Culture – International World Of Business

Announced Santos as Florida’s Featured Artist for Hispanic Heritage Month

Press Room Team — Fri, 24 Sep 2021 01:25:52 +0000

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. September 23, 2021.- The First Lady Casey DeSantis announced contemporary artist, Cesar Santos, as Florida’s featured artist for this year’s Hispanic Heritage Month, celebrated September 15th to October 15th. Mr. Santos’ artwork has received numerous accolades and been featured around the globe.

“It is a privilege to recognize Cesar Santos as Florida’s featured artist for Hispanic Heritage Month,” said First Lady Casey DeSantis. “Cesar is a world-renowned Cuban-American artist, and his work has influenced the art created in our state and around the world. Like Cesar, there are thousands of Hispanic-American artists in our state who are using their influence to share the world around them and to help their communities. I encourage all Floridians to join me in celebrating Cesar and all of the Hispanic-American artists who live in Florida.”

About Cesar Santos

Cesar Santos is a Cuban-American contemporary artist, born in Santa Clara, Cuba, in 1982. Mr. Santos is known for his body of work he terms “Syncretism,” describing his presentation of two or more art tendencies in aesthetic balance.

Mr. Santos graduated from Miami-Dade College, after which he studied at Miami’s New World School of the Arts, and the Angel Academy of Art in Florence, Italy, and received the Hudson River Fellowship in New York.

Mr. Santos’ work reflects both classical and modern interpretations juxtaposed within one painting, infusing harmony between the natural and the conceptual to create works that are provocative and dramatic.

As the artist explains, “I am discovering a technique which at first glance might be confused with the known, since we are bombarded with historical and new technological forms to represent the visual world. I sense what calls my attention and translate it back onto the pages of my sketchbook, establishing what is actually given to the viewer.”

Among his numerous awards and honors, Mr. Santos received first place in a Metropolitan Museum of Art competition in 2010, and was honored in 2013 with a Miami-Dade College Hall of Fame Award in Visual Arts. He has been featured in solo shows, participated in group exhibitions and included in numerous publications worldwide, dating back to 2003. His work has been exhibited across the globe, from the Museum of Contemporary Art in Sicily, to the Beijing Museum in China, to the Naples Museum of Art in Naples, Florida.

For more information on Florida’s celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month, please visit: www.FloridaHispanicHeritage.com.

Miami artist brings his Everglades-inspired vision to MIA

Press Room Team — Sun, 22 Aug 2021 18:47:34 +0000

Miami, Fla. August,, 2021.- Magnus Sodamin’s vibrantly colorful, Everglades-inspired murals have been turning heads across Miami-Dade County, from Miami’s FTX Arena to Edgewater’s 2500 Biscayne Boulevard building and the Miami Springs Community Center.

Now, visitors to Miami International Airport can get an eyeful of Sodamin’s environmentally conscious work with Reflections of Florida Wild, the artist’s latest mural located at MIA’s Concourse E on the first floor near Door 9 (pre-security). The long-time Miami resident sees his newest work as a reflection of South Florida’s wild neighbors, lush landscape, and the importance of preserving these wild spaces for the future of our water source and biodiversity.

Sodamin’s lush nature-inspired paintings explore changing global narratives through spiritual inquiry and spontaneous creativity. His process is cathartic and vigorous, resulting in paintings that reflect the beauty of the natural world while exploring the states of ecosystems and the environment. His vibrant works are full of energetic gestures that are both joyful and turbulent, indicative of the artist’s passionate sense of awe and quiet reverence of nature.

Using an expanded painting practice that is both hallucinatory and precise, Sodamin employs various techniques to blur the frontier between abstraction and landscape painting. His singular installations often begin with painting the walls and floors of an exhibition space with vibrant splashes of color and then installing the space with similarly emotive yet complementary canvas or panel compositions. The result is entirely immersive.

