Downtown, everything is bright, Downtown, everything is right – Knight Foundation
Arts

Downtown, everything is bright, Downtown, everything is right

There will be trolleys going north and south, from the west end of the Venetian Causeway to Flagler Street, shuttling you and whomever else to more than 20 main venues, studios events, film screenings and some one-off art stops as part of the inaugural “Dwntwn Art Days.”

Downtown, everything is bright.

A Celia Cruz guayabera dress.

Okay, you can walk, bike  or drive as well. But in any case, on Friday, Sept. 7 and Sat., Sept. 8, the surprisingly vibrant Downtown Arts District will be open and free to visit. Major centers like the Arsht, MAM, the Spanish Cultural Center, the Cisneros Foundation and HistoryMiami – names all familiar – will be showing off their offerings, but so will more off-the-beaten-path places.

Like, there will be a visual arts unveiling at the historic Alfred E. Dupont Building at 11 a.m. on Friday, including an installation visible at all times from the street from Michelle Weinberg, called “Street Life.”

The Arsht Center will have a couple of art-related events, such as “Party at the New Aquarium” by Amy von Harrington, with guest performance appearance from Pioneer Winter; and a piece from Jillian Mayer, “Here.”

Here’s a chance to stop in on “The Guayabera: A Shirt’s Story” exhibit. HistoryMiami has put on a quixotic run through the fascinating political, cultural and artistic tie to the Cuban and Caribbean roots of a shirt.

At the new home of the CCE (the Centro Cultural Espanol) on Biscayne Boulevard, you can still catch the unrelenting and incredibly mesmerizing  photographs in the series “La Bestia,” from photographer Isabel Munuz. She followed impoverished migrants on trains from Central America on up to the promised land of the United States, and you can imagine that trail…. Well in fact, you can’t.

On over to the Miami-Dade Public Library, there’s another tale, told by Jean Chiang, “A Journey Called Life,” based loosely on her remembrance on stories of the histories around the complex history  of China.

MAM is opening a solo show of Rashid Johnson; CIFO is opening the  “Not Me: Subject to Change,” an exhibit that highlights the Grants and Commissions Program. Then there is the Food Truck Friday, Wine By the Bay, “Made in Miami Video Art” and an interactive picnic blanket from Misael Soto. All sounds, looks, tastes, good.

Dwntwn Art Days” takes place from Sept. 7 – 8; times vary. For more information, visit  dwntwnartdays.com.