The Art in Miami collection contains brochures, flyers, exhibit catalogs, pamphlets, handouts, and other ephemera documenting art and art-related activities in Miami, with material going as far back as 1996. Included are items from galleries, such as the Alejandra von Hartz Gallery, the Miami International Airport Gallery, and Lowe Art Museum Gallery, as well as various other local museums, art fairs, shows, and the Wynwood Arts District. The collection also includes brochures, programs, maps, handouts, and ephemera from the Art Basel show in Miami Beach, beginning with Art Basel 2009.
This collection contains exhibit catalogs, booklets, fliers, ephemera, news clippings, brochures, correspondence, and pamphlets, largely related to art, events around Miami, religion, culture, and Betsy Kaplan's other interests.
The Borscht Film Festival is a semi-annual film festival held in Miami, Florida. The festival's mission is "to commission and showcase films by emerging artists that tell Miami stories going beyond the typical portrayal of a beautiful but vapid party town, forging the cinematic identity of the city." Their collection includes ephemera, flyers, postcards, printed materials, posters, 3D objects, and other associated items pertaining to the Borscht Film Festival.
The Coconut Grove Playhouse records contain playbills, promotional/marketing material, posters, press releases, news clippings, financial files, grant files, personnel files, show and production files, play scripts, and audio-visual materials (photographs, CDs, vinyl records, floppy disks, VHS, film reels, betacam tapes, audiocassette tapes) pertaining to the theater's operation from the 1970s to its closing in 2006.
Diaspora Vibe Cultural Arts Incubator was created to promote, nurture, and cultivate the visions and diverse talents of emerging artists from the Caribbean and the Latin American Diaspora through exhibitions, artists in residence programs, international exchanges, and education and outreach activities that celebrate Miami-Dade's rich cultural and social fabric. The Diaspora Vibe Cultural Arts Incubator records include the gallery's organizational records, administrative documents, artists' information, resumes, artists' profiles, programs, invitations, slides, catalogs, photographs, audio-visual materials (VHS tapes, CD-ROMs, CDs, audiocassettes), notes, and event ephemera.
The Dr. John Bitter collection contains materials documenting Bitter's career as a conductor and composer. The collection includes sheet music for several compositions by Bitter, as well as publications about the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami and a 1953 photograph of the University of Miami Orchestra at the Miami Beach Auditorium. Also included are numerous programs from the 1940s-1960s, including ones from the UM Symphony Orchestra, the Greater Miami Philharmonic, and the Berlin Philharmonic.
Dr. José Agustín Balseiro (1900-1991) was an award-winning author, poet, and scholar of Latin American Studies and Hispanic literature. He was also a professor of Hispanic Literature at the University of Miami from 1946 to 1967.
Throughout his career, Dr. Balseiro exhibited a strong interest in Latin American and Hispanic-American studies, Latin American and Spanish literature, and Puerto Rican history and literature. His papers, donated to the University of Miami, reflect all of these interests and range in date from his earliest activities as a writer in Spain to his final days working as a consultant to the University of Miami Libraries starting in 1974. Much of the content consists of correspondence, clippings, typescripts, and periodicals in which Balseiro’s writings were featured. Also included is sheet music belonging to his father, Rafael Balseiro, who was a Puerto Rican composer.
Of special note are three bronze medallions: (1) from the Instituto de Cultura Puertorriquena, commemorating el primer Centenario del Natalicio de Luiz Muñoz Rivera (the centennial of the birth of Luiz Muñoz Rivera); (2) from the Instituto de Cultura Puertorriquena, commemorating el Centenario de la Abolición de la Esclavidud in Puerto Rico (the centennial of the abolition of slavery in Puerto Rico); and (3) from the University of Panama commemorating the first 25 years of the University’s existence.
This collection contains manuscripts, poems, journals, printouts from online chapbooks and collaborations, reviews, clippings, promotional posters and fliers, audiovisual materials, and other writings by the well-renowned and award-winning poet and writer Michael Hettich (1953-).
The Nicaragua collection documents the Nicaraguan diaspora living in Miami during the 1980s and the political and social conditions in Nicaragua from the 1979 Sandinista revolution onward until their loss of power in 1990.
Many of the materials falling into the latter category are from the United States in origin, such as anti-Soviet propaganda endorsing the anti-Sandinista "Contra" Freedom Fighters, pamphlets that describe the Sandinista government and Central America in general from an American perspective, and periodicals and reports about Nicaragua written to an American audience. The materials that document the Nicaraguan diaspora are mostly fliers, menus, calendars, brochures, and other genres that were from local Nicaraguan businesses, restaurants, clubs, and other organizations. Some of the materials transcend these two categories, as many that concern the political conditions are addressed to or produced by Nicaraguan exiles.
A large part of the collection consists of photocopies of news articles.
Writers that are especially represented by the collection include Ruben Dario, Esteban Duque-Estrada, and Luis Mejia Gonzalez. Associations and organizations that are especially represented include Alanzia Revolucionaria Democrática (ARDE), American Defense Foundation, American Defense Lobby. Asociación Nicaragüenses en el Exilio, Asociación Nicaragüense pro Derechos Humanos, Bloque Opositor del Sur (B.O.S.), Council for Interamerican Security, Fundación Ruben Dario, Nicaraguan American Solidarity (NICAS), Nicaraguan Freedom Fighters, Partido Conservador de Nicaragua, Partido Socialcristiano de Nicaragua en el Exilio, Resistencia Nicaragüense, and Unidad Nicaragüense Opositora (UNO). Materials from some of these were grouped together in a series titled "Associations."
Also of notice are brochures advertising tourism to Nicaragua during the Sandinista regime, and memorabilia such as a handmade Nicaraguan crest, Nicaraguan paper money from the Sandinista era, and a pin that says "If you like Cuba you'll love Nicaragua."
The O, Miami collection holds memorabilia associated with the literary organization and their events and publications. The materials document many of the inventive techniques used to promote poetry during their annual O, Miami Poetry Festival, including poetry parking tickets and poems in the form of lottery scratch off tickets. Other events documented include the organization's visiting writers series, and their collaborations with Pages and Spreads, another local literary organization. The collection also includes chapbooks/zines that collect poems and writings from local Miami writers.
