In the next edition of the Coral Gables Museum’s Open Studio series, artist Loni Johnson will guide participants in transforming meaningful personal objects into small altars as offerings to their ancestors. Guests are encouraged to bring photographs, memorabilia, crystals, jewelry, or other treasured items, and together will contemplate how ancestral and historical memory informs where, when, and how we occupy spaces — and how we carry and honor our ancestors in the spaces we move through.
Curated in collaboration with The Things Lab, the free, hands-on workshop invites adults 18 and older to consider art as a vessel for memory and connection. No experience is required, only curiosity and a willingness to share.
Multidisciplinary practice rooted in history, healing, and community
Born and raised in South Miami-Dade, Johnson is a multidisciplinary visual artist, educator, mother, and activist whose creative practice blends assemblage, sculpture, movement, and ritual. Her work centers Black women and the creation of healing spaces, drawing deeply from ancestral and historical memory to examine how these legacies shape the ways Black women enter, claim, and transform both physical and cultural spaces.
Driven by a belief in the artist’s cyclical responsibility to community, Johnson uses her creative gifts as tools for empowerment, reflection, and social transformation. Her work consistently engages themes of generational healing, resistance, and reclamation, grounded in lived experience and communal memory.
Her performances and installations have been presented at Locust Projects, WAAM at Dimensions Variable (Miami, 2020), Bakehouse Art Complex, Little Haiti Cultural Arts Center, NADA Art Fair, and Bas Fisher Invitational, among others. Whether in a gallery, a neighborhood space, or a community workshop, her art bridges intimate storytelling with collective histories.
Creativity as community practice
The Open Studio program, held every other Wednesday, is part of the Museum’s commitment to making art a participatory experience. Each session pairs a South Florida–based artist with community members in an interactive, low-pressure environment that blurs the lines between creator and audience. Past editions have spanned collage, sound art, and found-object sculpture, with a shared emphasis on accessibility for both seasoned artists and first-time participants.
This summer’s events lead into the Museum’s fall exhibition, 100 Years of Coral Gables Through Objects, which will explore the city’s century-long history through the personal artifacts of its residents. By inviting people to share objects and the stories behind them, the Museum is building a living archive that weaves personal narratives into the larger civic identity.
Building meaning from material culture
The Things Lab, a Miami-based creative platform, focuses on the cultural, emotional, and historical significance of objects. Their curatorial approach emphasizes storytelling through material culture — whether reimagining obsolete technology, preserving heirlooms, or creating new rituals around everyday items.
By pairing The Things Lab’s methodology with Johnson’s altar-making practice, this Open Studio session offers participants the chance to explore how the things we keep can anchor us to memory, identity, and place.
A social setting for creative reflection
The evening runs from 6 to 8:30 p.m., beginning with a complimentary open-bar hour featuring LALO Tequila from 6 to 7 p.m. A cash bar for wine and beer follows, with Young Associates Members receiving an additional complimentary tequila drink.
The museum encourages attendees to arrive early for the social hour to connect with others and to give thought to the object they’ve brought before the making begins. The workshop emphasizes intention and shared reflection over technical skill — an accessible invitation to anyone ready to engage.
Event details
The session takes place Wednesday, August 13, at the Coral Gables Museum, 285 Aragon Avenue. Admission is free, but space is limited and RSVPs are encouraged through the Museum’s website. The event is open to adults 18+.
