FIU College of Architecture + The Arts Artist-in-Residence Xavier Cortada to participate in FOREVERGLADES: Here Today, Hopeful for Tomorrow Panel during Art Basel. Miami Dade College’s Museum of Art + Design will host a unique, environmentally-minded panel, FOREVERGLADES: Here Today, Hopeful for Tomorrow, on Friday, Nov. 30, from 10 a.m. to noon at the Freedom Tower.

Above: Xavier Cortada, “Endangered World: Eastern Hemisphere,” 2009 at MDC Museum of Art + Design | Freedom Tower

MDC Museum of Art + Design Presents FOREVERGLADES: Here Today, Hopeful for Tomorrow Panel during Art Basel.

Miami Dade College’s Museum of Art + Design will host a unique, environmentally-minded panel, FOREVERGLADES: Here Today, Hopeful for Tomorrow, on Friday, Nov. 30, from 10 a.m. to noon at the Freedom Tower. The panel is presented in partnership with the MDC Earth Ethics Institute; National Parks Conservation Association; Everglades National Park; Biscayne National Park; Dry Tortugas National Park, and Big Cypress National Preserve.

Ahern-Hettich, director of the Earth Ethics Institute at MDC will introduce the program. Stories yet Untold: Cultural Resources and Why They Matter in our National Parks, begins at 10 a.m. with a focus on the cultural artifacts of SouthFlorida parks. At 11 a.m., Miami artist Xavier Cortada will present Endangered World, featuring his global installations beginning with South Pole (2007) to Biscayne National Park (2010). He will also present a hard-hitting look at threatened and endangered species that call Biscayne National Park home (Endangered World 80.15W).

In addition, Forever is Composed of Nows, an exhibition featuring works from artists who are inspired by the South Florida National Parks will be presented simultaneously with FOREVERGLADES in the President’s Gallery located in the ballroom of the Freedom Tower. The exhibition is juried by Kim Yantis, exhibit specialist of the Deering Estate at Cutler, a 444-acre environmental, archaeological and historic preserve located on Biscayne Bay. Forever is Composed of Nows will run through Dec. 14.

The panel is presented in conjunction with the Museum’s upcoming exhibition during Art Basel, FOREVERGLADES, which opens on Nov. 30. The exhibition features large-scale works by European-based William Sweetlove and Cracking Art Group. FOREVERGLADES is presented in collaboration with Galleria Ca d ‘Oro and generously underwritten by famed Swiss watchmaker Girard-Perregaux.

FOREVERGLADES runs through Saturday, Jan. 26, 2013. Both the panel and exhibition are free and open to the public.   Gallery hours are Tuesday through Saturday, from noon to 5 p.m.

WHAT:    MDC Museum of Art + Design Presents FOREVERGLADES: Here Today, Hopeful for Tomorrow panel

WHEN:    Friday, Nov. 30, from 10 a.m. to noon

WHERE:  Freedom Tower at MDC

600 Biscayne Blvd.

For more information about the panel, please contact Loren Santiesteban at 305-237-7725 or lsanties@mdc.edu .

For more information about the exhibition, please call 305-237-7700, or visit www.mdcmoad.org.

Media-only contacts: Juan Mendieta, MDC director of communications, 305-237-7611, jmendiet@mdc.edu; Tere Estorino Florin, director of media relations, 305-237-3949, testorin@mdc.edu; Sue Arrowsmith, 305-237-3710, sue.arrowsmith@mdc.edu.

Above: Xavier Cortada, “Endangered World: Eastern Hemisphere,” 2009 at MDC Museum of Art + Design | Freedom Tower