Another great SeminArt from the good people at LegalArt. Highly recommended.
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Helen Kohen, Consultant to the Vasari Project at the Miami-Dade Public Library System, will outline its history and provide artists with practical steps for good record keeping and information on how you can make the most of the archive as a record and a resource. Denise Delgado will assist Helen by offering her perspective on the Vasari Project as the Curator of Art Services and Exhibitions at Miami-Dade Public Library System.
Monday, September 20, 2010 / 1-2 p.m.
Auditorium, Main Library
Miami-Dade Public Library System
101 W Flagler Street
Miami, FL 33130
Coffee and cookies will be served
Artists, did you know…
The Vasari Project, established at Main Library in 2000 and co-funded by the Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs, is a collection of printed matter and items of ephemera that document the history of art in Miami from 1945 to the present. Named for the first art historian of Western Art History, Giorgio Vasari (1511-1574), the archive preserves your throwaways, anything relating to, or reflecting, how the visual arts became part of our city’s cultural, social and economic life. There is enough evidence in the documentation already on hand to suggest that art was a factor in Miami’s growth from the town’s earliest strivings. Artists first came to paint the natural environment, then to enhance what settlers built and where visitors played, then to study here, work here and stay. And now, as Zora Neale Hurston reminds us, “Time and place have had their say.”
There is much to be learned about Miami’s art past from so common an art world prop as an invitation to a gallery show, an exhibition poster or ad, a museum catalog, a press release, an artist’s resume, a reprint of an art review from the newspaper. Such is the stuff of factual knowledge, whole stories that never leave out the where, when, who and how can be constructed from the hard evidence gleaned from those ordinary things. There are also more obvious means, glossy art books and career-building videos, oral histories, artists’ scrapbooks and sketchbooks, letters and diaries. The Vasari Project boasts all of that too. Growing all the time, the archive is a unique resource for the scholar or the plain curious, the browser or the researcher.
Helen and Denise will be available for specific questions at the end of the program. There will also be selections from the Vasari Project archive for you to browse through. Stick around to meet other artists and community members, LegalArt SeminArts are great networking opportunities!
About the presenters:
Helen Kohen is an art historian, critic, and consultant to Miami-Dade Public Library System’s Vasari Project. Helen has lived in Miami for over 50 years and has been an active participant and thoughtful leader in our arts community. She was an art critic with the Miami Herald from 1978-1995. Her passion for the arts in Miami is evident in her many volunteer activities, serving as an adviser, board member, lecturer and grant panelist for several local museums and cultural institutions.
Denise Delgado oversees the Art Services and Exhibitions Department at Miami-Dade Public Library System, manages an exhibition program for the 48-branch system, develops public programs, acquires new work for the Library’s permanent art collection, and supervises its care and management. Earlier this year, Denise presented LegalArt’s SeminArt: Art and Ideas: Exhibiting at the Public Library.
Register now: legalartprograms@gmail.com
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