Even on the shortest month of the year, The Wolfsonian–FIU fills the calendar! This February, we start by inviting Miami’s little ones to collect, curate, and direct at our Mini Museum family day workshop, then offering adult time for grown-ups through our monthly Second Shift happy hour and a post-Valentine’s sketching session at Culture Crawl featuring 2-for-1 drinks and our steamiest artworks. Miami’s Liberty Square and our renowned exhibition design are also subjects of talks designed for the curious—we expect these to be highlights for history buffs, storytelling fans, and those who just like to learn how something came to be. Last but definitely not least, Free Friday guided tours (English and Spanish versions) are the chance to break from everyday routine and spice things up with a little culture.
PUBLIC PROGRAMS
Sat, Feb 1 | 12–3pm
Discovering Design Free Family Day: My Mini Museum
Curators have a story to tell. What is your family’s? Lead your little ones in designing a mission, mapping out galleries, and selecting what goes on the walls . . . just like a museum pro. Need a little inspiration for your biographical diorama? The Museum Book: A Guide to Strange and Wonderful Collections takes us on a fabulous journey through the world of museums and all the surprising things we find in them.
Free and open to the public | RSVP
Fri, Feb 7 | 7–9pm
Liberty Square’s Legacy
When it was built by the American government in the 1930s, Miami’s Liberty Square complex was both an attempt to improve housing conditions for African Americans and part of a strategy to reinforce racial segregation. These conflicting aims have played out in a sometimes contentious history over the decades since—up to today, as Liberty Square undergoes private redevelopment. Join two FIU scholars, professor emeritus of psychology Marvin Dunn and John Stuart, associate dean of cultural and community engagement in the College of Communication, Architecture + the Arts, as they share the stories of the design of Florida’s first public housing project and the neighborhood that grew around it.
Following the talk, stay for a brief screening and discussion with filmmakers Faren Humes (Liberty) and Katja Esson (Razing Liberty Square). Presented as part of The Wolfsonian’s Mark Mamolen program series on American homes, investigating how the design of living space powerfully expresses individual personality and social values.
Free and open to the public | RSVP
Fri, Feb 14 | 6–9pm
Second Shift
It’s SoBe’s best-kept nightlife secret: when the other happy hours wind down, we keep the killer specials going! For a sophisticated date night that will be kind on your wallet, pencil in a stop at The Wolf. First take a free guided tour of the galleries at 6pm, then head downstairs to the Design Store for half-priced beer, wine, and mixed drinks. After pregaming with our one-two punch of culture and cocktails, you’ll be right in the heart of the action only a couple of blocks from Ocean Drive—perfectly situated to hit the town in style.
Free and open to the public; drinks available for purchase
Thu, Feb 20 | 6–9pm
Miami Beach Culture Crawl: Sexy Sketching
Once a month, The Wolfsonian partners with the City of Miami Beach and neighboring institutions for a free evening of à la carte culture. Just hop on the complimentary trolley service stopping at each of the participating locations (or grab your bike or comfy walking shoes!) and take in the best of South Beach’s art, performances, screenings, and tours. Plan your night as you like it—choose a couple of spots, or make the full rounds, 6–9pm. Visit mbartsandculture.org for full details and route.
For February, we’re setting the mood for romance with a post-Valentine’s tribute to our steamiest artworks! Invite your crush or main squeeze for 2-for-1 drinks and a special sultry edition of Sketching in the Galleries (stools, materials, and bilingual instruction provided). Get intimate with the objects in the “Flesh” section of our new exhibition, and then—if love is in the air—continue the date by hopping on the trolley to check out other cultural hotspots around the city.
Free and open to the public
Thu, Feb 27 | 7–8:15pm
Behind the Curtain
Longtime Wolfsonian fans know the secret ingredient that makes our art really shine: the exhibition design! It’s all about detail in our galleries: whether we’re playing with space, riffing on an object motif, or subtly incorporating historical references into the very walls, platforms, and display cases. In this eye-opening conversation between our award-winning chief designer Richard Miltner and curators Shoshana Resnikoff and Lea Nickless, we’re pulling back the veil on how our process-oriented design incorporates curatorial narrative to steer the visitor experience of a Wolfsonian show. After journeying through a visual timeline of our build-outs, you’ll gain appreciation for the massive amount of work behind each tiny decision, and see new dimensions in every thoughtfully chosen color, shape, and pattern.
Free and open to the public | RSVP
Fri, Feb 28 | 6:15–7pm
Viernes Gratuitos: Recorridos Guiados
Cada viernes por la noche es tu oportunidad de disfrutar de The Wolf en forma gratuita. Viernes seleccionados, disfruta de un recorrido de 45 minutos en español a las 6:15pm. Nuevos guías aportan diferentes perspectivas.
Gratis y abierto al público
Friday nights are your chance to experience The Wolf for free—plus, on select Fridays, catch a 45-minute tour in Spanish at 6:15pm. New guides bring different perspectives.
