Cortada Wins ‘Arts & Environment’ Award

Inaugural 'Arts & Environment' Award given to Cortada

Wednesday, April 3, 2024

Miami-Dade County Auditorium
2901 W Flagler St, Miami, FL 33135

Xavier Cortada became the first-ever winner of Miami-Dade’s “Arts and Environment” Award. He was recognized for his “work done at the intersection of the arts and environmental issues, especially as it relates to how climate change will change the landscape of Miami.” This award recognizes someone who is engaged in significant and impactful work at the intersection of the arts, climate change and the environment.
XAVIER CORTADA

Xavier Cortada Foundation / @cortadafoundation

Xavier Cortada, Miami’s pioneer eco-artist, uses art’s elasticity to work across disciplines to engage communities in problem-solving. Particularly environmentally focused, his work aims to generate awareness and action around climate change, sea-level rise, and biodiversity loss. Over the past three decades, the Cuban-American artist has created art at both poles and across six continents, including more than 150 public artworks, installations, collaborative murals, and socially engaged projects.

Cortada, who serves as Miami-Dade County Government’s inaugural Artist-in-Residence, has received a 2023 National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine Excellence in Science Communication Award (SciComm Excellence) , a 2022 Creative Capital Award, and a 2021 Environmental Law Institute National Wetlands Award. Other accolades include being named to the 2022 #GRIST50 list and delivering a TED Talk on the intersection of art and climate that has received over 1.3 million views. He has been commissioned to create art for CERN, the White House, the World Bank, the Frost Art Museum, and Miami City Hall, among many other venues in the arts, sciences, and government sectors.

Cortada earned bachelor’s, master’s, and law degrees from the University of Miami, where he now serves as a professor of practice in the Department of Art and Art History, with secondary appointments at the medical and law schools. Cortada also serves as a Research Fellow for Princeton University.