The City of Miami Beach, in collaboration with the Miami Beach Visitor and Convention Authority (MBVCA), is pleased to announce the winners of the 2023 edition of No Vacancy. The $25,000 Juried Prize has been awarded to Christina Pettersson, who presented The Garden of Evil at the Cadillac Hotel & Beach Club. The $10,000 People’s Choice Award, sponsored by the Greater Miami Convention and Visitors Bureau (GMCVB), has been awarded to Carlos Betancourt for his work entitled The Future Eternal at the Betsy Hotel. Both works debuted for Miami Beach Art Week on November 16 and concluded on December 14.

Jurors Nate Freeman (Culture Correspondent, Vanity Fair) and D.J. Hellerman (Chief Curator and Director of Curatorial Affairs, The Fabric Workshop and Museum) awarded the Juried Prize to Stockholm-born Miami-based artist Christina Pettersson. Her work, The Garden of Evil, is a large-scale allegorical drawing on wood panels installed in the lobby of the Cadillac Hotel & Beach Club. It imagines a futuristic Miami Beach overwhelmed by invasive animals, a lushly tropical yet ultimately apocalyptic world where only the most opportunistic creatures remain. The work serves as a reminder to the viewer that an environment absent of native flora and fauna will soon find itself absent of humans.

The People’s Choice Award is determined by the public via an online vote. Their selection, The Future Eternal by the San Juan-born, Miami-based artist Carlos Betancourt, is an animated video projected onto the iconic “Betsy Orb,” a skybridge placed in between the two buildings of the Betsy Hotel. The colorful, kaleidoscopic installation reflects the Christmas decorations and tree toppers of Betancourt’s childhood, which he and his mother left behind when they moved from Puerto Rico to Miami. This memory led him to collect discarded decorative lights from secondhand stores, which he has layered to explore themes of memory, beauty, and the passage of time in The Future Eternal.

No Vacancy is a juried art competition that supports and celebrates mainly local artists, provokes critical discourse, and encourages the public to experience Miami Beach’s famed hotels as temporary art destinations in their own right. No Vacancy 2023 included 12 participating artists drawn from a call for submissions and selected by representatives from the City of Miami Beach Art in Public Places Committee, Cultural Arts Council (CAC) and MBVCA. Each artist created a site-specific work for display at one of 12 different hotels throughout Miami Beach. For the fourth edition of this competition, $35,000 in prizes were awarded, including the $10,000 Public Prize by the GMCVB and the $25,000 Juried Prize awarded by a panel of art world professionals.

For additional information please visit: www.mbartsandculture.org/no-vacancy.

Funding for this project is provided by the City of Miami Beach Cultural Arts Council, Miami Beach Visitor and Convention Authority, and the Greater Miami Convention and Visitors Bureau. For additional information, please visit mbartsandculture.org.

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About Christina Pettersson

Christina Pettersson explores resurrection and savage demise on a grand scale once reserved for history painting. Her drawings, sculptures, and most recently performances, reference classic mythology and literature, revealing a deep allegiance to the wilderness of a bygone era, the sorcery of the night, and the experience of a world in decline. It is a stage materialized from the often brutal but beautiful Everglades of her hometown, which she has spent a lifetime exploring.

About Carlos Betancourt

Carlos Betancourt (b. 1966 in San Juan, Puerto Rico; lives and works in Miami, FL) is a multidisciplinary artist exploring issues of memory, dwelling in issues of nature, the environment and matters of beauty, identity, and communication. Through re-examination, he recycles and reinterprets the past by delivering it in a fresh and new relevant context.

About the City of Miami Beach Art in Public Places Program
Art in Public Places is a city board responsible for the commission and purchase of artwork by contemporary artists in all media. The program allocates funds totaling 2% of hard costs for City projects and joint private/public projects. Funds from construction projects may be aggregated into the Art in Public Places Fund and allocated for artwork at public sites and for collection maintenance. The fund is administered by a City Commission-appointed citizen’s board of seven members, the Art in Public Places Committee.

