Golden Hour

Local artist joins global day of action against climate change.

Tired of the inaction, global arts initiative Micro Galleries held their second global day of creative action in response to one of the biggest threats of our generation. Occurring on to coincide with the United Nations Climate Change conference (COP26) in Glasgow this project will bring together artists from all over the world to tackle climate inaction head on.

The idea was born after Micro Galleries Artistic Director, Kat Roma Greer spent time researching in The Arctic and at Al Gore’s Climate Reality Leadership Corps in late 2018. Kat saw a need for more accessible information about how climate disruption and inaction was impacting the world's most vulnerable people. When Kat put the call out for artists to join her, Tara Chadwick answered the call.

This month and next, the effect of seasonal "king tides" is creating a climate disaster in the form of visible flooding and invisible salt water intrusion into our soil and water table along the banks of this river which have been used for thousands of years by humans seeking to live a good, healthy life. This river has been deemed unusable for human contact several times over the past three to five years due to chronic overdevelopment and problematic decision making on the part of those responsible for ensuring safe and effective infrastructure. We must, as citizens of Mother earth, intervene now to ensure that the trajectory of our species is altered to realign with the geometry of nature. – Tara Chadwick.

Tara Chadwick and Micro Galleries see the need for more accessible information about how climate disruption and inaction is impacting all of us, and art is a great way to do this. An opinion supported by Bill McKibben, best known as the leading American environmentalist’s and ‘world’s best green journalist’. When Bill heard about this global day of art action in 2019, he threw his support behind it stating, ‘environmentalists are good at bar graphs and statistical tables.. but that’s only half of the human brain. We also need art and music to reach our more visceral core. That’s why this initiative from Micro Galleries is so vital.’

Tara Chadwick’s works streamed live over 24 hours, and will be included in an online exhibition and catalogue at www.microgalleries.org

To find out how you can support this day of action and watch the art unfold, head to https://microgalleries.org/program

End

 

About The Artist

Tara is an Indigenous woman, a member of the African Diaspora, a grandchild of the Maya and Mesoamerican People of Belize, Mexico and Central America and of the original people of the land we now know as Western Europe. It is her vision that we can all return to a life of harmony with the cycles of nature.

You can see Tara’s latest work at The Missing Paart in Wynwood during Art Miami Week and in “Neo.Rev,” a city wide public art exhibition by Save Art Space from Nov. 22 to Dec. 18. Later this winter, Tara will be launching “Proyecto Papalotl,” engaging Golden Age Adults in the art of Mesoamerican Danza, made possible with support from the Broward County Cultural Division and sponsored in part by the State of Florida, Department of State, Division of Arts and Culture and the Florida Council on Arts and Culture.

Updates and details at taraalomachadwick.blogspot.com or www.instagram.com/wabigun.

 

About Micro Galleries

Micro Galleries is a free, independent global arts initiative that uses art as a vehicle to create positive change. We do this through creative interventions in public spaces, workshops, art tours, symposiums, think tanks, and residencies.

www.microgalleries.org

www.facebook.com/microgalleries

www.instagram.com/microgalleries

 

Media contact details

Local:                   Tara Chadwick                 wabigun@yahoo.com

Global:                 Claudia Lee                       media@microgalleries.org

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Golden hour

Tara Chadwick

New River, Fort Lauderdale, Florida

 

This month and next, the effect of seasonal "king tides" is creating a climate disaster in the form of visible flooding and invisible salt water intrusion into our soil and water table along the banks of this river which have been used for thousands of years by humans seeking to live a good, healthy life. And this river has been deemed unusable for human contact several times over the past three to five years due to chronic overdevelopment and problematic decision making on the part of those responsible for ensuring safe and effective infrastructure. We must, as citizens of Mother earth, intervene now to ensure that the trajectory of our species is altered to realign with the geometry of nature.

“Golden Hour” seeks to support, stimulate and encourage action oriented solutions to the current climactic conditions including public awareness, personal responsibility and biological accountability. We put ourselves in to this mess. By examining what we do, individually, collectively and globally, we can get ourselves back on track with the original instructions all human beings received at the beginning of their time on earth. This message will be shared with the community on the historic banks of the New River in a public participative, interactive installation incorporating the interconnectedness of sound, movement, land, water, people and the concept of the golden repair on a local and global climate scale.

