Friends of Biscayne Bay (FOBB), Miami-Dade County’s Chief Bay Officer, and the Cortada Foundation have joined forces to launch a county-wide campaign in celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Biscayne Bay Aquatic Preserves (BBAPs).
Titled, “A call to action through art and education to improve the water quality of Biscayne Bay” and with the creation of Xavier Cortada’s “The Flow – it’s all connected”, this project will highlight the importance of water quality and how everything we do on land will affect the Bay.
Cortada will generate a conceptual public art piece located across storm drains in the county. Each municipality in the county will have a unique color associated with it to connect the flow of water from the neighborhood canals to areas of the Bay. To start, the storm drains chosen for displayed art will be near a Miami-Dade public library. Through the help of the Dade Heritage Trust and local libraries, we will create engaging material to highlight the history of the Bay and its cultural significance for Miami-Dade County. Cortada will also implement an engaged art process at County Libraries that invites the community to dive deeper into the conversation through their own art installations (on shed-specific color paper) to capture the voices and pledges made by residents to protect their bay.
These will be displayed in libraries to showcase the community’s art and pledge to protect the Bay.
We will also implement a virtual component to our campaign.
A QR code will be located on or near the storm drain and be made available at each library location.
This will lead to a website where supplementary educational information on water quality will be provided along with additional art by Xavier Cortada. Additionally, the website will feature an augmented reality tool for users to visualize how water from storm drains flows out to Biscayne Bay.
