WOPHA special programming during Miami Art Week 2022 in partnership with AIRIE

/ 12.19.2022

WOPHA partnered with Artists in Residence in the Everglades (AIRIE) to bring together national and South Florida women photographers in a reflection of women, photography, and landscape during Miami Art Week 2022. On December 2, AIRIE hosted its inaugural Art + Environment Summit –a free event focused on how artists engage diverse audiences in ecological issues and make the outdoors a space of belonging for all. The event highlighted the importance of the Everglades to the Florida ecosystem while discussing identity, climate activism, and ecological futures through artistic practices.

WOPHA’s ongoing program Women Photographers, Environmental Futures focuses on women, photography, afro-indigenous futurism, and climate change. Through this partnership, we support AIRIE’s mission of empowering artists to think creatively and critically about their relationship to the environment by focusing on the experiences of Black and Latinx women photographers. 

The Summit’s afternoon presented by WOPHA included a curated lunch followed by, a keynote presentation by Mikhaile Solomon (Prizm Art Fair, Founding Director), a conversation moderated by Aldeide Delgado (WOPHA, Founder & Director), and a closing performance by Arsimmer McCoy (2022 AIRIE Fellow). Panelists included Nadia Huggins (2022 WOPHA Artist in Residence), Lola Flash (2022 AIRIE Fellow), and Adama Delphine Fawundu (2021 WOPHA Artist in Residence & Co-founder of MFON: Women Photographers of the African Diaspora). The event took place at The Carter Project, 3333 NW 6th Ave Miami, FL 33127. Responding to the question “How do women photographers imagine environmental futures?,” panelists reflected on Afrofuturism and their recent creative work. 

On December 3, WOPHA hosted an immersive Photowalk in the Everglades National Park to connect with nature after a packed Miami Art Week. Led by women photographers Clara Toro and Lisette Morales McCabe, participants learned tips and techniques and built visual literacy skills. As part of the Park’s 75th anniversary, participants also attended a special preview of the exhibition “Passages,” curated by AIRIE Creative Director Cornelius Tulloch, and enjoyed a toast at 11:00 am in the NEST gallery. 

This program was made possible with support from Artists in Residence in Everglades (AIRIE) and Friends of the Everglades, Sommsation, and Ten to One Rum.

About participants

Aldeide Delgado is a Cuban-born, Miami-based independent Latinx art historian and curator, founder & director of Women Photographers International Archive (WOPHA). She has a background in advising and presenting at art history forums based on photography, including lectures at the Tate Modern, Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM), DePaul Art Museum, King’s College London, California Institute of the Arts (CalArts), and The New School. Delgado conceptualized the world’s first-ever feminist photography collective conference, WOPHA Congress: Women, Photography, and Feminisms (November 17-20, 2021). She publishes and curates from feminist and decolonial perspectives on crucial topics of the history of photography and abstraction within Latin American, Caribbean, and Latinx contexts. She is an active member of PAMM’s International Women’s Committee and PAMM’s Latin American and Latinx Art Fund, US Latinx Art Forum, and the steering committees of the Feminist Art Coalition and Fast Forward: Women in Photography.

Adama Delphine Fawundu is a photographer and visual artist born in Brooklyn, NY.  Fawundu co-published the critically acclaimed book, MFON: Women Photographers of the African Diaspora. For decades, she has exhibited both nationally and internationally and is a 2022 Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition finalist.  Her awards include, the Anonymous Was A Woman Award, New York Foundation for The Arts Photography Fellowship (2016) and the Rema Hort Mann Artist Grant (2018), amongst others. She was commissioned by the Park Avenue Armory to participate in the 100 Years|100 Women Project/The Women’s Suffrage NYC Centennial Consortium (2019-2021).  Her works are in the permanent collections of the Brooklyn Museum of Art, Princeton University Museum, Bryn Mawr College, The Petrucci Family Foundation of African American Art, The Brooklyn Historical Society, Norton Museum of Art, The David C. Driskell Art Collection, and private collections. She is an Assistant Professor of Visual Arts at Columbia University. 

