Xavier Cortada will discuss his FLOR500 art | nature | history project (www.flor500.com) at the FIU Honors College Colloquium on Wednesday, September 19th, 2012.
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9/19/2012
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When:
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September 19th, 2012 12:30 PM
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Where:
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Florida International University 11200 SW 8th Street ECS 135 Miami, Florida 33199 United States
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Contact:
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Rev. Paul Massingill, FIU-MDC Wesley Pastor/Executive Director
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Xavier Cortada will discuss his FLOR500 art | nature | history project at the FIU Honors College Art Talk
FLOR500 is a participatory art, nature, and history project that marks the importance of the moment when the history of Florida changed forever and gives a glimpse of what its landscape was like 500 years ago. Developed by Xavier Cortada, director and artist-in-residence of FIU’s College of Architecture + The Arts’ Office of Engaged Creativity, the project will commemorate Florida’s quincentenary in 2013.
Five hundred Floridians will be invited to depict 500 native wildflowers selected by a team of scientists – the same ones that grew in our state when Juan Ponce de Leon landed in 1513 and named it "La Florida”–from "flor," the Spanish word for flower. The artwork, along with information about each flower, will be posted online. Students from 500 schools across the state’s 67 counties (in 8 regions) will then plant 500 wildflower gardens dedicated to one of 500 important Floridians selected by a team of historians. These new native habitats will help support Florida’s biodiversity.
The work is presented by the FIU | College of Architecture + The Arts | Office of Engaged Creativity where Cortada serves as Artist-in-Residence.
Xavier Cortada, "FLOR500: Florida Library Association planting drawing,” 80 drawings (charcoal on board) and Florida native wildflower seeds inside plastic bags on wall, 2012.
The artist's charcoal wildflower drawing above was transformed into 80 living wildflower gardens across Florida: The art work was cut into 80 pieces to be distributed along with seeds (from the Florida Wildflower Foundation) to 80 attendees of the Florida Library Association Conference on April 18th, 2012 in Orlando, Florida. Participants will plant the wildflower seeds at home, dedicating their garden to a Floridian they admire.
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