Title
A Resolution of the City Commission approving the poetry-based temporary public art activation “Dear Human” in partnership with O, Miami and the Lowe Art Museum, and funding up to $10,000 from the Art Fund; authorizing an amendment to the Fiscal Year 2023-2024 Annual Budget to recognize the $10,000 transfer from the Art in Public Places reserve as revenue and appropriate such funds to put toward the cost of the project. (unanimously recommended by the Cultural Development Board approval/denial vote: 6 to 0).
Body
Working collaboratively and with the assistance of O, Miami, Coral Gables Art in Public Places program and the Lowe Art Museum at the University of Miami have imagined a project in which everyday citizens, students, and visitors use public artworks as springboards to write a poem.
The resulting project “Dear Human” was created and has been approved as part of the 2024 O, Miami Poetry Festival.
About the partners:
O, Miami builds community around the power of poetry. Through collaboration, project, events, and publications, O, Miami creates a platform for amplifying Miamians, investing in a new shared narrative of our city and a more equitable picture of its futures.
Every April, Miami celebrates National Poetry Month with a festival that aims to have every person in Miami-Dade County encounter a poem during the month of April. Mixing site-specific events, community gatherings, and poetry-in-public places projects, the festival is a celebration of Miami and its people.
About the project:
“Dear Human” is a project that envisions a dialogue between people and public art through poetry. This project revives the beneficial impact of public art by prompting people to engage with the sculpture long enough to turn the interaction into a poem, thereby activating the artwork.
Poetry writing prompts will be available on marketing materials through a QR code placed on physical signage next to the selected public artworks, and on a website created especially for this project which will also contain a map of public art locations. Submitted poems will be reviewed by O, Miami and the project team with select poems posted as part of the project.
A celebratory event is proposed for mid-April in Coral Gables at the 427 Biltmore Way, garden paseo.
On January 16, 2024, the Cultural Development Board discussed the project and made a motion unanimously recommending the temporary public art activation “Dear Human” in partnership with the Lowe Art Museum and O, Miami.
Funding for the temporary public art activation and related programming is being shared by the project partners; City of Coral Gables support is being proposed through the Art in Public Places fund reserve.
The Cultural Development Board will review the project concept at their meeting on January 16, 2024.
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