Ombretta Agro' Andruff publishes an Op Ed on the Miami Herald
Excited to share the Op Ed published by the Miami Herald discussing the phenomenon of King Tides and issue of Sea Level Rise through the mesmerizing images created by artist Simon Faithfull.
“This week, while the U.N. Climate Change Conference meets in Glasgow to discuss this global crisis, British artist Simon Faithfull’s multimedia exhibition at the Atchugarry Foundation in Miami poetically explores sea-level rise through a regional focus. When a cohort of scientists, climate activists and policy-makers, together, visit a contemporary art exhibition, the critical role that art and culture play in communicating challenges we face is made apparent”.
SIMON FAITHFULL: FATA MORGANA opens at Atchugarry Foundation, Sept 10, 6-9pm
The Fundación Pablo Atchugarry in Miami is excited to announce a collaboration with ARTSail, a Miami-based multi-faceted platform that connect artists with climate activists, scientists and marine experts to investigate how climate change and man-made pollution are impacting the South Florida waterways and assist them in the creation of tangible outcomes with climate advocacy value.
Featuring a combination of work created by the artist in response to his ARTSail residency, in 2017 and 2018, along with a few earlier works, through a series of photographs and films, the exhibition takes the audience on an aquatic journey spanning from the wetlands of Big Cypress, to the choppy waters of the Gulf of Mexico, all the way to the Nordic Sea and the Adriatic.
EXHIBITION DATE: September 10 - November 7, 2021
OPENING RECEPTION: Friday, September 10, 6-9pm
PLACE: Fundación Pablo Atchugarry 5520 NE 4th Avenue, Miami, FL 33137
#SaveBiscayneBay Panel at BAY STORE, July 14, 2021
Join us at BAY STORE, in the heart of the Design District, to hear from a panel of experts discussing the causes of last year’s tragic fish kill, the status of the Bay today, and what we can all do to prevent this tragedy from ever happening again.
Shout Out Miami interviews our ED!
Excited to share this interview recently published on Shout Out Miami! Click HERE or on the image to read the article!
SWIM WITH US TO CELEBRATE WORLD OCEAN WEEKEND! JUNE 12, 8-9AM at FAENA BEACH, BETWEEN 35TH AND 36TH STREETS
The Dolphins & Rainbows swim club, along with ARTSail, Blue Scholars Initiative and Faena Art invite open water swimmers to participate in the 30 minute mile swim challenge. Swimmers above 18 years old, or minors accompanied by adults, are encouraged to test their swimming abilities and swim 1 mile in 30 minute or less.
Everyone is invited to participate, whether you're training for Iron Men or you just enjoy spending time in the ocean!
PLEASE BRING YOUR OWN WATER BOTTLE, THIS IS A PLASTIC FREE EVENT!
After the swim, attendees can participate in a paddle-out with the Surfrider Foundation, learn about water testing with EarthEcho International, while beach cleanups will comb the coast removing litter from the shoreline.
TO PARTICIPATE PLEASE SIGN THIS WAIVER.
CONSIDER MAKING A TAX DEDUCTIBLE DONATION TO ARTSail TO HELP US OFFSET THE COST TO ORGANIZE THIS EVENT!
CLICK HERE, OR SCROLL DOWN, TO CHECK OUT WHAT ELSE IS HAPPENING
AND REGISTER FOR THE OTHER WEEKEND ACTIVITIES
Find here all of the exciting activities happening during our World Ocean Weekend Celebration!
