A digital bridge across the Florida Straits

The Obama administration is handing out visas to Cuban artists again, and Cuban musicians have begun showing up on Miami stages after a nearly decade-long hiatus. So the digital bridge artist Sage Lewis built to connect an acting ensemble in Miami with another in Havana in this weekend's U.S. premiere of multimedia drama "The Closest Farthest Away" is not strictly speaking necessary: the Cuban actors could come here to perform live. But the project, first seen at the Havana Film Festival in December, does not just bring Cuban actors to a Miami stage, it brings Cuba itself.
The plot insists that politics cannot divide love or art. As Olga Garay, beloved founder of Miami Dade College's Cultura del Lobo series and now head of the Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs, told the LA Times, Sage and his collaborators used digital technology "to overcome the draconian limits imposed by the continuing political disagreements between our two countries." Yet, as always, it's the medium that's the message. We live in an age where technology is rewriting the map of geography and politics not only across the US - Cuba divide, but across all divides. Lewis and his team have created an extreme version of Skype, where lovers not only see and speak to each other from a distance, but thanks to sophisticated sound design, the audience feels that is in two places at once, as Havana street sounds reverberate through the Byron Carlyle Theater, shifting as the character walks through virtual space. The experience makes tangible the memories of so many Miami residents, for whom the sense of living in two places at once never goes away. It also gives a glimpse of our shared future, with Cuba and every point of the globe, as technology becomes our environment and we live here, there, everywhere, and nowhere at once.

The Closest Farthest Away runs Thursday through Saturday, March 11 through 13 at 8pm and Saturday at 2pm at the Byron Carlyle Theatre, 500 71 Street, Miami Beach, 33131. Tickets cost $25. Purchase tickets here.

The Closest Farthest Away trailer from aleigh lewis on Vimeo.

Thomas Morley (1557-1602).

Starting Friday, Carson Kievman's SoBe Institute of the Arts plunges audiences into the world of Shakespeare, and not incidentally, the world of English Renaissance music.

Kievman's production of the Bard's Twelfth Night previews March 18 at the newly rehabbed Little Stage Theater, then runs for three consecutive weekends, closing April 4. But this Friday, Robert Chumbley of the SoBe Institute faculty hosts a free event with the SoBe Arts Chamber Ensemble that will explore the music of the late 16th and early 17th centuries.

I was pleased to learn that the production of Twelfth Night will feature period music by composers such as Thomas Weelkes, which I'm sure will make the play much more coherent. It brings up an interesting sidelight of theater: So many Shakespeare plays with music have been done with either too little attention or too much of the wrong kind of attention paid to the music.

In the former, I've seen versions of Shakespeare in which actors ad lib tuneless melodies to the words of the songs, and these were songs that were well-known to Shakespeare's audiences (I doubt he wrote any of them; I think they were well-known ditties of the day). Or in other cases, there will be some new music to go with the lyrics, mostly somewhat folk-sounding, but not very persuasive.

Some of the plays had songs specifically written for them by some of the ablest composers of the day, and if no music is known for some of the lyrics, something from that rich trove of song can surely be found. The music of the English Renaissance has its own specific flavor and style, and it reflects the words and actions of the play in a way that no modern music truly can.

I think that's true largely because of the rhythms; it seems to me that the syncopations of Renaissance songs must somehow echo or complement the sound of the language as it was spoken in Shakespeare's day. We don't know quite what that was, and most modern performances of these plays are acted with the dialogue as though it were straight text, though in many cases (Richard II, for instance), it's verse, and must have sounded as such when first performed.

It's all one piece, really, song to word to action, and in a play like Twelfth Night, which has the love of music as a key element of the play's mental world (starting with its very opening words), it's important to pursue the actual music of the time so we can get a better idea not just of how it sounded, but how the play itself sounds.

Here is a link to Now Is the Month of Maying, a madrigal by Thomas Morley, to get us all in the mood for Shakespeare.

To buy tickets for SoBe's Shakespeare fest (which range from $12.50-$25), click here.

Says Schwartz: “Dennis Scholl is a Renaissance man.  Among his hats including lawyer, entrepreneur, humanitarian, and art collector, we like to think that he sports ‘MGFD regular’ best.  But of course, as vice president of Knight Foundation overseeing Miami programs and directing all arts initiatives across the country, Dennis’ heart is as big as his passion for good food and wine.”

Orlando Estrada, The Dream Thief

Romero says of the exhibition: “Human memory is as fragile as our computer hard drives, in which data can be wiped out by a malicious virus, and the death of permanence in everyday life is deeply felt by the planned obsolescence of our disposable items.  To cope with, understand, and maintain equilibrium in our rapidly changing environment, art-making becomes a form of ritual, where process and repetition are integral to the works’ meaning.”

