Oolite Arts Recognizes Another Crop of Ellies Award Winners

In one of the major announcements to kick off Miami's cultural season, Oolite Arts has awarded the Ellies as part of the nonprofit's efforts to finance and honor the brewing ideas and established practices of Miami-based visual artists and those adjacent to the sector. Named after the organization's late founder, Ellie Schneiderman, this year's winners, a total of 45, feature a range of project mediums and scale magnitude, including those who have dedicated their lives to the expansion and cultural comprehension of the visual arts within Miami-Dade County and those traveling to fuel their cultural wisdom.

Along with the inaugural Service to the Arts Award, this year's Ellies awards ceremony looked different in organizational structure and venue. Oolite marketed the October 25 event at the Pérez Art Museum Miami as its first fundraiser and noted that it was the first time the awards presentation, co-chaired by board members Chloe Berkowitz and Reagan Pace, was open to the public.

Toward the end of the presentation, Berkowitz and Pace took the stage to remind attendees of the arduous work necessary to make the benefit a sold-out success and to express gratitude to former president and CEO Dennis Scholl in the form of Oolite's inaugural Service to the Arts Award, Scholl, in turn, arose to regift the award's $10,000 honorarium to Gonzalo Fuenmayor, who, Scholl said, is always willing to share his knowledge and time. Then came the presentation of turquoise keys by Berkowitz and Pace, who explained that they were given to donors as symbolic "keys to the studios" of the artists-in-residence at Oolite Arts.

Creator Awards recognize artists whose focus ranges from the disappearance and displacement of Miami's natural spaces — multidisciplinary projects proposed by Jennifer Basile, Xavier Cortada, Monica Sorelle, and Alexander Zastera — to rich, personal, multigenerational histories within Miami's immigrant communities. Experimental films and documentaries exploring Black joy, ancestral homage and history, and the migratory, undocumented experience leading to assimilation or adjustment in the United States are attributes shared in the work of awardees Joshua Jean-Baptiste, Alicia Edwards, Diana Larrea, Motyko Morales, Carmen Pelaez, and Kareem Tabsch. Repeat winners Friday and Yucef Merhi are Oolite alumni and current tenants at work on immersive installations tied to Black motherhood and the sea as a conduit of healing. Additional questions asked through these projects include: What does it mean to be a born-and-raised Florida girl amid rapid urban development? How do we honor the beauty rituals of our grandmothers? How do you reclaim indigeneity and transness through metalwork?

Four teacher grants will fund journeys to Egypt, France, Greece, and Mexico so that awardees can learn more about Japanese carpentry, Egyptian art history, Hellenistic art, and Zapotec natural dying in order to impart newfound knowledge to students across the county. The two richest prizes — the Michael Richards Award ($75,000) and the Social Justice Award ($25,000) — went to Margarita Cano and Dinizulu Gene Tinnie, respectively. Cano, who used to work at the Miami-Dade Public Library's permanent art collection, where she provided a platform for formidable figures like Purvis Young and Christo and Jeanne-Claude, was the eldest of the awardees at age 91.

Tinnie's decades-long commitment to the arts began with his involvement with the Miami Black Arts Workshop in Coconut Grove, where he worked as an artist, designer, and project coordinator from 1974 through 1983. Dedicated to social activism through his work as a professor at Miami-Dade Community College (now Miami Dade College) and via informative installations that shared his research on the Middle Passage, Tinnie reminds us of the importance of preserving Black history during an era that's threatening its erasure.

Oolite Arts' Ellies awards are exciting to witness year after year, funding undeveloped and paused visions. Investing in the local artist ecosystem is vital for contemporary art to work for all members of the community — no matter how large or small the sum.

To learn more about the 2023 Ellies winners, visit oolitearts.org/ellies.