NinaJohnson

NSU Art Museum Fort Lauderdale kicked off its new exhibition season with New Art South Florida, the 2020 South Florida Cultural Consortium (SFCC) exhibition. Featuring the work of 13 preeminent South Florida artists who are recipients of the 2020 South Florida Cultural Consortium awards, the exhibition is curated by NSU Art Museum’s Director and Chief Curator, Bonnie Clearwater, a longtime champion of South Florida artists. New Art South Florida is on view at NSU Art Museum from November 22, 2020-February 21, 2021 and will be accompanied by a publication featuring essays by Clearwater and others.

The exhibition’s artists work in a wide range of mediums and include: Broward County: Nathalie Alfonso, Shane Eason and Andriana Mereuta; Miami-Dade County: Itzel Basualdo, Franky Cruz, GeoVanna Gonzalez, Nicolas Lobo, Monica Lopez De Victoria, Kareem Tabsch and Antonia Wright; Palm Beach County: Ates Isildak; and Monroe County: Michel Delgado and Mark Hedden.

“In times of uncertainty such as these, it is especially important to support and showcase local artists who strengthen our communities and offer us new ways to see the world,” said Bonnie Clearwater. “NSU Art Museum is proud to present the South Florida Cultural Consortium exhibition and we thank the arts councils that have long recognized the importance of helping to sustain our region’s local artists.”

The Consortium, an alliance of the arts councils of Broward, Martin, Miami-Dade, Monroe and Palm Beach Counties has conferred the artists with awards at either the $15,000 or $7,500 level. These awards are among the largest such honors accorded by local arts agencies to visual and media artists in the United States. Celebrating 32 years in 2020 (established in 1988), the SFCC has awarded over $4 million in grants to more than 300 artists. In addition to receiving the grant, the artists take part in an exhibition hosted and organized by a visual arts institution in one of the five counties.

The recipients were selected through a two-tier panel process which included the participation of regional and national arts experts. The 2019-2020 regional panel, whose adjudications are based on the evaluation of the artists’ work as evidenced by the work samples submitted, included: Aldeide Delgado, Founder & Director, Women Photographer’s International Archive (Miami-Dade), Stephanie Seidel, Associate Curator, Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami (Miami-Dade), Bonnie Clearwater, Director and Chief Curator, NSU Art Museum Fort Lauderdale (Broward), Edison Peñafiel, Artist, SFCC 2019 Recipient (Broward), and Sybille Welter, Art in Public Places, City of West Palm Beach (Palm Beach). The submissions selected by the regional panel for further consideration were forwarded for final adjudication and selection to the national panel, which was comprised of: Allison Glenn, Associate Curator, Contemporary Art, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art (Bentonville, AR), Jeanette Bisschops, Mondriaan Foundation Curator, New Museum (New York, NY), and Vivian Crockett, The Nancy and Tim Hanley Assistant Curator of Contemporary Art Dallas Museum of Art (Dallas, TX).

This program was made possible with the generous support of the North Miami Mayor and Council and the City of North Miami, the State of Florida, Department of State, Division of Cultural Affairs and the Florida Council on Arts and Culture, and the Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs and the Cultural Affairs Council, the Miami-Dade County Mayor and Board of County Commissioners.

The South Florida Cultural Consortium is funded in part with support from The National Endowment of the Arts, The Florida Department of State, Division of Cultural Affairs and the Florida Arts Council, the Boards of County Commissioners of Broward, Miami-Dade, Martin and Monroe Counties, and the Cultural Council of Palm Beach County.

The South Florida Cultural Consortium is a regional initiative in support of the arts governed by an Interlocal Agreement among the counties of Broward, Martin, Miami-Dade, Monroe and Palm Beach. The Consortium’s members are the local arts agencies of these five counties, including the Broward County Cultural Division, the Arts Council of Martin County, the Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs, the Florida Keys Council of the Arts, and the Cultural Council of Palm Beach County. The Consortium works to foster cooperation across the South Florida region to help develop and promote the work of cultural organizations and artists and the audiences that they serve. Its programs and services range from the Visual and Media Artists Program to regional arts education and cultural tourism cooperative ventures. The South Florida Cultural Consortium is one of the most successful regional arts alliances in the nation, demonstrating that by sharing resources and best practices, the arts can thrive across a burgeoning five-county area.

Click here to read full release at NSU Art Museum’s page