Xavier Cortada records his “The Future is Here, Now” keynote plenary speech for vCIES 2020 at Florida’s Pinecrest Gardens, site of his art studio and social practice.
Engaged Projects
- “CIES Digital Mural” – Celebrating 50 years of Earth Day by writing to someone in the future to bring the future closer to us (created for his residency with the Comparative & International Education Society, virtual event).
- “Underwater Vote” – Mobilizing voters in a climate-centered engaged art project (installation at University of Miami Coral Gables Campus, exhibited at the University of Miami Wynwood Gallery’s faculty show, Miami, FL).
- “Miami Corona Project” – Tackling the COVID-19 pandemic through engaged art (presented as part of the University of Miami COVID-19 Rapid Response effort, virtual project).
- “Letters to the Future: Celebrating Earth Day 2020 as we plan for the next 50 years” – Writing to someone in the future and connecting with our progeny to lengthen the care horizon beyond our lifetime (hosted by University of Miami, virtual event).
Public Art Commissions
- “Heron” and “Ibises,” Village Hall, Pinecrest, FL
- “Flower Force,” 168TH Street Traffic Circle, Village of Palmetto Bay Art in Public Places, Palmetto Bay, FL
- “El Manglar” and “Miami Mangrove Forest,” Soleste Bay Residential Tower, Village of Palmetto Bay Art in Public Places, Palmetto Bay, FL
- “The Pineapple Project,” South Miami Baptist Hospital, South Miami, FL
Residencies
- 2017-2022 Pinecrest Gardens Artist-in-Residence (Artist’s Studio), Pinecrest, FL
- 2020 CIES 2020 Miami Conference Education Beyond the Human Artist-in-Residence
Group Exhibitions
- University of Miami Faculty Exhibition, (featuring “Underwater Vote,”) University of Miami College of Arts and Sciences Wynwood Gallery, Miami, FL
- Honoring Trees (virtual show due to pandemic), (featuring “Growing Our Native Canopy 1 & 2”), Honoring the Future, Washington, DC
- Vieques Mangrove Recovery Project Art Exhibition, “Mangroves (On Blue)” and “Three Seedlings at Sea 1,” Vieques Conservation and Historical Trust, Vieques, PR
Funded Research
- Principal Investigator, “Miami Corona Project,” University of Miami COVID-19 Rapid-Response Grant.
- Co-Principal Investigator (along with UM Law Professor Jessica Owley, RSMAS Associate Professor Katharine Mach, Economics Assistant Professor Ian Wright, and Law Librarian Nicholas Mignanelli), “On the Move: Climate Migration and Retreat in South Florida, the Caribbean, and Beyond,” University of Miami U-LINK Phase 1 Grant.
Writings
- Vote to keep our heads above water. South Florida is on front lines of sea level rise by Xavier Cortada, Miami Herald, October 28, 2020.