About the Miami Beach Cultural Arts Council
The Cultural Arts Council (CAC) is an eleven-member council created in 1997 for the purpose of developing, coordinating and promoting the performing and visual arts in the City of Miami Beach. The CAC serves as arts advocates before governmental bodies, coordinates collective marketing initiatives for the local arts community and funds not-for-profit arts organizations. Since the program’s inception, the CAC has awarded approximately $18 million in cultural arts grants, supporting thousands of performances, exhibits, and other cultural activities in Miami Beach.

About the Miami Beach Visitor and Convention Authority

The MBVCA is a seven-member authority, appointed by the City of Miami Beach Commission, with the goal of encouraging, developing and promoting the image of Miami Beach locally, nationally and internationally as an outstanding tourist destination. To this end, the MBVCA strategically focuses its funding investments in a balanced manner, fostering outstanding existing programs, stimulating new activities, and encouraging partnerships. The MBVCA is committed to a careful, long-term plan for allocation of resources to help Miami Beach thrive as a destination with something for everyone.

Media Contact:

Katrina Stewart or Andy Cushman

E: katrina@bluemedium.com or acushman@bluemedium.com

T: 212.675.1800

— The event will take place on Dec. 16 at the Scott Rakow Youth Center —

Miami Beach will host its second annual Human Rights Expo on Saturday, Dec. 16 from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. at the Scott Rakow Youth Center. The event will bring together nine volunteer committees dealing with everything from human rights to Black affairs, affordable housing and other topics of equality.

“This is a great opportunity to showcase our many volunteer committees that work to make Miami Beach a better community,” said Miami Beach City Manager Alina T. Hudak.

Refreshments, snacks and door prizes will be provided by Pepsi and Trader Joe’s along with face painting and music courtesy of Young Musicians United. The bowling alley will be open for attendees and their families as well as a programmed kid’s zone by Miami Beach Parks & Recreation staff.

“We are excited to host the second annual Miami Beach Human Rights Expo, celebrating the 75th International Human Rights Day,” shared Amanda Knapp and Dale Stine from the Human Rights Committee. “We look forward to coming together as a community to collaborate on new ways to advance human rights in Miami Beach.”

Human Rights Day is observed by the international community every year on Dec. 10 to commemorate the day in 1948 that the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

The following committees will be participating: Human Rights, Ad Hoc Resiliency, Affordable Housing, Black Affairs, Disability Access, Homeless, LGBTQIA+, Quality Education, and Commission for Women.

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WHAT: Miami Beach Human Rights Expo

WHEN: Saturday, Dec. 16 from 1-3 p.m.

WHERE: Scott Rakow Youth Center, 2700 Sheridan Ave.

— The late Rabbi Pinchas Weberman had lived in the city since 1960  —

Join Miami Beach Mayor Steven Meiner and City Commissioners as they name a street in honor of the late beloved Rabbi Pinchas Weberman. The dedication ceremony will take place on Monday, Dec. 11 at 2 p.m. near the intersection of Bonita and Indian Creek drives.

Weberman, who passed away in 2022 at the age of 92, was considered the architect of Orthodox Judaism in South Florida. He served as president of the Orthodox Council of South Florida and was the founder of Ohev Shalom Congregation. The synagogue was built in 1964 and is still located at 7055 Bonita Drive.

“Rabbi Weberman was a pioneer and leader in the Jewish community, police department and beyond — we honor his legacy,” said Mayor Steven Meiner.

A father of 15 children, Weberman also served as chaplain for the Miami Beach Police Department and was the founder and visionary of the Miami Beach Eruv Council. For decades, the Rabbi was a familiar sight on Fridays as he rode an all-terrain vehicle up and down the beach.

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— Winning Artwork to join Permanent Collection at the Miami Beach Convention Center —

The City of Miami Beach is pleased to announce that It’s Alright, by artist Anneke Eussen, represented by DOCUMENT (Chicago, USA), has been selected by the public as its 2023 Legacy Purchase Program acquisition. The annual program tasks the city’s Art in Public Places Committee to select three world-class pieces of artwork from the emerging artists of the Art Basel Miami Beach Positions and Nova Sections with a budget of up to $80,000.

Eussen was among three finalists selected by the city’s Art in Public Places Committee alongside Noémie Goudal (presented by Edel Assanti, London, UK) and Shannon Bool (presented by Daniel Faria, Toronto, Canada).