Rosemarie Romero, Entertainment Industrial Complex

Ritual and Process, a guide to sanity and survival in the soon-to-be present: Feb 26-Mar 28 at Art Center/South Florida, 800 Lincoln Road, Miami Beach; 305-674-8278; artcentersf.org; Opening is Sat, Feb 27 at 7pm; all activities are free and open to the public

KAC Brainstorming session @ Bas Fisher Invitational: Sunday, Mar 7; 7pm; 180 NE 39 St, suite 210; Miami; basfisherinvitational.com

The 2010 Challenge is open for you big ideas through March 15 – click here to submit and get more info.

They tore down a parking lot and put up a cinema!

This 144-seat cinema with funky, sort-of Egyptian columns out front promises to be, according to the postcards handed out last night, "a film festival all year round." No need to pack it all in March!

Directing the effort is festival veteran Robbie Rosenberg. Standing in front of the newly installed comfy theater seats, his back to a yawning open space on the wall where the movie screen and a small stage will go, Rosenberg pledged to bring cutting edge, even "kinky, for Coral Gables" programming. With a half million dollars donated by the City of Coral Gables and the Coral Gables Community Foundation (including a deal on the space rental, in a corner of a municipal parking lot, which has been built out from the old dirt floor) and another $400,000 in cinema equipment (from the seats to a four-loader 33mm projector) donated by the film industry, this cozy cinema with state-of-the-art projection and sound should be running this spring (yes, this spring that we're approaching right now). The Coral Gables Cinemateque, the nonprofit that runs the theater, is now soliciting members at a starting price of $60 (kick in $1000 or more and you get your name engraved somewhere).

Across the street from Books & Books, Gables Cinema will host a small cafe with tables outside among the columns, making this easily the most intellectual corner in the county.

Scaffolding where the screen will be

Leggo My Demo Blog from Knight Foundation on Vimeo.

For more information, visit leggomydemo.com.

Forgive me for staying with Baroque music for another week, but after attending last week's crackerjack Brandenburg concerti done by the Firebird Chamber Orchestra, I'm thinking a lot about a local cantata pilgrimage.

Back in 2000, the British conductor John Eliot Gardiner took his Monteverdi Choir and English Baroque Soloists on the road for an entire year to present the surviving J.S. Bach cantatas on the church days for which they were written. They spent most of their time in Europe, then finished the journey in New York.

I've watched a documentary about the pilgrimage several times on YouTube, and I've got several of the recordings from this journey on CD, and I think it was one of the most worthwhile musical stunts anyone ever pulled. Heard in context, the listener could appreciate better how Bach responded to the differences in text and feast day focus, and gradually come to realize what a great body of work this is.

I heard the Firebird on Saturday in Fort Lauderdale, and it was such a joy to hear the Brandenburg concerti, as well as one of the cantatas (No. 84) and the Second Orchestral Suite, come alive again in the All Saints Episcopal sanctuary. And then I couldn't help but think of the Gardiner pilgrimage and how all that hard work on this music yielded such magnificent results.

I'm certain Seraphic Fire and the Firebird musicians could do it, and while they probably wouldn't be able to do a whole year, how about a month? Or two? Wouldn't it be something to hear them traveling to various churches in South Florida on successive Sundays, singing these works? After a couple concerts, you'd get a fanatic group of Olympics-style fans who wouldn't be able to get enough, and they'd be there for every performance.

And it would add a certain amount of gravitas to the classical scene here, a scene that is in any case far more active than many outsiders realize. It would tell the rest of the country that here in South Florida are more than enough of the kind of audience that would follow something like this.

What I heard Saturday night was performers who were enjoying themselves immensely, playing a kind of music that presents challenges but also provides such deep nourishment. If you've ever had to play less than spectacular music for a while and then get the chance to play something like the Brandenburg Concerto No. 3, you know what it is to feel renewed and revivified.

It could be timed, too, to coincide with the annual Tropical Baroque Festival of the Miami Bach Society, which is ongoing this week and continues tonight with Germany's Oberlinger-Rieger recorder-and-harpsichord duo. Then it could draw on other players and venues to continue the pilgrimage.

There are probably many reasons why my pilgrimage wouldn't happen, and money likely would be the chief one. But perhaps other funds could be had, enough, anyway, for serious, dedicated musicians to give it their all as they took on the challenges of these works.

Anyhow, that's my idea. How marvelous it would be to see something like it come true here; we now know from the concerts this weekend that we have the right musicians and organizational culture to do it.

The Frost Museum at night

With each exhibition we learn about what our state-of-the-art museum spaces can do. During Because I Say So: Selections of the Scholl Collection, we learned transforming the grand galleries was a challenge, but not an impossibility. We learned that over 7,000 people enjoyed the contemporary art show and that a million pins held together by shear will in the shape of a cube is a tempting sight; people will want to touch. During the exhibition The Missing Peace: Artists Consider the Dalai Lama, we learned that our museum’s grand galleries could very easily accommodate over 45 large-scale works of art. We learned “if you build it, they will come” and that over 11,000 people came to learn about the art of Buddhism. Hundreds attended the consecrating and de-consecrating ceremonies with The Drepung Loseling monks while they created the Green Tara mandala. We also learned that a 25 foot inflatable Buddha is also tempting to touch.

