ArtServe will host an Everglades-focused art exhibit to commemorate Earth Day. The display, titled “Pa-Hay-Okee—Land of Grassy Water,” will open on April 14 and is dedicated to the urgency of preserving and restoring South Florida’s Everglades ecosystem.
With support from Funding Arts Broward, Pa-Hay-Okee will feature an artist panel discussion from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. on April 14, followed by an opening reception and preview of the exhibit’s artworks from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. at 1350 East Sunrise Blvd. Admission is free to both opening night events and to the display, which lasts through June 26, Mondays through Saturdays.
Attending opening night will be Pa-Hay-Okee Guest Curator and ARTSail founder Ombretta Agró Andruff (pictured left), along with many Pa-Hay-Okee featured artists.
“Art has become an indispensable method for increasing knowledge, raising appreciation and inspiring action on the environment,” Andruff says. “We hope that through this exhibition and its accompanying educational program, our audience will explore, fall in love with and learn to care for the life-sustaining ecosystem right in our backyard.”
The Pa-Hay-Okee exhibit will feature installations and engagements to raise ecological awareness by exploring threats to Florida’s environment while highlighting a sense of urgency to the human impact on the fragile ecosystem of South Florida. A giant installation of plastic bags is among those works that demonstrate the devastation of single-use plastic bag pollution and the destruction it causes.
Along with Andruff, ArtServe curator Sophie Bonet has gathered an impactful collection of multidisciplinary works and performances to help inspire meaningful discussion and public understanding and appreciation for the delicate Everglades habitat. Exhibiting artists include Priscilla Aleman, Alissa Alfonso, Elizabeth Condon, Jenna Efrein, Simon Faithfull, Lucinda Linderman, Deborah Mitchell, Christina Pettersson and Laurencia Strauss, among others.
ArtServe will host a closing reception on Friday, June 17, featuring multidisciplinary artistic performances such as poetry reading and video screenings. For more information, call (954) 462-8190 or email information@artserve.org.
