April 2021 - County Mayor Levine Cava unveils Cortada’s digital mural
MAYOR UNVEILS THRIVE305 MESSAGE MURAL
On April 19th, 2021, Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava and artist Xavier Cortada unveiled “How We Thrive,” the official Thrive305 collaborative message mural, at County Hall, closing out Civic Week and launching National Volunteer Week.
“This community mural symbolizes all of the incredible work that we’ve done together as part of this effort. The hundreds of volunteers, the hundreds of organizations that have supported the work, and the thousands of you who have shared your hopes, dreams, and concerns. This is what we’re going to do moving forward, and it’s symbolized by this incredible piece of art.”
— Mayor Daniella Levine Cava
CORTADA COLLABORATES WITH ARSHT-ROCKEFELLER ON RESILIENCE EFFORTS
Cortada presented a replica of the flag he planted at the North Pole to Adrienne Arsht for her to plant alongside a native tree and reclaim her yard for nature. His Native Flags eco-art project is presented as part of the Arsht-Rock Community Resilience Pod.
The Adrienne Arsht-Rockefeller Foundation Resilience Pod debuted at Zoo Miami during Earth Month. It features the work of “Resilience Champions” and engages community members in addressing environmental concerns.
FEATURED PRINT
Signed, numbered, limited-edition print of Cortada Antarctic Ice Painting
Xavier Cortada, “Vincennes,” sea ice from the Antarctica’s Ross Sea, sediment from Antarctica’s Dry Valleys and mixed media on paper, 12″ x 9″, 2007. |
Exhibitions
CORAL GABLES MUSEUM EXHIBIT FEATURES CORTADA’S 1998 INTL AIDS CONFERENCE MURAL UNTIL JULY 18
SOLO EXHIBIT AT UNIVERSITY OF MIAMI WYNWOOD GALLERY: “15 YEARS OF RECLAMATION PROJECT” OPENS MAY 8
ACADEMIC CONFERENCES AND PANELS
UM SUB-TROPICAL AND TROPICAL COASTAL RESILIENCE SYMPOSIUM
Cortada, along with co-authors Adam Roberti and Ryan Deering, presented “Plan(T)ing for the future: Using socially engaged climate art to mobilize change agents” during the University of Miami’s Sub-Tropical and Tropical Coastal Resilience Symposium session “Social Resilience: The Role of the Arts in Engaging Communities.” The paper described Cortada’s methodologies in implementing his Plan(T) eco-art project across schools, universities and every public library in Miami-Dade County.
ASSOCIATION OF AMERICAN LAW SCHOOLS’ ART LAW WEBINAR
This AALS panel discussed the recent book “Painting Constitutional Law: Xavier Cortada’s Images of Constitutional Rights,” a collection of ten essays and accompanying paintings illustrating important Supreme Court Constitutional cases that concerned the State of Florida. Artist Xavier Cortada discussed his motivation and inspiration for each of the paintings illustrating these cases, and leading Constitutional scholars commented on his art, the cases and their significance.
UNIVERSITY OF MIAMI PERSPECTIVES
ON IMMIGRATION POLICY UNDER
A NEW ADMINISTRATION
Hosted by the University of Miami Institute for the Advanced Studies of the Americas, the UM Presidential Initiative on Immigration and Social Change presented Immigration Policy for a New Era. On April 20, 2021, Xavier Cortada served as a panelist on the Perspectives on Immigration Policy Under a New Administration roundtable. During his presentation “Immigration, Climate Change, Climate Gentrification and the Future (Un)weaving and (Re)weaving of Miami Community Tapestries,” Cortada discussed his socially engaged art practice.
FIU STRONGER TOGETHER: INTERPROFESSIONAL & CROSS-DISCIPLINARY COLLABORATION
Physicist FIU Honors College Assistant Dean Pete Markowitz and UM College of Arts and Sciences Professor of Practice Xavier Cortada were the presenters for Stronger Together: Interprofessional & Cross-Disciplinary Collaboration, the inaugural event of the FIU Faculty Senate Interprofessional Cross-Disciplinary Committee (IPCD). Together, they discussed the process that led to their collaboration in creating a project to commemorate the discovery of the Higgs boson CERN in 2013.
