Tours
Those attendees wishing to participate in a tour should select and pay for their tour during the registration process.
Tour I: Miami's Little Havana
Sunday 9:00 a.m. sharp, meet in hotel lobby; returns at 1:00 p.m.
Cost: $55.00; maximum participants: 30
Join Dr. Paul George on this fascinating tour of the world's largest and best known Cuban neighborhood outside of Cuba. Learn how this neighborhood came to be known as "Little Havana," and how it has since developed into a center of social, cultural, and political activity in Miami. Now home to numerous small businesses and restaurants, Little Havana is a veritable party for the senses where tour goers will sample cafe cubano as they learn the secrets of magical potions at a Santeria Botanica store. Enjoy an exclusive look into the Cuba Ocho Archives to see some pre-Castro paintings,visit an art gallery and a local Guayabera shirt store. Visitors will have the opportunity to see cigars hand-rolled and explore Domino Park all while experiencing the sights and sounds of one of Miami's most vibrant neighborhoods.
A native Miamian, Dr. George is a Professor of History at Miami Dade College's Wolfson Campus and historian at HistoryMiami. For over twenty years, he has led the wildly popular city tours program which includes history tours of Miami-Dade, Broward, Monroe, and Palm Beach Counties.
Tour II: Everglades - Miccosukee Indian Village
Sunday 9:00 a.m. sharp, meet in hotel lobby; returns at 2:45 p.m.
Cost: $75.00; maximum participants: 25
On this guided tour with Sheila O'Farrell, explore a traditional Miccosukee Indian Village, where locals illustrate their culture, housing, and family life. You will leave with a better understanding of Native American culture and the life of the Miccosukee in the Florida Everglades. Visit the Miccosukee Indian Museum and get a glimpse into the Tribe's unique way of life. Among the many fascinating exhibits are photographs of tribal members from past generations and elaborate native attire worn by men and women. This is also where the Tribe proudly displays the government documents that gave them their sovereignty in 1962. Admire colorful native paintings and handcrafted sculptures, unique Miccosukee clothing, tribal artifacts, rarely seen photographs and film. See a variety of demonstrators and displays from woodcarving to patchwork, beadwork, basket weaving, and doll making. Take an airboat ride to an exclusive tree island hammock where you will get to walk through a nature trail and see a typical family chickee in the middle of the Everglades.
Sheila O'Farrell has over twenty years of education experience under her belt. After receiving a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Political Science, she worked with Non-Governmental Organizations on community and environmental issues. Today, Sheila devotes her time to sharing her knowledge about Miami's rich cultural heritage while leading engaging tours and programs around South Florida.
Tour III: Wolfsonian Museum, Miami Beach
Two-hour tour starts at 10:00 a.m, Sunday.
Cost: $10.00; maximum participants: 75
Plan on taking a taxi at 9:30 from the Hyatt to the Wolfsonian; cost for travel is not included in the tour price and is approximately $25 each way.
The Wolfsonian-Florida International University is a museum, library, and research center that uses objects to illustrate the persuasive power of art and design, to explore what it means to be modern, and to tell the story of social, historical, and technological changes that have transformed our world. The collections comprise approximately 120,000 objects from the period 1885 to 1945—from the height of the Industrial Revolution to the end of the Second World War—in a variety of media including furniture; industrial-design objects; works in glass, ceramics, and metal; rare books; periodicals; ephemera; works on paper; paintings; textiles; and medals.
Opened to the public in 1995, The Wolfsonian has received wide recognition among scholars, collectors, educators, the media, museum professionals, and visitors for its unrivaled collection of modern material culture and its multidisciplinary approach to looking at objects as both agents and expressions of change. While these objects can best be understood in the context in which they were created, they illuminate as much about our times as they reveal about their own. The museum supports scholarship and develops and disseminates critically acclaimed exhibitions, publications, and educational programs that highlight the impact of design in shaping the modern world. FIU Professor and former BHC president Ken Lipartito reports as well that "I’ll ask them to point out and bring forward materials specifically dealing with firms, business, technology, industry and labor, of which they have quite a lot.”