Marine Stadium Seat Art Project

In 2016, Heineken did a crowd funding and public awareness campaign to benefit restoration of the Miami Marine Stadium. As part of their effort, Heineken pulled several hundred seats from the Marine Stadium and sold them as part of the fundraising efforts.

There were leftover seats from Heineken’s fundraising campaign and we thought about how to best use them to benefit the Stadium. The Marine Stadium itself has a long history as artistic muse. Since its closing in 1992, it was discovered by Miami’s creative community and became a “penit” for street art. In fact, in the Marine Stadium, there are as many as 200 coats of paint as muralists painted new artwork over and over.

We then decided to give the seats artists so that they could create art with found objects. Beginning in the fall of 2017, solicitations were made to various art organizations in Miami to find artists who were interested in doing the project. Participating organizations included Fountainhead Studios, The Bakehouse, Art Center South Florida, Yo Miami, the Young Artist Initiative, and Miami Dade School District Visual Arts Program.  In return for receiving a seat, each artist was required to furnish at least one high resolution of the finished artwork and an artist statement describing the work. Artists were told that they could use the seat in any way they wanted-paint it, take it apart, use pieces of it, and incorporate into other artwork. The only “requirement” was that the finished work of art should “respect” the Marine Stadium.

You see the results of our artists on the Seats page. What is particularly notable is how a 55 year old seat inspires so many different design and philosophical responses… artists focused on the environment, history, memory, architecture, abstract construction. We are thrilled with the work done by our artists and there is potential for a new chapter. The Marine Stadium has approximately 3,500 seats remaining. When the time comes for demolition, these seats may become available, inspiring more art.