Art Wynwood, taking place at the Art Miami pavilion in Midtown.

Ryman "Encore." Courtesy Paul Kasmin Gallery

But unlike the rest of the country, we also have glorious weather right now, which is why a combined art and nature trip to Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden (A Knight Arts grantee) is the perfect February outing. During Art Basel Miami Beach, Fairchild installed Will Ryman sculptures throughout the park. Based on his Roses on Park Avenue in New York City, which debuted in January 2011, Ryman — who has serious artistic pedigree from his mother and father — created flower and insect sculptures. For instance, there are some large-scale brass and stainless steel bees crawling around, along with some giant ants. But the dominant pieces are the primary-colored roses, in deep blue, crimson red, matte yellow.

These are lovely, complementary pieces, but there is more to them than that. A rose is, of course, loaded with symbolism — but Ryman realized that like so much else in our hyper-commercialized society, symbols such as the romantic rose lose their power when over-stretched and over-exposed, which is why he initially put up his sculptures on an avenue, Park Avenue, synonymous with consumption and indulgence. Take in these massive sculptures as heavy or light as you want — the experience of art and Fairchild in winter is without compare.

“Will Ryman at Fairchild” will remain up until May 31, 10901 Old Cutler Road, Coral Gables; 305-667-1651.

Miami Light Project’s (MLP) Here and Now 2012 program opens tonight at The Light Box at Goldman Warehouse with commissioned works by a diverse group of South Florida-based performing and multimedia artists. The unifying theme of Here and Now 2012, which includes the use of 3-D mapping technology, a glimpse into terror and nightmares, the nightmare of plastic surgery, live video feeds and spoken word, tells the story of the absurd beauty of human nature.

Natasha Tsakos.

Here & Now 2012 also tells the story of South Florida’s emerging and ever-evolving performing and multimedia arts scene — a scene that is, in part, the result of Miami Light Project’s (a Knight Arts grantee) investment in South Florida-based artists. Since Here and Now’s founding in 1999, more than 70 South Florida artists have been commissioned to create works that have added to the region’s cultural DNA.

“Here & Now is the MLP program that is nearest and dearest to our hearts,” says Rebekah Lengel, managing producer of Miami Light Project. “And this year we received more than 30 applications for this nationally recognized program, and we believe that the artists commissioned for Here and Now 2012, Luis Alberto Cuevas, Ivonne Batanero, Carlota Pradera & Priscilla Marrero and Natasha Tsakos, are among the most promising performing artists working in Miami today.”

For the first time, Here and Now will be held at the Goldman Warehouse. The commissioned artists have had the chance to actually rehearse in the same space where they’ll perform. “This is a tremendous benefit [for the artists],” Lengel says. “They have been able to draw inspiration from the rope curtains, poles and every other part of the space; coming up with interesting entry and exit points for their work and lighting options.”

Miami Light Project’s role in the development of Miami’s cultural landscape, through Here and Now, is significant. We’re not just the host for Art Basel. Every day, in countless ways, in countless places, art is conceived of and created in Wynwood warehouses, apartment studios and in the hearts and minds of artists as they make their way through the city.

“Having the Here & Now artists here on a daily basis for rehearsals has brought an incredible feeling to the building,” Lengel says. “For the past 7 to 8 months art has not just been presented here but is created on a daily basis. The creativity that these daily rehearsals bring to the Light Box has made it an inspiring place to work. Miami is establishing itself as a very real place for art and culture.”

I agree. Art is real, and it is thriving in Miami. And it is Here & Now through Feb. 11 at the Light Box at Goldman Warehouse.

Here and Now: 2012, A Knight Emerging Artists Series, February 2-11, 2012, Performances, Thursday-Saturday, 8 p.m., The Light Box at Goldman Warehouse, 404 N.W. 26 th St., Miami, Fla. 33127, Tickets: $20 general admission, $15 students & seniors, Group rates available. Tickets are available at miamilightproject.com or 866.811.4111.

Work by Rodolfo Sanchez Lalinde.

Mexican gallerist, curator and dealer Nina Torres has a new home on Biscayne Bay, a stunning waterfront art center on North Bayshore Drive opened up during Art Basel. Torres, for the most part, globetrots the world putting on shows and exhibiting at top fairs, focusing mostly on Latin American and especially Mexican contemporary art and masters. But she will also be putting on shows here in Miami.It wouldn’t be right to call the space a gallery, as the sprawling, shining venue is supposed to double as an event showroom for lectures, performances, dinners and art conventions. So the opening of “Monumental Exhibition: Here and Now” will be a bit more than a gallery show. Indoors, works from Eduardo Agelvis and Henry Bermudez of Venezuela and Jose Antonio Zarate of Spain will be highlighted, while outside the huge steel sculptures of Rodolfo Sanchez Lalinde of Colombia will be on display in Bayfront Park.

