PAMM Receives $1MM Gift from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation For Caribbean Cultural Institute

Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM) has received a $1 million grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation in support of the museum's new Caribbean Cultural Institute, a curatorial and research platform dedicated to the promotion of scholarship and artistic production across the Caribbean and its diaspora, through exhibitions, publications, programming, and collections development.

The Institute cements PAMM's position as a cultural hub for progressive discussions about the Caribbean through high-level research that encourages a forward-thinking understanding of cultural practices of the region. Streamlining old and new initiatives under one umbrella, the Institute has as its foundation the research, exhibitions, publications, and programming that PAMM has been developing for over a decade. Through these avenues, PAMM explores cultural production from the greater Caribbean and its diaspora, including the Dutch, English, French, and Spanish-speaking Caribbean.

"Miami exists as a northern border of the Caribbean and contains elements of the Caribbean in its peoples and culture that make it a nexus point for the study of the region. It is integral to our mission to further cultural dialogue within that space, and to amplify it outwards to the international community. We thank The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation for their generous support of this goal," said PAMM Director Franklin Sirmans.

PAMM will advance this initiative by expanding research and scholarship, and making this work available to a broader public through digital and print publications and exhibitions, as well as strengthening the museum's permanent collection holdings from Caribbean artists.

This initiative builds on PAMM's dedication to presenting artwork from underrepresented communities. This commitment is apparent in The Other Side of Now: Foresight in Contemporary Caribbean Art, a thematic group show at PAMM that asks about the future of the Caribbean region, featuring 14 artists from the region and its diaspora: Deborah Anzinger, Charles Campbell, Andrea Chung, Hulda Guzman, Deborah Jack, Louisa Marajo, Manuel Mathieu, Alicia Milne, Lavar Munroe, Angel Otero, Sheena Rose, Jamilah Sabur, Nyugen Smith, andCristina Tufiño. The Other Side of Now opens on July 18, and is curated by María Elena Ortiz and Dr. Marsha Pearce.

Founded in 1969, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation is the nation's largest private funder of the arts, and the humanities in higher education.

Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM) promotes artistic expression and the exchange of ideas, advancing public knowledge and appreciation of art, architecture, and design, and reflecting the diverse community of its pivotal geographic location at the crossroads of the Americas. The 35-year-old South Florida institution, formerly known as Miami Art Museum (MAM) and led by Director Franklin Sirmans, opened a new building, designed by world-renowned architects Herzog & de Meuron, on December 4, 2013 in Downtown Miami's Museum Park. The facility is a state-of-the-art model for sustainable museum design and progressive programming and features 200,000 square feet of indoor and outdoor program space with flexible galleries; shaded outdoor verandas; a waterfront restaurant and bar; a museum shop; and an education center with a library, media lab, and classroom spaces.

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