For the past 13 years, Theatre de Underground has been a weekly creative free-for-all where Miami's aspiring singer-songwriters, punk rockers, and noise freaks have gathered to strum, scream, and literally crap their pants in hopes of booking a paying gig at the legendary Churchill's Pub. Of course, the talent has never been exclusively musical. As the self-described "most open-minded (and longest-running) open-mike night in town," Theatre de Underground has steadfastly preserved its backyard patio stage's reputation as a lawless, judgment-free zone upon which any humanoid with a performative talent can endeavor to earn fame, fortune, or unshakable shame. Over the past decade and counting, there have been, the evening's overseers say, thousands and thousands of "poets, storytellers, musicians, bands, comedians, magicians, jugglers, and a few things that cannot be categorized." This is the quintessential Miami open-mike night. And it isn't always good. But it's always what the average Churchill's drunk would describe as "fucking entertaining."

Tucked away amid an array of warehouses in southwest Miami is your latest wax addiction. Museo del Disco has hooked up music junkies with a wide selection of CDs, DVDs, cassettes, and more since 2001, but the institution's foray into vinyl began just a couple of years ago. As interest in the once-obsolete format continues to surge, so too does Museo's burgeoning collection, with new rows of classic wax appearing every month. All artists are lumped together alphabetically, although there's a classic blues and jazz section that stands alone for music fans with a classic edge. Sift through the LPs to find vintage concert recordings like Miami Pop Festival or new hit makers from Fun to Ariel Pink. The price is right considering all the records they carry are brand new. And if you need any guidance in how to stuff your vinyl crate, musically obsessed owner Hinsul Lazo is sure to come by and show you around before you even have to ask.

Amid yet another futuristic-looking development boom, filled with towering cranes and shiny skyscrapers, it's easy to forget the Magic City has a rich past. Thankfully, a few minutes spent wandering through HistoryMiami cures that misconception in a hurry. Stashed away in an expansive building in downtown Miami are scores of archives, artifacts, and photographs from every era of South Florida's development, including more than a million images from the late 1800s to today. HistoryMiami grew even bigger this year thanks to the neighboring Miami Art Museum's move to a glittering new building on Biscayne Bay. The extra space allowed HistoryMiami to usher in several memorable exhibitions, including "Some Like It Hot," which concentrated on the evolution of the burgeoning street art community in Miami, and "Concrete Paradise," which featured audio clips, images, and historic plans concerning Miami Marine Stadium, an iconic architectural gem shuttered after Hurricane Andrew.

Readers' choice: Pérez Art Museum Miami

Last year's public feud between the City of North Miami and the board of its Museum of Contemporary Art got ugly. But at least it had a happy ending: the addition of the Institute of Contemporary Art to Miami's ever-evolving art scene. Founded by former MOCA board members and staff, the ICA opened with a bang during Art Basel 2014, showcasing the politically charged works of New York artist Andra Ursuta alongside an immersive installation, Sanatorium, for which Mexican artist Pedro Reyes trained local volunteers to offer free "therapy" to museum visitors. Participants engaged in everything from theater warm-up exercises to hypnosis, creating one of the most unforgettable events to take place during Miami Art Week last year. The ICA also showed off its commitment to Miami by opening its exhibitions to area schoolchildren before the general public. And all of this went down at the Moore Building in the Design District, an area that in recent years has been better known for designer shopping than boundary-pushing art. Oh, and did we mention admission is free?

Even in a town where pop-up galleries burst onto the scene and disappear with fruit-fly-like speed, Guccivuitton is a new kid on the block. Headed by local artists Loriel Beltran, Domingo Castillo, and Aramis Gutierrez, the cheekily named outpost opened its doors in 2013 in Little Haiti. The gallery hit it big with its very first show, "Art404 — IRL (In Real Life)." Since then, Guccivuitton has hosted a variety of smart and interesting exhibitions, including the 2014 group show "Luxury Face," which elegantly skewered consumer culture. That exhibition caught the attention of the New York Times and Vice's i-D. And most recently, the gallery hosted what was likely the most interesting of the Purvis Young shows that have flooded the city in the past year. Perhaps it's also worth mentioning that the gallery has managed this success without the hype of Wynwood's graffiti-covered walls. Guccivuitton recently expanded its reach to Miami's museums. The collective's collaboration with the Institute of Contemporary Art is on view at that museum until September 25. The gallery's hours are Saturday from noon to 5 and by appointment.

