Events highlight the arts' role in solving complex challenges & promoting social change
LOCAL 10 NEWS RECOGNIZES CORTADA AS A "2024 MOST TREASURED CITIZEN"
Xavier Cortada has been named a “2024 Most Treasured Citizen” by WPLG Local 10 News for his work engaging South Floridians in creative climate action. Specifically, the Don’t Trash Our Treasure program continues to cover the evolution of Cortada’s community-led initiative, “The Underwater,” as it spreads across Miami-Dade County parks and Broward County schools.
“I want all of us to understand that we are creative beings and that we have a role, we have a voice,” he reflected. “The power of art is to shape culture, to transform the way we think, the way we behave, the way we see ourselves, the way we are.”
Xavier Cortada, “Painted Cuban Plane and Freedom Luggage Installation,” 2004.
20 YEARS AGO: PAINTED CUBAN PLANE
In May 2004, Xavier Cortada transformed a Russian Antonov-2 Colt airplane that brought a family from Cuba to the United States into a piece of art. He painted it with open mouths to signify the lack of freedom of expression in Cuba.
Cortada envisioned this art piece as a living monument, a way for Cuban exiles to communicate their journey from a tyrannical regime to the land of the free. The plane and its “Freedom Luggage Installation” formed an interactive piece, inviting exiles to recount their journeys to freedom. Messages were solicited from exiles and placed in the suitcases surrounding the plane. These 46 pieces of luggage, numbered from 1959 (the start of the Cuban Revolution) to 2004, contained letters detailing what exiles left behind in Cuba and what they found upon arriving in the United States.
BROWARD PARTNERS WITH CORTADA TO LEAD 'CENTRAL COUNTY CLIMATE CONVERSATION'
On April 27th, Broward County Resilient Environment Department, Cultural Division, the Community Foundation of Broward, and the Cortada Foundation hosted the inaugural Central County Climate Conversation at the African American Research Library and Cultural Center in Fort Lauderdale, FL.
The interactive nature of the workshop encouraged participants to actively contribute to the climate conversation, fostering a sense of community and shared purpose. By creating their elevation markers and discussing local climate issues, attendees became climate ambassadors, empowered to advocate for sustainable practices and policies within their neighborhoods.
CORTADA HOSTS U.S. STATE DEPT. INTERNATIONAL VISITOR LEADERSHIP PROGRAM
The Xavier Cortada Foundation had the honor of hosting a delegation of 22 international visitors participating in the U.S. Department of State’s International Visitor Leadership Program on May 3rd.
Cortada engaged the global guests in a presentation, performance, and conversation. Held at Pinecrest Gardens, the visit was part of the “Promoting Social Change Through the Arts” program, which aims to explore how the arts can foster community sustainability, manage conflicts, address personal and community healing, and promote cross-cultural understandin
UNIVERSITY OF MIAMI HIGHLIGHTS CORTADA'S WORK AT OSHER LIFELONG LEARNING INSTITUTE
“An artist with a passion for environmental advocacy and social change, Xavier Cortada is not content to display his artwork on the walls of a museum or gallery, though he has done both in cities around the world.
For Cortada, a three-time University of Miami alumnus and professor of practice, it’s more important to provoke conversation and, ultimately, action, particularly when it comes to climate change, an issue he says is the most pressing in our world today.”