South Beach Miami Wolfsonian Florida
Wolfsonian-Florida International University is a research center and depository of propaganda arts items collected over the years by Mitchell Wolfson Jr. He’s a world travelers extraordinaire, having collected over 70,000 items, including modern design pieces. They’re all here in this former 1927-built storage facility that’s been renovated with world-class style.
Visitors can view the collection, which has a permanent display as well as traveling exhibits. Things you can view include:
- art nouveau items
- art moderne items
- art deco items
- Arts & Crafts items
- 8,000 matchbooks collected by King Farouk of Egypt
- displays depicting 19th and 20th century industrialization
The Building
Mitchell Wolfson, Jr. was the heir to a fortune made in the movie theater business in Miami. He spent his money collecting furniture, Propaganda art, and all sorts of objects from the late 1800s up to around the 1950s. He collected so much stuff he made a museum out of it and gave it to Florida International University in the late 1990s. The building itself is an architectural point of interest. It was built in 1927 in the Mediterranean Revival style, and in 1992 it was renovated and also made larger. It’s now seven stories tall and covers 56,000 square feet. The renovation was completed by architects Billy Kearns and Mark Hampton. Inside the museum, you’ll find not only Mitchell’s fabulous collections, but also a library, an auditorium, and gift shop that also sells lots of books, and administrative offices. At another location in South Beach Miami, there’s a lab for conserving art as well as a historic warehouse, 28,000 square feet in all.
Architectural details of the Wolfsonian building include restored terra-cotta facade decoration at the main entrance. It’s originally from the Norris Theater of Morristown, PA. It was mande in 1929 by Conkling Armstrong and taken from the old theater in 1983, when the theater was demolished. Also at the building are hand-painted ceilings, as well as and original stained-glass windows in the conference room.
