By Louise Irvine

What a wonderful time we had celebrating Earth Day at WMODA on Saturday! We opened our new exhibition Earth · Air · Fire · Water featuring the glass art of Dale Chihuly, Rob Stern and Josh Fradis. Visitors also enjoyed our Dive into WMODA exhibit with ceramic art inspired by the wonders of the deep.

It was amazing to watch Laurence Panadero’s mermaid sculpture evolving from a lump of clay throughout the day. Laurence is a multi-disciplinary artist working in Fort Lauderdale and she explained her clay modeling and molding techniques to fascinated visitors. She also talked about her new underwater project in the form of an interactive seahorse swing.

Chelsea Rousso and Tatiana Cochagne showed their new fantasy fashions inspired by marine life. As can be seen in their new collection, they are both huge fans of the video documentary My Octopus Teacher, which has been nominated for an Oscar. Their flowing costumes are also influenced by Erté and the striking Art Deco designs at WMODA. Thank you to Valley Forge for donating sustainable fabrics for this exciting Fashion and the Fired Arts project.

Mershark Rhanu modeled one of Chelsea’s new wearable glass creations. In her Rhanu “mersona”, Alex Barth entertained visitors of all ages with her mermaid stories and her conservation work with sharks. It was enchanting to see all the young children enjoying their mermaid encounters and learning about sea creatures. Many guests rose to the challenge of our Mermaid Quest scavenger hunt around the museum and discovered trivia from fantasy, art, and science.

Evan Snow and Stacy Brown from the 1000 Mermaids Project talked about the new artificial coral reef installation coming to Dania Beach this summer. They brought samples of the coral reef lock developed by Chris O’Hare and explained how the coral grows on the underwater modules.  We were thrilled to welcome Lauren Odman, the City commissioner of Dania Beach, who is leading the deployment of the mermaids for the city. Like many of our guests, she had fun with the 1000 Mermaids selfie tail.

City commissioner, Joyce Davis, joined us for the day to promote “Dania Beach Pristine for Earth Day and Every Day” and enrolled volunteers for the city’s beach clean-up. This is a great way to help your community celebrate Earth Day by improving the marine environment. Join us all at Dania Beach pier on April 22nd at 5 pm for this family fun event with prizes.

Katia Bordy, the public information officer for Dania Beach, took some great photos of our fun event, which she is sharing on social media. Dave Rosenthal posted his experience of Rob Stern’s glass art in the new Earth · Air · Fire · Water exhibit on Facebook. Dave has created several immersive experiences at WMODA including his photographs of nature enhanced with sound and his original music The Falls of Fairy Glen, which plays in the Fantastique gallery while admiring the Lladró chandelier.

Lloyd Goradesky captured highlights of the event with Louise Irvine, the museum’s director and curator, and recorded interviews with the artists and special guests for Facebook Live. Lloyd is well known to friends of WMODA for his photography workshops and his public art project Let LOVE Guide Your Way. Many of his artworks, inspired by his monumental kinetic weathervane sculpture, are sold through the museum’s Studio Collection shop.

Thank you to everyone who participated in our fantastic event including the entire WMODA team of staff and volunteers. Thank you also to everyone who shared photos and videos of the event including the City of Dania Beach.

Dive into WMODA soon to see our new exhibition celebrating the beauty of nature Earth · Air · Fire · Water which runs until September 30.

Read more about the exhibitions and 1000 Mermaids in Dania Beach

Earth • Air • Fire • Water

Save Our Tropical Paradise

The Dania Beach Mermaids