Sodamin received his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in painting with a minor in art history from the New World School of the Arts in Miami. He spent a year developing his painting practice at the Nansenskolen (The Nansen Academy) in Lillehammer, Norway, a humanitarian institute that focuses on cross-cultural exchange. He lives and works in Miami, where his next scheduled solo show Wild Alter will be at Dot Fiftyone Gallery September 18 to November 13.

WTTC announces collaboration with Harvard School of Public Health

Press Room Team — Thu, 21 Nov 2019 22:12:09 +0000

The WTTC, an organization that represents entrepreneurs in the Travel and Tourism industry globally, and the Department of Environmental Health of the T.H. Harvard Chan, revealed the beginning of a partnership during a successful two-day leadership program at Harvard University. Through this collaboration, innovative research on sustainability within the sector will be carried out.

Event participants had the opportunity to share common objectives, while working on projects that challenge the status quo, with the main objective of ensuring that the tourism sector remains a lever for the well-being and development of countries.

Based on global trends, those present were invited to imagine ways in which companies can exist as an engine for development, by adopting sustainable business strategies and participating in transformative leadership.

The researchers of the WTTC and the T.H. Harvard Chan has as one of its main goals to support companies and leaders of the Travel and Tourism industry, as they work to share best practices, continue to support sustainability as a central priority to ensure the sustainable growth of the sector and co-creation of societies.

The speakers were professors from the Harvard Business School, the John F. Kennedy School of Government and the T.H. Chan of Public Health as they are: Rebecca Henderson, Howard Koh and Ronald Heifetz as well as Paul Polman, former CEO of Unilever and current Advocate for the UN Sustainable Development Goals, along with Program Directors, Doctors Wendy Purcell and Jack Splengler

They were joined by leaders of companies such as: Dallas Fort Worth International Airport, Carlson Wagonlit Travel, Royal Caribbean Cruises, Virtuoso, Lebua, Carnival Corporation, Intrepid Group, Google, Hotelbeds, City Sightseeing, Apple Leisure Group, Indian Hotels and The Travel Corporation

In this regard, Gloria Guevara Manzo, President and CEO of the WTTC said: “We are very excited about this new partnership with the T.H. Harvard Chan, one of the most important academic institutions in the world. We hope that this program, and the research that will be generated, will help mark the beginning of a new era within the Travel and Tourism sector, in which both the public and private sectors work together to guarantee social and environmental responsibility. ”

At the meeting, Dr. Wendy Purcell, Director of the Harvard School of Public Health mentioned: “The opportunity to develop an innovative strategy for the sector, based on research, in collaboration with the WTTC, has the potential to change the perspective that you have from the Travel and Tourism industry to make it more sustainable ”.

While Dr. Jack Spengler, Akira Yamaguchi Professor of Environmental Health and Human Habitat at the T.H. School of Public Health. Chan commented: “The accelerated pace of climate change requires that we collaborate in all sectors of society. Working with the WTTC to change the trajectory we are in is an opportunity to create a fair future that respects nature. ”

For his part, Brett Tollman, CEO of The Travel Corporation said: “Our planet, its varied societies and species face a growing crisis. The discussions we held at Harvard these days initiated by the WTTC reinforced the idea that sustainable and purpose-oriented tourism should be a shared objective of the industry, rather than a competitive advantage. An agreed alignment of business objectives to include sustainability and turn it into a business with positive impact has been the focus of these sessions, and I think there is a real opportunity to generate change and do it quickly. ”

Participants were also able to listen to Sean Donohue, CEO of Dallas Forth Worth International Airport, who noted: “This partnership will combine world class research and analytical rigor at Harvard University with the WTTC leadership commitment to drive continued progress. of sustainability and commercial value “.

