Artist José Bedia’s work, symbolic and rooted in ancient traditions, blends anthropology, storytelling, and Afro-Caribbean influences. In fact, his personal art collection is that of tribal and ethnographic art. His practice, he says, his grounded in investigation and search doing “field work” journeys to other countries that inspire and inform the work. It is these qualities that gained him a $75,000 award as part of Oolite Arts’ The Ellies Awards.
Bedia is the recipient Oolite’s Michael Richards Award, named in honor of late artist and Oolite Arts alumnus Michael Richards, who passed away in his art studio in the World Trade Center during the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.
“This award will allow me a greater liberty to study ancient traditions and have new and direct contact with them,” Bedia said. “Normally I finance these trips personally, but this award will help continue my explorations and research in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, and to be able to help local indigenous colleagues that are still active in their sacred practices,” whom he said he remains in constant contact.
The award recognizes an artist who has established and sustained their practice in Miami while giving back to the community. Born and raised in Havana, Bedia lived in Mexico before moving to Miami in 1993.
This year is the 40th anniversary of Oolite Arts, which was founded by late potter and visionary Ellie Schneiderman. In 2018, Oolite created The Ellies award in her honor.
“Looking back at Oolite Arts’ legacy over the past 40 years, I’m amazed at how our late founder’s simple idea — giving artists space to create — has helped play a pivotal role in transforming Miami into the global arts destination it is today,” said John Abodeely, Oolite Arts’ president and CEO, who began his new role in January.
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This year’s awards total $600,000 to support more than 45 local visual artists and art educators. It is the largest amount ever awarded in a single year of the program, according to Abodeely.
“This record-breaking year for The Ellies reaffirms our belief that artists are the true heartbeat of the city,” Abodeely said.
The Michael Richards Award is one of the special awards along with the $25,000 Social Justice Award.
T. Elliot Mansa’s work explores familial and socio-political themes through the lens of West African myth and lore.
“(The Social Justice Award) is about supporting artists who have been diligent. I want to use the opportunity to create a new kind of social practice that is more centered in visual community activism,” said the Miami born artist who added that he has been an art teacher for 10 years, teaching every grade up to undergraduate students and in underserved communities.
“The teaching practice helps me speak cross-generationally. The work is about and for the Black community. Teaching students and engaging them with my practice and the Black community helps widen and engage this core audience. Teaching has been my form of personal outreach. Ideally, in the best, “case scenario, my work educates and bridges communities.”
Mansa said that the award also gives him confidence that the work he is doing is serving its purpose. “I kind of want to pivot to actually prioritizing the community and show that Miami is investing in and advocating for socially oriented artists.”
Other awards include Creator Awards for ambitious visual arts projects across a wide range of mediums. The award supports Miami-based artists with grants of $5,800 to $22,000 to “realize a significant visual arts project that will advance their careers,” according to the organization. The awards also have a special category for those in the Cinematic Arts.
This year, $475,000 in grant money was awarded in Creator and Cinematic Arts categories.
Oolite Arts also awards Teacher Travel Grants, which send art educators across the globe for professional development they bring back to the classroom, receive a $5,000 travel stipend. $25,000 in total was awarded to applicants.
Clara Varas won a Creator Grant Award for her entry, “In Progress,” a re-imagination of the still-life through the lens of mom-and-pop shops and bodegas in Miami’s diasporic, working class neighborhoods. “To an extent this project was always in progress. I have often thought of the materials and objects I find on city streets or discarded on the side of abandoned buildings as urban still life, monuments to the everyday and the complexities of life that are very ‘unmonumental’ in nature because they tend to memorialize the here and now instead of the past. Receiving an Ellies Creator Award is important because it means that I get to continue making work that centers Miami’s communities and diaspora at a time when it is so essential that we get to tell our own stories,” Varas said.
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Fernanda Froes’s “Hidden River” is a mixed, “media textile installation that maps Miami’s Little River, “tracing its ancient path alongside the redirected course imposed by urban development, using botanical pigments connected to the site—bridging art, history, and the environment.”
According to Froes, “Through the use of natural materials and a layered visual language, the work encourages viewers to reflect on what has been lost—inviting a deeper awareness of how human action reshapes ecosystems over time. It raises urgent questions about the consequences of environmental disruption and proposes a space for remembering, reconnecting, and reimagining our relationship with the land.”
A winner of one of the Teacher Travel Grants is Stephanie Hurst, who will travel to the capital cities of the Baltic States: Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, and study the contemporary art of post-Soviet border countries.
“The Baltic States have a unique history of silent resistance and subversion through art. I want to explore how contemporary artists express personal, cultural, and regional identities in post-Soviet border countries amid the rise of global conflict and technological revolution,” said Hurst. “I hope that this research opportunity will change the way that I teach fine art. I’d like to weave new media into my classroom, and design projects that create space for catharsis and self, “expression for my students.”
