Monday, June 13, 2011

Where has all the art and culture gone?

As I enter events into the Calendar of Events, I am noticing that I am not using as many art or paintbrush icons as I
used to.

So this tells me that we have gone way down on the art meter in Coconut Grove. Something is missing and I think a lot of us know what it is, or whom it is. It's AnnaMaria Windisch-Hunt, who was a large driving force for culture in Coconut Grove for such a long time. Since her absence, the culture has been lacking.

Aside from the monthly Gallery Walk what do we have?

When AnnaMaria and the Windisch-Hunt Gallery were here, we had coconut painting parties and peace flags were made, Mad Hatter hats were created and Christmas decorations and painting classes were held and artist workshops and all sorts of things, there were en plein air weekends around the Grove, even high end fashion shows, now not so much.

Ranking Tibetan Buddhist Lama Rinpoche visited the gallery. So did the Hare Krishnas every Saturday night. Fred Hunt painted in the window daily, so did Jeffrey Passage and others. So many musicians and school students performed there. There was always something going on. There was a lot of culture in Coconut Grove. Now not so much.

Starting next week, AnnaMaria will bring us some culture, to the Grapevine anyway, if not so much the Grove, with profiles on local artists. Once a week she will profile an unknown artist in our village who deserves to be recognized for their work.

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