Photo: The Miami Center for Architecture and Design’s historic building downtown, home to many of the DWNTWN Art Days events. Photo by Steven Brooke.

This post has been updated to reflect that “Ishmael and the Well of Ancient Mysteries” will not screen at Miami Dade College during Art Days. 

DWNTWN Art Days–a jam-packed, three-day event in Miami–has come a long way since its first unveiling four years ago. The annual happening has grown up right along with the city’s downtown, to the point that it’s hard to remember the days when Wynwood was the only art hub anyone talked about, and Miami’s inner core was not yet filled with new condos and restaurants.

Today, the idea of strolling around downtown looking for culture is par for the course. The neighborhood is home to the Pérez Art Museum Miami on the bay, the expanded HistoryMiami center on Flagler Street, the fabulously restored Miami Center for Architecture and Design, and the first arts anchor in the neighborhood, the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts. All four institutions are Knight Arts grantees, and these and dozens of other venues will be hosting the myriad events that start on Sept. 11 and run through Sept. 13.

Many other organizations with ties to Knight Foundation are also hosting creative events. Here are just seven, of many, that shouldn’t be missed.

1. “Tequesta Ghost Project” Fringe Projects–which is funded by a WaveMaker grant, a micro-grant program that receives major support from Knight Foundation–will produce temporary public art projects for Art Days, including “Tequesta Ghost Project” by acclaimed artist Dara Friedman. While Friedman makes Miami home, her work is more often shown elsewhere, from the Hirshhorn in Washington, D.C. to the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles and the Whitney Biennial of 2000. This is a great opportunity to see Friedman locally.

Friedman has combined film, live performance and a tour in acknowledgement of Miami’s earliest inhabitants, the Tequesta Indians, whose places of worship and residence continue to be discovered (and still sometimes ignored).

“As a reaction to the recent archaeological finds from the Tequesta Indians, Friedman aims to bring awareness to the original Miamians by presenting their history and traditions in a modern setting–among the skyscrapers of our city’s skyline,” curator Amanda Sanfilippo said in an emailed statement. “In presenting the ancient foundations of a rapidly changing and modernizing city, Friedman is able to bring its citizens to embrace, nurture and strengthen their bond with their founding indigenous culture.”

Friedman’s 12-minute film, “Ishmael and the Well of Ancient Mysteries,” wcan be viewed on the Fringe Project’s Facebook page. On Saturday from 4-6 p.m., the public is invited to visit the Tequesta well at 87 S.W. 11th St.; and on closing day, a drum-and-dance performance will be held there at 7:30 p.m. It will all be documented for a future installation.

2. “A Day in the Life of the Coral”

Artist David Brook’s billboard from “A Day in the Life of the Coral” for Fringe Projects.

Another Fringe project takes place at Museum Park, where New York-based David Brooks filmed the reef closest to downtown Miami, Brewster Reef, for a billboard installation titled “A Day in the Life of the Coral.” Displayed on the billboards will be moments in time of the reef, its beauty and its deterioration. This project, along with others, will be explored during the Fringe Projects walking tour on Sept. 12.

3. Artist-led Tours, Featuring… Thom Wheeler-Castillo, co-director of communal print shop and Knight Arts Challenge winner Turn-Based Press, is spearheading a series of artist-led tours of downtown. Spanning several hours, the tours involve trolley rides and trips on the Metromover in addition to walking. This year, the tours will also include guest guides. Artist Adler Guerrier, for example, will be leading an architectural tour on Sept. 11. Wheeler-Castillo and artists Nick Gilmore and Marie Vickles, on the other hand, will be delving into the ground below us–literally exploring patterns and movement of the pavement, and how it relates to the life of a city.

4. Ear to the Ground The city’s streets will be home to a new series from Buskerfest, a guerilla-style group that puts on impromptu street performances and won a Knight Arts Challenge grant for the public-oriented initiative. Starting on Sept. 11, Buskerfest is launching Ear to the Ground, where artists will stage three performances in an outdoor space. But here’s a catch: you’ll have to check in on Facebook to find out the exact times and location, keeping it all a bit underground.

5. ArtsLaunch2015 The Arsht Center will also be kicking off its season during Art Days on Sept. 12, with ArtsLaunch2015. The day-long activities start with a 9:30 a.m. panel discussion about Miami’s culture 10 years down the road, moderated by Victoria Rogers, Knight Foundation’s vice president for arts. Then at 11:30 a.m., the center’s main resident companies–the Miami City Ballet, Florida Grand Opera, New World Symphony and Cleveland Orchestra–will each offer successive 45-minute workshops. At 1:30 p.m. and again at 4 p.m., one of the chief acoustics designers for the Knight Concert Hall, Tateo Nakajima, will lead Sound Lab sensory tours, revealing the intricate audio world of the performing arts center. Made-in-Miami films will also be included in the open-Arsht-house day.

6. “Miami’s Art on Historic Film + Video”

Archival image of Christo’s “Surrounded Islands,” part of “Miami’s Art on Historic Film + Video” at MCAD.

The Miami Center for Architecture and Design will be another hub for many of the events. On Sept. 11, 12 and 13, Obsolete Media Miami–a WaveMaker grant recipient and 2015 Knight Arts Challenge finalist–is turning the building’s second floor into a screening room for “Miami’s Art on Historic Film + Video.” The multimedia exhibition consists of historic images and clips of Miami art and artists, all taken from the Florida Moving Image Archives and arranged by Obsolete Media’s Barron Sherer and Kevin Arrow.

7. “Listen to This Building” Orientation and Mobility Tours MCAD is also the site of a unique and exciting exhibition from Knight Arts Challenge winner EXILE Books. “Listen to This Building” is an ongoing, combined effort from MCAD, EXILE and Miami Lighthouse for the Blind that offers new ways of exploring place through tactile and aural tours of Miami architecture. On the exterior stairs of the MCAD building, audio recordings convey stories about the venue’s history, along with tales of neighboring buildings. Inside, there are reliefs of downtown structures with accompanying texts in braille. In addition, students from Florida International University created 3D models that have been placed in opaque boxes, forcing visitors to “feel the building” in order to discover it.

As a special Art Days activity on Sept. 12, the exhibition will include guided Orientation and Mobility tours of the MCAD building – without need for eyesight. Participants will be led through the former U.S. post office and courthouse while blindfolded and using a mobility cane. Tours will run every 30 minutes between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m.

EXILE Books has also published an architectural heritage book in braille. According to EXILE’s description, “There will be no photographs or printed text in the publication, only tactile reliefs of each building, effectively compelling the viewer to experience Miami through new and distinct paradigms.”

That is, in a sense, what this year’s Art Days is also hoping to deliver –a  novel way to experience and get to know our city. A city that seems to be so rapidly changing that it’s hard to keep up on our past, present and future.

There is much more happening than what is listed here, and most events are free. For details on venues and times, visit the DWNTWN Art Days website. Additional details may also be found on the websites of EXILE Books, Fringe Projects and the Miami Center for Architecture and Design.