Articles by

Fernando González

  • Article

    Pérez Art Museum Miami expands its African-American art collection

    Published February 16, 2016 by

    Above: Evening 9:10, 461 Lenox Avenue, 1964; Art © Romare Bearden Foundation/Licensed by VAGA, New York, NY.  Since its inception the Pérez Art Museum Miami has sought to establish itself as a showcase for the best in contemporary art while also reflecting the cultural diversity of South Florida. One approach has been to program shows such as “Sun Splashed,” a survey of works by Jamaican-born, New York-based artist Nari Ward, or “Bloodlines,” by Dominican-born, New York- based artist Firelei Báez, both artistically strong, both powerful, thoughtful and provocative invitations to look with fresh eyes at the history, sensibilities and issues of some communities around us that we thought we knew. Another significant tool for the museum has been the PAMM Fund for African American Art, which focuses on the acquisition of contemporary works by African-American artists for the museum’s permanent collection. Fittingly, Ward’s “Homeland Sweet Homeland” (2012), part of the “Sun Splashed” exhibit, along with Romare Bearden’s “Evening 9:10, 461 Lenox Avenue” (1964), will become part of the permanent collection of the Pérez Art Museum Miami. The works have been purchased with resources provided by the PAMM Fund and will be announced at the Third Annual Reception for the PAMM Fund for African American Art on Tuesday night. “Museum acquisitions are always really important because they are part of this historicizing process,” said Ward from his home in New York. “It puts you in the canon that the museum, the institution, is creating for its community. African-Americans and other artists of color have always been left out, and there is an awareness within the art world that there have been voices that have been left out, and that’s something these institutions are trying to grapple with.” Nari Ward, Homeland Sweet Homeland, 2012. Photo Credit: Elisabeth Bernstein, image courtesy the artist and Lehmann Maupin, New York and Hong Kong.   “It's very cool to have your work be part of the conversation along other relevant voices in the art world and the community,” said Ward. “Especially in a city like Miami.”
  • Article

    How skateboarders and jazz musicians make the same moves

    Published February 9, 2016 by

    Skateboarders perform in a half-pipe on the National YoungArts Foundation campus in Miami as jazz pianist Jason Moran and his band perform. Photo: Michael D. Bolden on Flickr.   Jazz is an art form informed by paradoxes: Improvisation is shaped by meticulous planning; freedom is built off respect from an ever-present canon; individuality, encouraged and celebrated, only truly succeeds when balanced against the needs of the music and the group. And then, to yield its rewards, jazz demands from players and listeners a willingness to take chances, to embrace uncertainty, enjoy the fleeting, unrepeatable moment. Much on this list, obviously, is not unique to jazz. Consider basketball — the team as a quintet executing a mix of set and improvised plays in one-of-a-kind performances — or, more to the point, skateboarding. That was the subject of a conversation between jazz pianist, composer and educator Jason Moran and skateboarder Mark Gonzales at a YoungArts Salon at the National YoungArts Foundation headquarters in Miami on Saturday. The event, sponsored by Knight Foundation and moderated by musician and producer Garth Ross, attracted a fascinatingly diverse audience that included much-decorated jazz bassist and composer Dave Holland as well as young skaters carrying their boards. Jazz pianist Jason Moran, skateboard legend Mark Gonzales and moderator Garth Ross discuss improvisation and how the two disciplines relate at the YoungArts Salon. Photo: Michael D. Bolden on Flickr. “In skating, you attempt something and might not make it. You pause for a sec. You try something you know you can make; you make that and then you go back and try to do what you couldn’t make after trying 10 times — and all of a sudden you made it,” explained Gonzales, named by TransWorld Skateboarding magazine the “Most Influential Skateboarder of All Time.”  “I’m not a musician so I don’t know for sure, but I can hear the music and how [jazz musicians] are figuring it out until they get it. ‘Oh yes, that’s it. Right there.’ In street skating you’re constantly trying, seeing what’s going to fit.” After watching a YoungArts video featuring powerhouse mentors such as Mikhail Baryshnikov, Reneé Fleming and Frank Gehry, as well as testimonies by students, a self-deprecating Gonzales, with a what-am-I-doing-here? shrug deadpanned, “I hope I can help someone.” But Moran, a former skater who in a Q&A with the YoungArts Foundation blog called Gonzales “the Charlie Parker of skating,” responded by noting the decisive influence Gonzales had in his life choices.
  • Article