One of eight winners of the Cinematic Awards is Kareem Tabsch, who is creating a documentary, “Save Our Children,” which Tabsch said draws a direct line between Florida’s new anti-LGBTQ laws and their origins in the Save Our Children campaign, spearheaded nearly 50 years ago in Miami by local beauty queen Anita Bryant.
“When entertainer Anita Bryant fought against an ordinance protecting LGBT individuals from discrimination, she launched a nationwide conversation about homosexuality in ways that never happened before. That moment in no small part, helped birth two powerful movements in our country: the fight for LGBT Equality and the Conservative Christian Right,” Tabsch said.
He believes that it is Bryant’s homophobic rhetoric that is now part of the “playbook that we’ve seen everyone from Florida Governor DeSantis to the Trump administration employ in new attacks against our community.”
Tabsch said the support from Oolite is instrumental to tell a story that is “more timely than ever.”
Award winners will be honored at the 2025 Ellies awards ceremony set for Wednesday, April 16 at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami.
Creator award winners
Fernanda Froes, “Hidden River, a mixed-media textile installation that maps Miami’s Little River, tracing its ancient path alongside the redirected course imposed by urban development, using botanical pigments connected to the site—bridging art, history, and the environment.
Rosa Naday Garmendia, “Miami Street Press, Printing on the Move,” a mobile printmaking initiative crafted to bridge Miami’s diverse communities through accessible, hands, “on art experiences.
Aqua Etefia, “Save Black ART / Black Art Institute,” a dynamic creative arts program offering immersive courses in art and graffiti, fashion design, and African drumming, led by professional resident artists to foster artistic skills, cultural appreciation, and hands, “on creative expression.
Clara Varas, “In Progress,” a re-imagination of the still-life through the lens of mom and pop shops and bodegas in Miami’s diasporic, working class neighborhoods.
Frances Trombly, “Dimensions Variable 15 Year Publication,” a book that encompasses all the projects Dimensions Variable has produced in its 15, “year history, creating a lasting tribute to the ongoing dialogue surrounding contemporary art in Miami.
Karen Rifas, “A Survey,” a comprehensive survey catalog documenting four decades of her artistic practice in Miami.
MyFi Studio (Aimee Rubensteen & Dr. Josh Eisenberg), “”tie the knot: the twilight years connect us,” a multimedia exhibition and autobiographical documentary video shown between Japan and Miami, contextualizing Miami as a shared home for MyFi Studio and Nam June Paik.
Cornelius Tulloch, “Creole Collage” a series of maquette sculptures and large, “scale mixed, “media paintings, developed through a community workshop series, that imagines what the future of Miami’s architecture should look like.
Ariesela Diaz, “Doll LinkUp,” a women, “run weekly drag show, providing a vibrant, inclusive space that uplifts trans and non, “binary performers, fosters queer joy, and offers one of the city’s few open stages for emerging LGBTQIA+ artists.
Isabella Marie Garcia, “The Photography Care Matrix,” a year, “long film photography series and workshop program that will document and teach experimental photography to incarcerated, at, “risk, and rehabilitated youth and adults in Miami.
Gregory Clark, “I Played Here,” a photographic series, oral history, and archival collection reconnecting musicians with the transformed sites of Miami’s historic Black nightclubs.
Morel Doucet, “”Secrets That The Wind Carries Away,” a significant public art installation in Coral Gables depicting a family’s boat journey, which honors the contributions of Black and Bahamian immigrants that have shaped the community.
Sydney Rose Maubert, “Still Tippin’, ” an installation of full, “scale car sculptures as industrial monuments to Southern Black life and an examination of Southern car culture.
Clara Toro, “Crossing Cultures: Photography Exhibits Bridging Communities,” an in, “demand continuation of her photographic series documenting the residents of Wynwood Norte and Allapattah, and extending the project to additional neighborhoods.
Jevon Brown, “The Magic City BarberShop,” a series of site, “specific installations that celebrate the rich cultural heritage of Caribbean hair and barbershop culture.
Sheherazade Thénard, “Little Islands,” a multi, “disciplinary platform that connects artists and stories across the Caribbean diaspora.
Cara Despain, “heirloom,” a cinematically scaled, multi, “channel video installation of glowing uranium glass breaking in slow motion, highlighting the nuclear legacy of her home region and this hidden part of American history.
Gabriela Gamboa, “Mythological Cartographies,” aa multi, “sensory installation that combines tactile maps with sound to explore themes of displacement and exile.
Nicole Combeau, “Miami’s Elders of Resistance,” an enduring, online visual archive and physical exhibition dedicated to the lives of elders who have fought for justice in Miami.
Denise Treizman, “Stomping On Our Barriers,” a large, “scale, evolving wire mesh installation that explores physical and psychological barriers and incorporates interactive elements.
Amanda Keeley, “A Decade of EXILE: Celebrating 10 Years of Independent Publishing,” a commemorative 10th, “anniversary book publication that captures the evolution of EXILE from its beginnings as a pop, “up bookstore to its current role as a nonprofit publisher of artists’ books.
