It’s Carnival Time
In addition to writing this blog, I also help put together a calendar of cultural happenings in Miami and Miami Beach. I love my job because I get advance notice of all of the fun things taking place all over the city. Which means, quite simply, that I have no excuse to be lazy.
This city is bursting at the seams with culture, and none of us should be sitting at home when there’s so much to do and see 24/7 in this town. I’ll spare you my little lecture about why it’s so important to support the arts – but only if you promise, after reading this blog, to go out and do something cultural.
If anyone you know starts yammering about how other cities have “so much more culture than Miami, blah, blah, blah…” I want you to go paper their windshield with this blog!
Because they couldn’t be more wrong.
Right this very minute, workmen are busy laying the last bricks on the plaza of the new Carnival Center for the Performing Arts. And it’s an exciting time to be living in Miami. Because now we have a shining new arts center with perfect acoustics and grand stages that will draw the best and brightest artists for decades to come.
What famous performer wouldn’t want to come to Miami in the dead of winter to entertain us? We’ve had the weather on our side for years, now we’ve got a venue to outshine all others.
So who’s coming to town? Woody Allen, George Carlin, Kathy Griffin and Chita Rivera, just to name a few. The playbill of upcoming performances at the Carnival Center also includes Florida Grand Opera’s elaborate production of Aida (Oct. 28-Nov. 12); The Conga Kings (Nov. 8); Classical Theatre of Harlem’s King Lear (Nov. 15-18); Miami City Ballet in George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker (Dec. 15-17); Dianne Reeves’ Christmas Time is Here (Dec. 22); the Cleveland Orchestra’s debut as Carnival Center’s resident symphony (Jan. 19-20); dynamic jazz trumpeter Irvin Mayfield and the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra (Feb. 9); and master cellist Yo-Yo Ma and opera star Renée Fleming performing in separate concerts with New World Symphony (Feb. 24 and May 5).
But there’s more – so much more. Aside from all the great shows at Carnival Center, we’ve got numerous annual art shows, garden shows, food and wine fests, book signings, gallery nights, nature walks, ethnic festivals, concerts, historical tours and free museum days to keep us busy. There’s simply never a dull moment.
Thanks to my job as a “calendar girl” (the editorial kind, not the pin-up kind), I’ve got a wish list a mile long of shows and exhibits I want to see. I’d like to take my eight-year-old daughter and her friends to a children’s play at the PlayGround Theater for Young Audiences or or to the amazing “found art” marionette show that artist Pablo Cano stages each year at the Museum of Contemporary Art in North Miami.
I want to visit Miami Art Central, which offers a monthly roster of international films and live concerts in addition to contemporary art exhibits. When the evenings cool off a bit, I’d like to check out MOCASONIC, a new monthly art gathering at MOCA at Goldman Warehouse. MOCASONIC is held every second Saturday of the month, in conjunction with the Wynwood Arts District’s gallery night. And on beautiful fall nights, I always love to stroll the streets of Coral Gables during their monthly gallery walk – on the first Friday of the month – enjoying a variety of new art and perhaps winding up the evening at Books & Books, where there’s always an interesting crowd.
My list goes on. I’m a silver fanatic, so I definitely plan on seeing the exquisite works of silver at Wolfsonian-FIU’s “Modernism in American Silver” exhibit (Nov. 10-Mar. 25). Another upcoming exhibit combines two of my passions – home design and historic preservation. Casa Décor 06 will transform the historic Miami Woman’s Club into a showcase of beautiful design, restoring the 1926 building’s Spanish Mediterranean architecture while also installing special designer rooms full of new fabrics, furniture and home accessories. Casa Décor 06 will have a full service restaurant, champagne bar, and various public lounges where visitors can relax or enjoy tours, seminars and special events.
At the Colony Theater on Lincoln Road, there are a ton of fabulous dance performances I want to see. Vincent Mantsoe - Men-Jaro (Jan. 26-27) promises to be an interesting mix of traditional African dance and music with more modern dance forms.
I figure if I can make it to all of these things and still hit a few of my annual favorites (Art Basel Miami Beach, Miami Beach Festival of the Arts, Beaux Arts Festival, South Beach Wine & Food Fest, Carnaval on the Mile), I’ll be way ahead of the game.