Continuing our exploration into Asian art with our current exhibition, Taiwan Discovered: In Place and Time, we continue to learn what our spaces can do.  The works include traditional calligraphy, landscapes, and the extraordinary craftsmanship of paintings actually made from slices of rock. Heaven by Yao Jui-chung, features a brass helmut with video suspended from cables high above in the grand galleries, with 15 spiraling copper tubes connected to a corresponding painting. The common thread, the gold foil, represents both himself and the “born in Taiwan” element that all the images share.

With each exhibition we learn. We learn what we can do and what the community responds to. So far, we have had an excellent response and hope to continue to be the community’s cultural center.

The Patricia & Philip Frost Art Museum: 10975 SW 17 St, Miami; 305-348-3892

We all remember at one point when the FIU hosted a bevy of works on campus by seminal artists (courtesy of Martin Margulies), such as George Segal and Richard Serra. Is the university still worthy of its former glory? You be the judge.

Currently on view, for instance, is an exhibition titled Taiwan Discovered:In Place and Time. It boasts a unique selection of Taiwanese contemporary artists who mix the traditional aesthetics of their culture with more current Western approaches. The Fantastic World of José Gurvich, also currently on view, presents the painterly and geometric works by mid-20th century Uruguayan artist José Gurvich. Next Tuesday will open a new show titled, Aesthetics and Values 2010 the culmination of a Honors College seminar, taught by artist and Honors College Fellow John Bailly that features work by artists like Bhakti Baxter, Xavier Cortada, Guerra de la Paz, Richard Haden, Bert Rodriguez, Gerry Stecca, TM Sisters, Frances Trombly, Wendy Wischer, and Ricardo E. Zulueta.

The Patricia and Phillip Frost Art Museum: 10975 SW 17th St., Miami; 305-348-2890; http://thefrost.fiu.edu/

Sunday concluded the Miami run of Platanos & Collard Greens, a love story between an African-American man and a Latina who are confronted with racial and cultural prejudices from family and friends. The Knight Foundation's Marly Falcon weighs in with her reactions to the show...

The play, satirically, addresses the stereotypes, prejudices and urban myths that African-Americans and Latinas are faced with. For example, the argument is brought up that the only reason black men date Hispanic women is because that is the closest they’ll ever get to dating a white woman. Even though some of the viewpoints were absurd, they were relatable to those of us who were raised hearing such absurdities.

Take me, for example. I was born in the United States to Cuban born parents, however my parents weren’t the issue – my grandparents were. From early on my grandmother would tell me that I needed to “advance the race” by marrying a white man. The heroine in the story was told the same thing by her mother, who did not approve of her daughter dating a black man even though her own mother was black, but from the Dominican Republic, which somehow didn’t make her black anymore. Sound confusing? Well, sadly, this is how some people really think.

The play did a fantastic job in tackling all of the misrepresentations regarding race that society has instilled in us. It allowed for you to laugh while analyzing all the times you have been stereotyped or have stereotyped others.

Part spoken-word slam, part history lesson, P&CG is a sometimes pedantic exploration of racial conflict between and among Latinos and African Americans. Guess what? Dominicans sometimes deny their African heritage. Guess what else? African Americans sometimes discriminate against each other based on skin tone. This did not seem to be news to many people in the mixed race crowd that filled the studio theater last Saturday, but maybe it didn't have to be. These were the common themes for the playwright and cast to riff on, like those old family stories everyone laughs at again at every family gathering. Luckily there are enough unexpected jokes and the cast gives such an infectiously passionate performance that the lessons go down with more than a spoonful of sugar.

Written in of-the-moment hip-hop speak, circa 2004, the dialogue comes off as dated at times (remember Janet Jackson's wardrobe malfunction? still quoting Biggie Smalls?). The moments where the cast freshened up the text with improv came off best, especially when the comic actors commented on a false fire alarm that emptied the theater late in the first act. The true test that the audience was having a good time? When the sirens stopped, everyone came back.

If I had my way, live theater and dance would be programmed throughout the day and night, all week long, just like the movies. Augusto Soledade did his part to make my dream come true by scheduling a Brazz Dance Theater performance at 2:30 last Saturday afternoon at the Area Stage Theater in Coral Gables (in a strip mall on US 1 where I used to watch movies back in the day).

Choreographer Soledade's new piece, Kayala, featured explosive movement and lovely moments of contact among the dancers. This beautiful new piece tells the story of how the daughter of Yemanja, the Afro-Brazilian deity of the sea, came to an earth in eternal daylight, fell in love with a man, and summoned night for the first time to the human realm. Throughout the program, Soledade came on stage to give background on what we were about to see. His explanation of Kayala was helpful, since his piece does not literally represent these events. Instead, the movement is meant to convey divine curiosity and later passion for human kind and the power of the elements.

