(Herald photo by Charles Trainor Jr.)
Almost forgot this, from Sunday’s print edition.
By ANDRES VIGLUCCI
With its sumptuous murals, light-filled gallery, spacious dance studios and state-of-the-art theater, the gleaming new cultural center in Miami's hardscrabble Little Haiti might be the envy of many a wealthy community.
It should be. It cost Miami taxpayers around $20 million.
Yet, a year after its understated opening, the city-run Little Haiti Cultural Center is largely unheralded, severely underfunded and sorely underused.
Most days, there are no visitors in the gallery, which holds a first-rate show of contemporary art by Caribbean artists living across the globe. The kiln in the ceramics studio is rarely, if ever, fired up. The 270-seat theater is nearly always dark.
Only since October has there been any sign of regular activity at the center, when several dance companies, working under a barter system, began offering a smattering of classes in exchange for the use of studios for rehearsals -- though the start of most lessons has been put off because of the post-quake crisis in Haiti.
``They built it, but it really didn't have a function,'' laments renowned Haitian-born artist Edouard Duval-Carrie, whose private studio adjoins the center and who has volunteered to help city administrators devise programs for it, including the Global Caribbean art show he curated.
``It's a wonderful space. It could become a place of international stature, but the city doesn't know what to do with it.''
Read all about it here.
Here are some more views (architecture by Zyscovich Architects, photos courtesy Miami Parks Dept.)
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