Zen and the Art of The Betsy Orb

A virtual salon about how a bridge connecting two historic buildings became an ‘orb’ and how that ‘orb’ became an art object and subject.

Featuring: Photographic Artist Robin Hill, Conceptual Artist Nuria Richards, and Architect Allan Shulman. Hosted by Architect John Stuart, FIU Distinguished Professor.

ROBIN HILL, PHOTOGRAPHIC ARTIST Photographic artist Robin Hill is a Creative Soul with Eclectic Ideas. “Energy in form” are the words that best describe the collected work created by Robin Hill. An award-winning Miami and New York-based art photographer, Hill invokes his observation and intuition as he straddles the boundaries between art, architecture, design, and spirit by using his medium of choice; photography. Born & raised in Nottingham, England, Hill began his career 31 years ago in the most inauspicious way by taking pictures of toddlers in supermarkets and department stores across London. He didn’t know at that stage that one day his Architectural and art imagery would be exhibited at the Guggenheim Museum in New York and Bilbao or grace the pages of the world’s leading publications such as Vanity Fair and Elle Decor.

NURIA RICHARDS, CURATOR AND CONCEPTUAL ARTIST In 2019 Nuria founded Clandestina, an appointment only gallery at her apartment in Midtown Miami, in a socializing move to build a contemporary art program; a curated community of outsiders that thrive on academic technique as much as coding, curating the views of unexplored feminists, and buffering complex proposals with origin in the Bauhaus residency (to mention one) in a domestic environment. Collectors that were caught in the middle of a rapidly changing art world.

ALLAN SHULMAN, ARCHITECT Allan Shulman FAIA, LEED AP is Director of Graduate Programs in Architecture and Associate Professor at the University of Miami School of Architecture. Allan is a practicing architect, author, editor and curator. His research focuses on themes of modernism, tropicality and urbanism. For almost 20 years, Shulman has explored the interrelationship between 20th century urban culture and architecture using the cities of Miami and Miami Beach as a laboratory. As a scholar, he has found in these modern cities ample material for investigations into regionalism, tropical architecture, and the cultural idea of tropicalism. His academic activities also include exhibits, design competitions, charrettes, lectures, and panel discussions targeted to expanding understanding of South Florida’s built environment.  Allan Shulman’s architecture firm, Shulman + Associates (founded in 1995),  is helping redefine the region.  Many of his projects balance contemporary style with the need to celebrate the history of South Florida’s historic homes and buildings. He is a dynamic, passionate, and dedicated force on the Miami arts scene, and has been able to merge his love for architecture with his desire to support local organizations and visual artists.’

JOHN STUART, ASSOCIATE DEAN, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, AND DISTINGUISHED PROFESSOR FLORIDA INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY, MBUS John Stuart, AIA, Associate Dean for Cultural and Community Engagement, Executive Director of Miami Beach Urban Studios, and Professor, is a practicing registered architect in the State of Florida. He is also an architectural historian and a visual artist developing collaborative research projects on complexity, community, identity, technology, the environment and public space with funding from Van Alen Institute, The National Endowment for the Arts, The National Science Foundation, The National Endowment for the Humanities, and The Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts. Stuart is also a tenured full professor in the Department of Architecture within the College of Architecture + The Arts at Florida International University in Miami. In addition to teaching, he is on a two-year assignment as the Faculty Fellow in the Office of the Provost at FIU, where he serves as a liaison between faculty and the university administration.