    Second Black Tech Week spotlights Miami’s position at the intersection of diversity and innovation

    Published February 8, 2016 by

    February has long been a month of remembrance and celebration of African-American culture. But with Black Tech Week, an event focusing on technology, entrepreneurship and people of color, author and entrepreneur Felecia Hatcher, wants to change the narrative. As co-founder of Black Tech Week, she wants a Black History Month 2.0. “Since I was a kid, when February comes around, there’s always been this acknowledging of African-American culture and the part it has played in the history of the United States,” she said in a recent interview. “But I’ve always found that we celebrated and acknowledged the same history makers with the same kind of events. The idea of Black History Month 2.0 is to highlight people who have done some amazing things with technology, amazing innovators but also, as we celebrate [them], let’s make sure we are equipping our community with all the tools and resources it needs to be able to not just participate in, but drive the innovation economy.” With that in mind, the 2016 Black Tech Week 3-Day Technology Summit, taking place Feb. 17-19, at the Florida International University, Biscayne Bay Campus in North Miami, brings together black innovators, entrepreneurs and investors for the second year in row. The event—Knight Foundation is the presenting sponsor—ramps up Feb. 14-16 with activities such as startup boot camps, pitch competitions and seaside yoga sessions, and concludes with a Women’s Innovation Brunch at FIU on Feb. 20. The event attracted about 1,000 participants in its first year and Hatcher hopes to double that number this year. Scheduled speakers include Chinedu Echeruo, CEO and founder of Gigameet.com; Chris Carthern, senior network engineer for the U.S. Department of Defense; Jeff Hoffman, co-founder of Priceline; Maurice Young (Trick Daddy), artist and entrepreneur; Melissa James, president and CEO of The Tech Connection; and Leslie Miley, engineering manager at Twitter.   “Black Tech Week, it’s tremendously important,” said Brian Brackeen, founder and CEO of Kairos.com, a Miami-based human analytics company and a sponsor of Black Tech week. “One of the things [Black Tech Week co-founder] Derick [Pearson] talks about is that when he went online to purchase blacktechweek.com, it was available! That tells you what you need to know. We certainly focus on the community here, in Miami, but in the larger community [this event] is really solving a huge need.” The lack of diversity has been a glaring issue in the tech industry, with dismal reports of African-Americans and Latinos making up just 4 percent and 5 percent of the overall tech workforce. Last year, Hatcher hosted a community discussion after a survey at Google revealed that just 2 percent of its workforce is black. Knight’s support for Black Tech Week is just one element of the foundation’s investments in helping to diversify the tech community both in South Florida and nationwide. Knight recently announced support for the Miami launch of PowerMoves, a national initiative to expand the number of high-tech companies led by entrepreneurs of color. Knight is also a supporter of CODE2040, a Bay Area nonprofit that promotes professional development for blacks and Latinos in the tech industry; Digital Grass, a business accelerator in South Florida that focuses on closing the diversity gap; and Hatcher’s Code Fever, which works throughout South Florida to teach students and their parents to become creators of technology.
  • Article