“Thank you to the hundreds of residents who participated in selecting Anneke Eussen’s work as this year’s Legacy Purchase,” said Miami Beach Mayor Steven Meiner. “We are delighted it will be a part of our growing collection that will enrich the Miami Beach Convention Center experience for our residents and visitors.”

In her work, It’s Alright, Eussen presents a wall-mounted glass and mixed media sculpture. She mixes and layers different tones of found materials and colored glass while keeping their raw edges intact in order to redefine existing borders. Growing up in a Dutch town neighboring Germany and Belgium, Eussen’s use of recuperated glass strips and panes evoke map-like shapes and imaginary territories that, when overlapped and reused, question the idea of borders by creating a new, composite form.

“We are delighted that Anneke Eussen will be part of the public collection of the City of Miami Beach,” said Sibylle Friche, Partner at DOCUMENT. “Eussen is an incredible artist whose practice is poetic while also deeply rooted in our contemporary realities. We are very honored to be working with her and to present her work at Art Basel Miami Beach this year.”

Eussen lives and works in the Netherlands. She studied at the Academy of Maastricht followed by a post-graduate residency at the Higher Institute of Fine Arts, Belgium. Solo exhibitions include ‘Present Portal’ at Marinaro, New York (USA), ‘Little Triumph’ at Tatjana Pieters, Ghent (BE), Park Platform for Visual Arts, Tilburg (NL) (duo with Bram Braam), ‘Circle lines,’ Cruise&Callas, Berlin (DE), ‘NEUBAU Stuck,’ LSD Gallery, Berlin (DE) and ‘Close to what’s real,’ Highlight Gallery, San Francisco (USA). Group exhibitions include ‘disorder (REPEAT), DMW, Antwerp (BE), ‘Recyclage / Surcyclage, Fondation Villa Datris, L’Isle- sur-la- Sorgue (FR), ‘Listen to the Stones, Think like a Mountain,’ (curator Evelien Bracke), Tatjana Pieters, Ghent (BE), BORG2014, a biennale for contemporary art in Antwerp (BE), Jan van Eyck Academie, Maastricht (NL), CC De Bond, Bruges (BE), The Wand, Berlin (DE) and Ainsi Building, Maastricht (NL).

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About the Legacy Purchase Program

The Legacy Purchase Program began in 2019, acquiring world-class art pieces for the city’s public collection and growing in value as artists further their professional careers. Previous acquisitions include works from Juana Valdés, Sanford Biggers, Amoako Boafo, Ebony G. Patterson, and Farah Al Qasimi. The Legacy Purchase Program is made possible from the Miami Beach Convention Center’s Art in Public Places contingency fund. This fund is dedicated to the purchase of public art, that includes the purchase and future maintenance of the artwork. All acquisitions fall under the city’s Art in Public Places ordinance and guidelines.

About the City of Miami Beach Art in Public Places Program

Art in Public Places is a city board responsible for the commission and purchase of artwork by contemporary artists in all media. The program allocates funds totaling 2% of hard costs for City projects and joint private/public projects. Funds from construction projects may be aggregated into the Art in Public Places Fund and allocated for artwork at public sites and for collection maintenance. The fund is administered by a City Commission-appointed citizen’s board of seven members, the Art in Public Places Committee.

Media Contact:

Katrina Stewart or Andy Cushman

E: katrina@bluemedium.com or acushman@bluemedium.com

T: 212.675.1800

Miami Beach Residents to Select Work to Be Acquired as part of the Public Art Collection on Display at the Miami Beach Convention Center

Today, the City of Miami Beach announced the three finalists in its 2023 Legacy Purchase Program. The annual program tasks the city’s Art in Public Places Committee to select three world class pieces of artwork from the emerging artists of the Art Basel Miami Beach Positions and Nova Sections with an $80,000 budget. The city then asks the public to vote for its favorite, and the winning artwork will be purchased by the City of Miami Beach to go on permanent display in the Miami Beach Convention Center.

This year the three finalists are Anneke Eussen (presented by DOCUMENT), Noémie Goudal (presented by Edel Assanti), and Shannon Bool (presented by Daniel Faria).

