Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM) is committed to international modern and contemporary art, and our home at the crossroads of the Americas also uniquely positions us to be the best at presenting art from the U.S. Latino experience, the African diaspora, Latin America, and the Caribbean. We showcase the diversity of 20th- and 21st-century artists, and our programs seek to educate and ensure that all people can participate in a conversation that shares art at its center. PAMM could not do this without women.
In conjunction with the 100-year anniversary of the 1920 adoption of the Nineteenth Amendment, we want to celebrate not only women’s equal right to vote, but to celebrate the strong and wise women on our staff and board, in our collection, and those featured year round by way of our programming.
We celebrate, honor, and thank the women that support us always, as museumgoers, members, donors, docents, students, and our biggest fans. We look forward to continuing to fight for equal pay and representation for all who identify as women, of all races, alongside you.
We celebrate and encourage you to join us in reflecting on…
The Miami women who make our home the creative mecca that it is:
- 305 South Florida female artists who gathered in 2016 for Now Be Here #3, a historic project created by Kim Schoenstadt which aims to capture female identifying artists.
- The many who have showcased their practice and work through our Local Views and art-making programs: Maria Theresa Barbist, Angela Bolaños, Vanessa Charlot, Cara Despain, Commissioner/Dejha Carrington/Jahaira Ríos Campos y Gálvez/Kira Tippenhauer, Santiague Deprez, Rosa Naday Garmendia, Carol Jazzar; Loni Johnson, Rhea Leonard, Laura Marsh; Janessa Melendez, Peggy Nolan, Alex Nuñez, Samantha Oakey, Lorie Ofir, Johanne Rahaman, Lisa Rockford, Monica Sorelle, and Juana Valdes.
Just a few of the women with work in our collection, which we get the honor of showcasing often:
- Theresa Chromati and Faith Ringgold, whose works are currently in Polyphonic: Celebrating PAMM’s Fund for African American Art.
- Carmen Herrera, Ana Samoylova, Zilia Sánchez, and Loló Soldevilla, whose works are currently up in our Permanent Collection galleries.
- Deborah Jack, whose work was recently shown in The Other Side of Now: Foresight in Contemporary Caribbean Art.
The women who have shared their wisdom and work with us over the years:
- Collection artist Lynne Golob Gelfman, whose legacy we’ll always remember.
- Former DAMLI Curatorial Fellow Naiomy Guerrero speaking about artist Hulda Guzmán.
- Behind-the-scenes interviews with Andrea Bowers, Elizabeth Cerviño, Nicole Cherubini, Felice Grodin, Nicole Smythe-Johnson, Beatriz Milhazes, Ebony G. Patterson, Sheena Rose, Lorna Simpson, and Antonia Wright.
- Scholl Lecture Series with Polly Apfelbaum, Elizabeth Diller, Sandra Jackson-Dumont, Teresita Fernández, Kate Fowle, Julie Mehretu, and Liliana Porter.
- Art talks with Firelei Báez, Teresita Fernández & Aruna D’Souza, Victoria Gitman, Beatriz González, Susan Hiller, Iman Issa, Michele Oka Doner & Rebekah Rutkoff, Sarah Oppenheimer, Doris Salcedo, Ulla von Brandenburg, Aldeide Delgado, and GeoVanna Gonzalez.
The women who raise us and teach us:
- Octavia Yearwood, Dwanita L. Fields, Megan Gabelman, Roxana Fleneury, and Tiffany Brave participating in Teacher Panel: Educators in the Digital Learning Landscape.
- The “Moms Behind the Museum” like Emma Heald, María Elena Ortiz, and Marie Vickles.
The women who generously support us in so many ways:
- Like PAMM Members Sheila Elias, Krystina François, Sara Stites, and Valerie Viglione.
- Like PAMM Trustees Arlene Chaplin, Debi Hoffman, Laura Kaplan, and Deryl McKissack.
- And our International Women’s Committee (IWC), which creates a platform to celebrate women year round.
The women who work hard behind the scenes every day:
- Like curatorial team Jennifer Inacio, Maritza Lacayo, and María Elena Ortiz.