Multiple forms of art including sound, movement and visuals are used in collaboration with citizen science based sea level rise research, action and solutions.

We have a vast capacity to effect change especially due to our large proportion of global tourism. By creating this model of interactive public art, visitors and residents will be inspired to engage in work that questions the status quo and access new avenues of creative problems solving in areas of climate resilience, climate policy and climate change mitigation.

As I reflect on the various actions taking place today, and those we engaged in ourselves, it dawns on me that humans have a great capacity to make giant leaps in conscience and practice. At one time in our history, we learned how to harvest the power of the sun in an element we now call fire. At another time in our history, we learned how to coax a grass into a seed that now feeds the world! At this time, our challenge is much simpler and doable: restore our technology and daily living to practices that do not harm the earth.

 

November 6^th, 2021

9:00 AM to 7:00 PM

 

The Beginning

FIU Sea Level Rise Solutions Day – Engaged in Citizen Science with the Institute of Environment at a location determined by the FIU research team to monitor urban flooding at King Tides

Upon arrival at 9:30 am on Saturday, November 6, 2021

 

The level of street flooding above storm drain at 10 am on Saturday, November 6, 2021

         

Refractometer reading indicates salinity is 10% in sample 1 from 10 am

 

 

Second samples were taken at the appointed time of 10:30 am on Saturday, November 6, 2021

Street flooding rose ¾ inch in 30 minutes.

One golden marine life was observed struggling to survive but still alive sending ripples of urgency

  

Salinity of the standing water above the storm drain increased by 2% in 30 minutes.

The photo on the right was taken by group member Ihiyo Chadwick (age 10).

By the time we left at 11 am the street flooding was up to four inches and still rising with an observed increase in oil mixed into the flood water.

 

The elevation of the surface of the sea water is well above the level of the roadway.

 

A little after 11 am, we packed up and drove the water samples to the FIU Campus at Oleta River and Biscayne Bay where they were refrigerated to preserve the viability for testing protocols. We are awaiting the lab results. On the way back, we stopped to observe a few other local residents engaged in their own creative contributions to the global day for climate repair

 

 

The Middle

The Bees’ tree with Golden Skirt Bridge

Me and Tree

 

https://www.instagram.com/p/CWFZhVbFOrS/

Moss (video)

Golden Orb Weaver

https://www.instagram.com/p/CWFZeqjvEwi/

Butterfly (video)

Concha

Canoeing

Then we returned to the New River to complete our documentation of the Golden Hour

https://www.instagram.com/p/CV_nZ5aJv7Q/

Water (video)

 

The End

Water and Golden Bridge

Restoration is a collaborative venture!

#NeverAgainWhen?

This week as I blissfully go about my daily business, it is with a little more deliberate effort at intentionally blocking out the sights and sounds associated with yet another school shooting massacre here on our own soil.

It should not be so surprising, and yet the horror of it, children being massacred in their own classrooms, by their peers, is the stuff that can stomp hope out of the most optimistic of hearts.

My teenager has almost no recollection of a time when school did not involve violence. There is of course, the daily meanness and bullying that seems to have happened in public schools since they were instituted in this country as a mechanism for socialization into the melting pot. But then there is also the unimaginable lockdown drills practiced on a regular basis that my son tells me he cannot talk to me about because it will be too upsetting to me. And then there are the drills that only the teachers prepare for... Teacher prep time used to be for grading, lesson planning, and designing the best hallway bulletin board in the school.  Now it's for laminating dark poster paper to darken windows in the hopes that it will reduce the chances of an active shooter taking aim at a classroom window.

Yes, I have been putting a lot of effort into not thinking about it this week. Since I heard of the Santa Fe shooting last Friday, my approach has been, just don't think about it... I wonder how many of our business leaders, legislators and lawmakers follow suit with my attempt at self-imposed apathy? How many of our children have to do their best this week to "just not think about it..."? Is that the solution to problem solving that we are role modeling now?  "Just don't think about it." If we do just pretend that the problem does not exist... will it actually cease to exist? If we wish to take the approach of the legendary ostrich in the sand... that is our choice, however, as we have learned from Columbine and Sandy Hook and Red Lake, and Pulse and Parkland and Santa Fe, we can forget and pretend and ignore and deny, but sooner or later, the reality is going to hit us too. If we continue to do nothing to support the action required to successfully ensure that gun violence never again plucks the hearts out of parents and siblings and peers who will never again touch the hands or kiss the cheeks of their loved ones, then inevitably this preventable public health epidemic of disasterous proportions will eventually touch each of us. Like one of the parents of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School said, "We didn't think it could be us."