Americas Society Announces 2017 Music Commissions

Press Room Team — Fri, 21 Apr 2017 00:51:33 +0000

New York, April 2017 — Americas Society is pleased to announce that it has commissioned five composers to write new works for player piano and live instrumentalists inspired by the music of Conlon Nancarrow. A native of Arkansas, Nancarrow spent most of his professional life in Mexico. His works for the player piano are among the most original and influential collections of music composed in the twentieth century in the Americas.
The new works by Tatiana Catanzaro, Kyle Gann, Jaime Oliver, Carlos Sandoval, and Sabrina Schroeder will be premiered in Spring 2018 at Americas Society’s landmark building in New York City. On this occasion, the composers—some of whom worked with Nancarrow himself—will present and discuss their work, touching on topics related to the late composer’s life and oeuvre as well as broader aesthetic issues of perception and musical production.

Support for the creation of these new works comes from the Robert D. Bielecki Foundation; FACE Foundation Contemporary Music Fund, a program with major support from the Cultural Services of the French Embassy, SACEM, Institut français, and the Florence Gould Foundation; and the New York State Council on the Arts, with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.

Born in 1912, Nancarrow joined the Abraham Lincoln Brigade at the start of the Spanish Civil War. Concerned by the harassment faced by other former Brigade fighters upon their return to the United States, he relocated to Mexico in 1940, where he remained until his death in 1997. Nancarrow’s renown rests on his later, intricately contrapuntal works, almost exclusively written for the player piano. Having spent many years in obscurity, the composer gained notoriety from the 1969 release of an entire album of his work by Columbia Records.

For the creation of these new musical works, the commissionees will take Nancarrow’s music for player piano as a point of departure. The Disklavier—a modern descendant of the player piano that performs without a live musician but that still retains the physicality of a piano—will serve as the common thread connecting all the pieces, which will also feature harp, percussion, bass, and Ondes Martenot.

Founded in 1965, Americas Society is unique among U.S. cultural institutions as the premier presenter of arts and culture from Latin America, the Caribbean, and Canada, including U.S.-based artists from the region and U.S.-Latino composers and musicians. Previously featured artists include ICE, JACK and Momenta Quartets, Cuarteto Latinoamericano, Continuum Ensemble, Plácido Domingo, Egberto Gismonti, Inti-Illimani, and the Spanish Harlem Orchestra. Americas Society Music Program, which organizes the year-long Music of the Americas Concert Series, has been twice awarded the CMA/ASCAP Award for Adventurous Programming, most recently in 2014.

In addition to offering global or U.S. premieres of several new works every season, Americas Society Music Program has developed a vigorous commissioning initiative that has premiered eight pieces since 2007. The commissioned composers are selected taking in consideration diverse nationalities, ages, and stylistic approaches. Previous Americas Society commissionees include Valéria Bonafé, Zosha di Castri (commissioned in collaboration with the Banff International String Quartet Competition and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation), Mario Davidovsky (supported by a grant from Chamber Music America), Du Yun, Alvin Lucier, Paulo Rios Filho, Aurelio Tello (with support from Argosy Foundation Contemporary Music Fund and the Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust), and Antonio Zimmerman (with support from The New York State Music Fund).

Contemporary Art from the Coast, Tapestries, and more open at Gadsden Arts!

Press Room Team — Wed, 12 Apr 2017 18:54:49 +0000

The Gadsden Arts Center & Museum presents an exciting exhibition, Contemporary Art from the Coast, opening Friday, April 14, 2017 from 6–9pm in the Sara May Love Gallery. The exhibition features cutting edge work by artists living and working along Florida’s Forgotten Coast, the region stretching along the Gulf of Mexico from St. Marks to Port St. Joe – Jaime Llewelyn, Joyce Estes, Joe Kotzman and Leslie Wentzell. Three of these artists, Estes, Kotzman and Wentzell, will offer presentations about their work at 6:30opening night in the Woodell Family Art Studio. Opening receptions are offered free and open to the public.

