By James Echols
On Saturday, January 31st, Life Is Art hosted a wonderful evening of music, art, dance, performance, sips and bites, good vibes and good company celebrating six years of supporting arts and community. There was a full evening of arts and entertainment surrounding good company and good vibes.
Live music filled the night featuring The Bows Ties with their vintage bluegrass sounds, Montserrat Franco with her multilingual lounge classics, a special performance by pop star Jane “Jei” Castro, as well as a DJ Hank Justice rocking the night away. There was live painting by local artists Ileana Collazo, Aquarela Sabol, TeePop and Nicole Salgar.
Enhancing the night’s entertainment were incredible interactive creature performances by Kikimora Studio, a dance duet by Amy San Pedro & Meredith Barton, free mini massages by Freshly Squeezed, and live typewritten poetry by Oscar Fuentes, the Biscayne Poet. Guests enjoyed complimentary libations by Blue Nectar Tequila and cuisine tastings, as well as a full cash bar.
Life Is Art received a proclamation from the City Of Miami Beach, presented by Vice-Mayor Joy Malakoff on behalf of Mayor Philip Levine of the City Commission proclaiming that January 31, 2015 was Life Is Art day!
The event took place inside the Hotel Astor, downstairs in their newly renovated downstairs Social Club. Designed to be a speakeasy style locals hangout, the Social Club features a warm, intimate feel with retro touches like their zebra pattern couches.
“Hotel Astor is delighted to support Life is Art for its 6th Anniversary,” said Glenn Valencia, the hotel manager. Valencia went on to say, “The hotel, as part of is cultural program; is exposing to the local art community its recently opened Speakeasy called The Astor Social Club, hidden in the basement of the hotel with its entrance on 10th Street.” James Echols, co-founder of Life Is Art said, “We are very excited to have worked with an iconic hotel like Hotel Astor and they have been wonderful to us.”
For six years, Life Is Art has worked to support and promote the local arts and artists, the community, other organizations, local businesses and the residents. They are committed to making Miami a better place to live, work and love.
Founded in 2009, Life Is Art was, and still is, one of the few groups to focus on local artists and provide a range of services and opportunities. At that time very few people were talking about local artists and even fewer were doing anything about the creativity drain the area was experiencing. Life Is Art’s programming has grown to leverage the arts and culture to create positive change in the community.
Sponsors include Hotel Astor, Blue Nectar Tequila, Tropicult, MiamiArtZine, Alban Communications and Miami Social Marketing.
