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By Omar Sommereyns
If you go to Miami
Art Central’s current Web site, a sudden swoosh of words at the top
left corner of the screen is the first thing that hits you. “Miami
Art Central is now MAM,” it says. That is, MAC has merged with the
still evolving Miami Art Museum.
By now, this is old
news. After the story broke a few months ago and following confabs
amongst the art community (as well as a Feb. 1 panel at Locust
Projects that discussed the issue), most people in the local art
world — and those interested in its goings-on — are aware of this
new merger. Yet no one is really sure what exactly it will entail in
more practical terms. Questions are still unanswered and an informal
dialectic has taken course to ensure a positive, progressive future
for the art scene in Miami.
The SunPost
recently spoke to Richard Townsend, MAM’s deputy director for
external affairs, and, as he explained it, the basic change here is
that MAM has absorbed the more conceptually cutting-edge programming
at Miami Art Central, which will be — after the present Tacita Dean
and Peter Friedl shows go down — putting on all its exhibitions
inside MAM’s downtown location at 101 W. Flagler St., and at its
eventual new digs in Bicentennial Park (soon to be known as Museum
Park). That means: no more separate facility for MAC.
Townsend makes sure
to point out that the new coalition of what’s being called MAC@MAM
promises to be a stronger institution, combining resources to create
an art center with much more impact.
“Ella [Fontanals-Cisneros, founder of MAC] really appreciates
and understands the power we can have collectively, rather than
individually,” he says. “No one wants a monolithic art institution.
We don’t just want one focal point; we want dialogue and the
interesting back-and-forth that several institutions can provide in
a community. That said, MAM is our city museum and, with the help of
MAC’s programming, it can represent a very potent symbol to both
Miamians and [the art world-at-large].
The Miami Art Central building is located at 5960 SW 57th
Ave., in South Miami, for now.
“Ella can help catalyze what we already have and take it to
the next level,” Townsend adds. “More original shows, better
catalogs and perhaps more shows on emerging artists.”
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