For five nights during Miami Art Week, Flagler Street became a completely new place, transformed by digital artists, live bands, and people… 12,000+ people – all there for our event illuMia at the Flagler Street Art Festival.
Imagine Flagler Street’s historic buildings illuminated by NFT art works, including a new collaboration by Snoop Dog and the artist Coldie. At the center of the festival was the SuperRare Monolith, a 23-foot digital canvas for breakthrough art works.
And we were thrilled when Deepak Chopra agreed to do a live meditation as he debuted a new art piece being auctioned to benefit people who suffer from brain injuries.
Deepak Chopra leads a meditation at illuMia.
But illuMia is about more than just Miami Art Week. Our city’s main street and the entire Flagler District is about to change again, with a $27 million makeover underway, an influx of new residents living nearby, and a steady stream of tech and innovation companies finding a home in Downtown Miami.
One of our areas of focus is activations - or producing events with a purpose that demonstrate the potential of public spaces and how they can transform a community. We want to do that for the Flagler District. So we’ve decided to launch a new project, Upside Downtown Miami, developed with seed funding from the Miami Downtown Development Authority, to present a series of events in the neighborhood. It’s our way of building energy and excitement, and beginning to create collective memories where it all started for Miami.
Upside Downtown Miami will be back next fall, with some very Miami events. We’d love for you to follow the project on Instagram, Facebook or Twitter for more.
We couldn’t have pulled off this first festival, illuMia, without our presenting sponsors the Miami Downtown Development Authority and cryptocurrency onramp service MoonPay, in addition to sponsors County Commissioner Eileen Higgins, City Commissioner Ken Russell, the Miami Parking Authority, Ernest and Young, Centennial Bank and Compass.
Our partners in the Flagler Street Festival, Mana Public Arts, also created 15 new murals downtown as part of the Miami Mural Festival. You can do your own walking tour of the murals by downloading the Built.Story app and searching for the free tour Downtown Miami Murals.
Our programming partners were invaluable and included the festival’s curators at Art Republic, SuperRare and YM&U arts, the Miami Center for Art and Design, the Flagler District, Olympia Arts Miami, Greater Miami Convention and Visitors Bureau, Stella Artois, Tilia, the Epic Hotel, Lyft, Alto, and Golden Paintworks Mural Paints.
Thank you, looking forward to more with Upside Downtown Miami!