Learning Program Descriptions
Vizcaya Museum and Gardens is thrilled to be expanding its public programming offerings. In addition to frequent daily guided tours of the historic main house, we are adding many programs to our roster.

For more information, please contact 305-250-9133 or email learning.programs@vizcayamuseum.org.

Family Programs
Moonlight Garden Tours
Talks and Tours
Free Sundays
Contemporary Arts Project
Performances

Family Programs: Viz(ual) Arts
Vizcaya Museum and Gardens welcomes families, specifically children with their adult companions, to explore the art, history and environment of James Deering's home and estate through afternoon programs.  Art making programs are currently held on one Sunday of each month through the spring of 2009.  Family programs are FREE with paid admission.
 
Facilitated by a museum educator or a guest artist, this program offers families the chance explore an aspect of Vizcaya and its collections, and create their own works of art in response. All art projects are portable and eco-friendly.

September 14, 2008: Optical Illusions
Courtyard, Main House
Drop in between 1:00–4:00 p.m.
Explore the optical patterns of Vizcaya's marble floors. 

October 19, 2008: Symbols of Vizcaya
South Terrace
Drop in between 1:00–4:00 p.m.
Two symbols of Vizcaya, the caravel and the seahorse, can be found throughout the estate. Make a sun catcher of these symbols for your own home.

November 16, 2008: Symbols of Vizcaya
Courtyard, Main House
Drop in between 1:00–4:00 p.m.
Build 3-D models inspired by Vizcaya's architecture and gardens with Arts for Learning artist Claudia Montesinos

December 14, 2008: Picture This
Courtyard, Main House
Drop in between 1:00–4:00 p.m.
Embellish a small picture frame using decorative papers featuring designs from around the world.  

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Note: Not all Garden areas are fully wheelchair-accessible. Top

Talks and Tours
Hear experts in fields such as architectural history, art history, historic preservation, art conservation, Vizcaya’s history, and Miami history.

Thursday, November 6, 2008

Contemporary Arts Project (CAP)

7:00 p.m.

Vizcaya Village Garage

FREE

Vizcaya's innovative Contemporary Arts Project (CAP) has invited two artists each year for the past two years to reinterpret the Museum through site-specific installations– hearkening back to the estate's creative origins.  In November 2008 Vizcaya will begin reshaping CAP, through a public forum with curators from around the country who will discuss a variety of issues concerning contemporary art production, from site specificity and the dialogue between historic collections and contemporary practice, to more specific issues of artistic productions.  

A special thank you to the Double Tree Coconut Grove Hotel for providing hotel accommodations for this year’s Talks & Tours speakers.

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Free Sundays
Vizcaya opens its gates free of charge for all visitors on the last Sundays in June, July, and August of 2008. Vizcaya is a Miami-Dade County-owned estate that belongs to everyone in the community, and we’re delighted to welcome all visitors, including those who may not have previously visited this National Historic Landmark.

To ensure the safety of our historic property and collections, Security will monitor and limit the number of visitors in the house and on the property.  Free Sundays have been such a success, we regret that parking will be very difficult for visitors and we may need to stop entry to the entire Vizcaya property at 3:00 p.m. to prevent over-crowding.

• June 29, 2008
  9:30 a.m.– 4:30 p.m.
• July 27, 2008
  9:30 a.m.– 4:30 p.m.
• August 31, 2008
  9:30 a.m.– 4:30 p.m.

Visitors will enjoy a variety of free special programs on these three days:

• Tours of the main house and gardens  
• Family art-making activities
• Orchid-potting demonstrations in the David A. Klein Orchidarium
• Special talks and demonstrations

Check out the event page for more detailed information and a schedule of activities.

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Contemporary Arts Project
Through this program, Vizcaya reaches out to the artist community – both locally and nationally – to offer artists the opportunity to explore our resources and think about them in new ways. Two artists per year are invited by an advisory committee to immerse themselves in Vizcaya’s grounds and collections, create a work of art in response to that experience, and participate in public programs such as studio labs, demonstrations, and artist talks. The creative exchange that will result from this program will help to demonstrate Vizcaya’s contemporary relevance to our community and beyond.

