Did You Lose Your Head?

The last Friday of the month North Miami hosts an outdoor jazz concert downtown by the art museum. The museum and all the nearby art galleries stay open late, showing their new exhibits. I went into Mario's gallery and was surprised to see this crocodile skull being displayed as art. Mario must know something about "art" that I don't know. The skull was the only thing with a sold tag on it from the git-go.

A few months ago he was displaying the jaw bone of a donkey all bleached white from the sun. All the teeth were still in place, but loose in their sockets so they rattled when you shook it. He showed me how in his native Peru the jawbone is used as a rythm instrument. You hold it in one hand, shake it, and every few beats you bang it into the palm of your other hand.

I can't imagine myself trying to explain to a city code enforcemet officer "Oh! The dead donkey in my back yard? The one rotting in the sun? I'm just making some musical instruments. It usually only stinks really bad for the first couple of weeks."

A Photography Exhibit At MOCA, North Miami's Museum Of Contemprary Art

It wasn't all that long ago that museums rarely exhibited photography at all, and then only the work of long established photographers, or at least somebody who already had the right credentials in the art world. Few and far between were people who collected photograhic prints as art or displayed the pieces in their homes or offices. All that has changed in the past few years.

North Miami's Museum of Contemporary Art had their opening patrty for a group photography show and I decided to check it out. There was a large variety of work shown, arranged so that each exhibter had their own space on the walls. Some of them liked to print large while others preferred smaller more intimate style begging you to get close to admire the prints. They were mostly silver gelatin prints but one of the photographers showed platinum prints. One showed prints mounted on aluminum, but conventional matted and framed pictures dominated the show. The food table seemed to be getting the most attention.

I Think The Planners Got It Right This Time

A few years ago North Miami's main drag had steadily detiorated for four decades, ever since the business community had decided that the wave of the future was the shopping mall. As the years passed the new mall a few miles to the north became run down and this down town area was boorderline slum. The mall got a complete rebuild, but that didn't save it from desertion to an even newer fancier mall a few miles up the road.

Finally the city planners seemed to get it right. They finally realized that there wsas no way they were going to entice major deparment stores and chain retailers back to a traditional downtown. It just ain't gonna happen! The building owners were encouraged to redo the facades and adopt a uniform color palette. New brick sidewalks and and nice street lighting fixtures werre installed. Awnings were allowed over the sidewalks and coffee shops allowed to put tables and chairs out front on the sidewalk. Instead of hasseling "hippie" types of businesses coffee shops and small independent boutiques were encouraged. Art galleries and antique shops are flourishing. All the kinds of places that don't want to be in a mall.

North Miami has reduced the cost of buisiness licenses for arts connected places and simplified the pernitting process. One night each month they have Jazz at MOCA, live music in the plaza in front of the Museum of Contemporary Art.

These folks just bought some coffee at Starbucks, located in the building behind them, as they wait for the music to start. Another coffee house is the Luna Star Cafe across the street where Alexis Sanfeld will also make you a sandwich or sell you a beer or glass of wine. They both show works by local artists and photographers and have live music a few nights a week. Planning works if it's done right!