Yet a certain strip-mall-in-the-middle-of-day lethargy blunted the impact and gave the affair the air of a lecture demonstration. The dancers executed the steps with technical skill, especially Liony Garcia and Ilana Reynolds. Yet their emotional expression did not match the power of Soledade's choreography. It was telling that the most expressive moment on stage was when the cast bowed at the end, when they dropped their intense concentration and simply connected with the audience. It made me wish they'd been there with us all along.

21-year-old nonprofit, Miami Light Project launched the Here & Now commissioning program 11 years ago with the belief that investing in the artistic talents of Mimi-based performance and media artists would have great returns- not just on the individuals directly impacted in the artistic community, but on establishing Miami as a cultural destination of great talent, artistic excellence and diversity.

“Supporting community-based artists is the single most important activity in which a cultural institution can choose to engage, and Here & Now is the most important artistic program that Miami Light Project has ever developed,” said Beth Boone, Artistic and Executive Director of Miami Light Project.

In 11 years, Miami Light Project has commissioned work from more than 65 South Florida-based artists through Here & Now. Over 30 of those artists have gone on to perform that work in 14 states and 15 countries for an estimated audience of 20,000 people world-wide. In 2004, the Adrienne Arsht Center joined Miami Light Project as a commissioning partner, and in 2007 Here & Now performances moved to their new home in the Carnival Studio Theater and in 2008, Here & Now was one of the 31 inaugural grant recipients of The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation Knight Arts Partnership Program.

Here & Now: 2010 will premiere on March 5 at the Adrienne Arsht Center as part of Miami Made weekend- a weekend long exploration of new work by Miami’s very own native sons and daughters.  The eclectic offerings in Here & Now include a beat boxing BBoy exploring his own mortality, a woman shunning conventional love stories through song and dance and an exploration in sound that involves all the senses.

Click here to watch our video and visit miamilightproject.com or arshtcenter.org for more info.

The exhibition contains works by artists from all over the world, from the America’s, to Europe, to Africa, and even a sub-section of South Florida artists, all of which should encompass roughly 9,000 square feet of museum space. The “Anchor Gallery” section of the collection will feature regularly changing large-scale works, starting off with Galaxies Forming Along Filaments, an installation by Tomás Saraceno, the Argentine representative to this year’s Venice Biennale.

A separate Focus Gallery, aims to display mini-shows with themes that represent the MAM’s collecting goals. The first will feature single works by Joseph Albers, Alexander Calder, Hans Hofmann, Wifredo Lam, Roberto Matta and Joaquín Torres García.

You can also expect to find works by Carlos Alfonso, José Bedia, Adolph Gottlieb, Francesco Clemente, Chuck Close, Joseph Cornell, Marcel Duchamp, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Ann Hamilton, Alfredo Jaar, Wifredo Lam, Sol LeWitt, Morris Louis, Anna Maria Maiolino, Anna Mendieta, Vik Muniz, Ruben Ochoa, Damian Ortega, Robert Rauschenberg, Gerhard Richter, Regina Silveira, Lorna Simpson, Frank Stella, Rachel Whiteread and Kehinde Wiley.

Miami Art Museum: 101 W Flagler St., Miami; 305-375-3000; miamiartmuseum.org

Peter Schickele once wrote that he'd be happy to give up some J.S. Bach cantatas for a few more Brandenburg concerti, even though he knew that was as close to heretical a statement as you could make.

Beginning Friday, you can have both, when the Firebird Chamber Orchestra begins its Brandenburg Concerto project, playing all six of these timeless works over a three-year period.  This weekend's concerts also include one of the cantatas, as well as the best-known of the orchestral suites.

The program for the weekend has changed somewhat from earlier announcements. We'll hear Concerto No. 3 in G, notable for its brevity and catchiness, and No. 5 in D, singular because it really is a harpsichord concerto more than anything else (Olukola Owulabi, a Canadian-born professor at the University of Syracuse, will do the honors for the Firebird).

We'll also hear the Cantata No. 84, Ich bin vergnügt mit meinem Glücke (I am content with my fate), with soprano Kathryn Mueller as soloist. The concert is rounded out with the Orchestral Suite No. 2 in B minor, which is famous for its Badinage final movement, a staple of the flute repertoire.

The interesting thing here, besides finally getting to hear the Brandenburgs done locally, is that it represents the two sides of Bach's composing career. The Brandenburgs (named for a margrave who didn't do much to acknowledge the gift of these pieces) and the orchestral suite date from the composer's time at the court of Cöthen, where his music-loving boss gave him just about everything he needed to create good music for the daily life of the palace.

Up until the point that he left for Leipzig in 1723, where he became a church musician and school official, and where he would spend the rest of his life, Bach was writing a very powerful kind of secular music, far more elaborate and advanced than the work of contemporaries such as Telemann, good as they were.

Bach left Cothen in part because the prince's new wife didn't much care about music, and the budget cuts spurred Bach to seek his fortune elsewhere. But what if he'd found a post similar to his old job and kept writing in the style of the Fifth Brandenburg Concerto? It could well be that he would have inaugurated the era of keyboard concerti that didn't really take off until the innovations of Mozart some 60 years later.