Sculptor Jaime Llewelyn allows the earthiness of clay to guide the organic and natural forms she creates; Joyce Estes, a silk master designer, uses vibrant French dyes on silk allow for free-flowing and elegant designs; award-winning watercolorist Joe Kotzman creates imaginative and subconsciously fanciful imagery derives from childhood folk tales; and sculptural ceramicist Leslie Wentzell, uses the textures, colors, patterns, and linear movement found in nature to create hand-built clay sculptures. The exhibition will examine the ways in which a shared environment can inspire artists working within different mediums and how each personally connects with nature to capture the region’s beauty.

Also opening the same night in the Zoe Golloway Gallery is the exhibit MJ Lord: Warp-Weft-Image, a visually immersive display of tapestries by weaver Mary Jane Lord. With over thirty years of experience creating textile arts, her work is aimed at the play between imagery and texture, with a current focus on the interaction between colors, both in her abstracted creations and within nature.

Contemporary Art from the Coast and MJ Lord: Warp-Weft-Image, will be on view from Friday, April 14-Saturday, June 24, 2017. Suggested exhibitions admission is $5 (members and children free), with guided tours available for any group with a reservation by calling850-627-5023.

The Gadsden Arts Center & Museum, Florida’s 27th art museum to be accredited by the American Alliance of Museums, is located at 13 N. Madison Street, Quincy, Florida, just 20 minutes from Tallahassee. Exhibitions in four galleries and our Bates Community Room change quarterly. The museum also offers a Museum Shop and studio art programs for children through adults. For more information, please call (850) 875-4866 or visit www.gadsdenarts.org.

LONDON TSAI’S FLYING DESSERTS AND OTHER UTOPIAS EXHIBITION OPENS AT MIA

Press Room Team — Tue, 29 Nov 2016 16:10:30 +0000

Brooklyn-based artist London Tsai’s Flying Desserts and Other Utopias is now on display at Miami International Airport’s Central Terminal Gallery, located just beyond MIA’s Concourse E security checkpoint.

“In an age of global tourism and extreme mobility, utopias are no longer in the future, but somewhere else. In order to reach these other places more conveniently, it makes sense that our homes become our ‘ships,’” said Tsai. “That’s why I’ve designed the ‘ships’ in the shapes of desserts we love. In addition to being completely mobile, we are hyper-visible. This way, we can have our cake and eat it too.”

Lun-Yi London Tsai was born in Massachusetts, spent his early childhood in Paris and grew up in SoHo, New York in the 1980s. After college and graduate school at Tufts University and the University of Pittsburgh respectively, Tsai spent six years in China. Since then, he has lived in Boston, Seattle, Miami and New York. An artist residency in Berlin in 2008 was pivotal in awakening his latent sculptural tendencies; his father was the late kinetic sculptor Wen-Ying Tsai. He currently lives and works in Brooklyn.

“As the title of the exhibition implies, there is great humor, imagination and even, optimism, in Tsai’s work,” said Yolanda Sánchez, Ph.D., Fine Arts and Cultural Affairs Director at MIA. “Through his extraordinary skill and his manipulation of materials and scale, Tsai invites us to re-consider both our physical and psychological relationship to those objects we encounter in our everyday life. His charismatic and sometimes, enigmatic, works intelligently evoke memory and narrative.”

The Flying Desserts and Other Utopias exhibition continues the primary mission of the Aviation Department’s Fine Arts and Cultural Affairs Division to humanize and enrich the airport environment through the commission of contemporary artwork and the presentation of exhibitions in various media that communicate culture, environment and art resources of an international scope. To learn more about other exhibits in the MIA Galleries, visit http://www.miami-airport.com/mia_galleries.asp.

Daisy Baez announces candidacy State House District 114

Press Room Team — Tue, 06 Oct 2015 14:39:29 +0000

Coral Gables, Florida, October 5, 2015. Decorated Army veteran and healthcare executive Daisy Baez announces her candidacy for State Representative in District 114.