We have choices to make. Sit and do nothing, or stand and deliver change into the waiting arms of our young people. Their ability to live is determined by our perseverence in maintaining our level of civic engagement in the process of democracy which by its very nature requires us to participate, share our views and work together to provide solutions. Together we can solve this crisis. Today if we all wanted to. Re-authorize the collection, compilation and analysis of gun violence data as the public health crisis that it is. Apply standard epidemiological, intervention and prevention procedures and practices. Fund local grassroots, community organizations to provide outreach, case management and harm reduction services. Do what has been proven to work through science. Replicate successful programming, not just in the property-tax-rich schools but in all neighborhoods, schools and organizations.

My 6 year old is counting the number of days left until the end of the school year. Today marks the 97th day since the massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School at the northern edge of our public school district. How many more days will go by until we can all assure our Kindergarten children that it is safe for them to go to school....? What are we doing to ensure that day comes?

This Friday at Miramar Cultural Center, I will join with students from Parkland and throughout our Broward County School District and Miramar Mayor Wayne Messam to stand with them, listen, and help form a plan for action. What will you do...?

Poem dedicated to students of Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School

by Francis Vernon

http://thewestsidegazette.com/i-vote-we-vote/

Listen to @elstentorres new song, "Never Again" here: https://t.co/dVO3wr2aYH

— WLRN Sundial (@WLRNSundial) May 22, 2018

On Vernal Equinox 2018

13 years ago today I sat with my almost two-year-old son Mictla, under the stars of the Mesoamerican sky in one of the Plazas in the great city of Teotihuacan. We sat up all night by the fire watching the stars and listening to the ladies share stories, trying to keep warm, it was chilly up there in the hilly countryside of central Mexico. We danced at sunset and deep into the night. And at sunrise we got up and journeyed into the ancient city to the plaza at the base of a 5000 year old building now known as the temple of the moon.

There we prepared to meet tribal members of the great Hopi nation who had come running from their home territory to this ancient capital of Mesoamerica, bringing with them the memories that their grandparents held of a great connection that had been lost for over 500 years. A migration that had once occurred on a regular basis in order to account for the counting of time and to ensure that balance continues on our continent and among all our people.

Without any sleep and in the dry heat of the Sierra Madre mountains, it was very hard to dance that day. But it was a beautiful, epic moment. One of those moments that you know marks time for all of humanity. And so I just wanted to remember on this sunrise on the morning of March 20th, 2018. I  wanted to take a few moments to remember and reflect on this amazing event that took place 13 years ago. And to honor the beauty that that memory has for me and to do what I can to pass that on...

Ometeotl.

 Here's the link directly to this spot in the video :) we were watching the H2OPI Eagle dancers, then after, we shared our version of the Eagle dance.
https://youtu.be/aoEY8XYJUyY?t=3457

 Spring Equinox sunset at #MiramarPinelandPark 2018

And finally, a heartfelt thank you to everyone who has volunteered, shared, supported, fed and hired me this year. A special recognition to Broward Cultural Division, Puffin Foundation West, Inc. and the Broward Chapter of the United Nations Association for the support you all have provided this past year, without the encouragement, it would be difficult to get through the rough times!

Join me this Friday for a pop up celebration of #WorldWaterDay at #FTLhistory on the banks of the New River in downtown Fort Lauderdale.

How do we move forward? #WhatNOW?

Healing crisis is a constant necessity in today's complex, stratified, divisive society. The events that unfolded 9 days ago in #Parkland, near Coral Springs, Florida have pushed many of us to the tipping point. And yet, in communities throughout Florida and the US and around the world, crisis, especially children in crisis is an ongoing issue that has required attention for a very long time... generations in fact.

