Join us!

Miami-Dade County artist-in-residence Xavier Cortada alongside The Office of the Mayor and Miami-Dade Parks, and in partnership with the Cortada Foundation, the Knight Foundation, the University of Miami, and the Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs invite you to the official kickoff for The Underwater, a socially engaged art campaign intended to raise awareness around climate change. The launch will take place on February 2, 2024 at 10:15 a.m. at Matheson Hammock Park, located at 9610 Old Cutler Road, Miami, FL 33156.

The Underwater is a public art initiative created by Miami-Dade County artist-in-residence Xavier Cortada intended to generate awareness and action around the climate crisis through interactive installations across Miami-Dade Parks. These art installations consist of sustainable concrete elevation sculptures that foster community-driven climate solutions with a focus on sea level rise in South Florida.

The concrete elevation sculptures are the latest expansion of Xavier Cortada’s Underwater, and have already been installed at six Miami-Dade Parks, including Westwind Lakes Park, Continental Park, Deerwood Bonita Lakes Park, JL (Joe) and Enid W. Demps Park, Gwen Cherry Park, and Oak Grove Park, with the goal of installing a marker in all Miami-Dade County parks. 

The elevation markers bear a QR code that when scanned will take the park patron to a website that shows six feet of projected sea level rise, allows them to find the elevation of their property,  and invites them to get involved.

“I wanted to create a community-wide participatory art installation to understand we are all in this together, and instead of kicking the can down the road, we can work now to prepare for a future with rising seas,” Cortada said.

Visit the Cortada Foundation to learn more about this initiative.