They clone sheep, but I sure wish they could clone me. I don’t like to miss out on a thing this time of year! Note to self: Maybe Paris Hilton could offer a few tips….
This city is bursting at the seams with culture, and none of us should be sitting at home when there’s so much to do and see 24/7 in this town. I’ll spare you my little lecture about why it’s so important to support the arts – but only if you promise, after reading this blog, to go out and do something cultural.
If anyone you know starts yammering about how other cities have “so much more culture than Miami, blah, blah, blah…” I want you to go paper their windshield with this blog!
Because they couldn’t be more wrong.
Right this very minute, workmen are busy laying the last bricks on the plaza of the new Carnival Center for the Performing Arts. And it’s an exciting time to be living in Miami. Because now we have a shining new arts center with perfect acoustics and grand stages that will draw the best and brightest artists for decades to come.
What famous performer wouldn’t want to come to Miami in the dead of winter to entertain us? We’ve had the weather on our side for years, now we’ve got a venue to outshine all others.
So who’s coming to town? Woody Allen, George Carlin, Kathy Griffin and Chita Rivera, just to name a few. The playbill of upcoming performances at the Carnival Center also includes Florida Grand Opera’s elaborate production of Aida (Oct. 28-Nov. 12); The Conga Kings (Nov. 8); Classical Theatre of Harlem’s King Lear (Nov. 15-18); Miami City Ballet in George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker (Dec. 15-17); Dianne Reeves’ Christmas Time is Here (Dec. 22); the Cleveland Orchestra’s debut as Carnival Center’s resident symphony (Jan. 19-20); dynamic jazz trumpeter Irvin Mayfield and the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra (Feb. 9); and master cellist Yo-Yo Ma and opera star Renée Fleming performing in separate concerts with New World Symphony (Feb. 24 and May 5).
But there’s more – so much more. Aside from all the great shows at Carnival Center, we’ve got numerous annual art shows, garden shows, food and wine fests, book signings, gallery nights, nature walks, ethnic festivals, concerts, historical tours and free museum days to keep us busy. There’s simply never a dull moment.
Thanks to my job as a “calendar girl” (the editorial kind, not the pin-up kind), I’ve got a wish list a mile long of shows and exhibits I want to see. I’d like to take my eight-year-old daughter and her friends to a children’s play at the PlayGround Theater for Young Audiences or or to the amazing “found art” marionette show that artist Pablo Cano stages each year at the Museum of Contemporary Art in North Miami.
I want to visit Miami Art Central, which offers a monthly roster of international films and live concerts in addition to contemporary art exhibits. When the evenings cool off a bit, I’d like to check out MOCASONIC, a new monthly art gathering at MOCA at Goldman Warehouse. MOCASONIC is held every second Saturday of the month, in conjunction with the Wynwood Arts District’s gallery night. And on beautiful fall nights, I always love to stroll the streets of Coral Gables during their monthly gallery walk – on the first Friday of the month – enjoying a variety of new art and perhaps winding up the evening at Books & Books, where there’s always an interesting crowd.
My list goes on. I’m a silver fanatic, so I definitely plan on seeing the exquisite works of silver at Wolfsonian-FIU’s “Modernism in American Silver” exhibit (Nov. 10-Mar. 25). Another upcoming exhibit combines two of my passions – home design and historic preservation. Casa Décor 06 will transform the historic Miami Woman’s Club into a showcase of beautiful design, restoring the 1926 building’s Spanish Mediterranean architecture while also installing special designer rooms full of new fabrics, furniture and home accessories. Casa Décor 06 will have a full service restaurant, champagne bar, and various public lounges where visitors can relax or enjoy tours, seminars and special events.
At the Colony Theater on Lincoln Road, there are a ton of fabulous dance performances I want to see. Vincent Mantsoe - Men-Jaro (Jan. 26-27) promises to be an interesting mix of traditional African dance and music with more modern dance forms.
I figure if I can make it to all of these things and still hit a few of my annual favorites (Art Basel Miami Beach, Miami Beach Festival of the Arts, Beaux Arts Festival, South Beach Wine & Food Fest, Carnaval on the Mile), I’ll be way ahead of the game.
They clone sheep, but I sure wish they could clone me. I don’t like to miss out on a thing this time of year! Note to self: Maybe Paris Hilton could offer a few tips….
posted by Carolyn Keating at
7:49 AM
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