“Fringe” Installations For 3rd Annual Art Days

The third annual Art Days in Downtown Miami this September will feature five new art installations commissioned especially for its “Fringe” component. This year’s ambitious commissions are the outcome of a new partnership between the Miami Downtown Development Authority (Miami DDA) and Miami Dade Art in Public Places (AiPP) that attracted over 43 project proposals locally, nationally, and internationally. Five final project winners have been selected by a jury of experts with the advice of Fringe curator Amanda Sanfilippo. Artists include Jenny Brillhart, Nicolas Lobo, Emmett Moore, Domingo Castillo and Moira Holohan – all of whom live and work in Miami. This partnership marks the ongoing commitment of the Miami DDA to develop arts and culture in Downtown Miami. These five projects will be on view for ten days including the Art Days weekend, from September 18-28, 2014. Art Days will run from September 19-21, 2014.

The art installations will be located in a one-mile radius around this year’s Art Days hub – the Miami Center for Architecture & Design (MCAD), located at 100 Northeast 1st Avenue in Downtown, making it an ideal walking tour.  These winning projects were created specifically for each site where they will be located. Miami Dade Art in Public Place (AiPP) has had a long relationship with the Miami DDA since the arts initiative began, creating walking tours of Downtown Miami narrated by PAMM’s Director, Thom Collins and AiPP’s Brandi Reddick for previous events. This year, AiPP will also assist with programming tours led by the curator as well as a special media day. “This year, with the expert guidance of AiPP, Art Days will feature five world-class site specific projects amongst the numerous events and activities planned by our wonderful arts and culture partners in Downtown,” said Alyce Robertson, the Executive Director of the Miami DDA.

Led by curator Amanda Sanfilippo, an expert in commissioning contemporary art who also curated last year’s Fringe, the projects respond to their locations and use Downtown’s unique architecture and landscape as their backdrop to create fun, interactive and socially poignant experiences. Amanda Sanfilippo describes her vision for the Fringe: “Because these projects are temporary and site-determined, they are alive and integrated into the real world. By using the city as a platform, they actualize timely concerns and ideas through engagement with the site and its wider context”.

“Miami Dade’s Art in public places projects have historically always been permanent,” says Brandi Reddick, Artists and Communications Manager at AiPP, “participation in the Fringe program enables us to break out of this old paradigm and align the program with Miami’s vibrant contemporary art scene.” The five Fringe projects will be part of over one hundred exhibitions, events, art tours, artists open studios, panel discussions, outdoor performances, and family-friendly activities during the three-day Art Days experience. The success of Art Days over the past two years has generated momentum and excitement in the downtown arts community. The program has grown from 50 events in 2 days the first year to 130 events in 3 days in its second year. All bike, walk and run tours sold out in 2013, prompting the DDA to increase family-friendly events by expanding the number of tours offered.  The Miami DDA will be publishing a full schedule of tours and events for Art Days 2014 in early September.