In fact, Torres is also creating a “Gallery Walk on the Bay,” which will start at the art center gallery, continue down Biscayne Boulevard, stopping at Marina Blue and ending at the park. This is no gritty Wynwood stroll, and also unlike that neighborhood, there are plenty of high-end restaurants in which to rest your feet, if that’s your thing.

“Monumental Exhibition: Here and Now” opens Feb. 3 and runs through March 30; “Monumental Sculptures” runs through March 30; and “Gallery Walk on the Bay” takes place on Feb. 11 from 6 to 9 p.m. Also, Torres unveiled the “Visual Gallery International Art Exhibition 2011″ online, as well. Nina Torres Fine Art, 1800 N. Bayshore Dr., Miami; www.ninatorresfineart.com.

By Janet Batet, Miami Arts Journalist

Next February 10, The Friends of the Miami-Dade Public Library will be hosting Miami Moments, its first annual fundraising event and under the suggestive title, The Three Graces, this inaugural evening will be dedicated to three exceptional women: Margarita Cano, Helen Kohen and Barbara Young, who for more than forty years have been passionately devoted to the development of the cultural life of our city.

Since the early sixties these three inspirational women has been involved in Miami’s artistic grown.

Barbara Young, Helen Kohen and Margarita Cano, photo by Rafael Salazar

After having working in the National Library, at Havana, Margarita Cano arrived to Miami in 1962. Her passion for culture and books lead her to join the team of the then emerging Public Library of Dade County. There, Cano created several crucial art programs and designed a program of exhibitions and acquisitions of works by local artists, that is pride of the institution today. Her foundational work went beyond the promotion of local talent, bringing itinerant exhibitions and making our Public Library part of the national network of libraries in the US.

Cano worked for many years with Art Librarian Barbara Young who continued to grow the library’s permanent collection and curated many exhibitions with new artists.

David Rohn, Untitled, 2012

Miami Herald Art Critic Hemeritus, Helen Kohen, worked at the mentioned newspaper as the sole art critic for over twenty years. Her clever and seminal writing marked tendencies and achievements of the arts in our city. In 2000, Kohen founded The Vasari Project, an archive of visual arts history in Miami, housed at the Main Library.

Named for the first art historian of Western Art History, Giorgio Vasari (1474-1511), The Vasari Project is the only collection of printed documents and other items that document the history of art in Miami from 1945 to the present.

Miami Moments will include a silent auction featuring works of world-renowned artists such as Ed Ruscha, Christo and Joseph Beuys along with selected Miami-based key artists, between them, Carlos Alfonzo, Fernando Garcia, Purvis Young, Robert Thiele and, Emilio Sanchez.

Michelle Weinberg, Untitled, 2012

One of the central events of the night will be the Contemporary Vasari Raffle, curated by local artist and promoter, Cesar Trasobares. Prominent artists based in South Florida are creating unique artworks on a page from an 1832 Italian edition of Vasari’s Lives of the Artists.

The Evening’s proceeds will benefit The Vasari Project and the Friends of the Miami-Dade Public Library.

We all think we know the spunky English girl who falls down a rabbit hole and emerges in a trippy dream world. Fernando Calzadilla, who co-wrote an adaptation of Lewis Carroll’s classic English fairy tale “Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland” with Stephanie Ansin, agrees that the actor is “an athlete of the emotions.” “Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland” at The PlayGround Theatre, a Knight Arts grantee, will feature Linda Bernhard and Marjorie O’Neill-Butler  — both are original cast members from last year’s performance. Joining this year’s production is Emily Batsford, Josh Carpenter, Jeremy Greenbaum, Makeba Pace, Troy Davidson, Edson Jean and Nikki Lowe.

"Alice's Adventures in Wonderland."

This Alice and her Wonderland promises to be more multifaceted than the Disney story, the adaptation with which so many of us are familiar. The play, directed by Ansin and designed by Calzadilla, exploits video projection throughout the production to expand the stage in ways traditional theatre cannot, adding to the intensity of Alice’s trip from humdrum reality to a shifting dream world. To complete this modern adaptation, Ansin and Calzadilla utilize contemporary costumes, sounds and objects to create a thoroughly metropolitan feel that should excite audience members.