Awards
- Doris Leeper Leadership Award, Florida Alliance for Arts Education
- 2020-2021 Engaged Faculty Fellow, University of Miami Office of Civic and Community Engagement
Newsletters
- January – Plan(T)ing for the Future
- February – Valentine’s Day 2020
- April – Earth Day 2020: Committing to the Next 50 Years
- June – Cortada’s Engaged Projects go virtual
- July – Art for Democracy, the Solstice, and the Pandemic
- August – “Share your voice” through Cortada’s Miami Corona Project
- September – Pinecrest Gardens launches Cortada Science Art Academy On-Site and Online
- October – Cortada launches “Underwater Vote”
- November – As the holidays approach, professor uses art to portray the pandemic
- December – Cortada brings public art to Village Hall
Events, Lectures, Installations and Presentations
- Free Mangrove Propagules at Every Miami-Dade Public Library Branch
January 11 @ 10:00 am – 6:00 pm - Flower Force at Cortada’s Studio
January 12 @ 9:00 am – January 26 @ 2:00 pm - Vieques Mangrove Recovery Project Art Exhibition in Puerto Rico
January 15 – February 15 - Cortada Projects at MAMP Conference 2020
January 21 @ 8:00 am – 5:00 pm - Xavier Cortada’s Presentation to the Arbor Day Foundation
January 29 @ 1:30 pm – 2:30 pm - Underwater HOA Monthly Meeting: 2020 Planning Meeting
February 5 @ 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm - Plan(T) Installation at Miami Herbert Business School
February 7 - Global Connections Seminar XXI: Human Migration and Water
March 1 @ 10:00 am – 12:00 pm - Plan(T) Installation at Miami School of Law
March 3 - Underwater HOA Monthly Meeting: Flood Insurance & Climate Change
March 4 @ 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm - POSTPONED DUE TO COVID-19: The Forum on Global Resilience
March 18 @ 8:30 am – 5:00 pm - POSTPONED DUE TO COVID-19: Letters to the Future Exhibition
March 20 @ 10:00 am – April 4 @ 6:00 pm - CANCELLED DUE TO COVID-19: Keynote Speaker at the 28th Annual Arts & Letters Day at Miami-Dade College – Inclusion: Celebrating Differences and Embracing Diversity
March 31 @ 11:15 am – 12:30 pm - Artist-in-Residence at the 64th Annual Conference of the Comparative and International Education Society (online)
March 22 – March 26 - CANCELLED DUE TO COVID-19: Underwater HOA Monthly Meeting – Planning for Earth Day 2070
April 1 @ 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm - The National Wildlife Federation EcoCareers Conference
April 1 – April 2 - CANCELLED DUE TO COVID-19: Lunch Meeting with the Palmetto Bay Business Association
April 2 @ 11:30 am – 1:30 pm - POSTPONED DUE TO COVID-19: Plan(T) Installation and Presentation at Brockway Memorial Library
April 3 @ 6:30 pm – 8:00 pm - POSTPONED DUE TO COVID-19: Miami Mangrove Forest exhibition at Hibiscus Gallery
April 6 @ 8:00 am – August 31 @ 6:00 pm - POSTPONED DUE TO COVID-19: Breakfast with the Arts & Hospitality
April 9 @ 8:00 am – 10:00 am - CANCELLED DUE TO COVID-19: Plan(T) at the Miller School of Medicine Farmer’s Market for National Public Health Week
April 9 @ 11:00 am – 2:00 pm - Letters to the Future Q & A with vCIES Artist in Residence: Xavier Cortada
April 14 @ 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm - POSTPONED DUE TO COVID-19: University of Miami’s Institute for Advanced Study of the Americas Immigration Symposium
April 16 @ 8:30 am – 4:00 pm - CANCELLED DUE TO COVID-19: Earthsongs 2070 with Frost Symphonic Winds
April 16 @ 7:30 pm – 9:00 pm - CANCELLED DUE TO COVID-19: EcoCultura Fest
April 18 @ 10:00 am – 2:00 pm - POSTPONED DUE TO COVID-19: “Flying Solo: The Activist-Artist,” a play on Xavier Cortada at Frost Art Museum
April 18 @ 2:00 pm – 4:00 pm - CANCELLED DUE TO COVID-19: Mangrove in Every MDC Public School
April 20 @ 8:00 am - POSTPONED DUE TO COVID-19: “Flying Solo: The Activist-Artist,” a play on Xavier Cortada at MDC Live Arts Lab
April 21 @ 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm - Pinecrest Gardens Earth Day 2020
Longitudinal Installation: Celebrate Earth Day’s 50th anniversary globally by using art to “connect” across 24 time zones.