    How ‘Spotlight’ is the ‘best argument’ for journalism

    Published January 27, 2016 by

    Photos: Knight Foundation President Alberto Ibarguen and Washington Post Executive Editor Marty Baron followed a screening of the movie "Spotlight." Credit: Rosemary D'Amour. “Spotlight” is a film with no car chases, explosions or intergalactic battles. An action scene here might be someone with a pen and a ruler checking names in a book or running to the courthouse to get, just before closing, some previously sealed documents. Victory here brings only the revelation of a monstrous truth. In spite of it, or perhaps in part because of it, the film has become a modest box office success and has received numerous honors, including nominations for six Academy Awards. Its depiction of the hard work of news investigations has fueled discussions about the importance of local journalism, including a screening last Thursday by Knight Foundation at Coral Gables Art Cinema followed by a conversation led by Knight President Alberto Ibargüen with Marty Baron, executive editor of The Washington Post and editor of The Boston Globe from 2001 to 2012. “Although in Miami we seem to be better known these days for our support of the arts and entrepreneurship, our signature program has traditionally been the Journalism Program,” noted Ibargüen, a former publisher of the Miami Herald and El Nuevo Herald. “‘Spotlight,’” he said, “is about the best argument I’ve heard recently for journalism.” The film, based on actual events, follows the investigation of sexual abuse in the Roman Catholic Church by a team of reporters and editors at The Boston Globe. Call by call, interview by interview, the Spotlight team peels off decades of a systemic cover-up that reaches high up into the Boston religious, legal and political establishment. The Globe published the first story on Jan. 6, 2002. Many followed. The series led to the resignation of Cardinal Bernard Law, archbishop of Boston, and earned the Globe a Pulitzer Prize.
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    Transportation expert Gabe Klein maps out a path to success for cities in his new book

    Published January 17, 2016 by

    Gabe Klein talks about building better cities and his new book during an appearance on Jan. 13, 2016 at The Idea Center at Miami Dade College. Photo by George Abbott. Nothing like a tortuous, stop-and-go, 50-minute drive to travel just 9.9 miles from Miami Beach to downtown Miami to be reminded of the importance, and impact, of streets and modes of transportation in our daily lives. Managing the often competing needs of city transportation while bringing private entrepreneurship to the public realm was, for years, the work of former Washington, D.C., and Chicago transportation commissioner Gabe Klein. Now a special venture partner at Fontinalis Partners, an investment firm focused on next-generation mobility, Klein appeared at The Idea Center at Miami Dade College last Wednesday to present his book, “Start-Up City: Inspiring Private and Public Entrepreneurship, Getting Projects Done, and Having Fun” (Island Press), a short and practical playbook of how to bridge public and private approaches, published with the support of Knight Foundation. The event, presented by Knight and The Miami Foundation, had a full house that included County Commissioner Dennis Moss, Miami Commissioner Frank Carollo, and former six-term Miami Mayor Maurice A. Ferré. Klein is currently on tour for his book. “This is going to be PowerPoint roller coaster ride,” said Klein as he opened his presentation. “It’s about what got us to this point … what’s happening now out there, what technology and change is coming and how fast it’s coming and how it is going to change the way we live and why we — you, me, government officials — need to shape that change versus just let it happen to us.”
  • Article

    At Pérez Art Museum Miami, a discussion on race and identity, in images and words

    Published January 14, 2016 by

    Above: Firelei Báez work at Pérez Art Museum Miami. Photo via PAMM. Identity and racial politics in the United States and the Caribbean are central themes in the work of Brooklyn-based, Dominican-born artist Firelei Báez, whose smart, powerful exhibit “Bloodlines” is at the Pérez Art Museum Miami through March. Báez´s work, and her concerns, served as framework for a conversation featuring authors Roxane Gay and Jeff Chang, part of the Scholl Lecture Series at the museum, Saturday afternoon. Báez's show, curated by PAMM Assistant Curator María Elena Ortiz, includes drawings, watercolors, textiles and installations, smartly probing her subjects from unexpected angles. It includes works such as the installation “Can I Pass? Introducing the Brown Paper Bag to the Fan Test for the Month of June” (2011), a calendar of hair styles of the artist, alluding to both, the brown paper bag test in the South and the Dominican Republic’s fan test, which determined if a woman was black by how her hair flowed when fanned. There is a wall occupied by an installation, suggesting the shape of an island, made of old book pages (and not just from any books, at least one included a text about Social Darwinism, a theory which has long served to justify inequality) altered by drawings and paintings, connecting the American South and the Caribbean. The center of the room is occupied by a tilting wall, a faux archeological artifact, part of a colonial house owned by “an affluent 18th century person of color living in the Caribbean or the United States” – a reframing of a 1974 work by artist Gordon Matta Clark that showed a cut fragment of an actual New York colonial house.
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    Sime MIA explores intersection of tech, art and business for third year

