The STORIES of Vizcaya

Vizcaya is not just about preserving the past. With its lush formal gardens, rich habitats and endangered landscapes, the museum is also focused on cultivating a sustainable future. This year, Vizcaya is proud to announce its participation in Food Waste Prevention Week, a pioneering national initiative aimed at reducing food waste, supporting our environment, and

“Our Future’s Heritage” marked a significant event in Vizcaya Museum and Gardens’ ongoing commitment to honoring and celebrating diverse cultural traditions.   Held in partnership with Voices of the River of Grass, this installment of Vizcaya Late brought Indigenous voices and perspectives to the forefront, offering a unique opportunity for visitors to engage with and learn

Think of composting as nature’s own recycling process. It’s a simple yet transformative practice that turns your everyday kitchen scraps and yard waste into nutrients for your garden or potted plants. Imagine taking things like banana peels, apple cores, and fallen leaves and turning this would-be waste into rich, fertile soil that breathes life into

Vizcaya is proud to be a place where love blooms. Our visitors have been finding and celebrating love here for decades and we take the time to honor that tradition every February.

Spring Hill Bourbon Whiskey. Vizcaya Museum and Gardens. Despite having its most active years during the age of Prohibition, Vizcaya was anything but a dry estate. Archival purchase records and letters tell us that James Deering bought thousands of dollars’ worth of alcohol for Vizcaya and many original bottles remain in the collection today. Despite

Tracing Women in 19th and 20th Century Archival Collections Are you curious about the staff who worked behind the scenes maintaining Vizcaya for James Deering? So are we! Our archives hold thousands of letters, blueprints, financial records and photographs documenting the construction of Vizcaya. While these records hold valuable information on other aspects of Vizcaya,

Designing Vizcaya The design and construction of Vizcaya was a unique challenge. Instead of designing the house and then finding objects to complement it, as was usually done, Vizcaya was designed around objects selected by James Deering and his artistic director Paul Chalfin. The pair made several trips abroad to purchase objects before the house

By Elena Davila, Archives Digitization Intern If you have toured Vizcaya on a late afternoon, you may have been pleasantly surprised by the sound of music filling the home. The instrument responsible is the impressive pipe organ, located in the Living Room on the Northeast corner of the home, with its pipes housed directly behind

Through the artistic vision of Paul Chalfin, Vizcaya’s Artistic Director, these dragons were converted into electric lights, effectively merging aesthetics with utility. The dragons’ open mouths were outfitted with three lightbulbs and installed on the north and south sides of the second-floor galleries of the Main House. Conservation Treatment These fantastical light fixtures were recently

Vizcaya hit 100,000 followers on Instagram! When we asked our audience how we should celebrate, the top requests were discounts and giveaways and that’s exactly what we’re doing. We got the ball rolling by giving away 10 FREE tickets to the Vizcaya Late program on September 27 and now we’re giving away 100 FREE individual