Free and cheap events at Wolfsonian on Miami Beach

The Wolfsonian-FIU Museum is more than just a venue to view art exhibitions. It also hosts free book discussions, art classes, and guided tours.

Fri, Aug 30 | 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 | 6–6:45pmFree 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.

EXHIBITIONS + INSTALLATIONS
Cuban Caricature and Culture: The Art of Massaguer
With his biting political satire, celebrity caricatures, and magazine and advertising illustrations, graphic artist Conrado Walter Massaguer (1889–1965) helped shape the visual culture of his native Cuba between the 1920s and 1950s. This installation of works recently gifted to The Wolfsonian Library by Vicki Gold Levi will bring forth Massaguer’s legacy through dozens of works, from images of the “New Woman” flapper ideal (the so-called “Massa-girls”) in his magazine Social to depictions of tropical paradise for the Cuban Tourist Commission. Massaguer’s transnational reach will be shown in his covers for Collier’s and Life, while cartoons of visiting dignitaries and Hollywood stars will reveal how he rubbed shoulders with Franklin D. Roosevelt, Walt Disney, Albert Einstein, and the King of Spain—all evidence of an artist at the center of Havana’s cosmopolitan culture in the decades before the Cuban Revolution.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.Through August 25
Deco Designs
Deco Designs highlights decorative compositions from leading artists and designers working in Paris in the 1920s. Featuring vibrantly colorful and complex patterns, this library installation illustrates a variety of influences and individual styles and shows how Deco borrowed from exotic and ancient cultures, contemporaneous avant-garde movements, and modern technologies. Produced using the pochoir technique, a refined and labor-intensive stenciling process, the handmade prints on view epitomize the opulence of the era. Compiled in luxury portfolios and marketed to collectors, design studios, and artists, they inspired designs for interior decoration and helped spread the spirit of Art Deco.The Wolfsonian’s library installations are generously sponsored by Henry S. Hacker. Deco Designs is presented concurrently with the museum’s major exhibition Deco: Luxury to Mass Market.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.

The Wolfsonian is at 1001 Washington Ave., Miami Beach, FL 33139. Call 305-531-1001 for more info. Admission is $12 for adults; $8 for seniors, students, and children ages 6–18; and free for Wolfsonian members, State University System of Florida staff and students with ID, and children under 6. The museum is open Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday, 10am–6pm; Friday, 10am–9pm; Sunday, noon–6pm; and is closed on Wednesday. Visit online at wolfsonian.org for further information.

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