Advocacy For Regional Preservation of Heritage for Economical Stability.
by Wiliiam Coulthard / Edited by Ana Bikic Miami Art Reviews. Carol Cohan’s book Coconut Grove Playhouse back cover Pickering Press 1987 Miami Art Reviews Inc.
A region that relies upon tourism needs an entertainment industry. Historical sites are an integral part of this service orientated economy and the degradation and destruction of cultural interests undermines the formula a region has inherited over the decades and centuries. History is the repeated story that entertains, they are the tourist industry‘s product line and without them a region is no different than any other as a destination.
Although Miami Dade has beaches,National Parks and a pool side party image, most of our visitors are children and the retired if we include resident’s families,snow birds and annual holiday trippers. Their interests are based on more traditional pursuits that require a more intellectual approach to entertainment. Beaches and night clubs, gambling and sports are good for some but to attract an audience appreciation for the arts requires having a strong local history that is more appealing to opera lovers and art collectors, who in turn buy apartments and return each year.
Miami Dade County has an immediate or recent history in comparison to European regions but what interests visitors beyond just the pleasure and joy of visiting is to be entertained, educated and have memorable experiences that can be shared with friends upon returning home. Saving local history plays a vital role when tourists return home, they carry with them the stories behind the places they’ve visited. A region’s history actively stimulates intelligent and curious minds, between natural pleasures of parks and beaches to complete the experience of an exciting and fulfilling trip to their friends. The ancient Romans understood this economic formula providing not just arena entertainment but also galleries of archival history to accompany libraries and monuments. Their tourist cities provided the very best in spas and sports but the most successful cities like Pompey and Pila had preserved and prepared more ancient sites to excite a more affluent and studied clientele.
Miami, Miami Beach and the Miami Dade County, as a whole, must be mindful as it expands to what foot print of the past it wipes away. If an iconic house sitting in full view is the cover picture of an old story related to the region’s past with internationally known cultural references; it follows that the home’s destruction would bring strong negative feed back from previous and possible visitors. If a City is seen not to care about it’s heritage then it is seen not to care about it’s visitor’s experience. So why should they return? or talk well to others? Persuading for a location based on others opinions and published experiences, a reputation by region or location should be seen as a regional and residential responsibility for everyone wishing to live in a successful area and enjoy the benefits that come from an active tourist economy.
The history, architecture and intellectual property of local myths and stories that enrich the visitors experience of our region are vital to the tourism industry as a whole, without them Miami would be boring and predictable. Our local history adds variety to regional destination and encourages opportunities for creating new local attractions. Preservation is therefore a vital part, not an after thought, it is at the heart of our very image and if we are seen to not care what is torn down, our ineptness to protect our own interests will be ridiculed internationally. Currently the Coconut Grove Playhouse and the famous Star Island Mansion are up for destruction.
Now is the time to save them, like Miami did with the Daily News / Freedom Tower 12 years ago. Developers and their investors must realize history has unique and has brand name status and that the stories behind the history are an intellectual property that belongs to all the region’s residents, compromising local stories compromises future potential. Destroying history actually limits future development.
Elizabeth Turk At Art Basel Miami Beach 2012Elizabeth Turk Marbol Carving Sculpture at Art Basel Miami Beach 2012. photo by Ana Bikc for Art Reviews Miami 2012/13
This year’s Art Basel Miami Beach, contemporary best was sculptor Elizabeth Turk, marble carving to an exquisite belief in the fluid form.
Her work is a shining example of where the direction lies towards a classic Fine Art future, the humility needed to execute a
perfect patience with such a delicate pursuit of the making, leaves one only to marvel in response.
Elizabeth Turk’s latest marble sculptures would be a touch stone cultural bridge to middle east liberal progressions,
part of a new creative generation of women moving the eco- symbols of humanity towards the transcontinental spring.
Art Basel Miami Beach 2012 VIP Reception from left to right, Annette Schönholzer, Norman Braman, Matti Herrera Bower,the Mayor of the City of Miami Beach and Guy Morin at the opening of Art Basel Miami Beach 2012.
Opening Day for the Art Basel Miami Beach 2012. Dec 6-9 Miami Art reviews 12/11/12
Thursday morning.