Nadia Huggins was born in Trinidad and Tobago and grew up in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, where she is currently based. A self-taught artist, she works in photography and, since 2010, has built a body of images that are characterized by her observation of the everyday. Her work merges documentary and conceptual practices, which explore belonging, identity, and memory through a contemporary approach focused on re-presenting Caribbean landscapes and the sea. Nadia’s photographs have been exhibited in group shows in Canada, USA, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, Barbados, Ethiopia, Guadeloupe, France, and the Dominican Republic. Her work forms part of the collection of The Wedge Collection (Toronto), The National Gallery of Jamaica (Kingston), and The Art Museum of the Americas (Washington DC). Nadia was selected for the New York Times Portfolio Review (2018), and her work has been included in several publications, including A to Z of Caribbean Art. She is the co-founder of ARC Magazine and One Drop in the Ocean – an initiative that aims to raise awareness about marine debris. 

Working at the forefront of genderqueer visual politics for more than three decades, Lola Flash’s photography challenges stereotypes and gender, sexual and racial preconceptions. Her art and activism are profoundly connected, fueling a life-long commitment to visibility and preserving the legacy of LGBTQIA+ and communities of color worldwide. She received her bachelor’s degree from Maryland Institute and her Master’s from London College of Printing. In 2008, she was a resident at Light Work and in 2015, she participated at Alice Yard, in Trinidad. In 2019, she was a resident at Center for Photography at Woodstock. Flash has work included in public collections such as the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the Brooklyn Museum, the Whitney and MoMA. Pen + Brush Gallery’s inaugural exhibition for 2018, featured a 30-year retrospective of her significant photographs. Flash’s practice is firmly rooted in social justice advocacy around sexual, racial, and cultural differences.

Clara Toro is a Colombian industrial designer and photographer. She graduated from Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana and studied at Université de Montreal, Pratt Institute, and Roberto Mata School of Photography. Toro holds a degree in Documentary Practice and Visual Journalism from the International Center of Photography, where she received a Director’s Fellowship. She participated in the Eddie Adams Workshop, where she completed a project for which she received an award from The Wall Street Journal. She does freelance work for Univision.com, The 19th.com, The Wall Street Journal, and volunteer photography work for nonprofits. She is a resident artist at The Bakehouse Art Complex and a member of Women Photographers International Archive (WOPHA). Clara Toro has participated in solo and group exhibits at The Bakehouse Art Complex, Coral Gables Museum, MIFA and the Mexican consulate. She is a winner of a 2022 Ellies Creator Award for her project “Eight minutes.”

Lisette Morales McCabe is a multicultural Nicaraguan-born photographer. Her work focuses on identity, gender, ecology, and food heritage. Lisette seeks to create visual narratives for healing and to dislodge stereotypes. She’s based in Southwest Florida. Her work has appeared on WGCU NPR, Univision, Neapolitan Family Magazine, éBella Magazine, The News-Press, El Café Latino Magazine, Bloomberg Business news, and Harvard Review on Latin America. She’s a member of Women Photographers International Archive (WOPHA), Diversify Photo, The Authority Collective, and The Artful Activist.

Mikhaile Solomon is a designer and arts advocate with backgrounds in a myriad of arts disciplines including theatre, dance, and architecture. She received her Bachelor of Arts from the University of South Florida in Theatre Arts and her Master of Architecture from Florida International University. Mikhaile enjoys working on projects that give her the opportunity to share her love of art, design, and architecture with the communities. She is the Founding Director of Prizm Art Fair, which exhibits artists from Africa and the African Diaspora, reflecting global trends in contemporary art, through a blockbuster exhibit held during Art Basel/Miami. She hopes to use her varied skills in arts and design to set precedents for the future of Miami’s arts and culture scene.

Arsimmer McCoy is a Miami Gardens, Florida-based storyteller, collaborative artist, educator, and cultural worker, who has been dedicated to these disciplines for over a decade. Raised in Richmond Heights, Florida, McCoy earned her Bachelor’s degree of Arts and Literature at Florida Memorial University. She has performed around the world, alongside artists of multiple disciplines and considers it her obligation to bring back the knowledge and stories to her students in South Florida. McCoy produces work in the form of poetry, short story literature, creative writing, performance, educational workshops, and creative direction.

About AIRIE

Artists in Residence in Everglades (AIRIE), in partnership with the Everglades National Park, empowers artists to think creatively and critically about their relationship to the environment with a mission of revealing new paths forward. Since 2001, AIRIE has welcomed over 185 artists, writers, curators, choreographers, musicians, and other creatives to its residency program, permeating the national and international art landscape with unique interpretations and stories of the Everglades.