Miami Art Museum

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Miami Art Museum
Miami Art Museum.jpg
Miami Art Museum is located in Miami
Location in Miami
Established 1984
Location 101 West Flagler Street
Miami, Florida, United States
Coordinates 25°46′27″N 80°11′47″W / 25.77429°N 80.19629°W / 25.77429; -80.19629
Type Art museum
Visitors 60,000[1]
Director Thom Collins
Curator Rina Carvajal
Public transit access Metrorail access at Government Center
Website MAM Website

The Miami Art Museum (MAM) is an art museum located in Downtown Miami, Florida, in the United States. It was founded in 1984 as the Center for the Fine Arts, and in 1996 became the Miami Art Museum. The MAM dedicates itself to contemporary art and is located at 101 West Flagler Street in Downtown Miami in the same Miami Cultural Plaza as HistoryMiami and the Miami-Dade Public Library. Current plans are to transplant the MAM from its current location in the Central Business District to Park West at Bicentennial Park along with the Miami Science Museum with plans for completion around 2013. The MAM receives over 60,000 visitors a year.[1]

The Miami Art Museum is served by the Miami Metrorail at Government Center Station.

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New MAM building [edit]

In November 2010, construction began on the new MAM building in Museum Park in Downtown Miami. The building is designed by Swiss architects Herzog and de Meuron, who were hired by Terence Riley, director of the museum in 2009, when plans were made. The new museum building is being built alongside the new Miami Science Museum building at the redesigned park. The building is to be 200,000 square feet, composed of 120,000 interior square footage, and 80,000 exterior square footage. Inside the museum, display spaces can be illuminated by floor-to-ceiling windows, which can also be blocked off. A grand staircase — nearly the entire 180-foot width of the platform — connects it to the waterfront.[2] With their raised, wraparound terraces and broad overhanging canopies, the houses are conceived to withstand hurricanes and floods, while providing ample shade and ventilation. The museum will also incorporate a series of hanging vertical gardens made from local plants and vegetation, designed by Patrick Blanc.[3] The new MAM building is expected to open December 2013, and the Miami Science Museum building should open between 2014 and 2015.[4]

To build the new museum, the MAM entered into a public/private partnership with the City of Miami and Miami-Dade County. The location on Biscayne Bay has been provided by the City of Miami. The museum costs $220 million to build, with $100 million coming from Miami-Dade voters in bond funding, and $120 from private donors. As of mid-2011, private donors have committed more than $50 million in additional support for the building and institutional endowment. Jorge M. Pérez, longtime trustee and collector of Latin American art, made a gift of $35 million, to be paid in full over ten years,[5] to support the campaign for the new museum, which was in turn named Jorge M. Pérez Art Museum of Miami-Dade County.[6] The new MAM location is intended to transform Museum Park into a central destination on Miami's cultural map, promote progressive arts education, build community cohesiveness, and contribute substantially to downtown revitalization.[7]

Collection [edit]

The Miami Art Museum has been collecting art since 1996. In its permanent collections, there are second half of the Twentieth Century and Contemporary works by: Purvis Young, José Bedia Valdés, Joseph Cornell, Kehinde Wiley, James Rosenquist, Frank Stella, and Kiki Smith.

References [edit]

External links [edit]