GIMME SHELTER

The Historic Hampton House Museum of Culture & Art, the history and cultural art center animating Miami's legendary Green Book Hotel, launched its visual arts program with Gimme Shelter, an exhibition of works by contemporary artists that drew upon the ethos of the iconic site as a safe space and place of congregation during times of segregation. The exhibition highlighted the idea of shelter and safety as integral to cultural production and collective creation. Selected works reflected on America’s history and the importance of building and celebrating sites of refuge, renewal, and reflection for Black Americans, people of color, and migrants.

“Gimme Shelter placed contemporary artworks in syncopation with the site’s history of music, rest, intimacy, and resistance. Resonating and echoing within the space were concepts of home, shelter, softness, intimacy, musicality, instrumentation, silence, and noise, while serving as a tribute to the creators who continued to make new work and new sounds even in the face of institutionalized violence and segregation,” said exhibition co-curator Zoe Lukov. “The exhibition foregrounded creativity, care, and community in the face of political struggle, and in particular recognized how music as an art form engulfed us, told our stories, and encompassed us; creating a dialogue with the legendary musicians who would have crossed the threshold of this sacred space to gather, play music together, and find rest and restitution.”

Co-curated by Beth Rudin DeWoody, Zoe Lukov, Maynard Monrow & Laura Dvorkin, Gimme Shelter

Features Works by Derrick Adams, Nick Cave, Charles Gaines, Howardena Pindell, Paul Pfeiffer, Lorna Simpson, Carrie Mae Weems, and many more