GOGO MOAD at the 2024 NEA Big Read Miami Family Day

GOGO MOAD at the 2024 NEA Big Read Miami Family Day

MOAD’s free children’s education program on the move, GOGO MOAD pops up at the 2024 NEA Big Read Miami Family Day at Miami Dade College's Koubek Center. GOGO MOAD programs feature shared learning experiences of exploring ideas and creating together, and include artist-led hands-on art-making and fun collaborative activities for the whole family.

Dive into the world of ancient gods, monsters, and mythological creatures in a program led by teaching artist Lorie Ofir and inspired by the pre-Hispanic treasures in the Kislak Collection! Using clay and pigments, participants will create figures, vessels, or symbolic objects infused with personal meaning.

This year's NEA Big Read Miami Family Day highlights myths from around the world. Come dressed as your favorite god or monster for a special mythological edition of Cuatrogatos’ Picnic de Libros/Storybook Picnic! Throughout the day, visitors can also snap a selfie with Hayao Miyazaki’s Spirited Away characters; learn about Afro-Latino drumming and oral traditions with Miami Bloco; and witness Fantasy Theatre Factory appease the (puppet) gods with a one-of-a-kind dance show rooted in AfroCaribbean mythology. Learn about Books for Free, check out a library book mobile, and finish the day with a storytime picnic basket for the whole family. Copies of the 2024 Big Read book, Madeline Miller’s CIRCE, and themed children’s books will be given away while supplies last! The day's programming is in Spanish and English.

Miami artist Lorie Ofir explores interconnections between human nature and the nature around us through expansive landscape paintings that fuse the elsewhere with an object we experience intimately and daily—our beds. She received her BFA from the University of Florence, has participated in artist residencies in Colorado, New York, and in Miami at the Deering Estate, and has exhibited her work in the U.S. and abroad, including shows at the Jewish Museum of Florida, Harn Museum of Art, Florence University of the Arts, Design Center of the Americas, and galleries in Miami, New York, and Colorado. Ofir is also an Art and Special Needs Instructor with classrooms based on individualized and experiential learning. For the past five years, she was a Teaching Artist at the Pérez Art Museum Miami. With a gallery as a classroom, she enabled youth to have personalized experiences with contemporary art as a catalyst for curiosity, experimentation, and analytical thinking.

GOGO MOAD is open to children ages 5 and up and their families. This event is free and open to the public.

GOGO MOAD is part of the Museum Without Boundaries initiative.