Bridge Initiative

Bridge Initiative ART AS ENVIRONMENTAL ADVOCACY
Telling powerful stories through art that move individuals from apathy

Gloria Steinem died this week at 92.Her phrase for how movements should relate to each other was “linked, not ranked” — ...
09/03/2026

Gloria Steinem died this week at 92.

Her phrase for how movements should relate to each other was “linked, not ranked” — and she applied it to ecology too.

That refusal to work in silos is our whole premise: artists and scientists together, making public work about the environment. We need more bridges.

Dolly’s life was a love letter to all things good - the mountains that raised her, the people who loved her, and the ear...
08/28/2026

Dolly’s life was a love letter to all things good - the mountains that raised her, the people who loved her, and the earth she never stopped fighting for. We honor her legacy.

“We’re just mistreating Mother Nature. That’s like being ugly to your mama, y’know?”

“My hope for the environment, for all things living, and all things good, just nature in general, is that we should pay more attention to how we’re treating our mountains, how we’re treating our world, how we’re just treating everything.”

🦋 180+ bald eagles released back into the wild in the Smokies, through Dollywood’s sponsorship of the American Eagle Foundation

🦋 A butterfly waystation and garden planted in her honor, supporting monarch conservation and pollinator habitat

🦋 $12M+ distributed to 900 families through her My People Fund after the 2016 wildfires, plus $700K for Middle TN flood relief and $3M through Mountain Tough for wildfire rebuilding

That’s the model we believe in at Bridge Initiative too - care for a place, sustained over time, turns into real protection for it. You don’t have to be a scientist or a policymaker. You just have to stay loyal to your mountain, your bay, your backyard.

In Dolly we trust, rest in power. 🦅

08/21/2026

THE BAY COLLECTION 🌊

Protect the bay, and the bay will protect you.

Three designs by Lee Pivnik - now available for the whole family, including our new Kids’ Collection.

100% of profits support the Biscayne Bay National Heritage Area campaign, in partnership with the National Park Service, The US National Trust The Cultural Landscape Foundation Biscayne Nature Center Friends of Biscayne Bay DHT.

Swipe through to meet the artist, the collection, and the mission behind it →

Shop the link in bio 🐠

Neon Bay 🪼

Biscayne is my Bae 🫶

Protect the Bay 🦩

The Kids’ Collection ✨

Meet the artist ✍🏼

Grateful to our partners 🤝

Shop the bay 🐠🦩🌴🪸🪼

08/21/2026

THE BAY COLLECTION 🌊

Protect the bay, and the bay will protect you.

Three designs by Lee Pivnik - now available for the whole family, including our new Kids’ Collection.

100% of profits support the Biscayne Bay National Heritage Area campaign, in partnership with the National Park Service, National Trust for Historic Preservation, Dade Heritage Trust, Biscayne Nature Center, and Friends of Biscayne Bay.

Swipe through to meet the artist, the collection, and the mission behind it →

Shop the link in bio 🐠

Neon Bay 🪼

Biscayne is my Bae 🫶

Protect the Bay 🦩

The Kids’ Collection ✨

Meet the artist ✍🏼

Thank you to our partners 🙌

Shop the bay 🐠🦩🌴🪸🪼

07/28/2026

Today, Miami turns 130. And there’s no better way to celebrate than by honoring the bay that gave birth to our city — a city that grew from vision, from community, and above all, from these waters, which have sustained life here for thousands of years.

This extraordinary city is credited to two women — Julia Tuttle and Mary Brickell, making Miami the only major U.S. city founded by a woman. Nearly half the men who signed Miami’s incorporation charter were Black, many of them Bahamian immigrants, and Seminole communities were already navigating these same waters as the city rose around them.

For five years, that’s exactly why we’ve led the effort to establish the Biscayne Bay National Heritage Area (NHA) — recognizing this bay as a nationally significant landscape where our environmental, cultural, and historical heritage are inseparable. If designated, it would become only Florida’s second NHA.

To mark this birthday, we’re excited to launch a new t-shirt collection with Miami artist Lee Pivnik (Lee Pivnik), inspired by a simple message: Protect the Bay, and the Bay Will Protect You. Every purchase goes straight toward this work.

We invite you to celebrate Miami by wearing your love for Biscayne Bay, and becoming part of its future. Link in bio to shop and follow along.

