Jessica Delgado of FIU’s Patricia & Philip Frost Art Museum checks in with an update on the museum, its exhibitions and its evolving understanding of the South Florida community…

With each exhibition we learn about what our state-of-the-art museum spaces can do. During Because I Say So: Selections of the Scholl Collection, we learned transforming the grand galleries was a challenge, but not an impossibility. We learned that over 7,000 people enjoyed the contemporary art show and that a million pins held together by shear will in the shape of a cube is a tempting sight; people will want to touch. During the exhibition The Missing Peace: Artists Consider the Dalai Lama, we learned that our museum’s grand galleries could very easily accommodate over 45 large-scale works of art. We learned “if you build it, they will come” and that over 11,000 people came to learn about the art of Buddhism. Hundreds attended the consecrating and de-consecrating ceremonies with The Drepung Loseling monks while they created the Green Tara mandala. We also learned that a 25 foot inflatable Buddha is also tempting to touch.

Continuing our exploration into Asian art with our current exhibition, Taiwan Discovered: In Place and Time, we continue to learn what our spaces can do.  The works include traditional calligraphy, landscapes, and the extraordinary craftsmanship of paintings actually made from slices of rock. Heaven by Yao Jui-chung, features a brass helmut with video suspended from cables high above in the grand galleries, with 15 spiraling copper tubes connected to a corresponding painting. The common thread, the gold foil, represents both himself and the “born in Taiwan” element that all the images share.

With each exhibition we learn. We learn what we can do and what the community responds to. So far, we have had an excellent response and hope to continue to be the community’s cultural center.

The Patricia & Philip Frost Art Museum: 10975 SW 17 St, Miami; 305-348-3892