The Marco Island Center for the Arts and Miami Museum of Contemporary Art of the Americas are exchanging exhibitions that draw attention to Latinx art and artists. The idea is to foster cultural understanding, transcend language barriers and demonstrate the ways an artist’s heritage, upbringing and experiences inform their art.
“It is about artists and their backgrounds informing the work they do even if it’s not obvious, but creating a richness overall,” said Marco Island Center for the Arts Executive Director Hyla Crane.
Marco Island Center for the Arts has a tradition of curating art exhibitions and musical interludes that feature Hispanic artists and themes. But its collaboration with Miami Museum of Contemporary Art of the Americas has a unique genesis.
“What precipitated this exhibition was our desire to continue to play a role in ¡ARTE VIVA!, which is the countywide celebration of Hispanic art and culture,” said Crane. “It started back when the Botanical Garden had their La Caverinas in the fall and then when they had Frida in the Garden.”
Collier residents have a keen interest in Spanish culture, and not just among the nearly 30 percent of the population that have Latin roots. With influences dating back more than 500 years to the arrival of Ponce de Leon, Florida is where cultures converge, traditions coexist, and new visual narratives evolve.
That’s precisely why Crane is eager to have area residents and visitors sample art that reflects a wide array of Caribbean and Latin American influences.
“It’s a bit more contemporary than we sometimes see with our artists. It’s exciting, it’s dynamic, and we are thrilled to welcome these artists over here, and in turn, we are taking 14 artists from Collier County over to the Museum of Contemporary Art of the Americas in June, and they will have a one-month exhibition.”
The work on display at Marco highlights the emerging voices of 15 influential contemporary artists from across Latin America and the Caribbean.
The exhibition is on display through July 1, and there will be a reception for the artists on Tuesday, June 10 from 5:30 to 7 p.m.
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The 15 MoCAA artists whose work is on view at the Marco Island Center for the Arts are:
- Ivonne Ferrer (Cuba)
- Milena Martínez Pedrosa (Cuba)
- Jorge Rodríguez Diez (Cuba)
- Carlos Enrique Prado (Cuba)
- Adriana Dorta (Venezuela)
- Carolina V. García (Chile)
- Mai Yap (Panama)
- Bella Cardim (Brazil)
- Leticia Sánchez Toledo (Cuba)
- Jens G. Rosenkranzt (USA)
- Luis Cruz Azaceta (Cuba)
- Aldo Menéndez (Cuba)
- Jorge Salas (Venezuela)
- Cundo Bermúdez (Cuba)
- Ruben Torres Llorca (Cuba)
The work included in the Marco show underscores the Museum of Contemporary Art of the Americas' mission to preserve and promote the contemporary art of Latin America and the Caribbean. With a variety of mediums and styles, the exhibition reflects the vitality, tension, and innovation born from the region’s layered identities.
In exchange, MoCAA will host “Marco to Miami" from June 20 to July 20. That exhibition will showcase 14 outstanding Marco Island artists, bringing a fresh regional perspective to the Miami art scene. Those artists include:
- Lisett Llorens
- Garry S. Wheeler
- Judith Carlin
- Terry Carter
- Gianpaolo Curreri
- Nan LaRosa
- Randy Keenan
- Karen Swanker
- Myriam Kriel
- Joel Shapses
- Nancy Norman
- Ann Vreeland
- Bea Stinson
- Barbara Parisi
This reciprocal exchange builds upon Marco Island Center for the Arts’ commitment to ¡ARTE VIVA!.
That collaborative initiative brought together arts and culture organizations and hospitality partners along Florida’s Paradise Coast to communally celebrate the artistic contributions of the Hispanic community. The year-long celebration featured local events, exhibitions, performances, and educational opportunities throughout Collier County. Events last fall included a number of activities centered around Día de los Muertos. There were also multiple activities in January through the end of April. Presented by the Naples, Marco Island, Everglades CVB and supported by the Collier County Board of County Commissioners, ¡ARTE VIVA! has enhanced the visitor experience while offering residents community-wide educational and entertainment experiences throughout the year.
“This collaboration is more than an exhibition; it’s a living dialogue,” said Crane. “Through these joint exhibitions, we are weaving together narratives from across the Americas, offering our audiences new insights, shared histories, and a deeper understanding of the diverse communities that shape our cultural landscape.”
The press release announcing the collaboration noted that art serves as a universal language, transcending borders and bridging differences. “At a time when cultural connectivity is more crucial than ever, this partnership affirms the vital role of the arts in fostering empathy, appreciation, and community,” it stated. “Both institutions recognize that alongside celebration must come responsibility: to honor traditions, to navigate the digital divide with intention, and to uphold the integrity of artistic expression.
“When one looks at the demographics of South Florida, with its growing Hispanic population, the collaboration isn’t just appropriate, it honors those and I think that it is important work that we can do to be a part of it.”
