Naty K.
Yelp
I attended FIU and as an alumni, I had no idea there was actually a museum on campus. I guess the school did not make much of an effort to advertise it, so unless you happened to walk around the whole campus or took classes near the museum, then, like me, you were probably unaware of its existence, which is a shame. I actually read about it in the Miami New Times a few years ago, but after graduation, and was surprised to read that this museum has been around since the 70s! Who knew?
The museum is rather small. Three floors, two collections (one per floor, the first floor has nothing though there are some towering sculptures at the entrance). The exhibits this past weekend were The Art of Video Games, and Predators and Prey: A Roman Mosaic from Lod. The third floor had some pictures by a local photographer who photographed daily life scenes in Westchester. There was also a Birol and Karelina wall sculpture, and a tent-like exhibit by an artist of Portuguese descendance that depicted the migrant experience. Museum admission is free, so I guess you have no room to complain about the fact there are few exhibits, but still, compared to FAU (also a public university), Frost Art Museum pales in comparison. The museum is very modern in its appearance - a glass building with a suspended staircase.
The Art of Video Games is one of the first exhibitions to explore the forty-year evolution of video games as an artistic medium, with a focus on striking visual effects and the creative use of new technologies. We see videogame consoles and the evolution of the graphics and capability of these, starting with the Atari, ColecoVision, Nintendo NES, and on to the PS3, and Xbox. Some of the consoles allow you to play the loaded videogame, giving the museum goer the chance of an interactive experience. I watched my friend embarrass himself at Pac-Man, and he watched me relive my childhood of SuperMario Bros. on the NES. There were some cool Alienware towers and laptops also on display.
We then proceeded to see the historic Roman Mosaic exhibit. In 1996, workmen widening the Jerusalem-Tel Aviv road in Lod (formerly Lydda), Israel, made a startling discovery: signs of a Roman mosaic pavement were found about three feet below the modern ground surface. A rescue excavation was conducted immediately by the Israel Antiquities Authority, revealing a mosaic floor that measures approximately 50 feet long by 27 feet wide. This large and extraordinarily detailed mosaic floor has only recently been carefully removed from its site and conserved. Dating to approximately the 3rd century CE, the opulent mosaic graced the floor in a reception hall of a private home. It is being displayed in the museum for all to see, and there is also a video presentation on mosaics, how they are made, and the extensive steps that had to be taken to remove this specific mosaic, preserve it, and be able to move it around for its traveling exhibition.
The third floor was interesting. A large wall sculpture of different colors that resembles tree roots and flowers, pictures by a local photographer, screen prints by a Master of Arts FIU student, and a tent with colorful patches of fabric depicting family photographs and letters. The tent is lit up from the inside and you can see a small cot, a fan, and other Spartan furnishings inside. I guess this is how the migrants portrayed in this exhibit lived, as they traveled and established themselves. My friend found the tent creepy. He didn't want to say more. You can easily see the whole museum in about an hour. After we visited the museum, we took a stroll through the FIU Nature Preserve in the uncomfortable heat and humidity. If you're a student on campus, you should make an effort to support your school and the arts and stop on by! I will be monitoring their upcoming exhibits and plan to return if one of them strikes my eye.
