Story and Photos by Manny Meland

DJ Carlos Maya at Jam at MAM

On Thursday afternoon June 21, I had the pleasure to jam at MAM.  This cocktail hour program has been happening every third Thursday of the month at the Miami Art Museum. The locale for this rendezvous has been a large plaza on Flagler Street in downtown Miami, which it shares with the Historical Museum of South Florida and the Dade County Regional Library.

Special events coordinator Anne-Marie Shaffer calls Jam at MAM, the museum’s happy hour with an artful twist. It started in 1998 with the aim of getting young people involved with the museum and its exhibitions. Jam at MAM is one of their longest running programs and enjoys a loyal following. It is open to museum members and to the general public, offering a lively after work destination where guests can enjoy art, music, cocktails and hors d’oeuvres.

Jam at MAM attendees in the Miami Art Museum lobby

When I arrived on this balmy afternoon, disc jockey Carlos Maya of ADOBO Productions was laying down the beat. His selection of rhythmic music, along with the soft breezes sweeping across the plaza, set the mood. Caterer Jay Caplan of Kendall sent his waiters to circulate among the revelers with generous and tasty trays of treats. A wet bar dispensed water, soft drinks, beer, wine and cocktails.

As this is a museum, art is their raison d’etre. Anne-Marie tied a band around my wrist to indicate that I was her guest and introduced me to the museum. She informed me that MAM, the successor to the Center of Fine Arts, was founded in 1996 as a contemporary art museum with a permanent collection. Prior to 1996, the Center of Fine Arts was strictly an exhibiting organization presenting art from the entire breadth of art history. MAM inherited the CFA’s 2000 members and the 200 citizens who worked to collect and exhibit international art of the 20^th and 21^st centuries with an emphasis on art of the western hemisphere.

The crowd in the plaza enjoys Jam at MAM

MAM has presented many major exhibitions devoted to leading artists such as Chuck Close, Brice Marden, Ana Mendieta, Shirin Neshat, Marin Puryear, Ed Ruscha and George Segal. Miami-born New York-based collector, curator and gallerist Charles Cowles donated 101 photographs from his private collection called “Modern Photographs: the Machine, the body and the City”. Artist Kenny Scharf, who owned the Scharf Shop on Espanola Way in Miami Beach, showed his multi-faced planter-heads with their watermelon-sized noses and sprouting palm frond hair on the plaza. Ten of his wall sized pop art paintings hung inside the museum in gallery one.

The ever growing Miami Art Museum has decided to secure a prime site for a free standing building with room for outdoor sculptures and is anticipating a move to a new home at Museum Park next to Biscayne Bay in downtown Miami in 2010.