First public art sculpture honoring LGBTQ champions unveiled in Miami

This is the first time a permanent public art installation in Miami-Dade County honors the LGBTQ community in this manner. The sculpture includes a time-line that comes full circle from 1977-2017: starting with Ruth Shack’s historic championing of gay rights in 1977, to forty years later when the made-in-Miami film Moonlight is the first LGBTQ film ever to win the Oscar for Best Motion Picture, as well as being the first with an all-black cast. Moonlight was directed and written by Miamians Barry Jenkins and Tarell Alvin McCraney.

“The project was originally inspired by the June 2016 tragedy at Orlando’s Pulse nightclub,” said Councilman Galvin, who has served in public office for 18 years (making Galvin one of the longest-serving openly gay elected officials in the United States). “Rather than be a somber memorial to those victims, North Miami’s sculpture celebrates LGBTQ lives that inspire all of us, and acknowledges the legacy of LGBTQ milestones in Miami-Dade County’s history,” adds Galvin.

This project was established through the City of North Miami’s Art in Public Places program and is funded by the City of North Miami’s Council District 1 budget. The process took nine months, and began in the summer of 2016 when Councilman Galvin expressed the idea to commemorate the tragedy at Orlando’s Pulse nightclub.

A call-to-artists was published by the City of North Miami last September, and more than thirty artists responded to the call with their submissions. The winning artwork was selected by a committee of cultural leaders and experts, and the $30,000 award for production of the artwork was announced last November.

“The unveiling event was beyond poignant and moving in ways I didn’t expect,” said the artist Alan Gutierrez. “I knew I was creating something that would be a part of a community, but I didn’t anticipate its place in a movement – a movement guided by pioneers on the new frontiers of love and acceptance.”

Pioneers of the LGBTQ movement are featured in a plaque that stands alongside the artwork installation, serving as a time-line of Miami-Dade County’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Queer history.