Crossing the Bridge investigates the concept of being an alumnus of an arts institution and the impact of the institutional context on the artist’s career trajectory and legacy. It expands on this personal context by exploring the experience of each artist within the moment the artist was at Oolite Arts, and how this shaped future professional and community encounters. It further expands upon the institutional context by developing the concept of alumni as fluid and investigating the sense of belonging to an idea. What does belonging mean, and how does it develop?

To offer answers, this exhibition fronts artistic practices as key to the alumni concept, opening space for artists to inform its meaning according to their experiences: from Kerry Phillips’s assemblage and rehabilitation of artists’ memorabilia; to Edouard Duval-Carrié’s presidential and mythological commemorations; to Yanira Collado’s archaeological dig into the institution’s wall juxtaposed by Caribbean cultural histories; to Susan Lee-Chun’s ironic plays with modes of presentation and expectations of cultural identity; and to Najja Moon’s creation of an alumni gathering space for Black creatives.

The goal of Crossing the Bridge is to illustrate intersections of concept and reality as to what it means to be an alumnus. In this way, the exhibition also operates as a reunion space, bridging artists’ experiences across time periods and binding them together through their shared interests in collective connectivity and, often, materiality.

As a geographical play, Crossing the Bridge invites Miamians to visit the exhibition on Miami Beach, while metaphorically suggesting visitors can explore their own proximity to the evolution of time illustrated by each artist’s trajectory. Where do they fit in within the artists’ timelines?

For Crossing the Bridge, each artist, in conversation with the curators, reflected on their time at Oolite Arts and here offers an expansion on previous practices developed during their time with the organization. The artworks are both quiet expansions and defiant departures, yet in all cases have developed as “signature” artworks within each artist’s oeuvre.