Wolfsonian-FIU

Beginning with a small, streamlined radio he spotted at an antique show, South Florida collector Harvey Mattel built a collection of radios that now numbers in the many hundreds and includes some of the most coveted receivers in existence. In conversation with Wolfsonian development director Michael Hughes, Mattel will reveal what sparked his passion for […]

What should a radio look like? How should a tuning dial feel to the touch? More than a half-century before the iPhone, pioneering industrial designer John Vassos addressed these questions, recognizing that the right answers could mitigate fears about new media technologies and inspire people to welcome them into their homes. Danielle Shapiro, author of […]

The Shrine of the Little Flower, a Catholic church built in the Art Deco style outside Detroit, was the center of a radio empire started by Father Charles Coughlin that reached up to 30 million Americans each week in the 1930s. Originally an advocate of President Roosevelt's New Deal and critic of the Ku Klux […]

During the height of the Art Deco era, a wave of Chinese artists came to Paris to learn from Western culture. Among them was architect Liu Jipiao, the organizer and designer of China's section at the famous 1925 Paris Exposition (which introduced the world to Art Deco), and a key figure in bringing modernist art […]

In the early 20th century, maps played a central role in the development of modern Florida—going beyond the logistics of guiding tourists, investors, and other northerners on their routes to the Sunshine State. Wolfsonian curator Lea Nickless will show how maps were crucial for the promotion of Florida as a premier destination for sunshine and […]

Often one story tall and built of concrete block—with a large screened-in porch, Florida room (more commonly known today as a sunroom), louvered windows, and carport—the Florida House became a popular vernacular form in South Florida after the Second World War. Not simply the result of builders copying designs by known architects like Igor Polevitzky […]

Based on her just-published memoir, Dwell Time, conservator Rosa Lowinger discusses preserving modern tropical buildings in Miami and Havana. From mosaics, murals, and decorative cast stone to terracotta and ironwork, Lowinger will show how repairing the key elements of 20th-century tropical architecture serves as a metaphor for personal healing after loss, particularly the loss of one's […]