Carol Damian
2020 Art Circuits’ Critic’s Choice art writer
Carol Damian, Ph.D. is an Art Historian and Independent Curator specializing in the Art of Latin America and the Caribbean. She is the former chairperson of the Art and Art History Department and former Director and Chief Curator of the Patricia and Phillip Frost Art Museum at Florida International University.
Listen to Carol Damian’s comments on April 2020
Who could have imagined a month ago what is happening now? We are living a surreal experience and, not surprisingly, the Arts are on the frontlines to keep us cultured, educated and entertained. You can spend all day in front of your screen watching remarkable performances from all over the world: The London National Theater, the Metropolitan Opera, Broadway musicals, American City Ballet, New World Symphony - the list is endless. For us concerned with what is happening in the Visual Arts, it is an opportunity to walk through the Louvre, visit Rembrandt at the Rijksmuseum, have a virtual tour of the Uffizi, see El Greco at the Chicago Art Institute and stand alone in the Great Hall of the Metropolitan Museum, among many others.
It certainly makes you realize how important Art is to our lives, and we need to be pro-active with our support. Now is the time. It is a new world and we feel the repercussions of the digital change taking over. In South Florida, our cultural institutions have stepped up and leaped into the 21st century with a technological overload, from daily art offerings, children’s activities, films, blogs, and virtual exhibitions. Visit your favorite galleries and artists – make a contribution, buy something!
Some highlights:
Museums:
ICA Digital/ICA Channel: exhibition stories, interviews, lectures, educational programming. https://icamiami.org/channel/
PAMM: Virtual Tours and videos of art talks, artmaking, current exhibitions at #MuseumfromHome. https://pamm.org/digital-museum
MoCA from Home: Virtual exhibition tours, deep dives into the permanent collection. https://mocanomi.org/category/moca-from-home/
Jewish Museum of Florida - FIU: Virtual tour of Zachary Balber: TAMIM.
Wolfsonian-FIU. From the Vaults: Go Down the Wolfsonian Rabbit Hole. Labs.wolfsonian.org
Take A Gallery Tour:
Pan American Art Projects: Online viewing room; auctions and timed sales; virtual and augmented reality experiences of exhibitions https://panamericanart.com/exhibition/beyond-paper-boundaries/
Mindy Solomon online. https://mindysolomon.com/exhibition/in-pursuit-of-a-meaningful-mark/
Pierro Atchugarry Gallery: Andres Michelena video.
Fountainhead Residency – Virtual studio visits and art talks. https://www.fountainheadresidency.com/artists-open-online