“Running for Florida State House last year was one of the most rewarding experiences of my life. The opportunities of meeting the incredible people of our community and connect with them on the issues affecting working families, made a lasting impression on me,” said Daisy.

“I’m running for State Representative because the problems affecting our community are still not being addressed in Tallahassee. Parents deserve to have high quality public schools for their children, students need a fully-funded Bright Futures program that will allow them to achieve their greatest potential, working families should not have to choose between paying their mortgage or seeking medical care, and thousands remain without access to affordable healthcare. Right now, these issues are being drowned out by the big special interests that run Tallahassee”

“I’m excited to hit the campaign trail and share my positive vision for our community. It’s time the people of District 114 had a Representative they can trust and rely on to work for them in Tallahassee.”

Daisy Baez is a healthcare executive who has been a resident of Coral Gables for the past 15 years. Born and raised in the Dominican Republic, Daisy moved to the United States after graduating from high school. At the age of 20, Daisy enlisted in the United States Army. After basic and advanced training, she was assigned to the First Cavalry Division Surgeons’ Office in Fort Hood Texas. Daisy was a highly decorated soldier; earning an Army Commendation Medal, two Army Achievement Medals, and several Department of the Army, Department of Defense, and First Cavalry Division Certificates of Achievement. She was honorably discharged in 1983 at the end of her military service. After her service in the Army, Daisy earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Social Work from the University of Central Texas and a Master of Arts degree in Counseling from Sam Houston State University. Daisy has worked in the health care industry for over 30 years. She is a committed community activist serving on the Merrick House Museum Board and Barry University Health Profession Advisory Board. Daisy is the founder and Executive Director of the Dominican Health Care Association of Florida. She has received numerous awards and recognitions for her work, including the 2015 Hispanic Woman of Distinction. She is a single mother to her 26 year old daughter Nicole.

Life happens…

Press Room Team — Tue, 28 Jul 2015 14:19:47 +0000

What’s going on in your life today? Preparing to graduate? Have a changing family dynamic? Returning from military service? Or just moving into this country? Big life changes seem to come frequently, and they don’t just impact your daily routine — they can affect your finances, too. Here are some ideas to help you land on your feet when you face a change. Because who has time to panic?

Perhaps you’ve just graduated and are about to be financially independent for the first time. It’s a big step, and it’s important that you know how to manage your credit cards, open a bank account, and prepare a proper budget to keep your spending on track.

If you’re recently widowed or divorced and lack a credit history, you might need to build up your credit. There are many ways to get good credit, which will help you be able to rent a home, and get better interest rates on loans.

If you’re returning from military service, or having any career change, you should learn about job scams. You might run across great-looking listings for jobs that don’t really exist. Their aim? To get your personal information or your money.

Are you going through the immigration process? Scammers try to take advantage of people’s confusion with the complicated process. The FTC offers helpful information about immigration scams. This information and our website also are available in Spanish and other languages.

We all undergo significant life changes at some point. They can be stressful and confusing, and we could all use some help. No matter where you are in life, if you see a scam, let us know by filing a complaint. Your report could help others avoid being side-tracked by fraud.

Lords investigates role of the BBC in UK arts and culture

Press Room Team — Tue, 21 Jul 2015 20:10:31 +0000

On Tuesday 21 July, the House of Lords Communications Committee continues its inquiry into the BBC’s public purposes.

First panel

Tuesday 21 July, Committee Room 2, Palace of Westminster

At 3.45pm

Sir Peter Bazalgette, Chair, Arts Council England
Cerys Matthews, singer/songwriter, presenter and author

Possible questions

The Committee is expected to explore with the first set of witnesses issues including:

the role the BBC plays in the arts and culture of the UK
the role the BBC should play in education and training
the effectiveness of the BBC’s public purposes in delivering public benefit for culture
the effect any financial cuts would have, both on the BBC and on the cultural life of the UK.