And would he have composed opera, as he was expected to do? His great contemporary George Frideric Handel, born the same year, was a man of the theater and found plenty of fame and fortune on the stage and later in oratorio. Domenico Scarlatti, also born that year, became the true keyboard innovator, writing hundreds of "exercises" that break new ground in harmony and technique.

Bach came close with the St. John and St. Matthew passions (his setting of the St. Luke Passion is lost), and some of the more elaborate cantatas are close to opera. But in general, he served the church and the needs of the students at St. Thomas, and that turned him primarily into a sacred music composer. John Eliot Gardiner in England took his Baroque ensemble to Europe and New York for a Bach cantata pilgrimage 10 years ago that opened people's ears to the richness and beauty of these great pieces of music.

And yet there will always be some who would have preferred to hear more secular Bach than sacred, and who always will wonder what might have been. I personally love it all, but I can understand that point of view, and it will be enlightening to hear both major sides of this composer's art this weekend.

The Firebird Chamber Orchestra performs at 7:30 p.m. Friday at First United Methodist in Coral Gables; at 8 p.m. Saturday at All Saints Episcopal in Fort Lauderdale; and at 4 p.m. Sunday in the Temple Emanu-El in Miami Beach. Tickets are $35. Call 305-285-9060 or visit www.seraphicfire.org for more information.

The new site includes up to the minute blog updates as well as an internet store with the latest products, not to mention old favorites. A new feature of personalized customer accounts apparently gives people the ability to receive access to member’s only promotions, product releases, special giveaways, and much more. And as a premium FWY offers a free sticker sheet with every first purchase. It doesn't get any more magical than that. Aesthetically, the website is no slouch either, as I myself spent quite some time running the mouse cursor through the interactive banner logo at the top of the page to reveal the cutesy flash-animated clouds and shapes. As great a time-waster as any. All this on the eve of a brand new boutique that just opened in the Design District at the beginning of the month, located on 3930 NE 2nd Ave.

In Miami, we hear so much about art revitalizing communities that the words get a little worn. But sometimes you have to leave home to appreciate what you have. Right now I'm in Syracuse, New York, where I'm burrowed under a comforter and wearing two scarves, while in an ostensibly heated house. The cold is the least of Syracuse's problems: this is a city I literally had to be paid to visit (I'm here on a grant to do some research in the Syracuse U. library). Locals at a cocktail party I attended Saturday night referred to their city as Toilet Town. Yet somehow Sunday morning, I found a pearl: Sugarpearl Cafe.

Yes, I am sad that I missed Tigertail's presentation of blues great David "Honeyboy" Edwards and Cultura del Lobo's hosting of Chilean theater company Teatro en Blanco. Miami brims with wonders. Still I'm happy that I stumbled upon this tiny vegan cafe tucked into the first floor of a ramshackle house in a neighborhood of ramshackle houses with boarded up windows and crumbling walls.

It was DIY chic of the sort that blossoms in the most destitute conditions: bright plastic modern chairs against bold black and orange swirls on walls accented by Home Depot hardware. And seeping from the back, like a warm bath, came the sounds of bossa nova. Two guys, Tom Bronzetti and Mike Robbins of the jazz outfit Flying Home, were spinning their own sunshine on guitar and bass.

When I complimented Bronzetti on his expressive solos, he said in all seriousness, "It comes from the heart." Asked about the jazz scene in Syracuse, he said happily, "There is no scene. We have to make it."

How many times have I heard that in Miami? So many times that after a while, there is a scene after all.

Gelfman’s paintings for this show take on chain link fences for subject matter, with the artist endlessly layering the canvas with image after image of chain link patterns. The patterns begin to overlap and seemingly trail off from one another creating an eerie, ghost-like imagery. Strange perceptions of depth and spatial distortions begin to manifest themselves within the work creating kinetic visual effects within the viewer.

Gelfman herself has been creating abstract paintings in Miami for more than 30 years. The reception opens at 7 p.m. and lasts until 11 p.m.

And this Saturday will be none other than 2/20/2010, a date divisible by 20’s, 10’s, and 2’s, and so many other numerical correlations ripe for significance and exploitation by Miami’s premier numerically titled alternative gallery space, Twenty Twenty Projects in Hialeah. The show itself will be a collaborative project between artists Daniel Newman and Matthew Schreiber. The reception opens unusually early this Saturday at 5 p.m. and lasts until midnight.

Carol Jazzar Contemporary Art: 158 NW 91st St, Miami Shores; 305 490 6906; cjazzart.com

Twenty Twenty Projects: 1388 SE 9th Ct., Hialeah; 786-217-7683; twentytwentyprojects.com

MIAMI (Feb. 19, 2010) The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation is now accepting applications for the Knight Arts Challenge, a community-wide contest that aims to bring South Florida together through the arts. Have a big idea for the local cultural scene? Submit it through March 15 at KnightArts.org.

