The Wolfsonian–FIU! Don’t miss out on zany zine-making at our Discovering Design Free Family Day (5/4), exclusive Design Store and membership discounts at #ArtMuseumDay (5/18), and the third iteration of the City of Miami Beach’s incredibly successful SoBe-wide Culture Crawl (5/29). Plus, alert the masses to Lights, Camera, Deco, our Art Deco museum-and-a-movie series, which kicks off with a tour of Deco: Luxury to Mass Market at The Wolf followed by the seductively glamorous Grand Hotel screened at the Cinematheque (5/19). Deco Designs, a new library installation, rounds out our Deco-inspired summer fare as well, bringing bold pochoir prints from luxury portfolios to public view. Lastly, Wolfsonian members enjoy double discounts in our Design Store during Member Appreciation Week (Mon 5/6 through Sun May 5/12)—a killer deal of 20% off, just in time for Mother’s Day.
PUBLIC PROGRAMS
Sat, May 4 | 12–3pm
Discovering Design Free Family Day: Zany Zines
Play with publishing at The Wolf! We’ll be collaging our own mini magazines about every subject imaginable: your cuddly pet, favorite climbing tree, or the tastiest sweets. Also, learn more about cut-paper art with Nancy Elizabeth Wallace’s collaged book Look! Look! Look!, a tale of three mice who discover a postcard painting.
Free and open to the public | RSVP
Fri, May 10 | 6–9pm
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 pre-gaming 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
Sat, May 18 | all day (10am–6pm)
One day. Free admission. Special perks. Every year, The Wolfsonian joins hundreds of AAMD member institutions by waiving admission and inviting everyone to enjoy art and design at no cost. Take advantage of a 10% discount in our chic Design Store or become a member at 25% off the Popular and Dual/Family levels—plus if you show us a little love on Instagram, we’ll throw in a free American coffee and super stylish Wolfsonian mug (yup, it’s worth it!).
Free and open to the public
Sun, May 19 | 4–7pm (4pm tour + 5pm film)
Lights, Camera, Deco: Grand Hotel
The first in our Deco film series with the Miami Beach Cinematheque is Edmund Goulding’s 1932 film Grand Hotel, a Berlin-based film. Originally conceived as a novel and then a play, this black-and-white classic features a day of Art Deco drama as the six main characters experience theft, lust, gambling, and death. Stop by The Wolfsonian for a 4pm tour of Deco: Luxury to Mass Market before taking in the film’s iconic Cedric Gibbons set design at the Cinematheque at 5pm.
$11; FREE* for MBC and Wolfsonian members, seniors, and students | Tickets
*Optional tour of Deco at The Wolf is included in the film admission price.
Wed, May 29 | 6–10pm
Miami Beach Culture Crawl
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, 6–10pm. Visit mbartsandculture.org for full details and route.
Free and open to the public
Fri, May 31 | 7–8:30pm
Tap into your inner artist by sketching in our galleries! Drawing materials, gallery stools, and professional bilingual instruction provided to participants of all ages and skill levels. English/Spanish
Free and open to the public; walk-in basis, no RSVP required
Weekly on Fri | 6–6:45pm
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
NEW! Opens April 25
Deco Designs
Deco Designs highlights decorative compositions from leading artists and designers working in Paris in the 1920s. Featuring vibrantly colorful and complex patterns, this library installation illustrates a variety of influences and individual styles and shows how Deco borrowed from exotic and ancient cultures, contemporaneous avant-garde movements, and modern technologies. Produced using the pochoirtechnique, a refined and labor-intensive stenciling process, the handmade prints on view epitomize the opulence of the era. Compiled in luxury portfolios and marketed to collectors, design studios, and artists, they inspired designs for interior decoration and helped spread the spirit of Art Deco.
The Wolfsonian’s library installations are generously sponsored by Henry S. Hacker. Deco Designs is presented concurrently with the museum’s major exhibition Deco: Luxury to Mass Market.
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.
Through May 26
The Art of Labor
American artists produced a flood of depictions of working men and women during the 1930s, a time of mass unemployment and union organizing. In doing so, they created art that only partly captured how the industrial revolution and the growth of the service economy had transformed the nature of work over the past half-century. The paintings and sculptures in this installation highlight forms of labor—growing crops, forging metal, cutting stone, and sewing clothes—that grew out of older traditions and relied on physical strength and manual skill. These proved to be more picturesque and heroic subjects than many purely modern jobs, such as office, retail, or assembly line work.
Through May 26
Frank Brangwyn: Bringing the Empire Home
Frank Brangwyn: Bringing the Empire Home spotlights the life and career of Frank Brangwyn (British, b. Belgium, 1867–1956), a versatile artist and designer working in the first half of the twentieth century. His murals, architectural plans, luxury interiors, and furniture vividly capture the many dimensions of Britain’s role as a colonial power and global trade giant. In his diverse works, Brangwyn harnessed the products, resources, and local cultures of Britain’s colonies and commercial partners for decorative ends just as the British empire began its slow collapse around the world.
Through May 31
Enter the Design Age
Enter the Design Age, an installation by the Paris-based creative studio H5, is a response to a challenge. The Wolfsonian asked H5 to make a statement about the richness of the museum’s collection on the façade of our building. H5 chose its favorite medium, typography, to issue a giant appeal for people to enter and discover what’s inside. The installation highlights the richness of The Wolfsonian’s holdings—which date from 1850 to 1950, a century when design emerged as a profession and transformed the visual and material world—by embedding a timeline with information about key pieces in the lettering. Extending the installation is a video screened at night on the north side of the building, a kind of animated “big-bang” that imagines the collection’s origins.
H5’s fusion of playfulness with cultural and political critique makes the studio a natural partner for The Wolfsonian. Founded in 1996 by Ludovic Houplain, H5 is composed of art directors, graphic designers, illustrators, filmmakers, and producers who collaborate on music videos, branding campaigns, and independent artworks. H5’s Logorama was awarded an Oscar for Best Animated Short Film in 2010.
Major support for Enter the Design Age is provided by Dr. David and Linda Frankel, and Oui Design, a joint program initiated by the French Embassy Cultural Services, FACE (French American Cultural Exchange) Foundation, Canal+ International, and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.
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.
wolfsonian.org for further information