Readers' choice: Locust Projects

A room partition decorated with busty beach babes. A love seat constructed out of concrete dividers. Planters made of South Florida earth and tiny treasures, like action figures, that the artist himself dug up. Emmett Moore's exhibit at Design Miami last year brought peak 305 flair to the art fair — and cemented the gallery representing him, Gallery Diet, as the first Miami-based space to earn a spot at Design Miami in its ten-year history. Miami Art Week 2014 may have been the first time that out-of-towners discovered Moore's work, but locals in the know have been familiar with the sculptor and designer's simple, striking creations for years. Sometimes they're functional, like his artfully designed chairs and shelves. (Moore studied furniture design at RISD.) Sometimes they're abstract, like pieces of plywood digitally printed with trippy designs. And often they reference the city Moore calls home, whether through the outline of a pair of sunglasses he installed on Gallery Diet's exterior or the sign he rescued from Miami Marine Stadium and folded into a sculpture, which was on view at Swampspace last year. Moore applies his restrained taste to Miami's outrageous ambiance, and the result is a body of work that'll inspire you to see the city in a new light.

emmettmoore.com

Walking through Wynwood is like taking a master class in street art: You're surrounded by murals created by an ever-changing roster of artists practicing a wide variety of styles. But for the students at Wynwood's Jose de Diego Middle School, the trip to school was once the only arts education they got. Despite its location in Miami's busiest arts district, funding shortfalls meant Jose de Diego had been without an arts program for five years. But then Miami's booming street art scene got involved. In 2014, dozens of artists, organized by WynwoodMap.com creator Robert William, joined forces to beautify the school's plain white walls — and to help its students in the process. Now students attend classes surrounded by works of art created by the city's top names, like Ahol Sniffs Glue and Typoe, as well as international talent including UK artist D*Face and Italy's Pixel Pancho. The project debuted during Art Basel. Now the murals provide limitless inspiration for the kids who walk its halls — and Jose de Diego's new arts program is slated to begin in the fall thanks in part to money raised by the mural-painting event.

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Gideon Barnett isn't your average Miami photographer. You won't find perfectly sunlit photographs of the waterfront skyline hanging in his shows, and the city's beautiful people aren't usually posing for his camera. Miami, however, is omnipresent in Barnett's work. If you quickly glance at his series of photographs titled Modern Pictures, you'll simply see a perfectly composed photograph of the Magic City, but look closer and the city starts to unravel: In Dolorous Interlude, children play in idyllic weather in a verdant park, but in the corner of the photograph lies a passed-out homeless man; in Landscape With Fallen Child, expensive boats dock at Bayshore and the scene's splendor makes it easy to miss the small child drowning in the photo's middle ground. Modern Pictures captures Miami's dichotomy: on one hand glittering and gorgeous, on the other dysfunctional and dangerous.

gideonbarnett.com

Local rockers Aura the Band's dream tour would be with Joe Satriani. Hardcore group Trench's members "all hate cops." South Florida up-and-comers Pocket of Lollipops began writing songs after being inspired by the documentary La Bamba. These are just a few of the myriad and fascinating revelations that have been gifted to Miami music lovers by Tropicult, a wonderfully diverse site devoted to Miami's food, fashion, film, art, music, and events. The recurring Behind the Music series, which features interviews with local bands like those cited above, is consistently fascinating. Tropicult even turns Miami's narcissistic fashion culture on its head via stories and suggestions on trends by local shop owner Dopedoll Vintage.

tropicult.com

Phillip Pessar is already a local superstar on Flickr, where he points his camera lens at landmarks all around the Magic City. However, if you're expecting photos of Miami's soaring skyscrapers and hoity-toity hotels on his Instagram feed, you'll be sorely disappointed. There's some of that, but the bulk of the 58-year-old photographer's work documents the Miami we remember as children and which is quickly disappearing to make room for residents with little sentimental attachment to the city. Yes, Pessar's oeuvre includes that old-school Dairy Queen your dad used to take you to, and it includes the seedy Okeechobee Road motels you walked by on your way to school. And though Pessar isn't as active on Instagram as Flickr, his feed is a good primer for his work and will probably lead you to his extensive Flickr collection, where you can easily spend half a day looking through all the photos. "I'm trying to keep the memory of the few things that are left in South Florida that have been here for 40 years but are disappearing little by little," he recently told New Times. Get ready for the tsunami of nostalgia you're about to feel.

instagram.com/phillippessar