A post shared by Tara Chadwick (@bawshkeengwabigun) on Feb 15, 2018 at 11:53am PST

This week, while our attention south of the border has been on dealing with grief, funerals and the immediacy of school safety issues within the nation's sixth largest public school district, our neighbors to the north were dealt two completely independent court decisions in which the killing of two Indigenous youth by two different people, in two different provinces, in two very distinct circumstances, both resulted in European males receiving not guilty verdicts, while the children victims are no longer alive to tell their side of the story.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/tina-fontaine-verdict-march-1.4548692
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/09/world/canada/canada-saskatchewan-murder-indigenous.html

It is imperative that we all employ our intrinsic critical thinking skills in everyday decision making. Especially so in this day and age. It is equally important that we also take time to allow the growth, repair and healing of our emotional skills as well.

We need both, together, integrated and healthy. After a week like this, wholeness and restoration of wellbeing is going to take some time and effort. The students, teachers, healers, counsellors, administrators and decision makers must all be included in efforts to intentionally regain wellness, within our selves, families and communities.

Here are a couple of resources courtesy of thunderbirdpf.org that have helped other communities move forward after experiencing traumatic crises. Check em out. See what you think. Call,text, msg. Reach out. Let's chat. Let's build together!!

Art Basel Miami Beach: Preeminent Art Tourism Destination

Basel Blog – #ArtBasel

#ByeBasel

(photo: T. Chadwick)

Strolling along what seemed like an endless sidewalk down Dade Avenue on this 200th anniversary of the start of the Seminole Wars... I happened to spark up a conversation with one of my co-walkers. Till that moment, I truly had no idea so many of the fair goers were out-of-towners travelling to South Florida just specifically to take in #art.  Art Basel 2017 is officially a wrap having shown approximately $3.5 billion work of art, and seeing over 82,000 participants [see press release and end of show report] .

...reminds me of #CometotheWell

(photo: T. Chadwick)

According to artsy.net, the Pace Gallery had a successful run, placing one work worth $12 million. The show’s new layout was so much easier to follow and navigate, with beautiful hanging garden center lounge areas. I did miss the delicious, stadium priced lunch offerings, although the BC taco truck outside did a wonderful job of filling the afternoon void with delicious shrimp tacos and “avocado salsa.”

Pace Gallery (photo: T. Chadwick)

Inside the walls of Art Basel, I found a whimsical and wondrous survey that pushes my boundaries of contemporary art. From plastic bags to classic painting and sculpture to, my favorites: performance, kinetic and live painting, this show truly had something for everyone to enjoy.

Mexico City Mural in Miami Beach

(Thursday photo: T. Chadwick)

Mexico City Mural in Miami Beach

(Friday photo: T. Chadwick)

Of these, I really enjoyed watching the mural in process presented as part of Mexico City's #RestorationofaMural. To my North American eye, the overlays of vellum on painted campaign slogans was unexpected, a little jarring, and, similar to my own recent political experiences, I couldn’t figure out if the art was for or against the will of the majority of the people. The tools, brushes, and process of creating circles and lines took me back to the 9^th grade computer class called “data,” where everything we ever wanted to program had to be rendered as a circle or a line. Watching the muralist and assistant add elements of the mural was almost like watching an archaeological excavation in reverse. Careful measurements, ancient techniques, tools for the future.

#Reparations David Castillo Gallery

(photo: T. Chadwick)

‘This year’s show definitely had a great energy with its new look, and our booth was extremely well-received. Within the first two hours of the fair, some of our gallery’s most important clients came to the booth. With the sale of a major Lyle Ashton Harris piece and an important group of clients visiting us early on in the fair, it is clear that this year’s fair was punctuated by significant collectors in attendance and as always, there was interest from buyers early on in the show.’ David Castillo, Owner, David Castillo Gallery, Miami Beach (In quotes from Art Basel post show press release.)