Chairman of the Miami Beach Host committee for Art Basel 2012 is Norman Braman, the county’s most popular and dynamic figure talked about the international reach he personally has witnessed. Miami Beach Mayor Matti Herrera Bower was delighted to have Collins Park active encouraging the Art Basel crowd to explore. Guy Morin, Canton President of Basel_Stadt and Jason Chandler, UBS committed to the audience the expansion of the Art Basel market with an all year presence on Miami Beach announced by Annette Schönholzer and Marc Spiegler. It was an exciting start to the event and Miami officials were beaming to host this very lucrative and culturally prestigious show once again. The layout, sections and comfort needs fit well into the Miami Beach Convention Center and finding an alternative venue on the Beach would be hard. Mr. Norman Braman is correct in praising the lift the region has with the Basel partnership, Miami was also ready for a major art show or Biennial at the end of the 90’s. Now our region will have the Asian art market to attract visitors and investors.
Matti Herrera Mayor of Miami Beach, at art basel Miami Beacg 2012 Photo by Ana Bikic for Art reviews Miami 2012
South Florida is blessed with warm sunny climes when the rest of the world is either beginning to shiver or tired of it.
Miami Beach’s artistic history continues by hosting Art Basel for another decade.
Art Basel Miami Beach 2012 – Art Reviews Miami 2012/13
It’s survives today to celebrate the State of Florida‘s Viva 500th Anniversary of
Naming and Discovery by Juan Ponce De Leon in 1513 to which the mural was dedicated
and commissioned in 1925 by Gov. James Middleton Cox. whilst building the Daily News
Tower, which is now known as the National Land marked
‘Freedom Tower’ Miami. MDC. Art Gallery and Museum.
The poem takes center stage of the mural design, encased in the central structure it reads.
Here once by April breezes blown
You came, O gallant De Leon,
Sailed up this friendly ocean stream
To find the wells of ancient dream
The fountain by the poets sung
Where life and love are ever young.
You found it not, O prince, and yet
The wells that made the heart forget
Are waiting here year ever here
With touch of some immortal sphere,
For here below these skies of gold
We have forgotten to grow old
Here in this land where all the hours
Dance by us treading upon the flowers.
Edwin Markham in 1925
This simple rhyming seven versed, to Juan Ponce De Leon’s arrival on the North American continent and the poets satirical epigram to historical myths twists to include us all blessed with final days here under one glorious golden sky after another. Markham had written and recited the epigram for the Lincoln Memorial ceremony in 1922. His recital of his “Lincoln, Man of the People” had an immediate recognition which prompted Gov.James Middleton Cox. to request Markham’s pen for a homage to the history of Miami, Florida and “these import moments in our distant histories.” (James Middleton Cox biography)
Edwin Markham was born in 1842, died 1940, educator, poet and American Institute of Arts and Letters member. 1922 Lincoln Memorial dedication “Lincoln, the Man of the People.” Nine schools named in his honor, A WW2 Liberty ship and Wagner College Horrmann Library archived collection of his personal library and letters.
Markham was a politically and socially conscious writer at odds with the modernists Pound and Elliot and their free form directions in literature. He his exampled as an American of Letters, whose work exemplifies the National tradition in Literature. His interested in working class struggles, ethnic troubles and equal opportunities in education made him a popular choice for composing important civic and cultural epigrams.
Other important works… The Man with the Hoe 1899, Lincoln and other Poems 1901, The Shoes of Happiness 1913,Children in Bondage 1914, California the Wonderful 1914, Gates of Paradise 1920, 80 poems at 80, 1932 and The Ballard of the Gallow’s Bird. published ph 1960.
The M.D.C., Miami Freedom Tower’s New World 1513 mural at the M.D.C. has an epigram by Edwin Markham that dedicates to the discovery of the first known Native American settlement discovered by the Spanish new world explorer Juan Ponce De Leon who landed his boats only yards away on the shores of Biscayne Bay. The Markham poem takes center position of the 44 Ft. Long mural and in true epigram satire twists the fountain of youth fable to include our collective search and fragility, making the verse equal to all contemporary tastes some 90 years later. Perhaps Markham’s preference for the structured inclusion of cultural content and witt is after all a more constant and enduring literary style than the more subjective modernism that surrounded his later days. His Lincoln writings have been re-read and recited as we celebrate the Man’s anniversaries again. Since the Memorial’s dedication in 1922 few writers have been able to equally express our National sentiment and admiration for the iconic President Lincoln and so the poets words continue to serve.
Miami Art Reviews 
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