Miami Courant

Miami Dade College issued the following announcement on Aug. 10.

New partnership supports the local creative ecosystem and New World School of the Arts alumni artists

Commissioner and Mitchell Wolfson Sr Foundation are pleased to announce a new partnership to accelerate the careers of local artists who attended New World School of the Arts as well as to cultivate new art collectors who support NWSA alumni artists’ contributions to Miami and society. The partnership, underwritten by a two-year, $100,000 grant from Mitchell Wolfson Sr Foundation, will commission two NWSA alumni visual artists and provide them with curatorial support to share their work with Commissioner’s growing member community.

Launching this initiative is Miami-based artist-activist Chire Regans with A Reflection of the Times, a memorial exhibition of portraiture open to the public from May 21 to November 1, 2021, at Bakehouse Art Complex.

“New World School of the Arts is so deeply thankful that Commissioner and the Mitchell Wolfson Sr Foundation are helping to support NWSA alumni artists here in our community,” said Dr. Jeffrey Hodgson, NWSA Provost and CEO. “This sense of locality makes alumna Chire Regans’ work resonate deeply, reflecting the humanity and justice that needs to be expressed, seen and felt.”

“Our mission is to create a new cohort of first-time and beginner collectors in our community who support Miami-based artists. Matching our membership and programming to New World School of the Arts, the city’s foremost arts education institution, is a step toward a more collaborative and brighter future for artists and our city,” said Dejha Carrington, Commissioner Co-Founder and Executive Director. “The incredible talent, diverse perspectives and intensive training that young artists from NWSA share is among the very best in the country, and we are thrilled to help forge innovative pathways of support for them.”

Regans’ A Reflection of the Times underscores the ways in which activist art exists as a site of resistance and embodies a social justice framework. As we approach the one-year anniversary of George Floyd’s death on May 25, the exhibit honors his legacy and the countless number of people who are killed in the U.S. by gun-related and state violence. A Reflection of the Times will commemorate the lives of one hundred victims, and is conceived as a space for collective remembering and healing for families and the community, reminding us of the critical role of community-led activism and the urgency of magnifying its message.

“A Reflection of the Times is dedicated to everyone who encouraged me to use my voice,” said artist Chire Regans. “I hope this work leads you to yours.”

In addition to commissioning NWSA alumni to create new work and support their artistic practice, the program will introduce more stories that highlight alumni artists through media partners, provide paid internships for NWSA students, and create new event programming to connect Commissioner members and the public to NWSA’s faculty, students and resources.

Commissioner’s collaboration with NWSA is kicking off during the program’s third season and will continue throughout Season Four in 2022. Since its founding in 2018 with the support of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, Commissioner members have commissioned more than a dozen local visual artists, four of whom are alumni of NWSA, including Adler Guerrier, Kelly Breez, Alan Gutierrez and Morel Doucet.

Created in 1984 as a center of excellence for visual and performing arts by the Florida Legislature, New World School of the Arts educates and graduates hundreds of high school and college students each year, many of whom pursue professional careers as artists. Commissioner, a membership program to foster emerging local art collectors, commissions four local artists annually and creates digital storytelling and programming designed to support Miami artists and connect them directly with new patrons.

This partnership was made possible by the support of fiscal sponsors The Miami Foundation, Miami Dade College Foundation, and Chris Adamo and Randi Wolfson. Commissioner’s curatorial partner is Primary, and is supported by The New Tropic, Miami’s leading daily email for curious locals. The exhibition A Reflection of the Times and the accompanying publication was curated by Women Artists Archive Miami.

Original source can be found here.