  

...miscellaneous unnamed photos, except for Maggie by #ChuckClose...
(photos: T. Chadwick)

Basel blog – Art Basel Conversations

#EdgarHeapofBirds discussing #Indigenous #Art

(photo: T. Chadwick)

One of the problems I’ve had with Art Basel and contemporary art in general, is that distinction between what one of the art experts this week describes as “pastoral” art versus the elevated stature and value of “fine” art. For example, there were many examples of fabric art during this year’s Art Basel show, one of these was a giant, larger-than-life pseudo-dreamcatcher created by an artist in the UK. When I first set eyes upon the purple and black mass I was surprised, since generally in fine art shows such as Art Basel, this type of work is relegated to the low rank of “craft” or “tribal art.” Immediately I looked closer to see if I could see the origin story of the dreamcatcher woven within the fabric. As I surveyed the types of twists and turns used in the weaving, sadly, I saw nothing representing the cultural teachings or history that traditional dreamcatchers convey, in fact to me this weaving was empty. An empty shell, a hollow reproduction of a traditional art form containing nothing of the beauty and love that it is meant to hold. I still wonder about the artist and their intent in making this piece, but more, I wonder about the gallery that decided to choose this as their main showcase. What were they thinking? That Indigenous art forms co-opted by white European artists are flattering? Honoring? Even when indigenous people themselves are not welcomed to participate as artists, curators or even spokes people?

#RichardHughes Birmingham, UK
(photo: T. Chadwick)

Seeing the Art Basel Conversation titled “What of Indigenous Art Now” was a boon to me. I was so excited that someone decided to bring this topic to the conversation. For too many years, I’ve seen incredible Indigenous artists, with traditional, folk and contemporary styles, struggle to make ends meet… invisible in the art magazines… absent from the juried shows… neglected by collectors and curators. This is changing. But way too slowly. And still, European artists using Indigenous themes get much more recognition and appraisal value than Indigenous artists using any theme.

#Oaxaca

(photo: T. Chadwick)

I was so glad to be able to take part in this conversation. In fact, it was, in part, a retrospective on Indigenous Art over the past #525yearsofresistanceandsurvival, it’s been 25 years since 1992. Many of the prominent Native owned and operated galleries have since closed their doors. But there are a few still in operation, and a few that have opened since the Sesquicentennial resurgence of Indigenous art. In my view, the more we have conversations that lead to strategies for how the arts and business community can best support artists and especially, Indigenous artists, the stronger our community will grow together. 

[Links to the program are available here: ... Indigenous Art Now... and below you can watch the official recording of the "What of Indigenous Art Now?" #ARTBASEL conversation - my remarks can be heard at minute 42]

Basel Blog – #ArtMiami

#ArtMiami / #Context

(photo: T. Chadwick)

This year, once again, I didn’t get to Pinta, Superfine, Red Dot, Context, Untitled or Scope. I really do wish I’d had time to make it over to Scope, as I enjoyed the Conversation with Edgar Heap of Birds about the interconnection between art and history. I particularly wanted to see the “sign post” he did marking this land as Tequesta territory, a site specific artwork in relation to the Miami Circle just a few miles away.  If anyone happened to snap a pic of it, I’d surely appreciate having a glimpse!

#AndyWarhol at super stuffy Archeous/ Post Modern

(photo: T. Chadwick)

I also wanted to get to Context because I’m interested in comparing the overall content between each show. Surprisingly, I found Art Miami to have a more standoffish feel than Art Basel, something I was definitely not expecting! My favorite aspects of this show, like Basel, were in the margins… “Unleashed” had an inspiring piece in the entry way featuring a world map in thread, surrounded by fabric strips of messages by fair goers, flanked by multiple display screens flashing still and video images of colourful fashions and wearable art from India and Asia.

#Unleashed #ConnectingThreads @ Art Miami
(photo: T. Chadwick)

My other favorite piece from Art Miami was “DeepSee,” an incredible collaborative experience integrating natural vegetation, visual art and visual reality, all with an action based intended outcome of raising awareness, interest and motivating everyone to set a goal to take at least one action to support the earth’s ability to heal herself from the daily stress we inflict upon her.  I loved being able to literally step inside of the beautifully painted canoe and although I generally dislike the popular innovation of virtual reality imaging, this VR canoe journey was so very beautiful with its overlapping integration of earth, space and water travel, it was impossible not to love.  Congrats to Dita, Jared, Houston and the FIU advisory council for creating this inspiring experience.

#DeepSee @DitaSharp
(photo: T. Chadwick)

Basel Blog – Basel House Mural Festival

#BaselHouse
(photo: T. Chadwick)

Although I’m fairly new to the Art Basel scene (this was only my 3^rd year attending events at Miami’s signature week of high profile, contemporary art fairs which include but are certainly not limited to the world-renowned #ArtBasel,) I loved my inaugural experience with the Basel House Mural Festival.

