Miami-Dade County has multiple museums and events to stay busy during this fall and upcoming holiday season.
The Miami Design Preservation League is holding Art Deco weekend Jan. 14-16 on Ocean Drive. Because of the pandemic, last year was in the first year it couldn’t physically be held in 43 years. It is an event to showcase the Art Deco buildings of South Beach.
The league will also be hosting a four-day lecture about late Miami architect Morris Lapidus, “Beauty and the Beach,” today (11/18). It is free, but seating is limited. It will include a panel of three architects, Allan Shulman, Jean-Francois Lejeune and Ira Giller, to highlight Lapidus’ “MiMo,” or Modern Miami style.
Gold Coast Railway begins the winter with Walt Disney’s Railroad Story on Nov. 20. Joseph Bopp, Disney railroad engineer, rail tour guide and author of “A View From the Cab & Transport Legend,” will narrate the train ride while it reviews slides on Walt Disney’s work on the Carolwood Pacific Railroad at his home and shows exclusive train models. The event will be $25 per person.
Besides a Disney experience, there is a “Ghost Hunting on the Rails: Paranormal Bootcamp” train taking off Dec. 4 for $50 a person. There will be a team to teach the riders about up-to-date ghost hunting equipment, then experience a bootcamp for the rider to play investigator, a class on ghost hunting and investigate at the Gold Coast Railroad Museum.
The Black Archives Historic Lyric Theater will be hosting comedian Flame Monroe at the GlassHouse Comedy Experience on Dec. 17. Monroe was featured on Netflix comedy series “Tiffany Haddish Presents: They Ready,” Kevin Hart’s Amazon Prime comedy special, “Hart of the City.”
GlassHouse will also include local comedian Chello Davis. The Black Archives Historic Lyric Theater will be a free presentation of the monthly talent show Lyric Live during Soul Basel Dec. 1-5 featuring 11 local artists on their local theater plaza.
The Wolfsonian-Florida International University museum is hosting an exhibit called “Shameless” displaying the artwork, on the Wolfsonian’s ground floor, of Bas van Beek for the first time in America from Nov. 19 through April 24. “Shameless’ eclectic and colorful range of material by Dutch designer Bas van Beek, from tapestries to teakettles, prompts us to contemplate how familiar and historic design artifacts can transform into entirely new objects with new functions,” said the curator, Silvia Barisione.
“Aerial Vision” is another upcoming event also from Nov. 19 through April 24 at the Wolfsonian-FIU. “It examines the novel perspectives and range of emotional reactions to the outpouring of inventions in the early 20th century,” said curator Lea Nickless. “Although much has changed in the 100 years since, the objects on display speak to enduring feelings of optimism and trepidation on the rise of new technologies in any generation,” Mr. Nickless said. Some objects include large-scale paintings, drawings, magazine covers and prints.
Celebrate the Festival of Lights by crafting holiday cocktails at the Jewish Museum of Florida- FIU’s event “Get Lit: Menorahs and Martinis.” Centered on three cocktails, all Kosher and one non-alcoholic, Dammara Kovnats Hall, Jewish Studies teacher in Manhattan, worked as a mixologist while in school Manhattan. She later got a masters in Jewish education while in Israel. It will take place Dec. 14 online at 7 p.m.
On Dec. 5, from 3-4 p.m. the annual holiday Klezmer Music Concert, featuring “Heavy Shtetl,” a Jewish Reconstructionist Congregational band. Tickets will be $18 for Jewish Museum of Florida-FIU and $25 for non-members. The event is sponsored by the Norman and Sylvia Levine family.
Vizcaya Museum and Gardens is hosting its annual “dinner and a movie” event Jan. 15. The meal has a theme to match the movie shown.
“We’re inviting families with small children to the event. It’s a great time for them to come and explore the Vizcaya Village,” said Alejandra Serna, director of marketing and communications for Vizcaya.
Vizcaya Late: Holiday Evening is an event being held Dec. 1 from 6-9 p.m. The estate will be lighted and have historical decor for the holiday season as if the residence was in the 1920s.