The public may cast their votes at www.mbartsandculture.org/legacy-purchase-program starting at 8 p.m. today with voting ending at 8 p.m. on Thursday, December 7.

Please view information about the finalists below.

Anneke Eussen (It’s Alright, 2023), DOCUMENT
(Born 1978, Vaals, Netherlands)

Anneke Eussen utilizes the formal principles of Minimalism evoking geometric seriality, yet quietly deploys hidden narratives and secret histories in her work. Her practice revolves around cultivating and repurposing found materials into meticulously detailed and ghostly wall sculptures. Through layering, arrangement, and assembly interventions, Eussen is never manipulating the original shape of the objects and insists on using their original framework. Through overlapping industrial materials such as stone, glass, and metal, Eussen questions the linguistic and political construction of borders. The works emanate the tangibility of human contact, visualizing the sensuous connection between past, present, and future through our relationship with built space.

Noémie Goudal (Phoenix V, 2021), Edel Assanti
(Born 1984, Paris, France)

Noémie Goudal’s practice involves the construction of ambitious staged, illusionistic interventions within the landscape, documented using film and photography. Her oeuvre expands photography across its standard parameters, into immersive installations and performances, underpinned by rigorous research examining the intersection of ecology and anthropology and the limitations of theoretical conceptions of the natural world. Goudal’s latest work unravels an artistic dialogue with the field of paleoclimatology, analyzing climate and geology from the vantage point of “deep time” to acquire an understanding of our planet’s trajectory. Goudal’s work creates an intellectual bridge between our experience of “real time” and deep time, measured in millions of years, exposing the geographies of the earth as we know them to be mere momentary states in a cycle of continuous flux.

Shannon Bool (I, 2023), Daniel Faria
(Born 1972, Comox, Canada)

Shannon Bool combines art historical and architectural references with an interest in psychoanalytic concepts, creating work with mediums and techniques such as tapestry, embroidery, carpet, silk paintings, and photograms. Central to her practice are questions of thegaze: Who is looking at what, from what context, and to what end? She integrates these questions with material processes that seek to pivot the viewer’s perspective in new ways, often subverting hierarchies of material value by using materials associated with craft.
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About the Legacy Purchase Program:
The Legacy Purchase Program began in 2019, acquiring world-class art pieces for the city’s public collection and growing in value as artists further their professional careers. Previous acquisitions include works from Juana Valdés, Sanford Biggers, Amoako Boafo, Ebony G. Patterson, and Farah Al Qasimi.The Legacy Purchase Program is made possible from the Miami Beach Convention Center’s Art in Public Places contingency fund. This fund is dedicated to the purchase of public art, that includes the purchase and future maintenance of the artwork. All acquisitions fall
under the city’s AiPP ordinance and guidelines. We are committed to providing excellent public service and safety to all who live, work and play in our vibrant, tropical, historic community.

About the City of Miami Beach Art in Public Places Program
Art in Public Places is a city board responsible for the commission and purchase of artwork by contemporary artists in all media. The program allocates funds totaling 2% of hard costs for City projects and joint private/public projects. Funds from construction projects may be aggregated into the Art in Public Places Fund and allocated for artwork at public sites and for collection maintenance. The fund is administered by a City Commission-appointed citizen’s board of seven members, the Art in Public Places Committee.

Media Contact:
Katrina Stewart or Andy Cushman
E: katrina@bluemedium.com or acushman@bluemedium.com
T: 212.675.1800

— The event will take place outside Miami Beach City Hall on Thursday, Dec. 7 —

Join Miami Beach Mayor Steven Meiner and City Commissioners as they light the menorah on Thursday, Dec. 7 at 4 p.m. to mark the start of the Jewish celebration of Hanukkah. The event will take place outside Miami Beach City Hall at 1700 Convention Center Drive.

“Hanukkah is known as the Jewish Festival of Lights and traditionally is a joyous time for Jewish families to come together,” Mayor Meiner said. “This year, we must remember to also keep the people of Israel in our hearts who won’t be home with their families because of war.”

The eight-day Hanukkah celebration will end on the evening of Friday Dec. 15.

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— Award recognizes excellence in development and redevelopment projects —

The Miami Beach Convention Center, which recently underwent a $640 million renovation and expansion, has been awarded the 2023 Project of the Year Vision Award at the 15^th Annual Urban Land Institute Southeast Florida Caribbean Chapter ceremony held on Nov. 28.