#SFLBloggers
(photo: T. Chadwick)

Even before attending my first Miami Art Week events three years ago, I’d heard the perspective of local South Florida artists who too often struggle for recognition, attention of gallery and representatives, and interest in their work from the local and global community. Basel House set out to address this problem by showcasing a few of the artists that have infamized the walls of Miami’s Wynwood Arts District.

#Wynwood #Wall Tag

(photo: T. Chadwick)

As a kid, this was the factory outlet side of town – large, vacant industrial lots, warehouses, some still used for direct and commercial sales of shoes, washing machines, and bric-a-brack, now almost unrecognizable due to the incredible splashes of colour disguising every wall, coffee shops and cute little trendy places to eat, drink and be merry.

...before...
(Friday photo: T. Chadwick)

Basel House Mural Festival took place between the old RC Cola Plant and Wynwood Brewing Co. It was an homage to the street artists who work every day to bring color and consciousness to our concrete jungle. Featured artist Ruben Uribe is a masterful installation and graphic artist who describes his style as “post graffism popular urban art.”

...and now...

Finally: day shots. . "Connections" - Art Basel 2017 Sponsored by @sprint during @baselhouse . Thank you all who made this happen: the locals who visited me (can't do this without your support!!) and all the new people I met this year. The saga continues. . . . @gwc305 @baselhouse @urbanruben @infct @golden305 @migsketches @thebushwickcollective #postgraffism #postgraffismmurals #privatecommission #rubenubierainstallation #rubenubieramural #rubenubieraintervention #corporategigs #sprintconnection #artbasel2017 #artbasel #artbaselmurals #artbaselwynwood #wynwoodart #wynwoodstreetart #wynwood2017 #baselhouse #baselhousemiami #liveunlimited #baselhouse2017 @ Wynwood Arts District, Miami, Florida

A post shared by UBIERA | Art of Ruben Ubiera (@urbanruben) on Dec 12, 2017 at 2:39pm PST

The opening was unlike any other I’d ever experienced complete with Rolling Stones sponsored ice cream, a delicious dinner bar of salad, quinoa and paella, and as much kombucha as you dared to consume… One of the marketing pieces I enjoyed was the live screen printing of Basel House cloth tote bags to hold all your swag for the night.  It was a great evening to connect with the beauty of what local mural art brings to Miami during Art Basel and all year through.

@urbanruben & @bawshkeengwabigun

Basel Blog – Sagamore

@ElementAI #SagamoreIsArt

I love art, but I’m not one to party much… don’t get me wrong, I love dressing up as much as the next kid, but I’d rather go see a live orchestra, ballet or jazz performance than try to strike up meaningless conversations with a thousand people I don’t know and still won’t know tomorrow.  That said, I did enjoy the hubbub of going to the “Basel Brunch” at the Sagamore this weekend. Rain pouring. Wind whirling through what’s left of the art deco buildings my grandmother skipped past as an 8-year-old in 1931, on her way to spend her day on the beach while her mother tended her ailing father under a prescribed winter in Florida, the antidote to his WWI inflicted health issues. The rivers of rainwater filled the streets as we searched for a semi-safe spot to cross the deluge.

Our first stop was the Muse Art Exhibit, a miniature version of the much-anticipated Muse Art Fair, scheduled for launch during Art Miami Wee 2018. Housed in the front lobby of the Hampton Inn, curator and lead organizer Q stopped to chat about the exhibit and plans for the 2018 art fair. 

Then we dashed off in the rain across the street to the Sagamore. It was my first time to the iconic beach front property... filled with a warm mass of dripping wet bodies, this brunch was jam packed with several hundred of the most hard and happy art lovers on the beach. Despite the torrential downpour outside, Basel Brunch goers were chipper, friendly and happy to be inside. Pastries and mimosas abounded and freshly made crepes were the finishing touch to a very well attended event, especially considering the extremely wet weather. On our way out the door, turkey and cheese crepes in hand, we noticed that the late arrivers were all lined up outside, being kept at bay by the doormen relating that the space was at capacity and could hold no more.  Grateful, we stepped back out into the torrent.