The women who feed us:
- Like Chef Amaris Jones and our longtime partners Constellation Culinary Group and Emily Burster.
And the young feminists we hope to raise:
- Through our PAMM Virtual Art Storytime sessions, reading books like “My Feminist ABC” and “I am Enough.”
While we are eager to carry on celebrating the accomplishments of many iconic women of PAMM over the years and women as a whole, we acknowledge that August 26, 1920 unfortunately did not mean the same thing for Black women, Native American women, Asian women, and Latinx women, and that there is still much work to do within the feminist movement. We’re continuing that work by reading, researching, and revising. Here are some suggested reads to dive into:
- Ain’t I a Woman: Black Women and Feminism by bell hooks
- Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center by bell hooks
- The Free Black Women’s Library
- Blackgirlmagik.com
To all women and supporters of women, in all places, we thank you, we salute you, and we look forward to working toward an equal society with you.
In solidarity,
The Women of PAMM
This blog post was authored by Anita Braham, associate director of adult programs and audience engagement.
Anita Braham is an arts professional and cultural producer working in Miami, FL at PAMM as the associate director of adult programs and audience engagement. She is a graduate of University of Florida with a BA in Art History. Braham has worked at PAMM for six years and with her team produces an average of 70 adult programs and 970 public tours per year. She managed the Knight Foundation Inside|Out program at PAMM from its inception in 2016 to 2018, helping bring replicas of works from the museum’s permanent collection to communities throughout Miami-Dade County and creating accompanying community-driven programming. Prior to her work at PAMM, Braham has held positions at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts, the Boys and Girls Club of Broward County, and the Samuel P. Harn Museum of Art, among others. She is passionate about making art accessible to all and enjoys creating meaningful and educational art experiences for many members of greater Miami-Dade.
In Their Words: The Women of PAMM video captions: Deborah Roberts. Baldwin’s Promise, 2017 • Ana Mendieta. Silueta Works, Mexico, 1973-77 • Dara Friedman. Still from Rite, 2014. Installation view: Dara Friedman: Perfect Stranger, PAMM, 2017-18 • Ulla von Brandenburg. Still from It Has a Golden Sun and an Elderly Grey Moon, 2016 • Zilia Sánchez. Untitled, from the series Topología erotica, 1970 • Luchita Hurtado. Untitled, 1971 • Kara Walker. Untitled, 1998 • Antonia Wright. Still from I Scream, Therefore I Exist, 2011 • Installation view: Marjetica Potrč: The School of the Forest | Miami Campus, PAMM, 2015 • Lynne Golob Gelfman. thru 8.3, 2017 • Firelei Báez. Sans-Souci (This threshold between a dematerialized and a historicized body), 2015 • Nicole Cherubini. 500, 2014. Installation view: Project Gallery: Nicole Cherubini • Shahzia Sikander. Still from The Last Post, 2010 • Zilia Sánchez. Sin título, 1971 • Michele Oka Donar. How I Caught a Swallow in Mid-Air (detail), ca. 1990 • Monika Sosnowska. Market, 2013. Installation view: PAMM • Leonor Antunes. a secluded and pleasant land. in this land I wish to dwell, 2014. Installation view: PAMM • Installation view: Beatriz Milhazes: Jardim Botânico, PAMM, 2014-15 • Installation view: Ebony G. Patterson . . . while the dew is still on the roses . . ., PAMM, 2018-19 • Installation view: Sarah Oppenheimer: S-281913, PAMM, 2016-17 • Installation view: Project Gallery: Shana Lutker, Again Against, A Foot, A Back, A Wall, PAMM, 2015 • Installation view: Teresita Fernández: Elemental, PAMM, 2019-20 • Installation view: Teresita Fernández: Elemental, PAMM, 2019-20 • Sheela Gowda. And that is no lie (detail), 2015. Installation view: PAMM • Felice Grodin. Terrafish, 2017-18. AR installation: Felice Grodin: Invasive Species, PAMM • Liliana Porter, El hombre con el hacha y otras situaciones breves – Venecia 2017 (Man with an axe and other brief situations – Venice 2017) (detail), 2014/17