“The Miami Beach Convention Center is the epicenter of economic impact in Miami Beach — welcoming more than 600,000 visitors annually,” shared City Manager Alina T. Hudak. “Once a disconnected area and dated facility surrounded by asphalt, the revised 25-acre site and 1.4 million sq. foot building has been transformed into the city’s new civic heart. We are so grateful to ULI for this incredible recognition.”

The convention center project created over 12 acres of lush new greenspaces consisting of two new public parks centrally located and interwoven into the fabric of adjacent historic neighborhoods and public buildings. Home to Art Basel Miami Beach for over 20 years and counting — it also incorporates over $7 million of contemporary public art. Visitors are immediately drawn to the center’s new architectural language reminiscent of natural elements of the ocean, beach, and underwater life by emulating receding water, sea foam and local coral reef patterns.

Also included in the renovation, was the 100-year-old historic Carl Fisher Clubhouse and the incorporation of other resiliency features such as raised roads, elevated critical building systems, a 25-year site drainage system, and decorative flood walls which protect the building from the threat of sea level rise.

The Project of the Year Award recognizes excellence in development and redevelopment projects in the region that represent the highest standards of achievement. Such projects highlight innovation, transformational change, unique solutions and responsibility in land use and development.

Previous winners include Brickell City Center, Wynwood Walls, The Miami Design District, Lotus Village and the Perez Art Museum among others.

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To request this material in alternate format, sign language interpreter (five-day notice required), information on access for persons with disabilities, and/or any accommodation to review any document or participate in any city-sponsored proceedings, call 305.604.2ADA (2232) and select 1 for English or 2 for Spanish, then option 6; TTY users may call via 711 (Florida Relay Service).

The City of Miami Beach is pleased to present “Adora Vanessa Athena Fantasia,” a newly-commissioned art installation by Brazilian artist Eli Sudbrack of collective assume vivid astro focus (avaf) on Tuesday, Dec. 5 at 1 p.m. at the intersection of Washington Ave. and Española Way. The work is the third installment of Elevate Española, a temporary public art program launched by the city in 2022.

With “Adora Vanessa Athena Fantasia,” avaf found inspiration from the Miami Beach drag scene, drawing details from local drag personas and honoring the existence and work of these artists. Above Española Way, “Adora Vanessa Athena Fantasia” will feature five suspended large-scale aluminum portraits, printed on both sides in avaf’s distinctively vibrant style.

Some of the drag artists who inspired the project include Adora, Athena Dion, Carla Croqueta, Fantasia Royale, Juice Love Dion, Lady Paraiso, Persephone Von Lips, Power Infiniti, The Regina Black, Tiffany Fantasia and TP Lords.

“Drag artists, often explosive, full of energy, colorful and inclusive in their performances are very inspirational to us and our practices have many similarities,” shared avaf. “Our aim in avaf projects and installations has always been to provide joy and a sense of freedom, liberation, and self-expression to the viewer — and we can see the same manifestation in drag events. Energizing the viewer always seems to be the intention of drag performances and that is also an important feature in our work.”

“Adora Vanessa Athena Fantasia” is the third installment of Elevate Española as a dedicated art installation site, and the fourth to be presented over Española Way. In 2021, the art collective FriendsWithYou presented a hanging installation over Española Way titled Little Cloud Sky, which consisted of eight inflatable cloud sculptures. In November 2022, Edouard Duval-Carrié debuted the inaugural installation of Elevate Española titled Trapeze Contortionists. In spring 2023, artist Jillian Meyer presented Very Moving, which explored the impact of technology on our lives. Commissions at the site will continue biannually, with the next installment planned for spring 2024.

Avaf is exhibited permanently in multiple locations throughout South Florida, with their mural “Outside the Walls” installed on NW 26 Street in Wynwood, and the murals “amorous voluminous atrocious ferocious” and “another vivacious admiring friend” installed at the Hard Rock Stadium. They have also been featured in numerous private collections, including the Rubell collection, the Rosa and Carlos de la Cruz collection, and the permanent collection of the Pérez Art Museum. In 2022, they presented a participatory art installation entitled “Roller Dancin Rink” at The Faena Art Center in Miami Beach.