SATURDAY, JUNE 12, 2021
8:00AM - 1:00PM
(FAENA BEACH AT 35TH STREET, MIAMI BEACH)
ON THE WATER RECREATION AND ENGAGEMENT
8am - 9am, 30min-Mile Exhibition Swim with Dolphins & Rainbows Swim Group >>> REGISTER <<<
9am - 10am, Ceremonial Paddle-Out with Surfrider Miami >>> REGISTER <<<
COMMUNITY SERVICE AND IMPACT
10am - 12pm, Beach Cleanup with VolunteerCleanup.Org, The International SeaKeepers Society and Clean Miami Beach >>> REGISTER <<<
10am - 12pm, Dune Restoration with Surfrider Miami >>> REGISTER <<<
EDUCATION, ART AND TREATS
8am - 1pm, Sand Sculpture with Team Sandtastic
8am - 1pm, Art Activation with AMLgMATD
8am - 1pm, Be a Voice for the Bay with Michele Oka Doner, Bridge & BFI
8am - 1pm, Water Quality Testing with EarthEcho International & BWTF
8am - 1pm, Marine Debris Arts & Crafts with Frost Science MUVE
8am - 1pm, Reef-Friendly Sunscreen/Skin Care Awareness with Stream2Sea
8am - 1pm, Coffee & Ice Cream with Lavazza
Event shade, under the umbrellas, provided by Boucher Brothers and TUUCI.
FREE and open to the public!
*** Some activities require participants to REGISTER / RSVP in advance. ***
SUNDAY, JUNE 13, 2021
5:00PM - 9:00PM
(FAENA HOTEL, 3201 COLLINS AVE, MIAMI BEACH)
OCEAN TALKS, COCKTAILS AND FILMS
5pm - 7pm, Ocean Talks & Cocktails in the Faena Mammoth Garden with Nikki Traylor-Knowles (RSMAS) & Elizabeth Wheaton (MBRA) >>> RSVP <<<
7pm - 9pm, International Ocean Film Festival in the Faena Theater >>> RSVP <<<
Stay tuned for an exciting World Ocean Day Celebration on June 12!
Please join ARTSail, Blue Scholars, and Faena Art on Saturday, June 12th in Miami Beach, for a fun-filled community ocean celebration in honor of our ONE World Ocean. Planned activities along the shore of the Atlantic Ocean include beach cleanup, dune restoration, open water swim challenge, paddle-out ceremony, water quality testing demonstration, and much more. Art Installation by AMLgMATD.
Stay tuned for more information and link to register!
ARTSail and The Coral Sonata featured in UN Ocean Action April Newsletter
We are thrilled to share that The Coral Sonata, the outcome of our 2019 residency with artist Caecilia Tripp and sound architect Kerwin Rolland, was spotlighted in the April UN Ocean Action Newsletter! It is a great honor to be featured in such a prominent document. Click HERE to read the newsletter and find The Coral Sonata on page 12 along with a group of exciting hand-picked projects from the Voluntary Commitments to SDG14.
You can listen to The Sonata HERE and download The Coral Sonata ringtone HERE.
This Sunday, May 16 - En-ROADS Climate Simulator Workshop at Aloha Redland Farm
In the En-ROADS Climate Workshop participants propose climate solutions such as energy efficiency, carbon pricing, fossil fuel taxes, reducing deforestation, and carbon dioxide removal. The facilitator then tests these approaches separately or as a package in the En-ROADS Climate Solutions Simulator, so that participants can see the impact on global temperature and other factors.
This workshop helps build support for strategies to address climate change via interactive testing of the cutting-edge simulation model En-ROADS. The resulting experience is hopeful, scientifically-grounded, action-oriented, and eye-opening.
Bring your notebook and water bottle!
Suggested donation $15, Students $5, all proceeds to benefit climate awareness programs. The workshop will be held outdoors however masks are mandatory.
REGISTER HERE
Join us for a virtual panel about Lake Okeechobee! April 20, 12-1pm
We are grateful to Ft. Lauderdale-based ArtServe for hosting this event. The virtual panel discussion is a continuation of the engaging conversations initiated during ARTSail’s first Lake Okeechobee expedition with our artist-in-residence Christina Pettersson in early February 2021, with Dr. Paul Gray and Belle Glade community organizer Robert Mitchell.
It will explore the complexities of the Lake O. region, addressing some of the social and ecological issues the local communities and natural ecosystem are impacted by today.
Click HERE for more information and HERE to RSVP.