Artists and art advocates interested in applying for the challenge’s third round also are invited to a town hall meeting at 5:30 p.m. March 9 at the Little Haiti Cultural Center, 260 NE 59th Ter. Miami Program Director Dennis Scholl, who leads the challenge, will answer questions.

“Dream big. We want your ideas to push the envelope and enrich this community culturally,” Scholl said.

So far, 51 individual artists, small nonprofits and the area’s largest institutions have won funding from the challenge.

In addition, on Feb. 23 at 7:30 p.m., South Florida viewers can tune in to a half-hour documentary about the contest, produced by local Emmy-winning filmmaker Kirmaya Cevallos along with Knight Foundation. The documentary will air on WPBT Channel 2. It highlights several projects, including Leggo My Demo, which showcases new electronic music in South Florida, and New World School of the Arts’ ArtSeen, a Wynwood studio where seniors have the space to explore and create their final projects. To see footage from the documentary, visit www.KnightArts.org/documentary.

The Knight Arts Challenge’s application is designed to be simple to attract a wide range of applicants, including those who are not traditional foundation grant seekers.

There are only three rules: The idea is about the arts; the project takes place in or benefits South Florida; and applicants must find other funding to match the Knight Foundation grant. Individuals, nonprofits and for-profit organizations are eligible to apply.
For more on the Knight Arts Challenge, visit KnightArts.org.

About the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation
The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation advances journalism in the digital age and invests in the vitality of communities where the Knight brothers owned newspapers. Knight Foundation focuses on projects that promote informed, engaged communities and lead to transformational change. For more, visit www.knightfoundation.org.
 
Contact: Marc Fest, 305-908-2677; fest@knightfoundation.org

Cuci Amador of Afrobeta in Calle 13's "Electro Movimiento" music video

Things are looking particularly sunny for Florida bands these days.  A few years ago Jacksonville's Black Kids made it big with their upbeat indie pop sound that recalled The Cure at their most playful.  Just before their atmospheric rise we had them play at our old "Circa Saturdays" party in November '07 for a price that is now all but a memory as they've gone on to tour the world and play all the biggest festivals.

Recently, West Palm Beach's Surfer Blood have started climbing the ranks.  A string of CMJ (College Music Journal) shows brought them a lot of new fans and some major press in the New York Times.   An 8.2 rating on the stingy-yet-influential Pitchfork website pushed them farther up the ladder and now they're on their way to tour Europe and their fantastic debut "Astro Coast" has completely sold out of its first run of CDs and LPs.  We recently hosted Surfer Blood's homecoming show at our weekly Fridays at The Vagabond party and a great time was had by all (pics here).

Surfer Blood poster: daylight left, blacklight right

We also collaborated with FTL's IronForge Press and Miami's own aqua artists Morphologic to make a beautiful silk-screened art poster to commemorate the event - and yes you can pick one up at Sweat! So, J-ville...West Palm...it's now only a matter of time before the hype trickles all the way down to the MANY amazing bands here in South Florida.  In fact, it's already happening.  Here are just a few indications:

• ANR have a song featured in the trailer for the new Michael Cera film "Youth In Revolt"
• Cuci Amador of Afrobeta collaborated with Calle 13 for their massive hit "Electro Movimiento" - the album went on to win Best Album at the Latin Grammys and the video has been viewed nearly 3 million times on YouTube!  Afrobeta will also be playing a headlining slot at March's Ultra Music Festival
• Rachel Goodrich's "Lightbulb" was featured in a national television commercial for Crayola's Glow Dome toy
• Members of ¡MAYDAY! can be seen rocking out as Lil Wayne's band in the video for his hit "On Fire" (video outtake here)
• Dancefloor composer extraordinaire Panic Bomber was featured in Trax, France's largest electronic music magazine

Not to mention people like Otto Von Schirach, Blowfly (the naughty alter-ego of Miami soul singer Clarence Reid) and others who, while not overtly famous here, still pack shows in Europe and all over the states.  At Sweat we're also FAR outselling local releases over national titles and seeing an overall heightened interest in these bands from our backyard, as it should be.

Last year the NY Times ran the article  In South Florida, a Tropical Bohemia in the Makings, which put a spotlight on a few of these artists and some local musical institutions.  As Michael-John Hancock of ANR said in the article, "I have faith that eventually the international respect being paid to the art scene will carry over to the music scene.”  Couldn't have said it better myself.

Nouvelle Vague takes my breath away

Dearest Rhythm Foundation,

I knew Tuesday night that I had to tell you: my life would be empty without the music you bring. I know, I know, you've brought Le Nouvelle Vague before, always on the cutting edge of cool. But sometimes it takes a while for us to appreciate what you have to offer. Sitting in the sold-out crowd at the Manuel Artime, I knew I was not the only one enraptured.

Oh, you made me feel young again. The Nouvelle formula is diabolical: new wave and punk classics in Brazilian new wave (bossa nova) style with French new wave (nouvelle vague) chic. Singers Karina Zeviani and Marina Celeste staged a private house party and brought us all along. (For a taste of their electric chic, check out Ben Thacker's slide show over at Miami New Times. ) Rhythm, you let me relive my youth, while feeling so right now.

