Drawing inspiration from Emily Dickinson’s evocation of the power of flowers, 19 Miami artists are donating their original work for silent auction at Spring Into Art, the annual fundraiser for the University of Miami’s Lowe Art Museum, sponsored by Friends of Art.

Along with the featured artists’ work (Carlos Alves, Jose Bedia, Carlos Betancourt, Margarita Cano, Pablo Cano, Joyce Chadroff, Xavier Cortada, Mark Diamond, Edouard Duval-Carrié, Sheila Elias, Carlos Estevez, Karl Hollinger, Jose Iraola, Aramis O’Reilly, Lisa Remeny, Jacqueline Roch, Lydia Rubio, Donna Underwood, and Tom Weinkle), there will be close to 150 other donated artworks, gift certificates, and treasures to bid on, including works of the UM Art and Art History faculty members, an original necklace from Mariapia Buccellati, studio glass art of Bill Carlson, and a ceramics piece by acclaimed artist Michael Lucero.

A raffle for a four-day, three-night trip to Mexico City to see the capital city’s exquisite art museums will create added excitement for this year’s auction, with proceeds going directly to the Lowe.

The event will be held on Wednesday, March 10 at 7 p.m. at the Lowe Art Museum. The cost is $150 per person. For tickets, call Friends of Art at 305-284-6756 or e-mail FriendsofArt@miami.edu

Attend the monthly LoweDown Happy Hour on Thursday, March 4 from 7 to 9 p.m. featuring a tour of the exhibition, Cuba Avant-Garde: Contemporary Cuban Art from the Farber Collection. Enjoy some savory and sweet Cuban pastries and beverages by PAMA and Barefoot Wine and Bubbly. Admission is $10 and is free for Lowe members.

Support the Lowe Art Museum by buying raffle tickets for a four-day, three-night trip for two to Mexico City. Airfare and hotel are included. Fly AeroMexico and stay at the Marquis Reforma Hotel (member of The Leading Hotels of the World) on the Paseo de la Reforma, right in the heart of Mexico City’s cultural center. Many museums are within walking distance of the hotel.

Tickets are $10 each or six for $50. The drawing is on Wednesday, March 10. You do not need to be present to win. To buy tickets, see Tammy Cohen at the Lowe Art Museum every day from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., or contact her at 305-284-6756.

Attend Family Day at the Lowe Art Museum on Sunday, February 14, from 12 to 3 p.m. Latin American Folktales includes a reading and book-signing by children’s author Lucia Gonzalez (author of The Bossy Gallito, Señor Cat’s Romance, and other favorites). Families can create their own print for their favorite valentine during a crafts portion of the event. Attendance is free for Lowe members. Non-members are $10; UM faculty and Staff are $5.

Cuba Avant-Garde: Contemporary Cuban Art from the Farber Collection features paintings, sculpture, drawings, photographs, and mixed-media works that highlight the cultural mixing, aesthetic diversity, and critical voice that reflect international contemporary art, but emerge from the distinct circumstances of Cuba itself. Forty Cuban-born artists who live in and outside of Cuba use subtle devices of irony, metaphor, and ambiguity to challenge accepted artistic and political discourse, while employing a rich variety of experimental, conceptual, and postmodern strategies. A fully illustrated bilingual publication accompanies the exhibition. The exhibition preview and reception will be held on Friday, February 5 from 7 to 10 p.m. at the Lowe Art Museum. Cocktails provided by Bacardi. Lowe members free; non-members $10.

In conjunction with the exhibition, Tree of Paradise: Jewish Mosaics from the Roman Empire, on display at the Lowe Art Museum, the Lowe and the Sue and Leonard Miller Center for Contemporary Judaic Studies present: “The Ancient Synagogue as a Public Space in Judaism” featuring William Green, UM senior vice provost and dean of undergraduate education. The lecture, sponsored by HSBC Private Bank, is free for Lowe members; non-members are $10. The event begins Thursday, January 21 at 7 p.m. at the Lowe Art Museum; a reception will immediately follow.
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Cuba Avant-Garde: Contemporary Cuban Art from the Farber Collection provides a rare opportunity to glimpse the extraordinary diversity and quality of Cuban art created from the mid-1980s to the present. On view at the University of Miami’s Lowe Art Museum from February 6 through April 4, the works of art will illustrate how contemporary Cuban art transcends the limits of geography and nationality while engaging and enriching a much larger global artistic discourse. A preview will be held February 5.