Walking the walk. ARTSail joins Betty Osceola in her Lake Okeechobee Prayer Walk
Taking a short break during the silent Lake Okeechobee Prayer Walk. Photo by Alex Markow
We ended our first Lake Okeechobee adventure with Christina Pettersson with the profound and unforgettable experience of joining Betty Osceola in her 6-day Prayer Walk around Lake O. Betty Osceola is a Native American grandmother, Everglades conservationist, anti-fracking and clean water advocate. She is a member of the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida of the Panther Clan. We are grateful for her tireless advocacy and for letting us join forces with her.
A visit to Belle Glade with Robert Mitchell
Speaking to Muck City Black Lives Matter founder, and #StopTheBurn campaign organizer, Robert Mitchell. Photo by Alex Markow
A huge thank you to Patrick Ferguson of Sierra Club Florida, for introducing us to one of the community leaders who are spearheading the #StopTheBurn campaign in Belle Glade. We discussed the damaging health effects of the pre-harvesting sugar cane burning practice and the complexities connected to the sugar industry and its strong hold on many of the communities, and their political representatives, who live around Lake Okeechobee.
ARTSail kicks off 2021 residency with Christina Pettersson
At Gray Ranch with Dr. Paul Gray, Audubon Florida Director of Science. Photo by Alex Markow
WHERE RANCH LAND MEETS WET LAND. We were thrilled to kick-off Christina’s residency with Dr. Paul Gray, discussing the importance of ranch land in the context of Central Florida ecosystem, birdwatching and learning more about Lake Okeechobee water management system and the harmful algal bloom caused by excessive nutrients in its waters. Grateful to Dr. Gray, Deborah Mitchell for the introduction, Audubon FL and to our partners, Friends of the Everglades.
ARTSail and SHOWFIELDS in conversation on CREATE! Magazine
We are thrilled to be featured in a conversation between SHOWFIELDS Head Curator, Tam Gryn, and ARTSail Executive Director, Ombretta Agro’, discussing Art & Sustainability and how it manifests in SHOWFIEDLS Miami Beach location. CLICK ON THE IMAGE ABOVE TO OPEN THE PDF FILE.
The magazine can be purchased on Amazon HERE
Christina Pettersson will be ARTSail 2021 artist-in-residence
Photo by Eli Peck
We are excited to announce that Christina Pettersson will be our next artist-in-residence. Over her year-long residency, we will explore the complexities of the Upper Evreglades and Lake Okeechobee regions with the assistance of our partners Bullsugar and Friends of the Everglades. Christina will collaborate with ARTSail 2017 alumna, curator and writer Blanca de la Torre, by creating the visual compendium for WATER ECOLOGIES FOR OUR SHARED FUTURE, a bilingual publication highlighting essential terms for understanding climate change and its impact in Central and South Florida,
ARTiculating Sustainability: Artists respond to the Climate Emergency
A PANEL DISCUSSION AT SHOWFIELD MIAMI ON DEC 5 AT 4PM
In these unsettling and yet hopeful times, ARTSail Residency and Research Initiative, SHOWFIELDS and #ARTiculatingClimate have partnered up to discuss with a handful of Miami-based artists/activists how the concept of ‘political-timing-specific’ applies to their practice in the specific context of the climate emergency.
In the form of a dynamic and interactive conversation, this panel explores how cultural producers can make their own practices more sustainable and help communities do the same, while holding businesses and public servants accountable when they don’t. How can artists leverage their voices to shape policies that can have a real and lasting impact on our environment and our communities? Are there best practices we should be looking at and learn from?
From coral bleaching to the Everglades conservation efforts, through to the monumental issue of plastic pollution that is overwhelming our oceans and the preservation of indigenous culture, these four talented creators will share enlightening insights into their artmaking processes and how they are making a difference through their art and activism.
Our episode on SDG Talks Podcast
Thrilled to share the episode we recorded with a wonderful podcast, SDG Talks, which highlights Change Makers and their work around the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The founders’ passion is to highlight people and organizations that work towards the 17 goals that will transform the world into a more equitable place for everyone.
Click HERE to listen to the episode. Click HERE to listen to more episodes or subscribe to the podcast.