Second panel

At 4.45pm

Dr Roberto Suarez Candel, Director of the Media Intelligence Service, European Broadcasting Union (EBU), Switzerland

Possible questions

The EBU runs a worldwide satellite and cable network across entertainment, news, sports and music programming. Dr Candel is likely to face questions on a number of areas, including:

the BBC’s standing overseas
comparisons with other public service broadcasting organisations in Europe
the changing definition from public service broadcasting to public service media.

What’s on boomers’ minds

Press Room Team — Wed, 15 Jul 2015 17:14:45 +0000

Baby boomers are running scared and marketers are in hot pursuit.

What strikes such fear? The specter of memory loss and cognitive impairment severe enough to turn you into “a prisoner” in your own home who is “unable to recall who you are, where you live, or to whom you are related.”According to an FTC lawsuit, Brain Research Labs, KeyView Labs, MedHealth Direct, and others deceptively touted the dietary supplement Procera AVH as a solution to that problem.

Ads for Procera asked consumers to imagine what their lives would be like if:

“You are no longer allowed to handle your financial matters.”
“You are no longer trusted to purchase anything . . . for you or anyone else.”
“You are moving to a nursing home to live with strangers.”
“You must sell your car, or give it to a family member.”
“Your lifelong possessions are to be sold or given away.”

According to the FTC, the defendants claimed Procera could prevent and reverse age-related mental decline and memory loss, and improve concentration, focus, mental clarity, and mood. Consumers paid between $40 and $80 for a 3-4 week supply. The defendants sold some buyers on the supposed benefits of an automatic shipment program, charging their credit cards for regular supplies.

The pitch didn’t end there. On their site and in other promotions, the defendants brought out the heavy artillery: assurances that “a landmark clinical study” proved that their “breakthrough nutritional formula” would “help reverse up to 15 years of mental decline, effectively restoring a 50-year-old’s brainpower to that of a 35-year-old.” A print ad, for example, touted “randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled research” where “clinicians witnessed a startling transformation in study participants’ brains.” Many of those claims were conveyed through Josh Reynolds, the stated “creator” of Procera and “Science Director” of defendant Brain Research Labs.

But the FTC says the defendants didn’t have proof to back up their claims that the product would significantly improve memory, concentration, focus, clarity, and mood or stop or reverse age-related mental decline and memory loss – especially cognitive impairment severe enough to interfere with independent living. The complaint also challenges those “clinically proven” claims as false and alleges that Josh Reynolds didn’t appropriately exercise his purported expertise in endorsing the product.

The proposed settlement includes broad injunctive provisions to protect consumers in the future. In addition, the defendants will pay $1.4 million with $400,000 of that reserved to satisfy a judgment in a case brought by local California law enforcement officials. The order also imposes a $61 million judgment against defendant KeyView Labs and a $91 million judgment imposed jointly against the remaining defendants. Under the terms of the settlement, KeyView will shut down the Procera automatic shipment program.

What can other companies take from this case?

Advertisers shouldn’t need a heads-up that misleading cognition claims are an important enforcement priority. Recent FTC actions have challenged deceptive representations about teaching toddlers to read, boosting students’ grades and SAT scores, and improving memory in older adults, to name just a few. Many consumers are concerned about cognition at every stage of life, but companies shouldn’t rush into the market unless they have – at minimum – competent and reliable scientific evidence to support their claims.

There may not be an I in T-E-A-M, but there are three of ‘em in L-I-A-B-I-L-I-T-Y. The promotion of Procera involved multiple parties. You’ll want to check the pleadings for the specifics, but the complaint names the businesses that have sold Procera; MedHealth Direct, a company involved in creating the ads; John Arnold, MedHealth Direct’s President; Josh Reynolds, the expert endorser and manager of the company that commissioned and reviewed the study; and a company that owned that company. When faced with compliance choices, prudent businesses are mindful of the breadth of liability under the FTC Act.