This Art is So Gay an LGBT Artist Exhibition
Opening Reception – November 5th, 6 p.m. – 10 p.m. (during Sleepless Night)
Closing Reception – December 4th, 6 p.m. – 8 p.m. (during Art Basel Miami Beach)
LGBT Visitor Center
1130 Washington Avenue
First Floor
Miami Beach, FL
(Washington between 11th and 12th Streets)

South Florida LGBT Visual Artists
Exhibition Hours – Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Saturday, November 5 to Monday, December 5, 2011

All events and the exhibition are FREE and open to the public

Parking: 12th Street Municipal Garage & Metered Street Parking

Eleven local artists have been selected to participate in “This Art is So Gay,” a visual art exhibition at the Miami Beach LGBT Visitor Center, sponsored by MetLife. The exhibition will kick off with an artists’ reception during Sleepless Night, November 5, from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m., with the artists in attendance and all art will be offered for sale with proceeds benefitting the not-for-profit MDGLCC Foundation for its LGBT scholarship program. The reception and exhibit are free and open to the public with the exhibition running through December 5 during Art Basel. The LGBT Visitor Center is located at 1130 Washington Avenue, First Floor, Miami Beach.

In addition to the visual art exhibition, the Sleepless Night kick-off reception will feature interactive “flash-mob” hurricane parties in celebration of “Captiva,” a new comedy that will be making its world premiere at the Adrienne Arsht Center’s Carnival Studio Theater. “Captiva,” from 2011 Carbonell Award recipient Christopher Demos-Brown, explores what happens when a family is stranded together on that western Florida island during a hurricane and they are forced to face each other with honesty and bottles of wine.

“We encourage the community to come out and support our local LGBT artists at this amazing exhibition’s unveiling reception,” said Steve Adkins, chairman of the board of the MDGLCC Foundation, Inc. “There won’t be a better way for people to kick off their Sleepless Night art experience.”

Exhibiting artists selected by the panel of judges are:
Lewis Aqui, photography
Carla Fache, abstract painting
Raul Frontal, photography
Pete Halpern, landscape paintings
Marcelo Holzinger, contemporary paintings
Ali Miranda, photography
Alfredo Perez, etched oil on canvas
Dale Stein, photography
Tolibia, mixed media
Evelyn Valdirio, painting
Alex Vera, painting

“The response to the call-for-entries from the LGBT artistic community was overwhelming,” said Cindy Brown, executive director of the LGBT Visitor Center. “There will definitely be more art exhibitions at the Center in the future.”

The MDGLCC opened the country’s first-ever Chamber-sponsored LGBT Visitor Center last November. The Center is open to the public five days a week and has been the venue for special events for the MDGLCC, MetLife, Florida Grand Opera, Miami Gay & Lesbian Film Festival and Miami Beach Gay Pride, just to name a few. The LGBT Visitor Center, sponsored by MetLife, is located in Miami Beach’s Old City Hall at 1130 Washington Avenue, First Floor North, Miami Beach, in the heart of South Beach.