By Mary Damiano

	The Art Deco Weekend 2007 poster by Philip Brooker, which highlights the east meets west theme

The Miami Design Preservation League has chosen an unusual theme for this year’s Art Deco Weekend—“East Meets West: Art Deco from Shanghai to Miami”. 

Although Miami Beach is known for its extensive collection of art deco buildings, the Miami Design Preservation League wants to highlight the fact that art deco was a worldwide design movement, and are shining a spotlight on the art deco designs in Shanghai, China, at this year’s fair, which takes place January 12-14 all over Miami Beach.

The theme was chosen in part to complement the Miami-Shanghai architecture and design project which began in the fall of 2006, as a series of cultural exchanges between these two far-flung cities which are both devoted to design. The Miami Design Preservation League is a major sponsor of the project, which will include exhibitions and educational programs.

Art Deco Weekend will integrate these two cultures into its exhibitions and activities, which will include lectures, films, parades, antiques, collectibles, music and food from the east and west.

	The art deco lobby of the Old Customs House in Shanghai

One of the premier events at Art Deco Weekend will be a lecture at the Wolfsonian –FIU by Xing Tonghe, chief architect of the Shanghai Xian Architectural Design Group, one of the largest architectural firms in the world, which has supervised the design and engineering of 80 percent of Shanghai’s new buildings.  While Tonghe and his firm is responsible for the design of many of Shanghai’s most famous buildings, including the Pearl TV Tower, the airport, the opera house, and the cultural center, he is virtually unknown in the west.  The lecture and Art Deco Weekend’s emphasis on Shanghai’s design offers a rare opportunity to get to know Tonghe’s work.

Art Deco Weekend will kick off Friday, January 12 at 7:30 p.m. with Light Up the Drive, a parade that begins at 5^th Street and continues north on Ocean Drive.  The parade begins a weekend of varied events, including:

Walking Tours
For an up-close look at art deco, try one of the walking tours offered by the MDPL.  Tours are about 90 minutes and are led by knowledgeable art deco experts.  You can choose a walking tour through the art deco district, or some more specialized tours, including the Underworld Tour, which explores the art deco district through the role of organized crime and other acts of murder and mayhem; the Collins Park Tour, which explores the Collins Avenue hotels and the MiMo architecture of neighborhood apartment buildings; the Duck Tour, which uses open-air vehicles that travel on land and water; and a Children’s Tour, which gets the kids involved in the art deco experience.

Dance and Stage Presentations
Art Deco Weekend features lots dance performances and stage productions, including the Fantasy Theatre Factory’s Animal Stories, Body Dance Nation Theatre’s A Tribute to Bob Marley, Rock Musicals Through the Ages from the Actor’s Playhouse Musical Miracles, Fritzner Paul’s magic show, Momentum Dance’s performance of Goldilocks and the Three Bears, and excerpts from Donne: Mothers, Daughters, Sisters, Lovers…, presented by Dance Now! Ensemble.

	The Pudong Development Bank in Shanghai

Music
Art Deco Weekend will also entertain audiences with music from the heyday of the art deco period, jazz.  Check out classical jazz guitarist Peter Betan, Yoko Noge & the Jazz Me Blues Band, and acoustic guitarist Michael Marc Zanabili, who will explore the Latin aspect of art deco be performing classics from the 1930s and 1940s. Other performers include Sheba, Beverly Barkley and Sack Full of Dreams,  who will bring the Cotton Club era to life; Piano Bob with his boogie woogie piano; and jazz and blues artist Wendy Pederson, who will perform a special Art Deco Weekend show called “The Steamy Side of Cole Porter”.

Films
While Hollywood movies of the 1930s are often a cornucopia of art deco design, both in the set design and splashy costumes, they weren’t the only ones to jump on the art deco bandwagon.  The films shown at this year’s Art Deco Weekend further illustrate the Shanghai theme, and include both American and Chinese productions.  Check out The Lady from Shanghai (1945) starring Rita Hayworth and directed by Orson Welles; Shanghai Triad (1995) directed by Zhang Yimou; Shanghai Rumba (2006) directed by Xiaolian Peng; Goddess (1934) directed by Wu Yonggang; Charlie Chan in Shanghai (1935 directed by James Tinling; and The White Countess (2005) directed by James Ivory.

	Orson Welles and Rita Hayworth in The Lady from Shanghai, which will be screened during Art Deco Weekend

Art Exhibitions
While the art deco buildings throughout Miami Beach are works of art all by themselves, there will be three art exhibitions during Art Deco Weekend, which will illuminate the Miami to Shanghai theme.  Art Deco Architecture in Shanghai at the Art Deco Welcome Center was organized especially for art Deco Weekend and displays photographs of the buildings in Shanghai, the city with the largest concentration of art deco buildings of any city in Asia.  At the Miami Beach Botanical Garden there’s Shanghai Modern, featuring paintings by Lu Zhide, which explore the lifestyle of Shanghai women in the 1930s.  Art Deco from Shanghai to Miami Beach at the Goldman Properties Warehouse features 100 photographs by Deke Erh, 50 from each city.  This collection will also be exhibited in Shanghai.

In addition to these events, Art Deco Weekend feature a classic car show, the Arf Deco Dog Parade, food, and a children’s area by the Art Deco Children’s Studio, so that the kids can participate in some hands on activities.