Celebrate Miami. Protect Biscayne Bay.

Thanks to The US National Trust, The Cultural Landscape Foundation, DHT, and special thanks to video artwork by Malcolm Lauredo of Greater Miami Bureau of Time Tourism for bringing Miami’s history to life.

07/17/2026

It’s here. The big news we’ve been hinting at — our next documentary needs you. 🌿

Link in bio to be part of Echoes of the Amazon.

Come out to Deering Estate this Sunday, July 12 for an evening of storytelling on screen along the bay 🎬MIAMI short FILM...
07/08/2026

Come out to Deering Estate this Sunday, July 12 for an evening of storytelling on screen along the bay 🎬

MIAMI short FILM FESTIVAL and Deering Estate are teaming up for Focus On: Celebrating Our Nation’s 250th Birthday, a program of four short documentaries screening in the Visitor Center Theater. Doors open at 7 PM for a cocktail reception, with the screening starting at 7:30 PM.

Stick around for Hello Whale, our film with director Darian Woehr exploring southeast Alaska’s humpback whale community through the artistic lens of Michele Oka Doner

🎟️ Tickets $20 / $16 student-senior-military, link in bio

📍 Deering Estate Visitor Center Theater

*18+ recommended program

This bay has been stewarded far longer than this country has existed — first by the Tequesta and Calusa, and today by th...
07/04/2026

This bay has been stewarded far longer than this country has existed — first by the Tequesta and Calusa, and today by the Seminole Tribe of Florida and Miccosukee Tribe. As America reaches 250, we’re working to make Biscayne Bay Florida’s second National Heritage Area — only one exists so far. The Bay connects a living coral reef, the Kampong, Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden, the Art Deco District, and more — one waterway tying together some of the most singular landscapes in the country. Watch a slice of it live on the Coral City Camera by Coral Morphologic.

Link in bio to follow along.

Thanks to DHT, The Cultural Landscape Foundation, The US National Trust and illustrator Christina Pettersson

Congratulations to Commissioner on this incredible milestone! A $1 million investment from Knight Foundation to expand t...
06/18/2026

Congratulations to Commissioner on this incredible milestone! A $1 million investment from Knight Foundation to expand their community-led model to Detroit, Philadelphia, and Charlotte. This is what it looks like when a city bets on its artists and wins.

We had the joy of collaborating with Commissioner on two uniquely aligned events over the past year. During Art Basel week 2025, we took Commissioner members out to snorkel Miami’s REEFLINE with scientists from Rescue a Reef program, trading the fair floor for open water and a conversation about the corals growing on sculptures beneath the surface. This spring, we co-hosted a public screening of Hello Whale at The Standard Spa, Miami Beach with the legendary Michele Oka Doner (Michele Oka Doner). Art, water, community, wonder. Both felt like home.

At Bridge Initiative, we share Commissioner’s conviction that investing in artists isn’t supplemental, it’s foundational. To thriving cities, to connected communities, to our collective sense of meaning on this planet. And as Commissioner grows into new cities, we hope to keep building on what we’ve started together.

Here’s to Dehja, the Commissioner community, and to more of this. 🌊

Commissioner Knight Foundation

Congratulations to Magnus Sodamin on the unveiling of Bletia Purpurea!Magnus joined us for Bridge Initiative’s residenc...
06/02/2026

Congratulations to Magnus Sodamin on the unveiling of Bletia Purpurea!

Magnus joined us for Bridge Initiative’s residency, where artists explored South Florida’s unique ecosystems through direct experiences in the field—from the Everglades to Biscayne Bay. It’s inspiring to see those connections continue to flourish in public work like this.

Commissioned by the City of Miami Art in Public Places for the Dr. Armando Badia Senior Center, Bletia Purpurea celebrates the pine-pink orchid, a threatened native species found in the pine rocklands and wetlands of the Everglades. Surrounded by vibrant thatch palms, the mural invites viewers into the beauty of South Florida’s subtropical landscapes while highlighting the fragile ecosystems that sustain them.

We love seeing artists use their work to foster a deeper connection to place and inspire stewardship of the natural world. Congratulations, Magnus, on this beautiful addition to Miami’s public landscape. 🌿💗

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7275 Collins Ave
Miami Beach, FL
33141

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6464983098

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