The exhibition’s more than 50 works reflect the cultural mixing and diverse styles that characterize international contemporary art yet emerge from the distinct circumstances of Cuba itself. Cuba Avant-Garde presents large-scale paintings, sculptures, drawings, prints, photographs, and mixed-media works—many not seen previously outside Cuba—by 40 Cuban-born artists.

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The Sue and Leonard Miller Center for Contemporary Judaic Studies and the Lowe Art Museum present a lecture by William Scott Green, senior vice provost and dean of undergraduate education, professor in the Department of Religious Studies, and senior fellow at The Miller Center. Green will present “The Ancient Synagogue as Public Space in Judaism” on Thursday, January 21 at 7:30 p.m. at the Lowe Art Museum. The presentation will explore the role of public space in ancient Judaism. What is the difference between Temple and Synagogue? How did Jews of the ancient Mediterranean create and construct public buildings? How does that legacy shape Judaic spatial imagination?

The lecture is free for Lowe members and Miller Center supporters; $10 for non-members. The lecture is presented in conjunction with the exhibition “Tree of Paradise: Jewish Mosaics from the Roman Empire,” on view at the Lowe through January 24.

The 59th Annual Beaux Arts Festival of Art, Miami’s oldest juried fine arts show, exhibits the work of more than 240 artists in 11 mediums. Recognized as one of the top outdoor exhibits of museum-quality fine art, the festival attracts more than 100,000 annually to the grounds of the Lowe Art Museum on the University of Miami’s Coral Gables campus. The festival’s popular Art Park offers craft projects for children ages 5 to 12; the Student Artist Showcase displays works created by Miami-Dade middle and high school student artists. All proceeds benefit the Lowe Art Museum. The festival is sponsored in part by Mercedes-Benz of Coral Gables, Mercedes-Benz of Cutler Bay, and Geico. It takes place Saturday and Sunday, January 9 and 10, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on the grounds of the Lowe Art Museum. Admission is free. Cost for the Art Park is $10 per hour, per child.

The Lowe Art Museum at the University of Miami will host a reception and special lecture given by the preeminent sculptor Michael Lucero. Best known for his ceramic work, Lucero will discuss his art in the Lowe’s Beaux Arts Gallery  on Tuesday, February 9 at 7 p.m.

Lucero has challenged the traditional perceived limitation of clay by giving it the primacy of painting or marble sculpture. In his early works, he combined elements of human, animal, and other organisms, as well as architecture and culture. Those compositions have played a vital part in Lucero’s subsequent work.

An ardent admirer of global culture, Lucero incorporates pre-Columbian, Native American, European, and African stylistic elements into his work, creating complex hybrid forms that comment on the changing nature of society and the environment in which we live.

For Lucero, the concept of fine art equally defines archeology, including ceramic-based vessels and figural forms. Over the last two decades, the artist has created a rooted relationship between himself and his medium, beginning with the simplest techniques of building, pinching, and rolling out forms.

Lucero has become known for employing painted underglazes on shapes that don’t necessarily relate to the image. The result is provocative and an enduring body of sculpture that illustrates the fluid, dynamic character of worldly culture.

Lucero’s work has been written about extensively and reproduced in numerous publications, including Art & Antiques, Carnegie Magazine, The Washington Post, The New York Times, Art in America, The New Yorker, and Sculpture Magazine. His selected public collections can be seen across the country, from New York City to San Francisco. He received his M.F.A. from the University of Washington, Seattle in 1978.

The Lowe Art Museum Gift Store is offering University of Miami employees with a valid ’Cane card a 20 percent discount on all purchases over $5 from now until December 23. Find unique gifts for art lovers of all ages: coffee table books, one-of-a-kind jewelry designs, Ayala Bar jewelry, exquisite stationery, creative educational toys, and more. Add to your holiday ornament collection with exclusive hand-painted limited edition Patricia Breen Design’s 2009 Christmas ornaments. Certain restrictions apply. Gift Store hours, which are the same for the museum, are Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Sunday from 12 to 4 p.m. Closed Monday. For more information, call Lorrie Stassun at 305-284-6988 or visit the Lowe’s Web site at www.lowemuseum.org.