Students will embark on an exciting, educational adventure through the streets, buildings and waterways of Coral Gables. City tours are available to K-12 students year-round. City tours are led my Museum Educators and may focus on history, architecture, urban planning and the environment. Students will start at the Museum with a brief exhibition tour. Then, the city becomes their classroom! Select one of the following excursions:

ARCHITECTURE AND URBAN DESIGN PROGRAM
Subject area: History, Architecture, Urban Design
Grade levels: high school
Duration: 3 hours
This program includes an exhibition tour of “Creating the Dream: George Merrick and His Vision for Coral Gables,” an architectural and urban design bus tour of the City of Coral Gables, and a post-visit design activity. Students will see first-hand Merrick’s vision for the city as one with Mediterranean Revival architecture, European elegance, tropical landscape and suburban splendor. The tour will highlight important landmarks, such as City Hall, Biltmore Hotel and Country Club, Alhambra Water Tower, the themed Villages, and all of the fountains, grand entrances, green spaces, plazas, and tree-lines boulevards that distinguish Coral Gables from other developments. Students will learn about building materials, architectural styles, urban design concepts, community needs and more. Students will understand the important role that art, architecture and urban design play in creating a sense of place.

GREEN CITY TOUR
Subject area: Green Design, Architecture, Urban Planning, Civics
Grade levels: middle and high school students
Duration: 3 hours
The City of Coral Gables is an urban classroom for teaching large-scale sustainable development. From the natural shade of the Banyan tree canopies to the urban green spaces and Trolley service, Coral Gables is a unique, local example of environmentally conscious urban planning. This program will focus on aspects of city planning, architecture, landscape architecture, and infrastructure that contribute to sustainable living in the Gables. Students will tour The City Beautifuland visit sites that exemplify modern green building practices, including the new Coral Gables Museum.

POLICE AND FIRE WALKING TOUR
Subject area: Civics, History
Grade levels: elementary
Duration: 3 hours
In partnership with the Coral Gables Police and Fire Departments, this program allows students to better understand community structure and the role of civic heroes. Students will receive a tour of the Old Police and Fire Station listed on the National Registry of Historic Places and learn about the role of the policemen and firefighters in early Coral Gables history. Then, the students will catch the trolley to the new Coral Gables Police and Fire Stations for a behind-the-scenes tour and discover how equipment and technology has changed over time. Students will come to understand the critical importance of these departments to public safety.

MARLINS ON THE WATERWAY PROGRAM

This program is made possible thanks to the generosity of the Florida Marlins Community Foundation.

Subject area: History, Engineering, Urban Development, Ecology
Grade levels: Middle and High School students
Duration: 3-4 hour excursion
Discover the Coral Gables Waterway by boat or kayak under the guidance of Museum education staff and a naturalist from Miami-Dade County Parks Department. Students will learn about the Coral Gables Waterway, a man-made waterway created in the 1920s by city founder and developer George Merrick, which resulted in miles of waterfront private property. They will learn how the waterway was constructed and why its development was so important to Merrick’s overall city plan. They will understand the significance of the Waterway to Coral Gables history, Miami-Dade County development, and South Florida ecology. Students will enjoy exploring otherwise inaccessible areas of their South Florida landscape. The Museum will provide pre-visit materials focusing on the Waterway’s history, significance and contemporary use.

Exhibition tours are available to K-12 students year-round. Themes may be tailored to teachers’ needs. Each exhibition tour is approximately 1 hour. The following inaugural exhibitions will be on view during the 2011-2012 school year:

GEORGE MERRICK AND HIS VISION FOR CORAL GABLES

The new Coral Gables Museum’s introductory exhibit sets the stage for what will follow. It highlights the genius of George Merrick, his family and other visionaries who inspired him and helped him turn his dream into reality. Curated by Arva Moore Parks, designed by Tom Graboski and fabricated by SFY Architectural Signs and Displays, it is housed in The Coral Gables Galleries — five rooms that were once the Coral Gables Police and Fire Station jail. Now beautifully restored, the rooms provide an intimate space to tell the story from the beginning.