    Published November 19, 2015 by

    Photo above: Sime MIA host Oka Ahlvarsson at New World Center in 2014. Photo courtesy Sime MIA. The idea of Sime MIA, a two-day conference in South Florida about technology, media, business and the arts, is simple and effective: Bring together some of the brightest minds in the digital world in a creative setting to facilitate the exchange of ideas, business deals and networking. Not many tech business gatherings include yoga sessions, live music, deejays and bicycle tours — but there’s a message in that too. After all, showcasing the potential of Miami as a digital business hub and attracting digital innovators and entrepreneurs to share their knowledge with the local community “was the idea from the beginning,” says Demian Bellumio, co-founder of MIA Collective, one of the organizers of Sime MIA, and chief operating officer for Senzari, a Miami-based Big Data content recommendation company. “We like to put on a show that surprises people, so this year we are bringing an amazing set of speakers but we are also doing some fun audio visual performances … and city bike tours going around Wynwood to visit our galleries and startups.” Sime MIA host Ola Ahlvarsson with Adriana Cisneros, CEO of Cisneros, a privately owned media, real estate, tourism and consumer conglomerate. Photo courtesy Sime MIA Sime MIA, now in its third year, will take place in Miami Beach and Miami on Dec 1-2. The event¸ a joint venture between MIA Collective and Sime, a Stockholm-based organization that, since 1995, has produced digital business conferences throughout Europe. Ola Ahlvarsson, chairman and founder of Sime, is a part-time South Florida resident and the 2013 Sime MIA was his company’s first undertaking in the United States. Knight Foundation is a founding partner of Sime MIA. Other collaborators include Miami’s tech-savvy businesses and organizations such as The LAB Miami, New World Symphony, eMerge Americas, YellowPepper, Rokk3r Labs, Wyncode Academy and Senzari, many of whom also receive Knight support. This year’s event kicks off at the New World Center in Miami Beach with Sime MIA | Converge, a daylong conference focusing on the latest digital, media and tech trends, and featuring speakers such as Ahlvarsson, who will also host Sime MIA; Thomas Crampton, global managing director of Ogilvy & Mather; Ulf Ekberg, founder and frontman of the pop group Ace of Base; and Pete Vesterbacka, CMO and co-founder of Rovio, the company behind the video game Angry Birds. But the day also includes interludes featuring scenes from films such as “The Matrix,” “Back to the Future” and “2001: A Space Odyssey,” which serve as scene setters for the various panels.
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    From cover to cover, 32nd Miami Book Fair celebrates diverse ideas and cultures

    Published November 12, 2015 by

    2014 National Book Awards panel at Miami Book Fair. Photo courtesy Miami Book Fair. The Miami Book Fair, which takes place throughout the downtown campus of Miami Dade College Nov. 15-22, is as much a literary and cultural event as a community celebration. There are readings and panels and bookselling booths, but also a street fair atmosphere and places such as The Swamp where the stories might be told in photographs, music or film. “Miami is such a diverse community that there’s no better way to bridge that diversity than through literature,” said Mitchell Kaplan, owner of Books & Books who, in 1984, co-founded Miami Book Fair with Dr. Eduardo J. Padrón, president of Miami Dade College. “That was one of the initial ideas behind the book fair: to help unite the community in so many ways.” The fair brings hundreds of novelists, poets, publishers, booksellers and more to Miami, including scores of Spanish-speaking authors. The event became part of the Center for Writing and Literature at Miami Dade College in 2001. Knight Foundation, which seeks “to weave the arts into the fabric of communities to engage and inspire the people living in them,” is a premier supporter of Miami Book Fair. The foundation is sponsoring several programs, such as a panel featuring National Book Award finalists and winners; the participation of independent publishers; a book lounge focusing on artist-made books, and The Swamp, a pop-up space celebrating local culture in its many forms.
  • Article

    The Swamp at Miami Book Fair, a gathering place for ideas—and the wonderfully wacky

