Heckscher Digital Education: Teen Perspectives

On October eleventh, 2018 the Perez Art Museum Miami (PAMM) organized the first artist talk of many more to come, as part of its “Scholl Lecture Series”. This first artist is Arthur Jafa, who has worked with the likes of Jay Z, Solange, and many others; he also has an artwork in the museum which is titled “Love is the Message, the Message is Death”. The impact of this artwork on my life made it a necessity for me to attend this talk. As the curtained off theatre, a perfect environment for any art event, dimmed, I prepared for a talk that would be equally thought provoking and just as powerful as the work which brought him to the museum.

 Its “Meet the Museum!" Meet the museum is a series in which many employees from PAMM come and share their life experiences. We had the opportunity to meet Marie Vickles! Marie Vickles is an alumni from Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City. She is the PAMM Knight associate director of Education, Schools, Outreach and Studio Programs and the curator for the Little Haiti Cultural center. One of her biggest advice is “Question everything you see." Be sure to keep up with our blog posts as we meet more members of the PAMMily!

On September 13th, 2018, PTAC was introduced to Deborah Magdalena of the YoungArts Foundation. She discussed the competition, it’s application process and told us all what it can do for you if you win. Here are the reflections of three current PTAC members, Amelia, Ericka, and Rebecca, on our meeting with Deborah.

The PAMM Teen Arts Council proposes ‘A Letter to the Bay/Bae: a city lost to the sea.’ This project entails a monumental bottle that would be filled with messages collected from the public. The letters would be created in conjunction with a free Second Saturday art-making activity. The bottle would serve as an above ground time capsule to be opened when the sea level reaches the top of the current sea wall. This interactive installation would enable Miamians to reflect on the environment around them and their role in the future of the city and its rising waters.

Hey! Remember that project that we told you about and then completely abandoned? Well, we are back at it and ready to get our feet wet in the rising waters of public art!

We brought in the professionals to help us with A Letter to the Bae, and this is when the real work began. Artist Oliver Sanchez of Swampspace sat with our very own second year PTAC member and design extraordinaire Natasja Enriquez to consider the details surrounding design, materials, and fabrication. We also sat with Justin Long and Amanda Sanfilippo of Fringe Projects to learn about the extensive process of permitting and properly engineering a public structure.

And so it turns out, placing a giant bottle along the sea wall is not as simple as some of us may have naively envisioned. Creating and installing an interactive public artwork is an extensive process that takes creative thinking, patience, and dedication. Throughout it all, we’ve had the opportunity to challenge ourselves, collaborate with talented professionals, and hopefully bring our idea to fruition on this long road ahead.