Highlights
Join the DVCAI Community Vibe Members to connect and learn about contemporary Caribbean visual art and artists from the DVCAI community. You will have the opportunity to shape a more equitable and impactful arts ecosystem.
Concerts
Image: Jojo Mayer's Nerve concert.
While anchored in our focus on the visual arts, DVCAI convenes performances by multidisciplinary artists and musicians to celebrate the rich culture of the diaspora and Caribbean communities in Miami.
International Cultural Exchange Programs
Image: Belize
This is DVCAI’s second International Cultural Exchange Project to Belize. Our first visit, the issues shared by artists and poets encompassed the lack of opportunities to share and exhibit work. Also, many issues around Caribbean Imagination, Language, Land, the sea, memories to name a few.
Exhibitions
Image: Inter|Sectionality: Diaspora Art from the Creole city
Inter | Sectionality: Diaspora Art from the Creole City, is a bold, multi-regional, multi-disciplinary, curatorial collaboration and exploration of the emergence of the “Creole City” as a local, regional and global phenomenon. Now canvasing the United States, it offers partnering institutions an opportunity to build upon its curatorial work by enhancing it with artists from their locale. It presents an impressive selection of multidimensional work in a variety of media by over 25 American diaspora and immigrant artists.
Caribbean Teas
Image: Miami Dade College
The ritual of tea drinking is one that offers safe space to discuss intersectional issues that artists face year-round in a Miami. In The Caribbean Tea Series, cultural leaders and scholars assist us to navigate and recalibrate our approach to some of the most pressing issues of our time, particularly from the lens of cultural equity, leadership, creative practice, sustainability, education These teas are designed to cultivate a more connected arts- invested Miami community.
Online Programing
Image: Back Chat
Back Chat is an online series of socially relevant artist talks that recounts the experiences of artists who have benefited from the programs and support of DVCAI since 1996. The program brings these global artists' voices and experiences to the forefront while offering support to other artists and community members seeking connection to the arts. Conversations are facilitated by Toby Thompkins, Sanji Sethi, Sage Crump and Rosie Gordon-Wallace. Presenters and artists include; Joseph Cloud (Navajo Nation) Nitza Luna (Puerto Rico), Jose Parla (Cuba, New York )
Curators Cohort
Image: Hambidge Residence
The DVCAI Curatorial Cohort supports BIPOC Curators who often work in isolation. Piloted in November 2022 with support from the Emily Hall Tremaine Foundation, Curators on the Cusp Innovation Grant, and in partnership with Hambidge Center in Rabun Gap, Georgia, DVCAI invited its first cohort of Miami and international curators on a one week retreat.
Miami Carnival
Image: Miami Carnival
At Miami Carnival, DVCAI is a cultural sponsor, supporting through planning, participation in mask-making workshops, performances and presenting information on DVCAI to the Caribbean artists who attend. The DVCA-Eye photo Collective, https://www.dvcaiphoto.org/, documents this annual cultural celebration.
Photo by Roy Wallace
Farms To Studios
Image: Morningside (Miami) - Artist Relief
The Farms to Studios Program is DVCAI’s response to the urgent and immediate need to help artists during the COVID- 19 crisis. DVCAI organized a feeding program specifically for artists, and each month, donated fifty boxes of fresh fruits and vegetables.
Public Art
Image: History Miami Museum Mural
Mural painted by Asser St Val, Izia Lindsay, Rosa Naday-Garmendia
Grants
Image: Catalyst Awardees
DVCAI recently announced its 2023 Catalyst Awardees, who, funded by DVCAI’s Give Miami Day, received $5,000 towards sustaining their artistic practice. Awardees conducted Instagram takeovers during the season.
Artist in Residence
Image: Autumn T. Thomas - (Suriname Residency particiant)
The DVCAI Artist in Residence Program selects diverse artists, from all disciplines, and offers them different styles and models of support. We provide a home away from home, nourishment and supplies, community engagement and an opportunity to allow the Miami landscape to influence the creative process. Curators and writers are invited to engage with the artists while in Miami.
Community Engagement
Image: Julian Marley Concert
A convergence of contemporary musical art forms, the series allows us to come together in celebration. The programs expose the creative talent of artists from the Global South hailing from Argentina, Venezuela, Jamaica and Cuba to Miami-Dade audiences, who can participate in-person, online, and in conversation during artist talks.
Photo by Izia Lindsay
Archive
Image: DVCAI Catalogs
Since being awarded the Institute for Museum and Library Services (IMLS) Museum Grant for African American History in 2018, DVCAI is fulfilling the mission of IMLS by transforming the lives of individuals and communities. DVCAI’s online digital collection, the first of its kind, documents diasporic artists predominantly from the Caribbean in Miami-Dade and South Florida and their cultural exchanges to fifteen countries in the past 26 years.
Scholarship
Image: Guadeloupe - ICEP
DVCAI activities focus on artist support and education. We believe that contemporary art education is a valuable resource that should be made accessible to all ages, backgrounds and abilities. To aid with interpretation, the work is accompanied by critical essays written by DVCAI resident scholar Dr. Alix Pierre and guest Caribbean scholars.