Whitewaller Miami 2019 Insider Tips: Zoe Lukov

FAVORITE SPOT TO FIND INSPIRATION
I draw most of my inspiration from the diverse and culturally vibrant neighborhoods in Miami that have preserved a lot of the city’s history and incredible cultural traditions. I’ll go to Little Haiti and Little Havana—very culturally vibrant places that have maintained a lot of the history of Miami that’s not necessarily seen when you’re just on Miami Beach. I really respond to it and I find that artists do as well.

BEST OFF-THE-BEATEN-PATH PLACE TO SEE ART
The Little Haiti Cultural Center is one of my favorite places. I take dance classes there. Around there are a lot of traditional botanicas—small stores generally selling remedies, candles, incense, and nick-knacks that are symbolically and spiritually significant. They’re great for inspiration; used for spiritual and religious practices. I find them to be really inspiring in Miami because they have the kind of confluence of all these different cultures that come together from the Haitian to the Cuban. I also take people to Little Havana all the time to dance salsa, which is a necessary part of inspiration in Miami, I think.

There’s this amazing place called the Cubaocho Museum & Performing Arts Center, and it’s actually got the biggest collection of rum and Cuban cigars, but it’s covered in very kitschy, incredible art from Cuba. I take people there every time and I always get inspired. Even for this show, there’s some really crazy stained glass over there and these paintings—the whole bar is painted. It’s pretty incredible.

BEST KEPT SECRET IN MIAMI
Overtown has an incredible museum that’s in the Dorothy Inn that tells you the whole history of Overtown, which I find really inspiring. It’s right by the Lyric Theater, which maintains the black archives. Overtown is sort of the only place where there’s still structures standing that you can find in The Green Book. It maintains a lot of really important black history in Miami.

—Zoe Lukov, Chief Curator of Faena Art
@zoelukov