Frost Art Museum

Founded in 1977, The Art Museum at Florida International University (TAM/FIU), recently renamed The Patricia & Phillip Frost Art Museum, started as a student gallery. Since then, it has grown to achieve official recognition as a major cultural institution of the State for its unprecedented collection of Latin American and 20th century American art, its innovative exhibitions that draw on or enhance the collection, and its unparalleled service to South Florida's diverse audiences.

In 1999, the museum received accreditation from the American Association of Museums (AAM). From the community, the Frost Art Museum has earned the accolade "Miami's Best Museum" (South Florida's New Times, 1996, 1994, 1993). It has assumed a central role in the FIU community and in the cultural life of South Florida as a whole through its mission to serve the broadest audience possible and to deliver all programs and services free of charge.

Since 1977, the museum has been housed in less than 7,000 interior square feet of an FIU administration building located in the heart of the campus. Through its determination to reach "the broadest audience possible," the Frost Art Museum figuratively burst through its walls to create one of the most prestigious outdoor sculpture programs in the US, with 57 monumental works by the stellar sculptors of contemporary world art.

The community recognizes the Frost Art Museum as the most appropriate home for extraordinary cultural treasures; in 1989, the FIU leadership and the board of the Metropolitan Museum and Art Center ensured the intact survival of this important collection by transferring its ownership to the Frost Art Museum when the private museum closed. Also in 1989, leaders of the exiled Cuban community obtained the transfer of New York's Oscar B. Cintas Foundation Collection to the Frost Art Museum where it serves as a rallying point for a culture in exile.

Although limited by space, the Frost Art Museum’s more than 160 exhibitions since 1977 and broad range of educational programs are unparalleled in their quality and the diversity of audiences they serve. Its student and faculty exhibitions, an essential component of the Museum's academic function, show the work of artists who have achieved significant state and national recognition, including NEA, Guggenheim and Florida Visual Artist Fellowships.

Frost Art Museum-curated exhibitions, drawn from its own, local and national collections, explore recurrent themes from a contemporary perspective and the native aesthetic expressions of the region's diverse people. Borrowed exhibitions enhance understanding of the Frost Art Museum’s collection, introduce new aesthetic concepts in support of artistic exploration, and connect the Museum to underserved audiences.

The Frost Art Museum amplifies the impact of its exhibitions with a wide range of regionally unique and nationally recognized educational programs. The Steven and Dorothea Green Critics' Lecture Series and the Visiting Artist Series directly connect South Florida's audiences with the most important artists, critics and art historians living today. The Frost Art Museum works with Miami-Dade County Public Schools to deliver interdisciplinary training for teachers and tours that reach more than 12,000 teachers and students annually.

Reaffirming its commitment to the excellence of its collections, exhibitions and educational programs, the museum will continue to broaden its base of support, develop a state-of-the-art facility to define new standards in the field, and serve an increasingly larger and more diverse constituency as it enters the millennium.
---www.fiu.edu