Gator in the Bay during Art Basal 2012
Dec 6 until Dec 9, 2012, 12:00 AM – 12:00 PM
Biscayne Bay
Between Julia Tuttle & Venetian Causeways
Miami, FL
www.treemendousmiami.org
Look out , there’s a huge gator in the bay and he wants to meet you!
Can you imagine an alligator in the bay the size of a football field? It is going to be the largest art project since Christo had the "surrounded islands" in 1983, guaranteed to create a media stir. Art Basal is the most-attended art show in the United States. Miami becomes a mecca for art lovers and tourists. Not just on Miami Beach but nearly every gallery in downtown Miami’s flourishing art center, Wynwood, Coral Gables, Coconut Grove, South Beach all staging their own shows. How does everyone get from here to there but by going across Biscayne Bay.
The "Gator" project will be unique because it is right there for everyone to see it. Residents who normally wouldn’t be going to Art Basal, all of the cruise passengers in and out of the Port of Miami and very importantly, students from all grades. This giant Gator will highlight awareness for the Florida Everglades. We have made arrangements with the public schools to have the middle and senior high students bused in to see the project and receive a printed pamphlet, explaining the importance the Everglades has to the eco-system.
The head is being built on the west coast of Florida. It will be quite a production, 30 feet high. It will come over here by way of Alligator Alley, what else? Then the "head" will be on a moving barge and will go to some fund-raising parties. Then when it is in Biscayne Bay, 6,500 floating art tiles of Everglades scenes will be mounted to create the body and tail.
The floating tiles will be in sections of 102 images each, images of 30 years of photography by noted artist/photographer Lloyd Goradesky. The Kayak Club of Florida International University will take the sections out. This will be a media event as the alligator comes to life right in Biscayne Bay.
The State of Florida is filming it for the Visit Forida website.
A portion of all proceeds will be donated to TREEmendous Miami, which has planted more than 23,000 trees in the past fourteen years. TREEmendous Miami is a non-profit, 501(C) 3 organization. More than 6,000 high school and college students have earned Community Service hours by volunteering with TREEmendous Miami.
One of the things they will receive is worldwide publicity as we’ve already been in a Parisian paper. discovery Channel is filming it, and Visit Florida is putting it on its website. So I guess, presenting sponsor for $50,000 with banners placed on the outside wall of the DoubleTree Hotel, upscale party at DoubleTree,, invitation to all the Gator parties at swanky places. Listed on all material and publicity. Opportunity to speak at launching. This is the largest cultural event in the United States and work our way down from there.
Also this is educational as kids will get material on being "green" and the importance of the Everglades. The head of Gator will be on a flatbed and come across Alligator Alley. It is thirty feet high and fifty feet long. Then it will go on a barge and go into the water.
After it reaches the Woman’s Club/the tiles will be put on to create the body and tail. There will be a processional with this, FIU Kayakers will take out each section of art tiles with a paragraph read as it goes out, sponsors will be able to actually participate by attaching a section of tile. A major sponsor will travel by boat to attach the very last tile out in the bay. They have a chance to be a part of history.
TREEmendous Miami at work with volunteers. Students receive community service hours for their participation.
