Flor500

May 17 - June 13, 2014

FLOR500 is a participatory art, nature, and history project created by Miami artist Xavier Cortada to commemorate Florida’s quincentennial in 2013. The project marks the importance of the moment when Juan Ponce Deleon landed in 1513 and the history of our state changed forever. It provides a glimpse of what Florida’s landscape was like 500 years ago.

Wasmer Gallery - Curated by Mary Sullivan Voytek

“A team of scientists selected the 500 native flowers- the same ones that grew in our state when Juan Ponce de Leon landed and named it "La Florida”–from "flor," the Spanish word for flower. Five hundred Floridians were then invited to depict 500 native wildflowers,” said Cortada.

FLOR500 combines the efforts of artists, scientists, and historians with a goal to raise environmental and ecological awareness. While each of the artists included in this exhibition comes to collaborative work with a unique perspective, their individual creative choices, taken in aggregate, reveal much about the past, present and future of our state’s ecology.

The opening of the FLOR500 exhibit will coincide with Florida Native Plant Society’s 34th Annual Conference, which is being held at FGCU from May 15-18. Prior to the opening reception, from 2:20 p.m. to 3p.m., Xavier Cortada will speak about FLOR500 Project in the Student Union Ballroom on the second floor of the Cohen Student Union.

Participating Artists