Free and open to the public
Weekly on Fri | 6–6:45pm
Free Friday Guided Tours
Learn more about The Wolfsonian and related art and design themes during a 45-minute free guided tour of the building, collection, or exhibitions. New guides bring different perspectives each week!
Free and open to the public
EXHIBITIONS + INSTALLATIONS
Through March 1
Cuban Caricature and Culture: The Art of Massaguer
With his biting political satire, celebrity caricatures, and magazine and advertising illustrations, graphic artist Conrado Walter Massaguer (1889–1965) helped shape the visual culture of his native Cuba between the 1920s and 1950s. This installation of works recently gifted to The Wolfsonian Library by Vicki Gold Levi will bring forth Massaguer’s legacy through dozens of works, from images of the “New Woman” flapper ideal (the so-called “Massa-girls”) in his magazine Social to depictions of tropical paradise for the Cuban Tourist Commission. Massaguer’s transnational reach will be shown in his covers for Collier’s and Life, while cartoons of visiting dignitaries and Hollywood stars will reveal how he rubbed shoulders with Franklin D. Roosevelt, Walt Disney, Albert Einstein, and the King of Spain—all evidence of an artist at the center of Havana’s cosmopolitan culture in the decades before the Cuban Revolution.
Through May 31
Radicals and Reactionaries: Extremism in America
Radicals and Reactionaries will showcase books and pamphlets produced by left- and right-wing extremists in the 1930s to recruit members to their causes or demonize their enemies. Curated by Florida International University undergraduates, the installation will present controversial public figures of the era—Huey P. Long, William R. Hearst, Earl Browder, and John Reed—and examine the issues they fought over, while hinting at some parallels between the polarization of that era and our own.
Ongoing
A Universe of Things: Micky Wolfson Collects
Over the course of more than three decades, an astounding diversity of materials has arrived in Miami Beach from all over the globe. Stained glass windows and paintings, vases and sideboards, posters, prints, books, and ephemera fill warehouses. They arrive in massive crates, wrapped boxes, or shopping bags, all to be catalogued, researched, preserved, studied, and perhaps exhibited or published. Suitcases of documentation—invoices, receipts, notes on napkins, and more—are sifted through and archived for future scholarship. This massive undertaking is the life’s work of collector and raconteur Mitchell “Micky” Wolfson, Jr., and has become the cornerstone of the museum that bears his name.
In A Universe of Things: Micky Wolfson Collects, The Wolfsonian examines Wolfson’s life of collecting by exploring how objects form networks that connect across time and cultures. In recognition of Wolfson’s 80th birthday, the exhibition will feature beloved icons and unexpected finds in a presentation timed to coincide with the publication of the book Founder’s Choice (Scala Publishers), which highlights 37 key collection objects selected by Wolfson himself.
A Universe of Things is made possible by Funding Arts Network, Inc. (FAN).
Ongoing
Deco: Luxury to Mass Market
“Art Deco” has come to evoke a set of styles that emerged in the 1920s and 1930s out of aspirations to fuse art and industry into a modern language of design. From exquisite handcrafted objects to streamlined household appliances, the items on display in Deco will demonstrate how American designers adapted a style associated with European luxury to the demands of industrial mass production. Through decorative arts, product design, architecture, and graphics from the Wolfsonian collection, the exhibition will trace Art Deco’s origins in Europe, its migration to the United States, and its evolution into a fully American style—perhaps most spectacularly realized on Miami Beach in the 1930s.
Deco: Luxury to Mass Market is made possible by Diane and Alan Lieberman and the South Beach Group, with the support of Jamestown, L.P., and Saul and Jane Gross and Streamline Properties.
Ongoing
Art and Design in the Modern Age: Selections from the Wolfsonian Collection
These galleries provide an overview of the museum’s holdings of American and European artifacts from 1850 to 1950. Culled from The Wolfsonian collection are approximately three hundred works in a variety of formats, ranging from books, posters, and postcards to decorative arts, architectural models, paintings, and sculptures. Focal points include design reform movements, urbanism, industrial design, transportation, world’s fairs, advertising, and political propaganda. Inaugurated in November 1996, this ongoing exhibition is periodically updated.
ABOUT THE WOLFSONIAN–FIU
The Wolfsonian is a museum, library, and research center that uses objects to illustrate the persuasive power of art and design, to explore what it means to be modern, and to tell the story of social, historical, and technological changes that have transformed our world. The collection comprises approximately 180,000 objects from 1850 to 1950—the height of the Industrial Revolution through the aftermath of the Second World War—in a variety of media including furniture; industrial-design objects; works in glass, ceramics, and metal; rare books; periodicals; ephemera; works on paper; paintings; textiles; and medals.
The Wolfsonian is located at 1001 Washington Avenue, Miami Beach, FL. Admission is $12 for adults; $8 for seniors, students, and children ages 6–18; and free for Wolfsonian members, State University System of Florida staff and students with ID, and children under 6. The museum is open Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday, 10am–6pm; Friday, 10am–9pm; Sunday, noon–6pm; and is closed on Wednesday. Contact us at 305.531.1001 or visit us online at wolfsonian.org for further information.