MIAMI – May 26, 2023 – Vizcaya Museum and Gardens is excited to announce the artist selection for its 2023 Contemporary Arts Program (CAP) season. After a call for submissions to Miami-based artists, this year’s CAP Selection Panel chose Karla Caprali and Sophia Cabral’s proposal. They will lead the creation of a community-made stop-motion picture over the summer and produce a site-specific installation in the fall, under one overarching theme: The kitchen is the heart of the home.
Karla Caprali is a Brazilian visual artist and filmmaker who lives and works in Miami. She creates meaningful stories through mixed media and animation. Most recently, she’s directed and produced the animated short film “Life” and the animated short documentary “South of 5th.” Sophia Cabral is an architectural designer, professor, and head of Cinza Lua Studio.
Working together under Caprali and Cinza Lua Studios, this mother-daughter collective will explore the power of communal storytelling through “The Kitchin,” the first community-made stop-motion short animation produced on the grounds of Vizcaya Museum and Gardens. Set and production designer Manuel Fernandez lends his expertise to this project, helping bring the Kitchin to life on screen.
The artists will lead FREE filmmaking workshops, teaching the art of stop-motion animation, every Saturday and Sunday afternoon from 12:30 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. throughout the entire month of June in the Vizcaya Village.
“As part of Vizcaya’s annual Participatory Public Art program, this unique initiative aims to foster a deeper connection between the museum and the local community while promoting collaboration and artistic exploration,” said Vizcaya’s Senior Community Program Manager, Rebecca Peterson.
Each workshop will explore a different step in the filmmaking process, covering everything from storyboarding and character development to editing and postproduction. Participants will not only learn new skills but also work together to create an authentic stop-motion film, which will be screened for the public on July 15, 2023, at the series’ culminating event.
HOW TO PARTICIPATE | Taking place at Vizcaya Village every Saturday and Sunday throughout June at 12:30 p.m., all workshops are FREE and no experience is necessary. Access to the east side of the Vizcaya estate is not included with registration. Register online at Vizcaya.org/kitchin
The final film will be screened on the evening of July 15, 2023, from 7:00-9:00 p.m. The evening will include an opportunity for attendees to make their own short films on their phones, live music by Miami string quartet, Baby B Strings, under the direction of Belinda Niling Stohner, poetry by Oscar Fuentes aka The Biscayne Poet, and the debut of “The Kitchin,” as well as behind-the-scenes videos. Workshop participants attend the culminating event for FREE. Community members can purchase tickets for $10 to enjoy the film and related activities throughout the evening.
Vizcaya’s 2023 Contemporary Arts Program artists will also exhibit a new original video-based installation that will bring playful animated narratives into Vizcaya’s historic kitchen by reimagining the sounds, culinary delights and personalities that inhabited this space over one hundred years ago. The exhibition will be on view from November 8, 2023, through April 29, 2024.
The Contemporary Arts Program (CAP) is supported by The Danielson Foundation, the Miami-Dade County Mayor and Board of County Commissioners, as well as anonymous donors; and is sponsored in part by the State of Florida, Department of State, Division of Arts and Culture, the Florida Council on Arts and Culture, and the National Endowment for the Arts.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Karla Caprali was born in the city of Belem, also known as the Edge of the Amazon, in Brazil, and now lives and works in Miami as an artist, animator, director and filmmaker. She has shown her work and attended Artist-In-Residence Programs in Brazil, the United States, Norway, Sweden, and Finland. Besides oil painting and drawing, she creates her animations by handcrafting drawings and using computer software and a 24-inch Wacom tablet to color and animate them.
Sophia Cabral is an architectural designer focused on sustainability and designed ecologies. Cabral holds a Master of Architecture from Florida International University and has worked in architecture firms in Miami, including Arquitectonica and Studio Roberto Rovira. She currently teaches architecture at Florida International University and is kick-starting her own design studio, Cinza Lua Studio, where she explores and materializes imaginative and unconventional projects.
ABOUT VIZCAYA’S CONTEMPORARY ARTS PROGRAM (CAP)
The Contemporary Arts Program (CAP) is a Vizcaya-based commission program that provides artists with the creative challenge to develop original, site-specific work in response to a historic site situated in the public realm. CAP was inspired by the dynamic, creative spirit that characterized Vizcaya’s inception one hundred years ago, and it preserves Vizcaya owner James Deering’s tradition as a patron of the arts. From John Singer Sargent, a houseguest who painted watercolors of the estate, to A. Stirling Calder, who sculpted the figures on the Barge, and Robert Winthrop Chanler, creator of the swimming pool grotto ceiling mural, Vizcaya continues a dialogue between the historic and the contemporary. As was the case one hundred years ago, Vizcaya’s singular sense of place remains the point of departure for artists.
ABOUT VIZCAYA MUSEUM AND GARDENS
Vizcaya Museum and Gardens is a National Historic Landmark that preserves its cultural and environmental resources to engage people in connecting with the past, understanding the present and shaping the future. Built between 1914 and 1922 as the winter home of farming manufacturer James Deering, Vizcaya is one of the most intact remaining examples from this era in the United States, when the nation’s most successful entrepreneur-built estates were inspired by the stately homes of Europe. Vizcaya features a Main House filled with a decorative art collection, 10 acres of formal gardens, a rockland hammock (native forest), mangrove shore, and a historic village that is being restored to tell Vizcaya’s full story and provide additional spaces for programs and community outreach, including those on agriculture. Vizcaya has been a community hub since it opened to the public in 1953; it welcomes 300,000 visitors annually.
Located on Biscayne Bay at 3251 South Miami Avenue, Vizcaya is open Wednesday through Monday from 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Closed Tuesdays, Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day. For more information, visit www.vizcaya.org, connect via social media, or call 305-250-9133.
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