Canceled: Free & cheap events at Wolfsonian on Miami Beach

Second Shift: Game Night

Feeling lucky this Friday the 13th? Leave your superstitions behind and bring your friends for a play-and-sip happy hour! Start with a free guided tour at 6pm, then head into the Design Store for board games and 2-for-1 drink specials.

Free and open to the public; drinks available for purchase

Thu, Mar 19 | 6–9pm

Miami Beach Culture Crawl: Martha, Martha, Martha!

Once a month, The Wolfsonian partners with the City of Miami Beach and neighboring institutions for a free evening of à la carte culture. Just hop on the complimentary trolley service stopping at each of the participating locations (or grab your bike or comfy walking shoes!) and take in the best of South Beach’s art, performances, screenings, and tours. Plan your night as you like it—choose a couple of spots, or make the full rounds, 6–9pm. Visit mbartsandculture.org for full details and route. 

This March, enjoy a revamp by the queen of hospitality herself! Our galleries get the glow-up treatment with Then + Now: Martha Stewart for The Wolfsonian–FIU, a new pop-up installation within the home and kitchen section of our 5th floor. Channeling her inner collector and curator, Martha has paired some of her favorite Wolfsonian objects with hand-picked contemporary counterparts. We’re also serving a Martha-approved cocktail and 2-for-1 drink specials, all night long—because happy hour is always “a good thing.” 

Free and open to the public

Fri, Mar 20 | 7–9pm

Into the Stacks: Propaganda!

The most charged and dangerous items in The Wolfsonian’s collection are getting the scrutiny they deserve in Nathaniel Sandler’s next object-based investigation. Stirred by our library installation Radicals and Reactionaries: Extremism in America, the Bookleggers Library director will put propaganda in the hot seat, deconstructing how carefully chosen words and images contain the power to shape minds, start wars, and even infringe on human rights. 

Presented in conjunction with Sandler’s Knight Foundation-funded project, Crypt Cracking.

Free and open to the public (drinks available for purchase) | RSVP

Fri, Mar 27 | 7–8:30pm

Sketching in the Galleries

Tap into your inner artist by sketching in our galleries! Drawing materials, gallery stools, and professional bilingual instruction provided to participants of all ages and skill levels. English/Spanish

Free and open to the public; walk-in basis, no RSVP required

Weekly on Fri | 6–6:45pm

Free Friday Guided Tours

Learn more about The Wolfsonian and related art and design themes during a 45-minute free guided tour of the building, collection, or exhibitions. New guides bring different perspectives each week!

Free and open to the public

Then + Now: Martha Stewart for The Wolfsonian–FIU

In this pop-up installation within Art and Design in the Modern Age, Martha Stewart bridges yesterday and today in her deep dive into the evolution of 20th-century cooking, cleaning, dining, and living. Martha brings her personal touch to the galleries, working closely with our curatorial team to pair rarely exhibited Wolfsonian objects with their present-day counterparts drawn from her private collection and leading brands such as Breville, KitchenAid, and Miele. Mid-century classics like a 1930s Italian espresso machine and an oversized industrial pasta maker find echoes in must-have contemporary kitchen and household items (cake stands, juicers, and more), all hand-picked by Martha. Welcome to a unique museum takeover designed by a trendsetting industry giant—make yourself at home!

Then + Now is organized by The Wolfsonian–FIU and Martha Stewart and made possible by the Food Network & Cooking Channel South Beach Wine & Food Festival. The Wolfsonian thanks the many lenders to this project including Martha Stewart, KitchenAid, Breville, Macy’s, Corksicle, and Miele.

Through May 31

Radicals and Reactionaries: Extremism in America
Radicals and Reactionaries will showcase books and pamphlets produced by left- and right-wing extremists in the 1930s to recruit members to their causes or demonize their enemies. Curated by Florida International University undergraduates, the installation will present controversial public figures of the era—Huey P. Long, William R. Hearst, Earl Browder, and John Reed—and examine the issues they fought over, while hinting at some parallels between the polarization of that era and our own.

Ongoing
A Universe of Things: Micky Wolfson Collects
Over the course of more than three decades, an astounding diversity of materials has arrived in Miami Beach from all over the globe. Stained glass windows and paintings, vases and sideboards, posters, prints, books, and ephemera fill warehouses. They arrive in massive crates, wrapped boxes, or shopping bags, all to be catalogued, researched, preserved, studied, and perhaps exhibited or published. Suitcases of documentation—invoices, receipts, notes on napkins, and more—are sifted through and archived for future scholarship. This massive undertaking is the life’s work of collector and raconteur Mitchell “Micky” Wolfson, Jr., and has become the cornerstone of the museum that bears his name.

In A Universe of Things: Micky Wolfson Collects, The Wolfsonian examines Wolfson’s life of collecting by exploring how objects form networks that connect across time and cultures. In recognition of Wolfson’s 80th birthday, the exhibition will feature beloved icons and unexpected finds in a presentation timed to coincide with the publication of the book Founder’s Choice (Scala Publishers), which highlights 37 key collection objects selected by Wolfson himself.

A Universe of Things is made possible by Funding Arts Network, Inc. (FAN).

Ongoing
Deco: Luxury to Mass Market
“Art Deco” has come to evoke a set of styles that emerged in the 1920s and 1930s out of aspirations to fuse art and industry into a modern language of design. From exquisite handcrafted objects to streamlined household appliances, the items on display in Deco will demonstrate how American designers adapted a style associated with European luxury to the demands of industrial mass production. Through decorative arts, product design, architecture, and graphics from the Wolfsonian collection, the exhibition will trace Art Deco’s origins in Europe, its migration to the United States, and its evolution into a fully American style—perhaps most spectacularly realized on Miami Beach in the 1930s.

Deco: Luxury to Mass Market is made possible by Diane and Alan Lieberman and the South Beach Group, with the support of Jamestown, L.P., and Saul and Jane Gross and Streamline Properties.

Ongoing
Art and Design in the Modern Age: Selections from the Wolfsonian Collection
These galleries provide an overview of the museum’s holdings of American and European artifacts from 1850 to 1950. Culled from The Wolfsonian collection are approximately three hundred works in a variety of formats, ranging from books, posters, and postcards to decorative arts, architectural models, paintings, and sculptures. Focal points include design reform movements, urbanism, industrial design, transportation, world’s fairs, advertising, and political propaganda. Inaugurated in November 1996, this ongoing exhibition is periodically updated.