Promising a year of living dangerously creative...

Join us in 2021 as we live more freely and vicariously through the arts! As for last year, let's recap a year of living dangerously creative...

The mobile art pavilion - MAP - is a delightful artistic platform that will transform community outreach. Exhibits and performances will pop-up in the stunning modular pavilion. MAP was inspired by the iconic Spanish Pavilion, that simple and organic construction, which was packed with international artistic activism and innovation during the Paris World Fair 1937.

Grace Arts sponsored the 2019 MAP studio at Florida International University with professors from architecture (Claudia Busch) and robotics labs (Shahin Vassigh) resulting in seven distinct pavilions with 'Art Stage' (pictured) receiving the highest design rankings from developers, artists and designers who reviewed all the student proposals. The fabrication of the MAP is underway via Astound Inc, a company that has worked with many renown architects and designers. The final design may look very different than the prototype as storage, portability, artistic flexibility, and the budget take center stage.

A Street Art 'festival' on the water, the 2020 Street Art Regatta, StAR , was conceived as a battle of athletic and artistic talent. Painted sails of larger-than-life human feet appear to dance on the water as marine and creative industries converge, consider conservation initiatives and celebrate coastal Florida living.

The Lauderdale Yacht Club Sailing Foundation, who train young sailors in Fort Lauderdale, supported StAR's pilot voyage in November 2020 (pictured) on the Intracoastal Waterway. The historic Pier Sixty Six Hotel (under renovation) is in the background of the photo taken by local award-winning photographer, Armando Colls (Sails l to r: Remote+Hiero, Alcantara & Surge).

Urban shade US, began as a 2018 competition soliciting proposals from professional and student architects around the world to re-imagine the area around a major transit hub in downtown Fort Lauderdale. Inspired by 'Metropol Parasol' (Seville) and 'Umbrella Sky' (recently installed in Coral Gables), US is both a 'gateway' and a 'gathering place' through the creation of sculptured shade overhead, temporary structures that encourage walking, biking, shopping and dining under an interactive and sustainable canopy. US is designed to address a number of challenges including homelessness (via interactive elements to prompt user donations), unconnected public and private properties, uncomfortable and unsafe pedestrian paths between Brightline and Fort Lauderdale's central business district and surrounding neighborhoods.

Susan Hickey, architect from the Chicago area whose designs are pictured, received the highest rankings from a panel of development officials, architects, transportation planners and academics. The proposal for urban shade was received unanimously by the Fort Lauderdale City Commission during public information session in January 2020 a few weeks before the national lock-down. The process to fund a pilot project of US is underway including investigating funding resources for this public-private initiative.

During the year of living artistically dangerous amid a Pandemic, all of these projects provided much needed hope while most of the year accelerated or moved in slow motion depending on the week. MAP, StAR + US became sources of escapism. The idea of planning something that might help the community re-emerge from the Pandemic was exhilarating. Grace Arts' mission is to serve the community beyond gallery walls through the creation and distribution of arts, humanities and science innovations - for a time just like this!