We are dedicated to harnessing the access afforded to the artistic by facilitating internal and external moments of municipal inquiry and exchange. We achieve this via the direct foiling of institutions entrusted to take action, thus creating opportunities for deliberate and purposeful inaction. The Department of Reflection (DoR) operates under the belief that it is just as important for our institutions to be vulnerable as it is for them to be strong, trusting that moments of vulnerability and reflection lead to greater understanding and multifaceted growth.

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Founded in 2018, in collaboration with the City of Miami Beach, the Department of Reflection is a foil (or reflection) of municipal entities while producing creative moments of exchange (and reflection) between the municipality and its residents, between the institution and its engagement, and between the museum and its public. To DoR, everything is the municipality. We are the municipality.

Between 2018 and 2020, DoR worked closely with the Environment & Sustainability Department of the City of Miami Beach. Through said department, we worked directly with and alongside other city departments, aligning ourselves with Miami Beach's goals while presenting alternative perspectives via critical internal dialogue and supplementary forms of public engagement. Working under the acknowledgement that Miami Beach is a vital leader in Miami-Dade County and the entire South Florida region, and as such is oftentimes responsible for setting trends and new standards, DoR views its role(s) within the city as applying locally, regionally, and globally.

With self-appointed authority (in collaboration with the appropriate city officials and departments), and through historical research and interdepartmental inquiry we investigate the past, identifying patterns within. Harnessing this information, we create original participatory investments in community place-making, facilitating dialogue and exchange amongst municipal staff, residents, and one another. Moments of reflection big and small are the result. Through these efforts DoR becomes a post-governmental intermediary between stakeholders, as well as a platform for healthy public critique, influencing future decision-making.

Beyond our local municipalities, DoR works inter-municipally and across institutions. We strive to point to and expose areas which are typically hidden from or overlooked by residents and tourists, confronting observers with what’s at stake. As an informed and embedded outsider, our job is not to help move public opinion in any one direction, but instead to facilitate dialogue and deepen mutual understanding towards common solutions. We achieve this in part by recognizing that the city and it's institutions are here to work for its citizens. In short, DoR wants citizens to care, and with all the facts in front of them.

DoR is currently represented by its Director misael soto and a robust group of contributors. We are a burgeoning department still learning as we endeavor; in flux, ever growing, changing, and adapting to better serve the municipalities we work with. We invite you to join us on this mission!