Free Art Friday: Discovering New Artists Through Social Media

On the hunt for original art from local artists? Start with Facebook. Miami and Broward both have Free Art Fridays which give local artists a platform to share their creativity in a scavenger hunt manner. On Fridays, and even some "Spillover" Saturdays, local artists drop their work in various locations giving clues to where you can find it and all they ask in return for you receiving free art is for you to share your find on Facebook. The pieces do get found rather quickly but the flipside to this is that you at the very least get to discover local artists whose work you like, and you can contact them directly to see if they have any available pieces for you to purchase. I was fortunate enough to ask Registered Artist, the founder of the Miami chapter, a few questions.

• How did Miami Free Art Friday get started? "I started the group in December 2012 during the Friday of Art Basel. It was my friends that I trade art with in Chicago, California, Scotland and Australia who encouraged me to spread the worldwide movement to Miami".
• So it wasn't started in Miami? "It was started 3 years before I knew it existed, I was urged by a few of my International artist friends who had been doing for some time now...it was originated in Australia by MyDogSigh"
• How instrumental would you say that social media has been towards the success of Free Art Friday? Social Media has been crucial to FAF as its our way to expand and let people aware of whats going on. People have been doing art for free before FAF but it's more organized now. I recruited a few locals to help out and little by little started meeting more locals. They told someone, who told someone...etc"

If you wish to get involved with either Broward or Miami's Free Art Friday, look them up on Facebook and send a request to join the group, happy hunting. 

June Technology Events in Miami

June 2nd - August 29th 08:00AM - 05:00PM - Free YouthSpark Summer Camps at the Microsoft Retail store located at 7535 Dadeland Mall, Suite 2416 Miami, FL 33156 United States. RSVP NOW

• Smart Photo Taking classes are available for Jr Designers (children aged 8 to 10 years old) and Designers (aged 11 to 13 years old).
• Smart Movie Making classes are available for both Designers and Jr Designers.
• Smart Game Coding classes are available for Jr Designers while Smart Game Designing classes are available for Designers.

June 7th 09:00AM - 05:30PM - Money Trail Hackathon at Univision Noticias – Fusion Newsport located at 8551 NW 30th Terrace Doral, FL 33122 United States. RSVP NOW

• "Join Hacks/Hackers Miami for the first-ever Pan Latin American Hack Day. This free all-day event will bring together coders, journalists and designers from nine countries for a first-of-its-kind regional hackathon."

June 10th 07:00AM - 02:00PM - Yahoo’s Business & Human Rights Program at The Light Box at Goldman Warehouse located at 404 NW 26 Street Miami, FL 33127 United States. RSVP BY June 6th

• "A day of candid conversations with rising and established companies, academics, and NGOs, all passionate about putting users first. Speakers, including Juan Pablo Cappello of the Private Advising Group, Yahoo’s Vice-President of Information Security, Alex Stamos, and Dalia Topelson of Harvard’s Berkman Center, will join us to discuss what young companies should know about the intersection of privacy and free expression and technology, including policies to have in place at launch and beyond."

I will update throughout the month as new events are announced/discovered.

CodeDay Miami Kicks Off

Starting at noon and running for a full 24 hours, CodeDay Miami has begun...allegedly. RefreshMiami descibes the event as "CodeDay is a 24-hour event where students passionate about technology get together and build cool things together! You pitch ideas, form teams, and build a cool app or game over 24 hours! The event is open to all currently enrolled students. Usually, most of the attendees are in high school and college. Middle school students that can behave independently are allowed." That all sounds great but when i click on the actual CodeDay Miami site I am met with the following message: "Whoops, looks like something went wrong." Undeterred, I clicked on their Eventbrite link and was met with: "This Event is Currently Unavailable." The procrastinator I am truly hopes that this event is full and if I want to take part next year I better move before the day of the event. The skeptic I am hopes that this event wasn't cancelled, Miami has a chance to separate itself from the rest of the technology pack and it needs more events like CodeDay to show Miami belongs not only with the pack but ahead of it.