OPEN STUDIO: Loni Johnson

Loni Johnson

A Series of Free Creative Mixers with

Wednesday, August 13, 2025

Doors open at 6pm / Program: 6:30pm - 8:30pm

Step into the Summer of THINGS!

Join us every other Wednesday for a series of participatory creative mixers at the , curated by The Things Lab and led by professional South Florida-based artists. These summer sessions are your invitation to explore creativity, connect with makers, and be part of a community celebration leading up to our fall exhibition: 100 Years of Coral Gables Through Objects.

Loni Johnson invites you to bring meaningful personal objects–such as photographs, memorabilia, crystals, and jewelry, and more–to build small altars as offerings to your ancestor(s). We will contemplate how we claim, navigate, and hold space; 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.

Johnson is a multidisciplinary visual artist, educator, mother, and activist born and raised in South Miami-Dade, Florida. Her creative practice—rooted in assemblage, sculpture, movement, and ritual—centers Black women and the creation of healing spaces. Her work draws deeply from ancestral and historical memory, examining 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 a tool for empowerment, reflection, and social transformation. Her work consistently engages themes of generational healing, resistance, and reclamation, grounded in lived experience and communal memory. Johnson’s work and performances have been presented at Locust Projects, WAAM at Dimensions Variable, Miami (2020); Bakehouse Art Complex, Little Haiti Cultural Arts Center, NADA Art Fair, Bas Fisher Invitational, among others.

What to Expect

• Engaging, hands-on activities designed for adults (18+)
• Exploration of the theme of THINGS through art, storytelling, and personal expression
• Professional South Florida-based artists sharing their work, vision, and experience
• A welcoming environment to meet new people, nurture your creativity, and unwind midweek
• Open Bar Hour with LALO Tequila between 6pm-7pm
• Cash bar for wine and beer
• Young Associate Members receive an additional free drink ticket

Why Join?

• Discover new artistic skills and creative perspectives
• Connect with a vibrant community of makers and thinkers
• Enjoy a unique, enriching night out in the heart of Coral Gables

Mark your calendar, every other Wednesday.

Doors open at 6pm / Program: 6:30pm - 8:30pm

Coral Gables Museum; 285 Aragon Ave, Coral Gables

Celebrate the objects that shape our lives. Make this your Summer of THINGS.

Photo: Morel Doucet

Host or Publisher The Things Lab