Artful Advocacy: How to fight for clean water this election year, Oct 21, 2020
Art has become an indispensable method for increasing knowledge, raising appreciation, and inspiring action within the environmental movement.
ARTSail is teaming up with the advocacy group Bullsugar.org to present an engaging conversation exploring the power of art to build and establish an environmentally sensitive populace and the applications of that collective consciousness to elections that impact the future of Florida’s water.
Join us TOMORROW, Oct 21 at 1PM EST on Bullsugar.org Facebook Live feed here and on YouTube here
About the Speakers:
Artist and curator Deborah Mitchell lives and works in Miami Beach, Florida. Mitchell is self taught, but enhances her understanding of ecology with University of Florida Master Naturalist Program courses. Combining scientific research with artistic interpretation, Mitchell’s work maps changes in American wildlife corridors. The resulting photo-based collages and paintings draw largely on biological data about our changing environment and demonstrate the connections between living things and why they matter.
Blair Wickstrom is leading the efforts of a group of experienced water quality advocates and volunteer “county captains” who are responsible for the creation of VoteWater.org, a Bullsugar.org campaign that aims to help Florida voters identify clean-water candidates on the 2020 ballot. Blair is also the publisher of Florida’s largest fishing magazine, Florida Sportsman, and serves on the board of directors for Bullsugar.org.
Commissioner Daniella Levine Cava is a VoteWater.org-endorsed candidate for Miami-Dade County Mayor. She currently serves as a Miami-Dade county commissioner and is recognized as a longstanding champion in support of Everglades restoration. She is also known as the "water warrior".
The conversation will be moderated by Ombretta Agro' Andruff, ARTSail Executive Director
IKT 2020 Virtual Meeting - Sustainable Curating in Corona Times, Oct 17-18, 2020
While the annual IKT Congress had to be postponed due to the pandemic, IKT resolved to organize a virtual gathering to connect with its members and the public at large during these challenging times. Over a period of 3 hours each day, 218 cultural producers from all over the world tuned in to hear from a diverse group of IKT members who shared their stories, experiences and best practices developed over the past few months; as well as from key note speakers and panelists exploring sustainable practices in our collective curatorial endeavors.
Journalist Till Briegleb, author of the insightful essay Consequence Paralysis delivered the key-note addressr on day 1; director of the Berliner Festspiele, Tomas Oberender, and curator of the ‘unplugged exhibition’ Down to Earth hosted by the Martin Gropius Bau in Summer 2020; Farid Rakun from the Indonesian collective ruangrupa, curator of the fifteenth edition of Documenta, and Lucia Pietroisuti, Curator of General Ecology at the Serpentine Galleries, were the featured speakers of the round table discussion I moderated on day 2.
Presenters featured in the Global Outlook session on day 1:
Juraj Carny (Independent Curator, Bratislava | Slovak Republic)
Biljana Ciric (Independent Curator, Melbourne | Australia)
O'Neil Lawrence (Senior Curator at the National Gallery of Jamaica, Kingston | Jamaica)
René Morales (Curator at Pérez Art Museum, Miami | USA)
Rahraw Omarzad (Prof Faculty of Fine Arts Kabul University, Founder of the Center for Contemporary Arts Afghanistan CCAA & Founder of Women Art Center Kabul | Afghanistan)
Julien Robson (Independent Curator & Director of Great Meadows Foundation, Louisville, Kentucky | USA)
Paula Toppila (Executive Director and Curator of Pro Arte Foundation and IHME Contemporary Art Festival, Helsinki | Finland)
Eugenio Viola (Chief Curator of MAMBO Modern Art Museum of Bogota | Columbia)
Video presentations by
Nahela Hechavarría Pouymiró (Curator and Visual Art Specialist of Casa de las Américas, Havana | Cuba)
Marina Reyes Franco (Curator at Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Puerto Rico (MAC), San Juan | Puerto Rico)Maayan Sheleff (Independent curator and artistic advisor of the Art Cube Artists’ Studios Jerusalem, Tel Aviv | Israel)
