Written by Kerren Dieuveille
Hi Culture Shockers! Welcome back to our Summer Road Trip. This next stop has us taking a visit to the “City Beautiful” at the Coral Gables Museum.
Stop #2: Coral Gables Museum
The CSM team headed over to Coral Gables to visit the Coral Gables Museum. Located across the street from the Coral Gables Art Cinema and next to the Books & Books, the museum is only a short distance from Miracle Mile. We encourage you to make this one of your top spots for a weekend in the Gables!
Once through the doors, we found ourselves in the middle of the lobby. We first headed into the left wing of the Museum, where we learned about the history of Coral Gables, its founding, and the leaders who shaped its culture through the exhibitions housed there. Revisiting Arva Moore Park’s 2010 “Creating the Dream” Exhibition, this first exhibition of the Museum highlights the history of the City anew in “Creating the Dream: George E. Merrick and His Vision for Coral Gables.” It references both the exhibit's history and the history of how George Merrick went from visionary to founder.
Walking further in the wing, we encountered 100 years of Coral Gables’s mayoral history from its first mayor Edward “Doc” Dammers (1925-1928), including its first and only female mayor Dorothy Thomson (1985-1987), to its current and youngest mayor Vince Lago (2021- Current) in the “Local Leadership, National Legacy: Coral Gables Mayors Across a Century.” We then walked through a doorway into the “Many Voices, One Nation, En Nuestras Palabras” bilingual exhibition organized by The Allapattah Collaborative CDC and in partnership with the Museum. This exhibition is part of the Smithsonian initiative’s celebration of the 250th anniversary of America’s founding and explores “the people, traditions, and experiences that have shaped Allapattah and contributed to the evolving story of America” by connecting “local histories with larger conversations about cultural exchange, identity, and belonging.”
Walking over to the left wing, the CSM Team then stepped onto the turf into the “Diplomacy and the Beautiful Game: From Scotland to Brazil to Haiti” exhibition presented during the FIFA World Cup 2026. This exhibition specially showcased the world’s oldest football that was on display in the United States for the first time from June 22-27. It also tells the history of football cultural exchange and diplomacy both across the globe and across time.
In the final exhibition of the Museum, we experienced Columbia’s Carnival in “Life Is a Barranquilla Carnival.” The Carnival is an event “declared a Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO in 2003.” We started off in the Guacherna, a pre-Carnival parade, before traveling through the main Carnival parades such as the Batalla de Flores (Battle of Flowers) and Gran Parada de Comparsas (Great Masquerades’ Parade) and finishing off with Joselito’s Burial “a satirical funeral procession that marks the end of Barranquilla Carnival’s festivities.”
Don’t miss out on the chance to view all of these exciting exhibitions this summer at the Coral Gables Museum and follow us on our Summer Road Trip!
To visit Coral Gables Museum for only $5, secure your Culture Shock tickets here: cultureshockmiami.com/events/coral-gables-museum-0.