It is also worth noting here that Calzadilla is a practioner of RasaBoxes, which “trains participants to physically express eight key emotions first identified in the Natyasastra, a Sanskrit text dealing with theatre, dance and music.” Put in layman’s term, RasaBoxes helps practitioners to access emotions, communicate with others and leave those same emotions behind when they are detrimental to the acting. Calzadilla will offer an intensive workshop where participants will learn how to apply RasaBoxes technique to their own work. The performance techniques learned will prepare participants to fully enter RasaBoxes. The best part about the workshop? Participants are invited to wear comfortable clothing, like string pants, workout clothes or T-shirts. Because let’s be honest, exercising in a suit just looks tacky once the sweat stains begin to show.

Opens Wednesday, Feb. 1, 10 a.m. through Sunday, March 11 at The PlayGround Theatre, 9806 N.E. Second Ave., Miami Shores. Weekday performances (Tuesday-Friday) are at 10 a.m., Saturday performances at 7 p.m. and Sunday performances at 2pm.* Tickets are $20 per person, $10 for groups of 20+. Tickets may be purchased through The PlayGround Theatre box office by calling 305-751-9550, online at www.theplaygroundtheatre.com or through Ticketmaster at www.ticketmaster.com.

**The PlayGround Theatre has a Theatre Inclusion Program (TIP) Performance on Sunday, Feb. 26 at 2 p.m. “TIP brings the magic of live theatre to children and adults with disabilities” and is sign-interpreted and open-captioned with audio description available.

By Michael Knoll, South Florida Folklife Center, HistoryMiami

The South Florida Folklife Center (SFFC), a division of HistoryMiami, is pleased to announce the launch of the Heritage Spotlight series, an annual artist-in-residence program. The series showcases local traditional artists, cultural expressions, and the area’s diversity. Over the course of 2012, SFFC will feature three artists for three months each. Each artist will participate in public events (many of which will be free of charge), school programs, and other activities. It’s going to be a very busy year for us!

Bata drummer and drum maker Ezequiel Torres

We are please to welcome Ezequiel Torres as our artist-in-residence from January through March. Born in Havana, Cuba, he is a master drummer who specializes in the batá drum, a key instrument in the Afro-Cuban Orisha religion (sometimes referred to as Santería). In addition to performing at ceremonies, Ezequiel also makes batá drums and other instruments by hand. Recognized for his expertise, he received the 2008 Florida Folk Heritage Award and the 2010 National Heritage Fellowship, our nation’s highest honor in the folk and traditional arts. Ezequiel has lived in Miami since 1980.

Ezequiel’s public programs include:

• Discover Orisha Arts, Saturday, January 28 at 1 PM. Enjoy an informative performance of music and dance traditions related to the Afro-Cuban Orisha religion. Free and open to the public.
• Family Fun Day: Ritmos Cubanos: Azúcar!, Saturday, February 11 from 12 – 5 PM. Experience interactive drumming and dancing demonstrations, and participate in a Cuban-themed arts and crafts activity. Free and open to the public.
• Master Class: Afro-Cuban Batá Drumming, Sunday, March 25 from 1 – 2 PM. Are you a drummer? Want to try something new? Don’t miss this opportunity to learn from a master. Space is limited. Advance reservations and payment required. Contact folklife@historymiami.org or call 305-375-4590 to RSVP.

For more information about the Heritage Spotlight series, please visit http://www.historymiami.org/visit/south-florida-folklife-center/heritage-spotlight/.

The series is funded in part by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, the State of Florida’s Division of Cultural Affairs, and the Florida Humanities Council. 

Tenor Dennis Petersen sings Schubert at The Betsy on Saturday night.

Classical music concerts haven’t always been in big, imposing halls with sound baffles, ushers and clearly marked exits.

Like music of every kind down to the present day, much of it was written for intimate settings, such as a modest home or a small coffeehouse. Tomorrow night, the Miami Beach hotel The Betsy is holding the second of its classical music salons in its B Bar lounge, featuring tenor Dennis Petersen and pianist Alan Johnson of the University of Miami.

“A lot of music was written for salon performances, with music as a tool to connect people,” said Deborah Briggs, vice president for philanthropy and programs at the Ocean Drive hotel. “At The Betsy, we’re really focused on creating an environment for people who are interested in the things that matter to them. And music is one of the ways we do it.”