What's that? Next up, you've got Air! I can't breathe, so eager am I to feel the pulsation of this French electronic duo for the first time in South Florida.

And after that, Caetano Veloso? The sublime never gets old. Every act you bring makes me fall in love all over again.

And if, as Marina sang so sweetly, love will tear us apart, I say, tear it up!

Yours forever,
CFD

This Saturday at the Miami-Dade County Auditorium, the Eighth Annual Chopin Competition gets under way, as 21 young pianists vie for prizes and concert bookings before a jury of established figures in the world of classical music.

This is the Chopin bicentenary year (he was born March 1, 1810), which adds special import to the proceedings. The first three rounds -- preliminaries, quarter-finals and semi-finals -- can be seen for free from Sunday through Thursday at the Auditorium, and this can be a lot of fun if you want to try and spot the big talents of the future.

And this competition has seen major careers develop for pianists who have won its prizes: Gabriela Montero, Ian Hobson, Jeffrey Kahane and Kevin Kenner all have taken home some recognition from the competition. And the 2000 grand prize winner, Jon Nakamatsu, is soloing this afternoon at the Kravis Center in West Palm Beach, playing the Brahms First Concerto with Justus Frantz and the Philharmonia of the Nations.

The finals of the competition take place Feb. 27 and 28, when the six top players will perform with the Frost Symphony Orchestra under Thomas Sleeper. The Feb. 28 concert ends with the awards ceremony, and everyone will then learn who has taken top honors. Tickets for the first finals concert range from $18-$28; the second costs from $28-$38.

The Miami-based Chopin Foundation has assembled a good jury for the contest, including Bella Davidovich and Agustin Anievas, both names well-known to piano connoisseurs. Davidovich, now in her 80s, won the International Chopin Competition, based in Warsaw, back in 1949.

The National Competition is a prelude to this year's Warsaw contest, and the top prize winner here is automatically entered into the international competition, set for April. That winner also gets a $20,000 prize and a debut recital at Carnegie Hall in New York.

All of the music in the competition will be by Chopin, and the official list includes some of the composer's most treacherous pieces, and rules about performing full sets of mazurkas collected under single opus numbers and the like. The two piano concerti, of course, are the pieces available for the six soloists in the finals.

It is all something very much like the Olympics now going on in Vancouver: Very talented people execute very difficult physical activities, which are then judged on minute points of technique and style, but that also provide sheer aesthetic enjoyment for non-initiates.

Here is a list of the contestants: Jun Asai, Nora Bartosik, Yelena Beriyeva, Daniela Bracchi, Sean Chen, Claire Huangci, Conley Johnson, Sean Kennard, Henry Kramer, Naomi Kudo, Esther Park, Christopher Schmitt, Elizabeth Schumann, Rhed Shi, Kenric Tam, Emy Todoroki-Schwartz, Andrew Tyson, Vijay Venkatesh, Evan Wong, Josh Wright and Eric Zuber. (A 22nd contestant, Victoria Chan, withdrew this week.) Some of these pianists are at the beginning of their musical careers, and others have already established themselves as professional musicians.

So if you're in the Olympics spirit, and you love the music of Chopin, it might be worth your while to check out some of the gleaming piano talents in the United States starting this weekend at the Miami-Dade Auditorium.

Light and color, sound and noise, knives and sickles, masks and drinking straws—these images and articles make up the work of LegalArt’s first residents. With funding from the Knight Arts Challenge, LegalArt is creating the first Live/Work Residency Program in Miami, expected to open later this spring in the Downtown Arts and Entertainment District. Many talented artists applied and we have selected the six Miami artists that will live in the residency this year: Carlos Ascurra, Pachi Giustinian, Jiae Hwang, Alvaro Lizarbe, Manny Prieres, and Jen Stark. I am thrilled to see what they will create in the residency designed by artist Daniel Arsham and architect Alex Mustonen. Large windows, multiple power sources, and exhaust for each studio—these studios have been designed by an artist for artists. The space is clean and open with polished concrete floors and lots of natural light. The artists will have their own studio with a shared kitchen, dining and lounging area to encourage collaboration and interaction.

The artists will live and work in the space for a year, participating in LegalArt programming, collaborating, and spearheading a give-back program for the community.

Each artist brings a unique element to the residency. Carlos Ascurra is part of the intriguing group Viking Funeral playing with sound and public exhibitions to create a dialogue with the audience. Pachi Giustinian, an artist who plays with light and materials, recently moved to Miami from Argentina last year. She made an impact with her part in the group show Littlest Sister at Spinello Gallery during Art Basel 2009. She will be having a solo show at Spinello later this spring. Jiae Hwang’s delicate and mathematical explorations of the world will benefit from a dedicated live/work studio and she looks forward to the collaboration with other artists. Alvaro Lizarbo will continue to use mask and tribal elements in his designs and imagery. Manny Prieres is looking forward to expanding his sculptures in the large studio space and continuing to push himself to explore outside his comfort zone. Jen Stark will use the residency to create larger works and further explore different textures she creates with her work.