“BRINGING BEAUTY INTO OUR LIVES”: Art and Architecture in Coral Gables During the New Deal, 1933–1941

“Bringing Beauty into Our Lives” offers a stunning new view of the buildings and artworks completed in Coral Gables during the New Deal, which lasted from the inauguration of Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1933 until the United States entered World War II in 1941. New Deal programs, and particularly those of the Works Progress Administration (WPA), were designed to provide federal funding for local initiatives. Coral Gables was a natural candidate for this kind of patronage. It boasted a vibrant community of local artists and architects, a young and dynamic university, the sports and entertainment provided by the Biltmore Hotel, access to the subtropical beauty of Biscayne Bay, an abundance of native oolitic limestone, and, perhaps most importantly, strong support among residents for Roosevelt’s New Deal policies. The New Deal developed a system of support for artists that ranged from paying artists for the creation of works of art to encouraging the exhibition and dissemination of their work through curated gallery shows. These took place at the Coral Gables Art Center, the Biltmore Hotel, the University of Miami and at the Federal Art Gallery in downtown Miami. Works of local Coral Gables artists were also included in exhibitions that traveled across the nation. The art produced varied dramatically from artist to artist. Common elements of artistic production, however, included a fascination with natural beauty and the documentation of the diversity of the regional human experience. Many works of art were commissioned to enhance new building projects. “Bringing Beauty into Our Lives” also focuses on architecture and on the numerous built projects that both reshaped the landscape of the city and enhanced public amenities. These included the Municipal Building (Police and Fire Station), now home of the Coral Gables Museum and the City of Coral Gables Preservation Department and Archives. Other important projects were the Community House and Library (now the Coral Gables Woman’s Club), the Equipment Depot (now the site of the Village of Merrick Park), the courtyard fountain at Carver School, the construction of Matheson Hammock and its facilities and important buildings at Fairchild Tropical Gardens. While diverse in terms of location and program, each of these projects engaged local materials and, for the most part, local labor. Because of the prominence of the use of local oolitic limestone, much of which was quarried in the city, these collections of architectural elements seem to have developed in harmony, almost as part of the new landscape.

LA FLORIDA (1513-1763, 1784-1821): Discover, Explore, Commemorate

In honor of the upcoming 500th Anniversary of Juan Ponce de Leon’s discovery and naming of La Florida, the Coral Gables Museum is proud to present a selection of rare maps and plans of Spanish Florida that trace the European discovery, exploration and settlement of present-day Florida and other sections of the southeastern United States that were once part of La Florida.

Spain established the first permanent settlement in North America at St. Augustine in 1565, fifty-five years before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock. St. Augustine’s founder, Pedro Menéndez de Avilés, also established several other temporary settlements including Santa Elena in today’s South Carolina and Tequesta on the north bank of the Miami River.

Most of the maps displayed in the exhibit are prints from digital images provided by the Archivo General de las Indias in Seville. Other images were obtained from the Bibioteca Nacional de España in Madrid and from the Ministerio de Guerra and the Ministerio de la Marina. We are most grateful to Spain’s Ministerio de la Cultura for coordinating the exhibit and to Ambassador Cristina Barrios, Consul General of Spain in Miami, who provided the inspiration for the exhibit and opened the doors to the various ministries in Spain that enabled this project to become a reality.

The Museum invites scholars and the public at large to discover and explore these rare documents that highlight Florida’s First and Second Spanish Periods. Speakers, seminars and other special events are planned as we discover, explore and commemorate Spain’s enduring legacy.

CORAL GABLES' SISTER CITIES: Partners in Peace

Caroline Parker-Santiago, Curator

The exhibition, Coral Gables’ Sister Cities: Partners in Peace, is dedicated to the City of Coral Gables’ beloved sister cities and the sister cities movement launched by President Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1956. Visitors are invited to learn about the history of this international peace program and uncover the connections between Coral Gables and her sister cities: Aix-en-Provence, France; Cartagena, Colombia; Granada, Spain; La Antigua, Guatemala; and Province of Pisa, Italy. Images and text will tell the story of our nation in a Cold War environment and how Eisenhower, with his extensive wartime experience and leadership abilities, rallied the public to reach out to citizens of other nations in an effort to promote cultural understanding and world peace. "I hate war”, he said, “as only a soldier who has lived it can, only as one who has seen its brutality, its stupidity." Each of the five sister cities will be represented through photographs, objects, explanatory text, videos, books, maps, and other media. A research library will be available for those visitors interested in learning more about a particular sister city.