Other ways include the poetry library in the lobbies, as well as libraries in each room, she said.

“So we have a classical music series because a lot of our guests are interested in it. And our target audience is 25 or 50 people in the lobby salon that want to sit down and see a world-class artist perform up close and personal,” Briggs said.

Petersen, a singer whose credits include the Metropolitan Opera, Chicago’s Lyric Opera, Florida Grand Opera and the Spoleto festivals, will perform the first half of Franz Schubert’s great song cycle “Die Winterreise” (D. 911). A haunting, and ultimately tragic, cycle, it is sung by a jilted lover who sets out on a winter journey, trying to get over his grief.

Petersen said he and Johnson, old friends from New York days, have long wanted to do concerts together and had not yet performed “Die Winterreise,” but it seemed like an excellent fit for the salon.

“Schubert wrote the first 12 of the 24 songs as a piece, because he had run across these 12 songs [by Wilhelm Müller] in a collection and thought that was the entire cycle of poetry and then discovered later that there were 12 more pieces,” Petersen said. “So we thought that given the intimacy of the space and the time allotment, that the first half would be perfect to do.”

After the Schubert, Petersen will sing two opera favorites of the tenor repertoire: “E lucevan le stelle,” from Puccini’s “Tosca,” and “Vesti la giubba,” one of the most famous of all such pieces, from Ruggero Leoncavallo’s “Pagliacci.”

“It’s wonderful for Alan and me, having just done a concert in Gusman, which is a 600-seat concert hall, and then come here to a more intimate setting, it will be a really interesting experience for us as well,” Petersen said.

Briggs said the concerts, which are free to the public, are somewhat reminiscent of the Knight Foundation’s Random Acts of Culture in that the music begins to take place in an unlikely venue and then proves too compelling to ignore.

She said she makes a point of telling the guests they’re about to be treated to a concert.

“It’s like a little magnet. We have [Laurent Tourondel’s] BLT restaurant right in our lobby, so people are coming in to have a steak, and then I go around and explain to them what’s going on, and it’s like a magnet,” she said. “By the end of it, the lobby is filled up and people are just intrigued by it.”

Petersen pointed out that the songs of “Die Winterreise” were first heard by the composer sung by his friend Johann Michael Vogl, who championed Schubert’s work.

“He sang it for him first in his apartments. And the concert halls, because of the conservative religious atmosphere of the time, were all closed down,” Petersen said. “So the salons were the only place you could go for music and poetry. That was the preferred atmosphere.”

Other song cycles would work well for The Betsy, too, Petersen said such as Schumann’s “Dichterliebe,” a beautiful collection of songs about a poet’s love and suffering, very much in the vein of not just Schubert but the Romantic era.

The future holds more such collaborations, especially with the universities, for The Betsy, Briggs said, which will be the host hotel for the judges of the 12th Murray Dranoff Two-Piano competition in 2013. The Dranoff will sponsor future concerts there, and the Amernet String Quartet, which opened the salons last week, will return for another concert with a new piece in tow.

Peterson and Johnson will perform at 6 p.m. tomorrow in the hotel at 1440 Ocean Drive on South Beach.

Here’s the German tenor Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, with the pianist Alfred Brendel, in “Der Lindenbaum (The Linden Tree),” the fifth song of “Die Winterreise’s” first half, to help set the mood.

"Why Patterns & RECESS" at Arsht Center.

Miami native and now New York-based artist Daniel Arsham is having a pretty good week nationally, as works that reveal his broad reach into artistic exploration will be on show from coast to coast. Arsham’s first Los Angeles solo show just opened up at OHWOW, “the fall, the ball, and the wall.” As has become his signature, Arsham involves architecture and spacial reconstructions and interventions in his innovative pieces (things often seem to protrude then recede in a subtle fashion, from walls and floors, although they may be in fact static).

OHWOW, it should be noted, as become a bit of an L.A. home away from home for current and former Miami artists, including Luis Gispert, Michael Genovese and, just recently, Bert Rodriguez.

Arsham's "Hiding Figure," OHWOW, Los Angeles.

Here in Miami, a performance/dance collaborative piece from Arsham and former Merce Cunningham dancer and media artist Jonah Bokaer will take over the stage at the Carnival Studio Theater of the Arsht Center ( a Knight grant recipient) this weekend for “Why Patterns & RECESS.” These two produced an earlier work last year at the Arsht and at MOCA, called “Replica,” for which most people thought the sets, from Arsham, were the true stars of the show.

