Miami-Dade Public Library System

The Miami-Dade Public Library System is offering a number of exhibitions and art programs this spring. Some of the exhibitions also help to celebrate the Library’s 40th anniversary.  For more details, call 305.375.5048. Exhibitions and programs will be held at the following locations:

Changing Hands by Angela Valella
Hispanic Branch Library • 1398 SW 1st St. • 305-643-8574
Artist talk and program: April 1st, 3:30-5:30pm
Through May
Miami artist Angela Valella’s installation, Changing Hands, is part of a series of exhibitions celebrating the System’s 40th anniversary. The installation is composed of 24” x 36” color and black and white prints on bond paper and a projection of interchangeable static images; it is more of a gesture than a documentary or a description of a place. The prints are derived from Google Earth images, online archives, aerial photographs through a telescope and from the tops of cranes, and photographs taken around the city by the artist. These images have been enlarged and juxtaposed with photographs of the buildings, land, sky, and horizon surrounding the Hispanic Branch Library as well as elsewhere in the city.   

Book People by Eduardo Hernandez
Coral Gables Branch Library • 3443 Segovia St.  • 305-442-8706
April 6 - May 15, 2011
Book People is a series of visual stories created by self-taught artist and library advocate Eduardo Hernandez. In celebration of our anniversary, Hernandez’s oil paintings portray real life people making use of the library. The narrative behind Hernandez’s insightful paintings can either be “tragic, humorous, or joyous” and though each is accompanied with a brief story, the artist encourages the viewer to approach each work with a fresh perspective by composing larger stories and originating variant themes that each individual can interpret on their own.  The Book People series was done during a summer spent doing supervised fieldwork and volunteering at a branch of the Miami-Dade Public Library System.

Bay of Pigs 50th Anniversary Display
West Dade Regional Library • 9445 Coral Way • 305-553-1134
Starting April 9
The Library System’s Special Collections and West Dade Regional Library collaborate to present an informational and commemorative display for the 50th Anniversary of the Bay of Pigs. It will include a wide array of books, newspaper articles from the time of the event, and visually-engaging special collections materials in both English and Spanish.

Program: A Night with Poetry Everywhere with Liam Callanan and Campbell McGrath as part of O, MIAMI, a county-wide poetry festival
Main Library Auditorium • 101 W. Flagler Street • 305-375-2665
Thursday, April 14, 6:30 - 8:30 p.m.
Liam Callanan, executive producer of Poetry Everywhere, and award-winning poet Campbell McGrath will host an evening of screenings, readings, and discussions dedicated to poetry in the public sphere. Poetry Everywhere consists of a series of 30 short animated poetry films. The texts for the films come from a broad, diverse range of contemporary poets, ranging from Miami's own Campbell McGrath to the current Santa Fe Poet Laureate Valerie Martínez, Former US Poet Laureate Kay Ryan and Nobel Laureate Wisława Szymborska. Every film features every word of every poem, both onscreen and in the soundtrack. The films, screened on public television and in buses, libraries, and classrooms, are meant to bring poetry into public life. This event is presented in collaboration with University of Wynwood, University of Wisconsin, and the Poetry Foundation as part of O, MIAMI, a county-wide poetry festival inaugurating in April 2011. Its goal is for every single person in Miami-Dade County to encounter a poem during the month of April.

Away from the Horde: MIAC III presented by the Miami International Cultural Alliance
Main Library, 1st and 2nd floor exhibition space •101 W. Flagler Street •
305-375-2665
April 29 - May 29, 2011
Away from the Horde is a thematic group exhibition featuring a selection of paintings, videos, photographs, and sculptural installations. This exhibition is presented by the Miami International Cultural Alliance and directed by Sophie Videment Dupouy as part of a partnership with the Miami-Dade Public Library System in celebration of the International Art of Storytelling Festival. Participating countries include Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Germany, Haiti, Israel, Italy, Poland, and Uruguay. Participating artists include Daniel Azulay, Daniele Ballerini, Michèle Beaudin, Alice Betancourt, Perez Celis, Ofra Ben David, Ira Eduardovna, Rodrigo Fló, Horst Kohlem, Friedrich Kunath, Wanderson Marccio, Paulo Laborne, Marithou, Philip Ross Munro, Jill Mulleady, Nelson Neirner, Rafal Olbinski, Tomasz Rut, Analía Sandleris, Guy Syllien, Serge Strosberg, and

Estampas del Caribe Nicaragüense organized by HistoryMiami
Hispanic Branch Library • 1398 SW 1st Street • 305-643-8574
May 12 - June 19, 2011
Journey to the Nicaraguan coast through the lens of award-winning documentary photographers María José Alvarez and Claudia Gordillo. Often described as the forgotten region of the country, Nicaragua’s Caribbean coast is home to a diversity of cultures that include Creoles, Sumos, Miskitos and Garífunas. As part of the International Art of Storytelling Festival, this exhibition consists of over 35 photographs offering an anthropological view of the region, its people and their cultural practices. This exhibition was organized by HistoryMiami.

After Process Odalis Valdivieso, Pip Brant, Amalia Caputo, Dinorah de Jesús Rodriguez,
Patricia Figueroa Sowers
Miami Beach Regional Library • 227 22nd St., Miami Beach • 305-535-4219
Through May 17
The five Miami artists in this exhibition have adapted work for the Miami Beach Regional Library using processes that, like library cataloging, identify and re-process information that has already been codified or mediated. Using photographs, prints, video, altered film, and hand-dyed and embroidered fabric, they bring viewers into a new relationship with words and images from the news, philosophical ideas, reproductions of art historical works from fine art books, the natural environment as organized into civic parks, and an absent character re-invented through a series of videotaped interviews.

STORY TIME: Reading, Writing, Making Books with ArtCenter South Florida and the Florida Center for the Literary Arts
West Dade Regional Library • 9445 Coral Way •305-553-1134
Through June 20, 2011
Held twice a month, Story Time sessions feature a reading from a popular children’s book, a lesson on making a book out of a single sheet of paper, and time for children (with the help of a parent or guardian) to create illustrations and write stories of their own. Each child receives their own copy of the month's featured book and parents receive instructions for replicating book projects at home. The books on display were created by the children who participated in the Story Time program the Doral and International Mall Branch Libraries. This program is presented by ArtCenter/South Florida, Miami-Dade County Public Library and the Florida Center for the Literary Arts at Miami Dade College and is funded by the National Endowment for the Arts & ArtCenter/South Florida. Each month's featured book is donated by the Florida Center for the Literary Arts at Miami Dade College.

Media Contact:
Victoria Galan- Public Affairs Officer
Tel. 305.375.5180, galanv@mdpls.org

Jose Toledo - Marketing
Tel. 305.375.5016, toleodoj@mdpls.org