Basel Blog – Art Africa Miami

#SaddiKhali @artafricamiami

I did’t get to Prizm Art fair last weekend, but it’s not too late! Prizm, like Art Africa Miami, which I was able to attend during Miami Art Week, are both still open to the public. I am so glad about this because last year I found more art I loved at Prizm than at Basel. Prizm is open through this Sunday, December 17th so don't miss it.

#AboulayeKonate @artafricamiami

Similarly, Art Africa Miami was filled with large scale treats for the senses. Fabric paintings, sculptures, etched light box prints… two galleries full of fantastic fun and fearless art.  These bold works spoke volumes about our place, as people of color, living in the United States, Miami in particular, reflecting our current circumstance and bringing with us an unbreakable  bond to our ancestors and the ancestral homelands that continue to nurture and sustain us over the course of generations….

#GeorgeEdozie @artafricamiami

Familiar circles, lines, forms and colors splashed with memories of a future yet to come…

#JoseBedia @artafricamiami

Basel blog #FTLhistory

This month, Fort Lauderdale Historical Society has the distinct honor of featuring the photographic work of JohnBob Carlos in the world premiere of his first solo show: Healing Waters. JohnBob’s work focuses on the intrinsic and often unseen beauty of the imperiled Florida everglades. During the opening held last week, JohnBob shared stories of the multi day journeys he took to capture each intriguing image, often encountering pieces of our history long forgotten.

Usually only post pics I take myself but the work of #LisetteMorales is just so compelling... (Thanks for these @lisette_morales)

A post shared by Tara Chadwick (@bawshkeengwabigun) on Dec 4, 2017 at 1:49pm PST

#johnbobcarlos truly the #anseladams of our time - don't miss #healingwaters @ftlhistory #nowplaying

A post shared by Tara Chadwick (@bawshkeengwabigun) on Dec 3, 2017 at 5:48pm PST

At a special encore of the opening preview, in celebration of International Human Rights Day, Miccosukee Grandmother Betty Osceola shared her thoughts about the exhibition and the images that reflect the home, lifeways and future of her people. 

“We are a reflection of the earth, we are the earth. If we heal ourselves, then we will also heal the earth.”  For Betty, the images remind her of being in those places, and of the life that surrounds us.  “These everglades, they belong to all of us. The are all our responsibility…  The everglades are the kidneys of the world, just like the Amazon are the lungs of the world. What will we do if these kidneys stop working? Put them on a machine? Well, eventually we know, machines will break down. So, what then…?”

Take a moment to come experience these inspired images and take home a print of your favorite one to remember: if we heal ourselves, we will heal the earth.

Healing Waters: The Photography of JohnBob Carlos

On view at HistoryFortLauderdale.org

Through January 28^th

Basel blog – action!

The role of art in our societies no matter where on the earth or at what point in history, has always been to inspire, to reflect, to communicate, and to express…  Life is art. Art is life. Let us rise up together and take hold of both. Put aside all the myriad daily tasks that must still get done. And take the time, just for a moment or two, to enjoy the art that exists all around us and the effect it has on our bodies, minds and spirits. Let’s take a second or two to be thankful for that “food” that art brings to our lives. And then pick up the phone or open up a blank email and communicate to our own state legislators that we value art and the artists who make art, and we want to support art, artists and arts organizations to continue flowing, through tax programs, charitable donations that are tax deductible, grant programs, investment and incentives that encourage and support art.

Yours truly #ByeBasel #selfie

Beyond Basel

Saturday, December 16th, Tara Chadwick will be sharing some of her particular style of "performance" art with the community in the Sistrunk Neighborhood, everyone is welcome to attend. And on Tuesday, December 19th, a community tour of the #NativeArtattheCannonball exhibit is being offered to #Sistrunk residents and the public at 2 pm.

Been workin on my #ArtBasel blog post... hopefully be ready to release this evening... in the meantime, @nwgcommunity put this on your calendar for next week! #browardarts #sistrunkair

A post shared by Tara Chadwick (@bawshkeengwabigun) on Dec 14, 2017 at 1:13pm PST

You can follow Tara on IG @bawshkeengwabigun or on twitter & fb @wabigun

taraalomachadwick.blogspot.com