With one-on-one counseling, collaboration with visiting artists and curators and LegalArt’s professional education SeminArt programs these artists will grow as professional artists and create new connections around the world.

Pachi Giustinian

Artcenter/South Florida is located at 924 Lincoln Road, for ore info visit artcentersf.org or call 305-674-8278.

The works were by Carlos Alfonzo, the Cuban-born artist who came to the United States on the Mariel boatlift in 1980. Alfonzo started out as a state-sanctioned artist in Cuba, but when he came to the U.S., his work took a different turn, as Alfonzo for the first time became open about his sexuality. He filled canvas after canvas with wildly energetic and anxiously expressive renderings of raw emotion, despair, and alienation. Alfonzo’s life was eventually claimed by AIDS in 1991.

New to the de la Cruz Collection are three works; Sea Bitch Born Deep, the 1986 work pictured above, with its surreal rendering of Afro-Caribbean ballerinas; Water Seeds a triptych piece commissioned specifically for the de la Cruz residence in 1989; and 1990’s Witness, which tackles the artist’s own mortality as part of a series of “Black Paintings” made shortly before his death.

De La Cruz Collection Contemporary Art Space: 23 NE 41st St.., Miami; 305-576-6112; delacruzcollection.org

Yesterday evening at least, the Center's lobby was bustling with fans sampling snacks before the gorgeous 270-seat theater was filled with dance enthusiasts and the stage electrified with movement. Rarely does such a wide variety of Miami dance come together on one stage. In an effort to raise money for the Haiti Relief effort, resident company Dance Now Ensemble invited the other dance companies sharing the space to offer a sample of their work as DNE inaugurated its 10th anniversary season.

That result alone suggests the value of the center. Anita Hope-Darbonne, who is apparently the Dance Coordinator of the City of Miami (City of Miami? Dance coordinator!), explained at curtain time that she was determined to invite resident artists who could represent all forms of dance to the center. While obviously not possible, it was a rare delight to see contemporary dance inspired by Brazil, Haiti, and the African American tradition on the same bill as traditional African and strictly contemporary dance.

It will be even more delightful if the artists in Brazz Dance, Laissez-Faire Dance Repertoire, Delou African Dance Ensemble, and DNE continue to come together the share their work and perhaps collaborate.

It would be astonishing if the Cultural Center could be brought around by dance. Dance, which costs so much to produce, and generates so little, if anything, of lasting economic value. While the visual arts have done so well bringing new money to so many depressed neighborhoods, could it be conceivable that dance might bring a new form of community? The energy on stage yesterday inspired such thoughts.

Certainly the Center's residents are a collection of little dance companies that could. Not least Dance Now! which has shown a willingness to make the most of every opportunity to showcase the company's work across South Florida. Next Saturday finds DNE in a more established institution, with a site-specific show reacting to the work on exhibit at the Bass Museum of Art. The company has teamed up with the Dade Heritage Trust and the north Beach Bandshell for future dates, all leading up to a culminating 10th Anniversary extravaganza at the Byron Carlyle. Miami certainly has the venues and the companies to make for a thriving dance scene. Just maybe there will be a miracle to bring them all together with a supportive audience.

Dance Now Ensemble presents Exphrasis: Art from Art on Saturday, February 20 at 12:30 and 2:30pm at the Bass Museum of Art, 2121 Park Avenue, Miami Beach. Free with museum admission; dancenowmiami.org; 305-975-8489.

No works will have been created by the time the show opens. Instead, Rodriguez plans to fill the space over the next 25 consecutive days of the exhibition with a single new work a day. All of these pieces will be available for sale before their completion, but collectors, the gallery, and to some extent perhaps even the artist himself, will not know what these pieces will look like until the day they’re completed. The purchase of these works, in turn, becomes an act of faith, or more specifically a gamble.

It’s quite similar to Rodriguez’s previous The Kindness of Strangers (on view last summer at MOCA) where the artist under the banner of his own Bert Rodriguez Foundation pounded the pavement to collect donations for a work that was to be constructed throughout the duration of the Museum's Convention group exhibition. The finished product, an assemblage of cheap souvenirs, was visually and aesthetically unremarkable, not to mention incomplete, since the foundation, in a fitting twist of fate, went bankrupt before the work’s completion.

A similar strain of thought runs through this latest exhibition. As a critique on the art market and gallery system, it’s a novel one. But more important is the laziness inherent in the gesture of presenting an empty gallery space for opening reception, and then quickly and no doubt carelessly, producing the works at the last minute like an art student racing against deadline. It’s a glorious testament to laziness, in fact. It also illustrates in a beautiful way the general uselessness and pointlessness of art as a commodity.

Fredric Snitzer Gallery: 2247 NW 1st PL, Miami; 305-448-8976; snitzer.com