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.
Here’s what’s coming up this month:
Friday, August 4 | 7pm
Book Club: Travels with Charley in Search of America
Rediscover America in this 1962 travelogue of John Steinbeck’s 10,000-mile journey alongside his beloved French poodle, and compare his observations with those of photographer Berenice Abbott in North and South: Berenice Abbott’s U.S. Route 1 (organized by the Syracuse University Art Collection and on view at The Wolf for Summer 2017).
Free for members and first-timers // Join or RSVP at bookclub@thewolf.fiu.edu.
Saturday, August 5 | 12–3pm
Discovering Design Free Family Day: Picture Perfect
Step into the mind of a photographer and create your own photo journal! We’ll help you take your first polaroid to start your story and ignite the imagination.
Free for children and accompanying adults // RSVP here.
Sunday, August 6 | 6pm
Backseat Cinema Film Series: The Straight Story
One of the stranger road trips in our series with the Miami Beach Cinematheque, The Straight Story is a 1999 film directed by David Lynch about an old man driving from Iowa to Wisconsin on a lawn mower. Get ready for the trek through a guided tour of North and South: Berenice Abbott’s U.S. Route 1 at The Wolfsonian at 5pm before venturing across the street to the Cinematheque at 6pm for the film.
$11, $9* students and seniors, purchase at mbcinema.com // FREE for MBC and Wolfsonian members.
*Optional tour of North and South at The Wolfsonian is included in the film admission price.
Sunday, August 20 | 6pm
Backseat Cinema Film Series: On the Road
A fitting finale for our series of road movies with the Miami Beach Cinematheque is Walter Salles’ 2012 film On the Road, based on none other than Jack Kerouac’s classic American novel from 1957. Get a glimpse of what life on the road looked like in the 1950s through a guided tour of North and South: Berenice Abbott’s U.S. Route 1 at The Wolfsonian at 5pm, before experiencing the film adaptation of Sal Paradise’s life-changing, cross-country journey at the Cinematheque at 6pm.
$11, $9* students and seniors, purchase at mbcinema.com // FREE for MBC and Wolfsonian members.
*Optional tour of North and South at The Wolfsonian is included in the film admission price.
Friday, August 25 | 7pm
Seeking a creative outlet? Come sketch at The Wolfsonian! We will provide drawing materials, gallery stools, and professional instruction to participants of all ages and skill levels. English/Spanish
Free and open to the public.
Sunday, August 27 | 2–4:30pm
Dabble Class: Hand-Stitching Basics
Curious about getting in on this whole craft craze, but not sure where to begin? Jump into a Dabble Class! The Wolf is introducing a series of short, afternoon classes focusing on various handcrafting techniques—the perfect starter for newbies. Begin by learning the basics of hand stitching in our first session and see where it takes you.
$20, $15 for members; includes materials // Register here (each class capped at 15 students).
Weekly on Fridays, 6–6:45pm
Learn more about The Wolfsonian’s collection and related art and design themes during a 45-minute, free guided tour of the permanent collection or temporary exhibitions.
Free and open to the public.
Through Oct. 8
North and South: Berenice Abbott’s U.S. Route 1
In 1954, photographer Berenice Abbott journeyed along the length of U.S. Route 1, capturing the road, its towns, and inhabitants. From Florida motels made from buses to Maine potato farmers, Abbott memorialized communities up and down the East Coast. During the trip, Abbott shot more than four hundred 8×10-inch photographs, and over two thousand smaller images using her Rolleiflex camera, representing her largest portfolio of photographs devoted to a single subject. North and South will bring together a selection of 50 works from this series to present a singular visual summary of American life during the mid-1950s. The exhibition is organized by the Syracuse University Art Collection and presented in tandem with The Long Road to Now: Digital Photos Inspired by Berenice Abbott’s Road Trip, an installation of contemporary photography developed in partnership with Instagram forum #JJ Community. #Route1Photos
The Long Road to Now: Digital Photos Inspired by Berenice Abbott’s Road Trip
Taking their cues from the powerful images of North and South: Berenice Abbott’s U.S. Route 1, thousands of today’s photographers have responded to the call from Instagram forum #JJ Community with a contemporary spin on Abbott’s work. The Long Road to Now: Digital Photos Inspired by Berenice Abbott’s Road Trip presents the top 15 submissions from The Wolfsonian and #JJ’s global social media contest, photographs that represent the best in imagination and capture the sense of adventure hinted at in Abbott’s mid-century series. Divided into three themes—Signage, Classic, and Road Trip—the collection reflects the keen eye for composition, style, and artfulness of creative minds who find their muse in the world around them. From New York to Lisbon to Yekaterinburg and beyond, these professional and amateur photographers are focusing the lens on the next chapter of Abbott’s legacy of exploration. The Long Road to Now is organized in partnership with #JJ Community and supported by the Washington Park Hotel. #LongRoadtoNow
America the Beautiful: American Indians and the Promotion of National Parks
When the U.S. government and railroad companies began encouraging leisure travel to National Parks in the first half of the twentieth century, they often used images of American Indians on promotional materials. Focusing on publicity for three parks—Everglades, Glacier, and Grand Canyon—this installation marks the 100th anniversary of the National Park system through a display of brochures, calendars, postcards, and souvenir artwork that depicted Native Americans in spectacular landscapes and traditional dress as a way of drawing visitors to these romantic, “exotic” new tourist destinations.
Ongoing
Material and Meaning: Earthenware, Stoneware, and Porcelain
Ceramics can be held in our hands, decorate our homes, or be incorporated into the built environment around us. They are objects of both utility and ornament, articles of industry and commerce, and even vehicles of political persuasion. To achieve these aesthetic and practical goals, designers and artists have to adapt the inherent material qualities of different kinds of clay. This array of ceramics created in the first half of the twentieth century encompasses the expressive and functional potential of earthenware, stoneware, and porcelain, and illustrates the varied design and production processes employed to make finished works. Material and Meaning is curated by Tori Arpad-Cotta, associate professor, Department of Art and Art History, Florida International University.
Americans All: Race Relations in Depression-Era Murals
During the 1930s, American artists covered the walls of public buildings all across the country with murals meant to showcase the nation’s ideals and lift the country out of the Great Depression. Here at The Wolfsonian, preparatory painting, drawings, and mosaics for these murals (some ultimately realized, others never executed) reveal how artists reckoned with the nature of the United States as a racially diverse nation, reflecting the contentious and unsettled state of early twentieth-century race relations through their representations of blacks, whites, American Indians, and Asian immigrants—the melting pot of America.
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.