Marisabela Telleria, “The Blue of Distance,” a new body of work that will include 4 to 6 large, “scale wall pieces and two community, “based installations exploring themes of migration, memory, and connection within Miami’s diasporic communities.
Gabriel Jean, “Paul Soomar, “Ah Lil’ Noise Later!,” a site, “specific installation with sound as the formative influence, activating the cultural space and encouraging participants to engage with sound as tangible material.
Cynthia Cruz, “Code and Corpus,” a series of sculptures and an interactive website shaped through an iterative process involving artificial intelligence, exploring human, “machine collaboration.
Yanira Collado, “Insurgencies: A Meditation on Encoded Textiles,” a research project focused on the subversive nature of textiles used by African Maroons that were instrumental in hundreds of uprisings throughout the Caribbean and later through the Underground Railroad in the Southern United States.
Liene Bosquê, “SynchroniCity,” a solo exhibition showcasing a twenty, “year survey of the artist’s career with works never shown in Miami, new works, and a catalogue.
Lissette Schaeffler, “¡Porque el Conejo me Arañó!,” a book of the artist’s personal photographic project exploring her family’s ancestry, lineage, memory, displacement, and immigration.
Angela Valella, “The Nightclub,” a book that captures the essence and history of The Nightclub, a unique pop, “up art platform started in 2012, as well as a new series of events for The Nightclub.
Luján Candria, ” Still More Fragile,” a site, “specific, immersive installation that interweaves visual, auditory, and moving, “image elements that evoke the essence of the sea.
Melanie Oliva, “Accelerating Teen Dreams,” a two-part workshop series that will provide high school students and their caregivers with the tools necessary to be accepted into college art programs.
2025 Cinematic award winners
Kareem Tabsch, “Save Our Children,” a documentary film drawing a direct line between Florida’s new anti-LGBTQ laws and their origins in the Save Our Children campaign, spearheaded nearly 50 years ago in Miami by local beauty queen Anita Bryant.
Julia Zurilla, “Environmental Orbits (Episodic and Semantic Memory),” aan immersive video installation that establishes a dialogue between family vacation images from the mid-20th century, and contemporary footage of climate disasters in South Florida.
Francess Dunbar, “A Sense of Place: Catch A Wave,” a poetic tribute to Miami’s disappearing history, using experimental narrative to preserve the filmmaker’s family surf and skate shop and the memory of a city in constant transformation, to be added to the Miami-Dade Public Library’s 16mm film archive.
Karla Caprali , “Rumpelstiltskin Meets Mozart at the NWS,” a captivating 12-minute animated musical adventure blending orchestral music, narration, and animation, created in collaboration with violinist Belinda Stohner, composer Oscar Bustillo, and the Budapest Scoring Orchestra.
Rachelle Salnave, “DUAL CITIZEN,” a humorous, heartfelt documentary following a father, “daughter journey to gain their Haitian citizenship, set against the backdrop of the 2020 U.S. Presidential election and Haiti’s political upheaval.
Berenicé Brino, “Bury Me Under The Palms,” a film that follows a multigenerational family sheltering in place on the eve of a quinceañera as a hurricane approaches, uncovering buried tensions and generational truths while exploring with form across cinematic and theatrical mediums.
Robert Colom, “Lefty,” a short narrative film depicting the story of a thirteen year old boy who is left handed in a devoutly right handed society.
Jayme Kaye Gershen, “Adult Night: A Super / Hot Wheels Doc,” a documentary capturing the vibrant culture, deep community bonds, and evolving legacy of one of Miami’s most iconic roller rinks.
2025 Teacher travel grant winners
Stephanie Hurst, “Baltic State Capitals.” Travel to the capital cities of the Baltic States: Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, and study the contemporary art of these post-Soviet border countries.
Jennifer Gifford, “Death Defying.” Travel to Vienna, Austria, the hometown of Sigmund Freud, and study Gustav Klimt, Egon Schiele, and Freud himself with a focus on the topics of life and death.
Carolina Cueva, ” Peruvian Heritage.” Travel to Peru and be immersed in the rich architecture, pre, “Columbian ruins, and traditional crafts of Cusco and Ayacucho.
Mary Larsen, “Experimental and Non-Traditional Printmaking.” Travel to Edinburgh, Scotland and attend summer workshops at Edinburgh Printmakers, a print and visual arts studio.
Silvana Soriano,” Kaaysá Art Residency.” Travel to the Kaaysá Art Residency in Brazil’s Atlantic Forest and research the intersection of ecology and art.
IF YOU GO
What: The Ellies: Miami’s Visual Arts Awards
When: 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. Wednesday, April 16
Where: Institute of Contemporary Art, 61 NE 41st St., Miami
Cost: $250, $1,000 sponsorships
Information: theellies.org
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