Alette Simmons-Jimenez, artist, founder and director of ArtFormz Alternative, checks in with a summer update…

To present Year 1 of “Giants in the City” was a hectic race to the finish line.  But finish we did, and to our great surprise on time – on budget – and to loud sound of a big hoorah.

Well I probably couldn’t see or hear right after so many days of very little hours of sleep so I think it was a hoorah. After the December Premier, I continued working and produced… our exhibition catalogue, published soon after.  At the same time we began editing and post production of the events documentary video. This is posted on You Tube as well as the Giants own website: Press coverage was astounding and the event made it in the papers or local TV news almost daily. The Miami Herald had sent a video team the day of installation, and thanks to the Herald & Emily Michots late night work it ran online daily during Art Basel.  See it here and as well as on our site. And Carlos Suarez de Jesus ran a great article on the project in the New Times Special Art Fair Magazine, seen here. So now on to the next step.  Well – maybe not so fast.  After finishing up grant Final Reports, a short break was needed.  Artformz itself was going through new artists selections, and our yearly planning.  Around April and May our minds went back to the drawing board to think about Year 2.  That’s when we met the hurdles.  Not finished jumping all of them yet, and the project is in a moment of flux, but that’s just so typical for artist run and inspired work.  I see it as a positive and when all is said and done given time to be more creative, what’s coming will be better.   For now – I thank the heavens above for a breather to develop personal work, and to attend to Artformz’ other projects.

The gallery has a great line up of exhibits and new artists will be showing some most exciting work in the coming months.  I was invited as a guest speaker for ArtTable at their first Florida Chapter meeting at Books & Books.  Apart from info on the nature Artformz Alternative there were requests to know about the Giants.  And as an end note for now:  I am very happy to announce that in December, Artformz will be presenting in booth #36 at Aqua Art Miami for the Art Fair week here in Miami’s Wynwood/MidTown fair area.

For more info about Artformz visit Artformz.net or call 305-572-0040.