A Public Education: Tom Virgin

A Public Education, was created by an artist/educator who spent most of the last three decades with thousands of students in public school classrooms during the school year. Most summers were spent in artist’s residencies and book arts centers around the United States. The work celebrates his colleagues in South Florida and public schools from the suburbs of Detroit, as well as the collaborations and residencies that extended his education through today.

Collaborations with community include O, Miami Poetry Festival, Little Haiti Cultural Center, the Wolfsonian Museum, Miami Book Fair, Perez Art Museum Miami, and Miami’s incredible poets and writers, including poet Michael Hettich, whose poetry is at the centerpiece of the show. Images of the artist’s collaborative books reside in this exhibition side by side with student works printed by Virgin.

The voices in this exhibition come from community partners and books devoured by a young man. However, a significant portion of what is written on the paper in this window comes from colleagues, students, and writers from new generations that shared “my county” stories in Title I Public Schools, in other languages. Like music, another language that defies translation, but is understood universally, the words in other languages become familiar with hearing or speaking them. This particular public education comes to people who desire to learn.

Public Education:
Tom Virgin’s Walgreen window installation mixes text and image, objects and artworks, to reflect his time as an educator in public schools for twenty five years, as well as his time in residencies in book arts communities around the United States during many summers. “Did you know…” text blocks and accompanying text blocks will identify various themes in his work. Collaborations with writers and other artists will be accompanied by maps, images, prints and posters that both ask questions and answer questions. A series of works from Extra Virgin Press will weave through this exhibition high- lighting community partners, former students, and colleagues in print.

About the Artist:
Tom Virgin b.1954 lives and works in Miami (Coconut Grove, Little Haiti). Virgin received an MFA from the University of Miami [1994] (Printmaking). His artist / educator practice includes printmaking, book arts, installations and public art, often in collaboration with writers. Virgin celebrates community treasures such as literature, public schools, and public spaces in his work. Virgin is the Founder and Proprietor of Extra Virgin Press (2015).
Recent exhibitions include “2024 MCBA Prize Exhibition, Semi-Finalist,” Minnesota Center for Book Arts, Minneapolis, Minnesota (2024), “It Was Always About You…”,Oolite Arts, Miami Beach, Florida (2023), “TheBluPrnt”, Bridge Red, Miami (2022), Florida, “Raise Your Voice, A Community Print Proj- ect in Ti Ayiti,” Little Haiti Cultural Center Gallery, Miami, Florida (2022), MCBA Prize, Finalist, Minne- apolis, Minnesota (2022), “Book Bound,” Art & Culture Center,Hollywood, Florida (2022), “Place And Purpose,” Patricia & Phillip Frost Art Museum FIU, Miami, Florida (2021).

Virgin’s work is in the collections of Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota; UC- San Diego California; University of Denver, Colorado; Vanderbilt, Nashville, Tennessee; Jaffe Center for Book Arts, FAU, Boca Raton, Florida; FIU’s Green Library Special Collections, Miami, Florida; and Bainbridge Island Museum of Art, Bainbridge Island, Washington.

Virgin has been awarded grants including MDC Cultural Affairs MIA Grants (2022, 2023, 2024), Knight Arts Champion Award (2019), Oolite Arts Ellie Creator Awards (2018, 2019), Artist Access Grants (2001, 2004-2017, 2021, 2023), MDC Cultural Affairs Community Grant (2017), Wavemaker Grant (2016), and a Knight Arts Challenge Grant (2015).