Miami, FL – May 14, 2016 – The Summer of Women, a spectacular series of cultural events, kicked off at the Patricia & Phillip Frost Art Museum FIU with two original exhibitions featuring women artists. In the Beginning was the Word: Works by Corita Kent tops the marquee with a fresh look at the activist artwork of the rebel-nun/Pop Art pioneer. This new exhibition (originating at the Frost Art Museum FIU) presents a collection of fifty works by Corita Kent (also known as Sister Mary Corita) bursting with color and meaningful text, selected to showcase the artist’s Pop Art legacy and memorable calls-to-action for social justice.

Guests also experienced the exhibition Suddenly Last Summer, which brings the work together of three South Florida-based artists (Donna Haynes, Leah Brown and Michelle Weinberg), curated by AdrienneRose Gionta. The artists were each given a room within the museum’s Grand Galleries and asked to create site-specific installations after listening to the hit song “Suddenly Last Summer” by The Motels. The song evokes melancholy and longing for things lost such as summer love, nature, freedom, daydreaming, rituals, journeys and places. Guests included cultural luminaries such as George Neary, Miriam Oroshnik, David Rifkind, Jean Blackwell Font, Leonel Matheu, David Chang, Mark and Sandi-Jo Gordon, and Sri Prabha.