Miami students bring art exhibit to life

As Miami, FL aspires to become an art epicenter, one shining beacon shows bright and clear. It's not the top notch galleries or world-renowned Art Basel Miami Beach that lights Miami's art fire. It's the student-curators with their very own art exhibit.

The Honors College at Florida International University will host its fifth annual Aesthetics and Values Fine Art Exhibition (A&V) this year and the students are in control. With the guidance by Honors College Fellow and artist John Bailly, 47 students from different majors work together to prepare, install and promote A&V.

Student-curators, as they are formally known, select leading Miami artists to create an innovative contemporary art exhibit and have done so for the last four years. This year's featured artists are Bhakti Baxter, Xavier Cortada, Guerra de la Paz, Richard Haden, Bert Rodriguez, Gerry Stecca, TM Sisters, Frances Trombly, Wendy Wischer and Ricardo Zulueta.

Active in all facets of the exhibit, A&V students install and de- install all the art works in the show. Many of the pieces this year are created especially for the A&V Exhibition.

The A&V students not only curate their exhibition, but they become immersed within the art community. This year, the entire class visited Art Basel Miami Beach and some students participated in the event. Alexandra Montesino, Michelle Montesino and Noor Daghistani participated in Face Act by artist Pia Lindman at Gallery Diet. A&V alumni Miryam Rodriguez and current student-curator Diego Arrieta were selected as Assistants to Juror artists John Bailly and Wendy Wischer by the University of Maine Museum of Art for I-95 Triennial Invitational Exhibition.

The 2010 A&V Exhibition will take place at the internationally acclaimed Frost Art Museum on March 9 - April 18. With a reception on March 24, 2010.

See more on their website A&V Exhibition and follow them on Facebook and Twitter

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