Freedom Tower Miami

Arts & Culture

In 2025, Miami's first skyscraper turned 100. In celebration of this milestone, Miami Dade College developed immersive multimedia exhibitions that highlight the Freedom Tower's iconic history—from its early days as the Miami Daily News headquarters to its role as the Cuban Refugee Center, where hundreds of thousands of Cuban exiles were welcomed to the United States.

Permanent exhibitions include:

Libertad
This sweeping, permanent exhibition spans the first and second floors of the Freedom Tower, immersing visitors in Miami’s story as a city built by waves of resilience and opportunity. Through cutting-edge digital installations, community testimonials and historic artifacts, “Libertad” captures the journeys of those who found refuge and began new lives in the Magic City. A centerpiece of the exhibition is “El Refugio in Context,” which offers an intimate and emotional look at the Freedom Tower’s role as a Cuban Refugee Center during the 1960s and ’70s, highlighting first-person narratives and archival footage. Another standout feature is the reimagined Knight Skylight Gallery, transformed into a luminous space celebrating Miami’s cultural resilience through rotating art exhibitions, sound and light installations, and interactive storytelling.

Languages of Migration Housed within the Kislak Center, this permanent exhibition explores the evolution of communication, migration and identity across time and place. Drawing from the extraordinary Kislak Collection, donated by the Kislak Family Foundation, “Languages of Migration” pairs rare pre-Columbian and colonial-era works with powerful contemporary art. Visitors can explore 17th- and 18th-century maps, books and prints alongside modern works by artists such as Harold Mendez, Julie Buffalohead, Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, Edouard Duval-Carrié and Pepe Mar. A newly developed study center allows for hands-on engagement, offering deeper insight into how language, memory, and cultural traditions are preserved and reinterpreted across generations.

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Constructed Color, an exhibition by Loriel Beltrán, the Miami-based Venezuelan American artist and alumnus of the New World School of the Arts at MDC, features recent paintings. Affixing slabs of layered paint, sliced from blocks hardened in boxlike molds, to panels, the artist creates innovative abstract works of dazzling opticality and metaphorical density.

In this video, filmed at MDC's Kendall Campus, Rafael Domenech speaks about Estuary [Pavilion for MOAD], a work that functions on multiple levels—as a public sculpture, a reflection on the written word, a platform for live performances and public gatherings, and a meditative environment. Estuary is made from everyday construction materials, such as aluminum framing, and can mutate into a variety of distinct spatial configurations. Large panels or “pages” of construction mesh feature laser-cut texts that will change throughout the duration of the project.