April 19 – April 25 - University of Miami Earth Day 2020
Letters to the Future: Celebrating Earth Day 2020 as we plan for the next 50 years
April 18 – April 24 - UM Earth Day: Art, Public Health, and Climate Change Panel
April 22 @ 11:00 am – 12:00 pm - UM Earth Day: Ask a UM Professor Panel
April 22 @ 1:30 pm – 2:30 pm - POSTPONED DUE TO COVID-19: Miami-Dade County 50th Anniversary Celebration of Earth Day
April 22 @ 9:00 am – 3:00 pm - POSTPONED DUE TO COVID-19: Distribution of Plan(T) Propagules During University of Miami Earth Day 2020
April 22 @ 8:00 am – 2:30 pm - POSTPONED DUE TO COVID-19: Earth Day at the Frost Museum of Science
April 22 @ 7:30 pm – 9:30 pm - POSTPONED DUE TO COVID-19: Pinecrest Elementary Plan(T)ing
April 23 @ 9:00 am – 10:00 am - Honoring Trees Online Art Exhibition
April 24 - POSTPONED DUE TO COVID-19: The Reclamation Project at MAST Academy
April 24 @ 9:00 am – 12:00 pm - Underwater HOA on CNN Special Report
April 25 @ 10:00 pm – 11:00 pm - POSTPONED DUE TO COVID-19: The 2020 Artists & Climate Change Incubator
May 5 – May 9 - Underwater HOA Monthly Meeting: Conversations with the UHOA
May 6 @ 7:00 pm – 8:00 pm - DACA Panel for UM “Children of Immigrants in the Age of Deportation” Symposium
May 20 @ 2:10 pm – 2:55 pm - Judging Panel for the Miami Herald Silver Knight Awards
May 28 @ 7:00 pm – 8:00 pm - Underwater HOA Monthly Meeting: Emerging Climate Trends & Predictions
June 3 @ 7:00 pm – 8:00 pm - CANCELLED DUE TO COVID-19: Artist-in-Residence at Waterkeeper Alliance Conference 2020
June 3 – June 7 - POSTPONED DUE TO COVID-19: Underwater HOA Exhibition at Climateurope Festival 2020
June 16 – June 18 - “Lawyers as Change Agents” presentation at UM’s Summer Legal Academy for High School Students
June 17 @ 9:30 am - Longitudinal Installation: Summer Solstice 2020
June 21 @ 11:00 am – 12:00 pm - Democracy (is an action verb): VOTE
June 25 – October 5 - Moderating “Cane Conversations – Sustainability: How Isolation Protocols Have Changed our Environment”
June 30 @ 5:00 pm – 6:00 pm - Underwater HOA Monthly Meeting: Assessing the Vulnerability of Coastal Buildings to Storm-Surge Flooding
July 1 @ 7:00 pm – 8:00 pm - Guest Lecture at Florida International University’s “Macro to Micro: Art as Infrastructure”
July 29 @ 7:00 pm - Fountainhead Studio Visit on Instagram Live
August 3 @ 3:05 pm - Underwater HOA Monthly Meeting: Research Projects of Coastal Protection and Adaptation
August 5 @ 7:00 pm – 8:00 pm - Presentation at the Miami Global Executive MBA Welcome Event
August 27 @ 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm - Underwater HOA Monthly Meeting: Environmental Impacts and Resource Dependency of Digital/Online Culture
September 2 @ 7:00 pm - POSTPONED DUE TO COVID-19: The Art of Diatoms Exhibition at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago
September 10 – December 10 - Courageous Creatives Take Back Time Film Premiere & Community Panel Q&A
September 16 @ 4:00 pm - Speaker at Key Biscayne Democrats Meeting
September 24 @ 6:30 pm – 8:00 pm - POSTPONED DUE TO COVID-19: “Cortada Projects” Solo Exhibit
September 24 – October 16 - “Using Science and Art for Climate Action” Presentation at Palmer Trinity
September 25 @ 10:30 am – 11:00 am - Presentation at Palmetto Bay Business Association Meeting
October 1 @ 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm - Underwater HOA Monthly Meeting: Hurricanes and Climate Change: Impacts for South Florida
October 7 @ 7:00 pm - UM Faculty Exhibition presents Underwater Vote
October 8 – November 5 - FIU Guest Lecture with Dr. Evelyn Gaiser
October 9 @ 2:00 pm – 3:00 pm - Underwater Vote Installation at University of Miami Foote Green
October 12 – October 23 - Hemispheric Student Dialogues on SDGs: The Art of Empathy (in a Global Climate Crisis)
October 19 @ 3:00 pm – 5:30 pm - Underwater HOA Monthly Meeting: Now What?