So it may be with “Why Patterns” as well, although instead of deconstructing walls, the set-action will be instigated by a ping-pong ball. “The visual design emerges from a single ping-pong ball that is introduced into a frame on stage, initiating a series of choreographed games,” is how it is explained. “Unpredictable results trigger events that flood the stage with thousands of balls, which are manipulated by the movements of the dancers as the square frame is collapsed.”

“Why Patterns & RECESS” will be performed at 8 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 27, and at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 28; Arsht Center for the Performing Arts, 1300 Biscayne Blvd., Miami; arshtcenter.org.

Dream big South Florida – it’s almost time to send in your best ideas for the South Florida arts!

On Tuesday, Feb 21. the application period for the next round of the Knight Arts Challenge Miami will officially open. The challenge, now in its fifth year, is a community-wide contest to find the best ideas for the arts. It was created as a way to bring the South Florida community together through cultural opportunities.

We want you to inspire the community’s growing local arts scene. To submit a proposal, there are just three simple rules:

1. The idea must be about the arts.
2. The project must take place in or benefit South Florida.
3. You must find other funding to match the Knight Foundation grant.

Applications will be accepted until March 19, 2012 at KnightArts.org.

A live web chat on March 7 and town hall meeting on March 14 are scheduled for interested applicants. If you have questions about the challenge, be sure to follow @KnightArts on Twitter and use the hashtag #AskKnightArts. Last year, 31 ideas – many of them from small cultural groups – were selected as winners of the 2011 Knight Arts Challenge Miami and received $2.9 million in funding.

Looking to see what other kinds of projects we’ve funded in previous years? On KnightArts.org, you can browse previous challenge winners.

Miami is one of the two cities where Knight offers this challenge. Earlier this year, Knight announced the 2012 Knight Arts Challenge Philadelphia finalists. Its winners will be announced in April.

If you haven’t been to “Pulse” at the New World Symphony, you haven’t experienced one of the most exhilarating and energetic fusions of live electronica with classical music anywhere. For four hours last Friday night, the famed New World Center turned into a mega nightclub, a new age spacecraft, where a nebulae of lights and pulsating beats transformed the Center into an alternative universe — a universe where movers-and-shakers, classical music connoisseurs and club-goers met.

"Pulse." Photo by Neil de la Flor

“Pulse,” created by Mercury Soul’s Benjamin Shwartz, DJ Masonic and Anne Patterson, succeeds by presenting classical music to a generation more accustomed to house music than contemporary classical music. It’s where the Music Winter Conference meets Heinrich von Biber, the 17th century Bohemian-Austrian born composer and violinist.

Biber’s “Battalia” uses strings “like battle drums” creating the impression of modern day cinematic sound effects. However, most of the sound effects were drowned out by the sound effects of the audience it was intended to reach. Shwartz did what he could to lure the audience in with his gorgeous hand gestures and intense, radiant glare. When watching Shwartz conduct, one immediately recognizes he is one with the musicians, not an extension. “This guy is amazing,” an audience member shouted. And he was.

"Pulse." Photo by Neil de la Flor

After “Battalia,” I lost interest. Not because of the music, or the lights or the space. Almost everything was perfect, magical and insanely beautiful. But at some point, the nightclub concept became too successful. That’s when a plurality of the crowd disconnected from the live performances and drank, chatted and snapped photographs for Facebook during the remaining sets.

"Pulse." Photo by Neil de la Flor

I simply could not hear Nigel Westlake’s “Omphalo Centric Lecture.” The marimba and drum musicians were drowned out by the background noise. The musicians, strategically located around the upper level of the Center, gave a dazzling, yet inaudible, performance. The set seemed to end early as the musicians quietly left their respective platforms. Then, seven minutes into the final set of “Slonimsky’s Earbox” by John Adams, a lone audience member — surrounded by multiple converstaions and camera flashes —said it best, “Shhh!”

"Pulse." Photo by Neil de la Flor

Despite all of the above, nothing else comes close to “Pulse” or the New World Symphony. For just $20, it is one of the most inspiring listening experiences in South Florida. With a few tweaks, maybe the organizers can find a stern, yet subtle way to re-engage the audience before each set — to create balance inside this pulsating universe — without cooling the vibe. Otherwise, just pack a little extra patience.

The next “Pulse” event takes place March 23, 2012, 9:30, Tickets: $20 + service fee. New World Symphony, 500 17th St., Miami Beach, Fla. http://www.nws.edu/eventdetail.aspx?EID=536.