By Shelley Gollust and Nancy Steinbach 2008-1-10
HOST:
Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC in VOA Special English.
(MUSIC)
I'm Doug Johnson. On our show this week:
We listen to some music from Alice Smith ...
Answer a question about two American actors ...
And tell about an art museum in Miami, Florida.
Margulies Collection
HOST:
The Margulies Collection in Miami, Florida, is a privately owned museum with an exciting collection of modern art. Martin Margulies has spent his life collecting art with the money he earned from investing in property.
Twenty-seven years ago, he started an organization to help provide arts education free of charge to the public. As part of this goal, he placed his collection of sculpture, photographs, and paintings in a local museum. Mister Margulies says that art has been good to him and that it is important to share it with others. Shirley Griffith has more.
SHIRLEY GRIFFITH:
The Margulies Collection at the Warehouse opened eight years ago in the Wynwood area of Miami. This neighborhood is filled with industrial buildings and stores. You might be surprised to discover that the Warehouse building houses an art collection.
Since it opened, the Margulies Collection has expanded to over four thousand square meters of exhibition space. The museum is open free of charge four days a week from September until April. The current show includes sixty-five sculptural objects from Mister Margulies' collection. The show includes the work of both famous sculptors and up-and coming artists.
In the main room of the museum, there are so many interesting sculptures that it is hard to know where to look first. One work by the Brazilian artist Ernesto Neto is made of stretchy cloth that hangs from the ceiling and covers a large area of space. Several heavy tear-shaped forms drop from this ceiling cloth at different levels. If you look -- and smell -- carefully, you will realize that the wrapped forms contain several kilograms of spices such as cinnamon and turmeric. Mister Neto often creates works like this one that visitors can step into and explore using different senses.
A sculpture by the American artist Barry McGee is made from a large truck lying on its side. Visitors can look in the truck to see television screens showing different colorful images.
You might also see works by several video artists. For example, you can watch a video by the Indian artist Amar Kanwar that explores oppression and violence in India and Pakistan.
The Margulies Collection provides its visitors and the community of Miami a free lesson in the endlessly rich subject of modern art.
