From entertaining to edifying, and beguiling to flabbergasting, here are thirteen of our favorite gallery detours.
Ancient Spanish Monastery
16711 W. Dixie Hwy., North Miami Beach305-945-1461
spanishmonastery.comHousing what is likely the only gift shop in the world offering holy water by the bottle, pewter medals of saints, and...enamel pins depicting Jim Carrey in a tutu — the sanitarium sequence of Ace Ventura was filmed on the grounds outside — the Ancient Spanish Monastery is not only a spiritually galvanizing architectural marvel, but also one of most singular stops in Miami. With a history and artifacts stretching back to Northern Spain 1133 AD, a purchase by William Randolph Hearst (who had the pieces packed in 1100 crates and shipped stateside), an eventual two-year reassembly in Florida ("the biggest jigsaw puzzle in history," wrote Time), an 800-year-old hymnal, the former "wardrobe cabinet" of Pope Urban VIII (1568-1644), and an active modern day bilingual congregation, the vibe is definitely maybe miraculous.
Art of Hip Hop
299 NW 25th St., Miami786-772-1604
artofhiphop.com From the same renegade-celebrating people who gave you Wynwood's popular Graffiti Museum comes this exhibit, "dedicated to the photographers, logo designers, album cover artists, and graffiti writers who shaped the visual identity of Hip Hop." The collection is clearly a labor of love, curated with the help of decades of immersion in the culture and an eye for inflection points. And if you're wondering whether Art of Hip Hop, like Wu-Tang, is for the children, the Sunday morning kids' graffiti drawing led by local artists is your answer.
Black Police Precinct Courthouse and Museum
480 NW 11th St., Miami305-329-2513
historicalblackprecinct.org When a segregated Miami first began hiring Black police officers in 1950 to patrol what is now Overtown and Coconut Grove, they were not provided much in the way of respect or resources. The patrolmen, the museum notes, had "no headquarters, no cars, and no radio contact. They policed by walking, riding bicycles, and using the office of a Black dentist as headquarters, and later a one-bedroom apartment...There are many stories of arrested prisoners being taken to jail on bicycle handlebars, or by walking, and sometimes by hailing a Black citizen's car as it was driving by." According to the Black Police Precinct Courthouse and Museum, violent crimes still dropped by 50 percent. The museum tells this bit of Miami history alongside a community center and a learning space for children from underprivileged neighborhoods.
Coral Castle
28655 S. Dixie Hwy., Homestead305-248-6345
coralcastle.comIf you build it...Billy Idol will come? And write a song about it? And shoot a 1986 music video there? Safe to say that isn't what Latvian émigré Edward Leedskalnin had in mind when he quarried and carved more than a thousand tons of limestone for this beautiful, elegiac sculpture garden of giant gates, crescent moons, and thrones in tribute to heartbreak after his teenage fiancé left him at the altar. The structures are such improbable work for a single five-foot, 100-pound man whose body had been ravaged by tuberculosis, that rumors of supernatural powers persisted. Leedskalnin telling visitors he had "discovered the secrets of the pyramids" did little to dispel this, but it's up to each individual visitor to decide if pulleys and ropes alone were sufficient to put these beautiful monoliths in place. For those of us who are more likely to quarry and carve a pint of Ben & Jerry's in the face of heartbreak, the dedication alone is a marvel, indeed.
Gold Coast Railroad Museum
12450 SW 152nd St., Miami305-253-0063
goldcoastrailroadmuseum.org"Railway termini," E.M. Forster once said, "are our gates to the glorious and unknown." Of course, collectively, we've mostly moved on, but the Gold Coast Railroad Museum will rekindle that magic. In addition to forty historic rail cars — including the armor-plated "Ferdinand Magellan," used by Presidents Roosevelt, Truman, Eisenhower, and Reagan — the museum at the entrance to Zoo Miami boasts 25-minute train rides, a model railroad room, rail equipment displays, and an exhibit devoted to the former Naval Air Station Richmond, the second largest World War II U.S. airship base upon which the museum was built. All aboard!
Haitian Heritage Museum
4141 NE Second Ave., Miami305-371-5988
haitianheritagemuseum.org The Haitian Heritage Museum ensures the original wheel that spun the foundational threads of Miami's Haitian community is not lost. What does that mean in practice? Luminous paintings, historic artifacts, upbeat rhythms and sonorous melodies, striking films, the literature of love and resistance, and a "linkage to Haitian Americans all over the Diaspora and educating the public about the phenomenal contributions that Haitians have made as a people." It's a particularly poignant mission today: As the museum noted in a recent post celebrating Haitian Heritage month, "this year it is a bit different as Haiti continues to fight for its territory and its people. We want to be reminded who we are and who we come from."