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About the City of Miami Beach Art in Public Places Program
Art in Public Places is a city board responsible for the commission and purchase of artwork by contemporary artists in all media. The program allocates funds totaling 2% of hard costs for city projects and joint private/public projects. Funds from construction projects may be aggregated into the Art in Public Places Fund and allocated for artwork at public sites and for collection maintenance. The fund is administered by a City Commission-appointed citizen’s board of seven members, the Art in Public Places Committee.

About the Miami Beach Cultural Arts Council
The Cultural Arts Council (CAC) is an 11-member council created in 1997 for the purpose of developing, coordinating and promoting the performing and visual arts in the City of Miami Beach. The CAC serves as arts advocates before governmental bodies, coordinates collective marketing initiatives for the local arts community and funds not-for-profit arts organizations. Since the program’s inception, the CAC has awarded approximately $18 million in cultural arts grants, supporting thousands of performances, exhibits and other cultural activities in Miami Beach.

Media Contact

For additional information, images and interview requests please contact:

Chloe Pingeon or Andy Cushman

Blue Medium

E: chloe@bluemedium.com or acushman@bluemedium.com

T: 212.675.1800

To request this material in alternate format, sign language interpreter (five-day notice required), information on access for persons with disabilities, and/or any accommodation to review any document or participate in any city-sponsored proceedings, call 305.604.2ADA (2232) and select 1 for English or 2 for Spanish, then option 6; TTY users may call via 711 (Florida Relay Service).

The City of Miami Beach is pleased to present Run Run Like The Wind, an installation by South Florida based artist Edison Peñafiel. Run Run Like The Wind will feature nine large-scale vibrantly colored banners that display lyrics from Latin American protest songs from the 1960s and 70s. The banners, previously installed outside MOCA NOMI (Museum of Contemporary Art North Miami) will be unveiled on Monday, December 4 at 1 p.m. at Henry Liebman Square, located at the corner of Pine Tree Drive and 41 Street. The installation will be on view through February 24, 2024.

Edison Peñafiel’s work examines the experiences of those on the underside of the world’s major conflicts: the migrant, the laborer, and the surveilled. Using sculpture, photography, animation, video, and space to create disturbing reflections of the realities we participate in and witness every day, his multimedia installations speak movingly on repetitive cycles of history and the production of the human catastrophe.

With Run Run Like The Wind, Peñafiel tells the story of migration, and the push and pull of leaving behind what’s known for a new and uncertain future. The banners feature different phrases that references songs, idioms, and the experience of refugees, including Victor Jara’s “El Aparecido” (“the apparition”) and “Run run se fue pa’l norte” (“Run run for the north”) by Violeta Parra. The figures on the banners are carrying luggage, or are otherwise on the move to a new destination. At their ankles are wings, invoking the ancient Greek god Hermes, who is known as a protector of travelers.

In the artist’s own words: “As a way to connect with and represent the demographics of immigrants in Miami and South Florida, the languages represented on these flags are expanded to include Haitian Creole. As these flags move through the wind, they tell the story of people’s movements from one home to a new one and explore the experiences of this motion and the hope, fear, and everything in between that accompanies it.”

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About the City of Miami Beach Art in Public Places Program
Art in Public Places is a city board responsible for the commission and purchase of artwork by contemporary artists in all media. The program allocates funds totaling 2% of hard costs for city projects and joint private/public projects. Funds from construction projects may be aggregated into the Art in Public Places Fund and allocated for artwork at public sites and for collection maintenance. The fund is administered by a City Commission-appointed citizen’s board of seven members, the Art in Public Places Committee.

Media Contact

For additional information, images and interview requests please contact:

Katrina Stewart or Andy Cushman

Blue Medium

E: katrina@bluemedium.com / acushman@bluemedium.com

T: 212.675.1800

To request this material in alternate format, sign language interpreter (five-day notice required), information on access for persons with disabilities, and/or any accommodation to review any document or participate in any city-sponsored proceedings, call 305.604.2ADA (2232) and select 1 for English or 2 for Spanish, then option 6; TTY users may call via 711 (Florida Relay Service).