COMPARATIVE AND INTERNATIONAL EDUCATION SOCIETY (CIES) CONFERENCE MURAL UNVEILING
Last year, Cortada was asked to be the CIES 2020 Artist-in-Residence where he was to engage hundreds of researchers, educators, practitioners, and policymakers from around the world with his participatory art projects. Participants were invited to write letters to the future, explaining who they are and where they are from, but more importantly what they were experiencing on that day and how they envisioned the future in 2120. The result is a mural that incorporates every submission and begs the question, “Now what?” Click here to view the mural.
U-LINK @ MIAMI LAW:
FACULTY PROJECTS ADDRESSING
RACE, DIVERSITY, AND EQUITY
UM School of Law U-LINK Projects: Cortada shared his social practice work on Climate Migration as part of the U-LINK research project being implemented in collaboration with his team members: University of Miami Law (Jessica Owley), Climate Science (Katharine Mach) and Economics (Ian Wright) faculty. His work uses art’s elasticity to work across disciplines in engaging communities to work together to tackle a future with rising seas while addressing the critical issues of race, diversity, social justice and social equity.
ENGAGED TEACHING
THE OCTOPUS PROJECT AND
PROYECTO FLOR POSTA SANITARIA
After weeks of virtually attending Professor Cortada’s ART 315 Socially Engaged Art course, a multidisciplinary team of professionals and practitioners from Universidad Austral, Buenos Aires presented Proyecto Flor, their socially engaged participatory art project. The work will be implemented in Posta Sanitaria Las Lilas – a project that provides health and wellness support services (education, finance, sports, and spiritual formation) to a marginalized community in the periphery of Buenos Aires.
UNIVERSITY OF MIAMI 2021 EXCELLENCE IN CIVIC ENGAGEMENT FACULTY AWARD
The Excellence in Civic Engagement Award recognizes faculty members who engage University of Miami students with the community through academic service-learning courses and community-based research. Among his efforts, Cortada led a workshop, The Art of Empathy (in a Global Climate Crisis), hosted by the Universidad San Francisco de Quito in Ecuador, in which students engaged in a dialogue about climate change that aims to provide a translational understanding of climate change and its global impact.
THE FABRIC OF HUMANITY: TEC DE MONTERREY GLOBAL WEEK 2021
“Hemispheric University Consortium: The Fabric of Humanity” was the result of one of the virtual collaborations between Mexico’s Tec de Monterrey Professor Diana Correa and University of Miami Professor of Practice Xavier Cortada during Global Week Spring 2021.
GLOBAL WEEK: THE LONGITUDINAL INSTALLATION REFLECTING ON EMPATHY
A meaningful virtual international experience in a short program is possible. This Longitudinal Installation video showcases the experiences of 300 Mexico City university students during Tecnológico de Moneterrey Global Week Spring 2021.
EVENTS
PLAN(T) PRESENTED AT RETHINK MIAMI BEACH
For Earth Week, Plan(T) visited Lummus Park to participate in Rethink Miami Beach, an initiative headed by the City of Miami Beach. Plan(T) engaged Miami Beach residents and visitors with a live mangrove installation to facilitate climate conversations about climate change and sea level rise.
UNDERWATER HOA MEETING ON WEDNESDAY, MAY 5TH
On Wednesday, May 5th, join the Underwater HOA for “The Climate Crisis from a Youth Perspective” with featured speaker Gabriela Rodriguez, Program Coordinator at The CLEO Institute, a non-profit, non-partisan organization exclusively dedicated to climate crisis education and advocacy.
Cortada Studio manager Adam Roberti will lead the Art in Nature summer camp at Pinecrest Gardens. The camp will feature Cortada’s eco-art projects and will provide a place for kids to tap into their creativity and be inspired by the beauty of the natural world.