HistoryMiami Museum
101 W. Flagler St., Miami305-375-1492
historymiami.orgIf the sort of ho-hum reputation of many city museums is keeping this spot low on your list, it's time to move it on up: This 70,000-square-foot Smithsonian affiliate in downtown Miami gets the job done with flair, from its epic, extraordinarily edifying permanent exhibits ("Tropical Dreams: A People's History of South Florida," "It's a Miami Thing") to its talks, walking tours, and youth field trips and educational programs, HistoryMiami brings the magic of the Magic City to life. Check out everything from a Cuban refugee raft, a Seminole dugout canoe, and early prints by John James Audubon to Pan American World Airways artifacts, more than two million historical images, wooden surfboards, and more.
Jewish Museum of Florida
301 Washington Ave., Miami Beach305-672-5044
jmof.fiu.edu The Jewish Museum of Florida is now in its 30th year — an impressive age for institutions in Miami, but one that nevertheless feels like a mere drop in the bucket in comparison to the more than 250 years of Florida Jewish history the museum covers in such unexpectedly stunning, diverse fashion. Nestled within "two historic buildings that were formerly synagogues for the first Jewish congregation on Miami Beach" — built in 1929 and 1936, respectively, both on the National Register of Historic Places, and connected by a glass domed gallery/bistro — this collection has grown from 6,000 items at opening to more than 120,000 today, ranging from fine art to religious artifacts, archival photographs, books, oral history sound and video recordings, and pop art. The space also features more than 70 stained glass windows, eight Art Deco chandeliers, and a copper Moorish dome. Toss in an eclectic array of special exhibitions — in the recent past, these have included "The Hate Around Us," "Kosher Kush: The Story of Jews and Cannabis," and "Built to Last: The Art of Steve Marcus" — and you might just begin to believe this is God's chosen museum.
Parodi Costume Collection
276 NE 27th St., Miamiparodicostumecollection.com This incredible collection, curated by lifelong fashion-forward seamstress and restorer Francisca Parodi, promises "a vast and deep collection of the history of fashion design" — and, despite the gargantuan nature of that task, does not disappoint. Beginning with Edwardian and Victorian pieces and hitting seemingly every decade and trend up through today, it's an achievement that will wow, whatever your sartorial proclivities or interests. Add smart visiting exhibitions ("Fashion in Orbit: Space Age Past and Future" is a recent example), and you have one of the most unique museums in Miami. Appointment only.
Patricia & Phillip Frost Art Museum
10975 SW 17th St., Miami305-348-2890
frost.fiu.edu The Patricia & Phillip Frost Art Museum is a bit overshadowed in both the public imagination and Google search results by the Patricia & Phillip Frost Museum of Science downtown. That's a shame, because this free museum on the Maidique Campus of FIU showcases a breathtaking collection of contemporary art (with a particular focus on Latin American and Caribbean artists) and modern photography alongside midcentury American prints and pre-Columbian objects. (The 46,000-square-foot building by Yann Weymouth, who also designed the Salvador Dali Museum in St. Petersburg, Florida, is a work of art all its own.) The workshops and lectures, as well as programs for K-12 students, are just the icing on the still-life cake.
Wings Over Miami Air Museum
14710 SW 128th St., Miami305-233-5197
wingsovermiamiairmuseum.com You've heard of a "living museum"? Well, Wings Over Miami is a "flying museum," which means virtually all the aircraft on hand — from the ones that look like something Snoopy would fly in his Flying Ace persona, to the F-14 Tomcat made for the likes of Tom Cruise — regularly take to the air. This operational nature lends the space a vitality that gives its educational aspects (apologies in advance) more wind beneath the wings.
The Wolfsonian-FIU's art deco fortress is just as impressive as its collection.
Photo by Lynton Gardiner
The Wolfsonian
1001 Washington Ave., Miami Beach305-531-1001
wolfsonian.orgSo, granted, a museum needs more than a cool tagline. But having one certainly doesn't hurt, and the Wolfsonian has a great tagline: "Exploring the inventive and provocative character of the modern world." The mission statement is pretty amazing, too: "Rooted in the greatest century of growth and change humanity has ever known — 1850 to 1950 — the Wolfsonian traces the odyssey from agrarian to urban, colonial empires to Cold War superpowers, the first spike of the Transcontinental Railroad to the advent of television." Of course, the best part of this is that the massive idiosyncratic collection lives up to both. It's hard to condense, but suffice it to say, you've never been to another museum quite like this.
World Erotic Art Museum
1205 Washington Ave., Miami Beach305-532-9336
weam.com Did you expect the "only U.S. museum solely dedicated to fine erotic art" to be anywhere other than South Beach? "[Many landlords and politicians] turned me down because, unfortunately, the American public thinks erotic art means pornography," World Erotic Art Museum founder Naomi Wilzig told an interviewer shortly before her death in 2015, "and they were afraid I'd bring something unsavory and nasty to their neighborhoods." And while our city may have no such hang-up, the museum isn't resting upon its (presumably!) pleather-clad laurels. The more than 4000 pieces in its collection exploring various interpretations of hotness from "300 BCE to the immediate present" call to mind the opening lines of the quarter-century-old MTV show Diary: "You think you know...but you have no idea."
