The Little Haiti Cultural Complex broke ground in 2006, as a result of a long-awaited vision of the late City of Miami Commissioner Arthur E. Teele, Jr. LHCC offers a unique opportunity for residents and visitors to gain exposure to Afro-Caribbean culture, expand their knowledge of the arts and develop new talents.
MISSION & VISION
The mission of the City of Miami’s Little Haiti Cultural Complex is to present and preserve Haitian and other Afro-Caribbean cultures‚ inspire the next generation of leaders while leveraging the arts as a tool for transformation and community building. Our vision is to be a cultural hub where the community can meet to create‚ dialogue and collaborate in the building of an equitable reality for Afro-Caribbeans and their descendants.
Our gallery furthers both the mission and vision as it provides access to exhibitions and educational programs for visitors of all-ages. The Little Haiti Cultural Complex presents exhibitions and public art programs throughout the year highlighting international and Miami-based artists of the African diaspora, led by the collaborative efforts of local Black arts organizations, curators and cultural supporters.
The Little Haiti Cultural Complex in ongoing partnership with neighboring cultural organizations such as the Haitian Cultural Arts Alliance, IPC ArtSpace and the studio of Edouard Duval-Carrié, present art exhibitions that center around the history of Afro Diasporic peoples with a special focus on the Caribbean and Miami as central points in the Global South.
Most recently in December of 2021 the LHCC produced “Noir Atlantic: Connecting the Continents” curated by Marie Vickles with support from Edouard Duval Carrié and Sandy Dorsainvil. This thirteenth iteration of the Global/Borderless Caribbean exhibition series exists to facilitate contemporary cultural dialogues on the Caribbean. The Global/Borderless Caribbean exhibition serieswas created under the direction of artist and co-founder of the Haitian Cultural Arts Alliance, Edouard Duval Carrié.
The Global Caribbean exhibition program, over the past 13 years has provided an extraordinary contribution to the presentation and scholarship of the work of artists of the Caribbean. The kaleidoscopic range of artistic visions reflects the Caribbean and its diasporic cultures, infinite experiences and the necessity to provide an unequivocal approach to a more complete understanding of art history. Notable artists featured in previous exhibitions include Emmanuel Merisier, Tessa Mars, Ricardo Edwards, Jose Bedia, Renee Stout, Roberto Stephenson, Carl Phillpe Juste, Adler Guerrier, Alexis Esquivel and Marielle Plaisir to name a few.
The 2021 exhibition program “Noir Atlantic: Connecting the Continents” curated by Marie Vickles brought together artists in conversation around the thematic of the Global South and the connections of the African Diaspora across the Atlantic featuring contemporary artists based in Florida, representing the continent of Africa, the Caribbean region and the Southern United States. Featured artists include Dinizulu Gene Tinnie, Kabuya Pamela Bowens-Saffo, Errol Miller, and Michelle Grant-Murray with Woosler Delisfort representing a generation of global southern artists that have created a path and laid the foundation for robust artistic production by artists of the African Diaspora in South Florida.
The multiplicity of media utilized within this exhibition speaks to the multiplicity of experiences and expression found within the African Diaspora as the peoples of a vast continent who were forcibly stolen to feed the systemic creation that made an industry out of human beings and their labor. This exhibition seeks to examine and present how Black peoples of the trans-Atlantic slave trade and forced African Diaspora preserved themselves through various methods of creative expression that can be traced forward in time to the works presented.
In the exhibition, “Noir Atlantic: Connecting the Continents” a historically inspired work of note is “Ravinodyab (Ravine au diable/Devil’s Ravine)” by Dinizulu Gene Tinnie, which recalls the legacy of Félix Morisseau-Leroy as a contemporary figure with Haitian literature and most importantly a critical figure to bring about the establishment and recognition of the Kréyol language. Dinizulu’s personal connection to Félix, and also as a long-time resident of Little Haiti truly create a full circle connection as he exhibits his work in this gallery space for the first time.
The unifying theme in this exhibition is how the artists are recognizing their ancestral knowledge, both intentionally and intuitively. They are creating worlds that utilize the visual language of their ascendants and bring a message to us all – one that reminds us we are connected across the waters and throughout the new continents that we have come to inhabit.
In 2022 the Little Haiti Cultural Complex continues on the mission to support local and international artists of the Afro-Caribbean Diaspora with a special focus on the Haitian experience. A series of exhibitions will be presented that feature a variety of artistic expressions and mediums providing the local community and beyond with the opportunity to experience world-class contemporary, modern and vernacular art in the heart of Little Haiti, Miami.