    Published November 12, 2015 by

    Miami Book Fair International photos by Michael D. Bolden on Flickr. Even in the sprawling, something-for-everybody diversity of the Miami Book Fair, a pop-up lounge and outdoor space that offers not only books but also bocce, poetry accompanied by Miami-made “booty” tracks, a taste of a local brewery, and music performances, gets an “only-in-Miami” shrug and a nod. Welcome to The Swamp. Set up on a parking lot at Miami Dade College’s downtown campus, The Swamp will host events daily from Nov. 15-22 during the fair. Sponsored by Knight Foundation, it is a spacious hangar-like performance space, with a stage, rows of seats, art-covered walls and an outdoor component, simply called The Porch (sponsored by The Miami Foundation and IKEA). The whole complex is as much a place to simply stop and catch your breath as it is an opportunity to sample ideas in a casual setting and a meeting point for both artists and community. In its inaugural run last year it quickly became a crowd favorite. “The Swamp was something I wanted to do because I felt there were many people in South Florida that were creating art, storytelling, for which maybe we didn't have a place, and I wanted to explore who they were and what they were doing,” says Lissette Mendez, director of programs for Miami Book Fair. And while “the entire book fair is about community building,” Mendez says she wanted “a place within the fair in which we have community building in a concentrated way. The Swamp is a meeting place but not just for people who come to the fair but also for all the different types of artists working in Miami or about Miami.”
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    Education series provides angel investors with clearer picture of Miami startup market

    Published November 4, 2015 by

    Photo credit: Michael D. Bolden on Flickr. “I know it’s a cliché, but we are back by popular demand,” said Nico Berardi, managing director of Accelerated Growth Partners, opening the second Angel Education Series at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management campus in Coral Gables, Wednesday. “We had six sessions at the beginning of the year … and the feedback we got from everyone that attended was, honestly, better than expected,” Berardi said. “We thought of it as an experiment. There is something really interesting happening in Miami and we want more people to be part of it. So what happens if we start shooting information and know-how to the broader community? And we got such a cool response that we said, ‘Let's do this again.’” Organized by Accelerated Growth Partners, a Miami-based angel investors network funded by Knight Foundation, the six-workshop series is also supported by Greenberg Traurig, Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Managementand the Miami Finance Forum. While startup activity in South Florida continues to grow, access to capital remains a challenge for entrepreneurs seeking to scale their ventures. The reason, observers agree, is not lack of money or savvy investors in South Florida, but the fact that many of these investors are new to angel investing and tech startups. The series aims to provide potential investors with some basic resources and a clear picture of the local market. “We did [this series] because there is a need and there’s not a lot of people educating the community on angel investing, which is a critical stage after friends and family,” said Carolina Piña, former director of Kellogg School´s Miami Campus and now a special adviser to the program. “When you look at the local ecosystem, one of the things people continue to talk about is lack of funding and talent. By addressing angel investing we are addressing the funding component and, hopefully, making it stronger.”
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    Miami City Ballet, on point(e), turns 30

    Published October 23, 2015 by

    Miami City Ballet dancers in Viscera. Photo © Kyle Froman. Miami City Ballet opens its 30th anniversary season with a program that celebrates its history while embracing its future. It includes company premieres (such as Peter Martin’s “Barber Violin Concerto” and Justin Peck’s “Year of the Rabbit”) as well as revivals, such as British choreographer Liam Scarlett’s “Viscera,” a Miami City Ballet commission, and George Balanchine’s “Swan Lake.” But perhaps the centerpiece of the season is the reimagining of Balanchine’s rendering of Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” featuring the work of two Miami natives: artist Michele Oka Doner and playwright Tarell Alvin McCraney. Notably, it is the first time The George Balanchine Trust agreed to have one of his pieces reimagined. Miami City Ballet dancer Lexie Overholt. Photo ©George Kamper. “I find it exciting looking for a choreographer or a designer or the right musician and putting them together to create something for the ballet,” said Lourdes Lopez, artistic director of the Miami City Ballet. “I'm not a choreographer, so that´s my way of being creative.”