SHARING HI STORY AND CREATING MEMORIES
Vizcaya's centennial events included diverse creative programs that brought the community together to celebrate the past, honor the present and plan for the future. Vizcaya is best known for its ingeniously designed Main House and gardens, but those features are only part of the estate. Throughout its one hundred years, Vizcaya has witnessed and made history, resulting in a rich tapestry of stories. The centennial provided the perfect opportunity for sharing such stories and for advancing our vision of Vizcaya as an inclusive and innovative cultural hub. PUBLICATIONS AND EXHIBITIONS We partnered with The University of Chicago Press to publish Big Bosses: A Working Girl's Memoir of Jazz Age America , the poignant 1930s' memoir of Althea McDowell Altemus, who worked as James Deering's private secretary at Vizcaya in the late 1910s. Edited by University of Miami historian Robin Bachin, this book project held an important place in our efforts to learn more about Vizcaya's diverse past. Big Bosses provides unprecedented insight into life at Vizcaya and the challenges that working women faced in early twentieth-century America. Vizcaya hosted several Big Bosses' events to honor Altemus and her contribution to Vizcaya and to reflect upon the relevance of her experiences to society today. Vizcaya has been presenting site-specific art installations through the Contemporary Arts Program (CAP) for ten years. Our centennial CAP exhibition, Lost Spaces and Stories of Vizcaya , held May 2016–October 2017, presented insight into forgotten and/or unexplored aspects of Vizcaya through projects by eleven South Florida artists/artist teams. Vizcaya shared these art projects with the public through well- attended programs and events during Art Basel and the entire year. Additionally, Vizcaya proudly commemorated one hundred years of contemporary art and ten years of CAP with a publication documenting creative activity, past and present, at the estate. In addition to the projects by professional artists, through CAP Lab, Vizcaya partnered with Florida International University and the University of New Mexico to create a corollary exhibition of student work exploring the “lost” history of the Vizcaya Village. A few of our most important centennial events and activities are discussed here.
4 | VIZCAYA MUSEUM AND GARDENS
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