RE Log Spring 2021

10 Ransom Everglades LOG SPRING 2021 The collection helped elevate the burgeoning district, and soon became an Art Basel hotspot. Handforth, who was born in Hong Kong, moved to Miami in 1993, and the sculptures he designed in Coconut Grove have been exhibited around the world. In 2020, former RE board chair Rudy Prio Touzet ’76 commissioned Handforth to create The Ringing Rock at Ransom Everglades. “We have incredible institutions now,” Rubell said. “Whether it be private collections or public institutions. There’s so much world-class stuff that’s here. We all need to realize that it’s here, and it’s quite fragile. The pandemic really shook up the bedrock … the cultural bedrock.” Surviving the pandemic When Miami went into a lockdown last spring, collectors, artists and museum owners shifted from concern to panic. “How do we operate during a pandemic?” Greene asked. ‘The pandemic presents significant challenges for an institution like us.” There was, however, a distinct positive: “It [was] also a time,” Greene said, “of great inspiration.” The staff at the de la Cruz Collection went into quarantine together to ensure a quick reopening – and a safe one. When the collection opened its doors again, new rules required visitors to register, limited occupancy to no more than 30 people and mandated mask wearing and other safety measures. The collection was one of the first arts organizations to reopen its doors to the public, along with the Institute of Contemporary Art Miami, which was co-founded by Irma and Norman Braman. “This has been a labor of love,” Rosa de la Cruz said, “And work.” The next step for the de la Cruz Collection: reinstating its myriad education programs, which the de la Cruzes believe are central to the collection’s identity. The collection organizes lectures, offers scholarships to exceptional students of Design and Architecture Senior High School, funds educational travel to Europe for students from the New World School of the Arts and provides summer workshops for elementary school children; all of those were affected by the pandemic. PAMM, which Greene noted takes pride in its “strong educational mission,” pivoted quickly to digital offerings to ensure a continuation of its storytime and other programs for teachers and parents. It also reopened with adapted hours, Rubell family Jason Rubell