Artists for 2006–2008 included:

• Gustavo Matamoros, Miami-based sound artist and composer presented ORGANIC PIPES, a site-specific sound installation inspired by Vizcaya's historic pipe organ. ORGANIC PIPES filed the Courtyard with musical notes originally produced by the organ, yet altered, retuned and reproduced to match the space's unique acoustics. The five distinct tracks that were broadcast from speakers throughout the Courtyard are loops of unequal duration and repeat continuously, resulting in an ever-changing composition of sound. ORGANIC PIPES was on display November 16, 2006– February 15, 2007.
• Anna Gaskell, New York-based visual artist presents STILL LIFE, a site-specfic installation filmed in the garden at Vizcaya. Ms.Gaskell explores ideas about the relations of time and space, memory, amnesia and deja vu, using Vizcaya as a portal. Moving throughout the garden  the camera engages the viewer in a game of hide and seek. STILL LIFE was on view March 15 - June 1, 2007.
• Miami-based Cristina Lei Rodriguez presentedSTRUGGLING FOR GRANDEUR November 8, 2007– February 24, 2008. Rodriguez reinterprets topiaries found in Vizcaya’s formal gardens to create an eight-foot-tall sculpture for the Tea Room. Using inexpensive materials such as plastic and artificial plants to achieve a sense of beauty and grandeur, Rodriguez paradoxically mirrors Vizcaya founder James Deering’s vision through a twenty-first-century lens, referencing the struggle between natural elements and human intervention and the dynamic process of growth and decay.
• Catherine Sullivan, Chicago-based theater and film artist, presented TRIANGLE OF NEED November 29, 2007– February 24, 2008.   In this multi-channel video project in collaboration with Sean Griffin, Dylan Skybrook and Kunle Afolayan, Sullivan provocatively mixes “Neanderthals” and Vizcaya’s lush environments to create “vestigial narratives” that urge the viewer to consider the inequalities and injustices in our global economy.

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Performances

Saturday, September 6, 2008
William Shakespeare's Falstaff and Hal, an adaptation of Henry Fourth, Parts One and Two
Presented by Theater by the Book
Vizcaya Village Garage
1:00 p.m.
FREE

Just as Vizcaya's creator, James Deering and his designer, Paul Chalfin, brought together many pieces of European culture and tradition to create something new in its Miami setting, so does Rafael de Acha, Artistic Director of Theater by the Book, in Falstaff and Hal. 

Snacks and beverages will be available for purchase during intermission. 

For additional information, please visit www.theaterbythebook.org.

Theater by the Book stages readings of the great works of European and American theater using professional actors for the community of Miami-Dade County.
 

Friday, October 3, 2008
Old Music in New Spaces: European Innovation and Design at Vizcaya
Presented by Vizcaya Museum and Gardens & Miami Bach Society
Courtyard, Main House
7:30 p.m.

Novel baroque music by Uccellini, Biber, Bach, and others.  David Dolata, lute; Scott Flavin, violin; Ross Harbaugh, cello; Robert Heath, organ and harpsichord.

Light refreshments will be available for purchase prior to performance and during intermission.

Tickets $30, $20 for members of The Vizcayans, Volunteer Guides and Miami Bach Society.  Seating is limited.  Information and advance ticket sales available ONLY through Miami Bach Society at 305-669-1376 or www.miamibachsociety.org.


Sunday, December 14, 2008
Holiday Organ Concert
Living Room, Main House
4:00 p.m.
FREE with paid admission

Enjoy holiday music performed on Vizcaya's historic pipe organ.  

 

Vizcaya Museum and Gardens is supported in part by the Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs, the Cultural Affairs Council, the Miami-Dade County Mayor and Board of County Commissioners.  Sponsored in part by the State of Florida , Department of State, Division of Cultural Affairs, the Florida Arts Council, and the National Endowment for the Arts.

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