November 4 @ 7:00 pm – 8:00 pm - Underwater HOA at “A Festival of Climate Action: It’s Time”
November 17 – November 18 - “Pandemic | Miami Corona Project” Virtual Exhibition
November 20 – May 31 - Presenting “Socially Engaged Art: Using Slow Activism to Tackle a Climate Emergency” at SciVizNYC
December 2 @ 1:00 pm – 5:15 pm - Underwater HOA Monthly Meeting: Reading Between the Lines: Data Visualization and Climate Change
December 2 @ 7:00 pm – 8:00 pm - Panelist at the Behavior, Energy & Climate Change Conference
December 7 – December 10 - Presenting “Using Socially Engaged Art to Make the Invisible Visible” at SWS International Conference on Social Sciences
December 9 @ 4:00 pm – 5:00 pm
Press
- Two leaders from the University of Miami named 2020 Herald Influencers
By News @ the U
News @ the U
1/24/2020 - Arts Festival poster unveiled — a ‘take on Coconut Grove as we know it to be today’
By Howard Cohen
Miami Herald
1/30/2020 - Aloupis and Rodriguez Moving Legislation to Address Sea Level Impact
By Rep. Vance Aloupis and Sen. Jose Javier Rodriguez
Miami’s Community Newspapers
2/10/2020 - Celebrate Earth Day’s 50th anniversary by planning for the next 50 years
By Kelly Montoya
News @ the U
4/13/2020 - Fast-tracked research projects aim to respond quickly to mitigate effects of COVID-19
By Janette Neuwahl Tannen
News @ the U
4/13/2020 - Underwater HOA on “The Road to Change: America’s Climate Crisis”
By CNN
4/25/2020 - Arte para la acción climática
By La Onda Verde de NRDC
4/29/2020 - An in-depth discussion about immigration and ‘Dreamers’ highlights symposium
By Amanda M. Perez
News @ the U - But Is It Art?
By Grace Blackshaw
Varsity
5/29/2020 - Artist captures the voices of the pandemic in real time
By Kelly Montoya
News @ the U
7/9/2020 - Largest rock garden in the Netherlands
By Alun Harvey
Hunebed Nieuwscafe
7/9/2020 - Planting for the future… mangroves at Pinecrest Gardens
By Alana Perez
Miami’s Community Newspaper
8/3/2020 - In Miami Corona Project, Artist Xavier Cortada creates daily journal of city’s plague year
By Elisa Turner
Artburst Miami
8/12/2020 - 2020’s collision of crises reflected in artwork, on stages – and even on a billboard
By George Fishman
Miami Herald
9/27/2020 - Reasearch Illuminates the Way Forward: The Power of Art
By Michael R. Malone
The University of Miami Magazine
10/21/2020 - Vote to keep our heads above water. South Florida is on front lines of sea level rise.
By Xavier Cortada
Miami Herald
10/28/2020 - Professor uses art to portray the pandemic
By Amanda M. Perez
News@TheU
11/23/2020 - Plastic artist in the US warns of the risk of spreading the virus on holidays
By Lorenzo Castro E.
La Vanguardia
11/26/2020 - University of Miami video performances target pandemic threat
By Abraham Galvan
Miami Today
12/08/2020 - Global classrooms spur thought-provoking discourse
By Kelly Montoya
News@TheU
12/21/2020