Crane credited the work done by Center for the Arts member Lisett Llorens, who took the lead in putting the reciprocal exhibitions together and making the connection with the Museum of Contemporary Art of the Americas. It also helped that MoCAA artist Ivonne Ferrer had previously applied for and given a solo exhibition in the Marco Island Center for the Arts’ La Petite Gallery.
“That allowed us to begin a conversation with them, which ultimately led to this notion of having an exchange, with MoCAA coming over with some of the artists included in their permanent collection.”
Crane is careful to point out that the artworks brought to Marco Island by MoCAA do not necessarily depict Hispanic subjects. Viewers won’t see paintings or sculptures of Caribbean or Latin American scenes. But they do reflect the Latin culture in which each artist grew up, although that reference may not necessarily be obvious.
“Culturally, the artists coming from MOCAA come from Latin American and Caribbean countries,” explained Crane. “Their cultural references are different because their countries of origin are different. But their work has a through-line to some extent. We’re not looking at pictures from their countries. We’re looking at art. And that art obviously speaks from their background and their heritage. That is woven into who they are. But what you see in that art, you might not immediately identify the background of where that artist is from. Is it all about culture? No, because art is going to speak to you in various ways. We’re people, and this is about the artists, but when we put it together, you become aware that there is a cultural exchange and that is part of our story as well.”
This point also works in reverse. Those who view the work of the Marco artists that will be on display at MoCAA will see quite a bit of diversity even though Collier County is viewed as a homogenous community.
“There are significant cultural differences if you come from Connecticut versus Kentucky,” Crane continued. “As I look at our artists, Terry Carter comes from California and Barbara Parisi comes from Boston. Their adult life experiences are very different and that’s reflected in what their artwork is, and that’s where we find that we were bringing a multitude of points of view that were going to be very exciting to bring over to Miami. So the folks who visit the exhibition at MoCAA will see the stories and heritage of the people in our own melting pot here in Collier County. Maybe Marco is not perceived as the most diverse place in the world, and yet when you look below that surface, you begin to realize with people coming from so many different places and bringing that all together, there is greater diversity than might meet the eye.”
Crane pointed out an additional benefit to the Marco-MoCAA cultural exchange exhibitions.
“Our ability to partner with other arts organizations, to expand the awareness and reach for them over here, for us in Miami, raises people’s profiles,” Crane said. “It is good for tourism. Somebody who might see our artists in Miami might feel it’s worth taking a day trip or doing a staycation over on Marco. It gives us that chance to promote us and promote Marco. We are ambassadors in that regard. We believe strongly in our role to promote tourism in the great state of Florida. And we’re able to do that through our programming.”
Similarly, Crane hopes that Collier residents will make the trip to Miami to take in the exhibition at MoCAA.
“I hope our people go over to Miami, make a day of it, go to MOCAA, go to the Perez and enjoy that. They may find new patrons, new followers. Exposure is good.”
Marco Island Center for the Arts brings a wide variety of arts to its community through art exhibitions, engaging educational programs for adults and children and a diverse assortment of events. The Arts Center Theatre offers both produced and presented theater productions as well as other live entertainment. The Art Center and its theater serve as professional and financial drivers for visual and performing artists and educators through exhibition, performance and teaching opportunities while being a catalyst that fuels economic development, an understanding of cultural diversity and community cohesion. The art center honors Marco Island and Southwest Florida’s rich, diverse, and creative heritage through active community engagement in the visual and performing arts.
The Museum of Contemporary Art of the Americas is an emerging museum dedicated to the preservation and education of Caribbean and Latin American contemporary art. As a museum, MoCAA is committed to flourishing in the post-pandemic era. The museum dedicates itself to serving the diverse communities of South Florida and the Americas, bringing a range of new voices, artists, methodologies, and practices to the forefront. The Rodriguez Collection, on extended loan to MoCAA, offers outstanding works from Cuban and Latin American contemporary art to engage visitors with paintings, sculptures, photographs, drawings, and ceramics on display that invite audiences to investigate their relationship to creativity. The MoCAA Collection is envisioned as a space for research, inquiry, training, exchange, education and community enjoyment. A vital component of the museum program, The Rodriguez Collection motivates a cultural enterprise of education-through-art in order to provide a broader vision of modern and contemporary art to present and future generations. As a museum, MoCAA is open to debate, discovery and critical thinking, a place for integration and exchange where the notion of community is fundamental. It is a place of concurrence, not opulence, and MoCAA conveys the ongoing deliberate effort to ensure that differences are welcomed and different perspectives are heard so that individuals feel respected and engaged in the museum’s evolving work.
Support for WGCU’s arts & culture reporting comes from the Estate of Myra Janco Daniels, the Charles M. and Joan R. Taylor Foundation, and Naomi Bloom in loving memory of her husband, Ron Wallace.