Families across Miami will get a half-block's worth of art, music, and hands-on making when the Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami hosts Family Fest, We Are Miami, on Sunday, October 25, from 1 to 4 p.m. The event unfolds at the museum's expansion space at 23 NE 41st St in the Miami Design District, a building the museum acquired specifically to grow its footprint and its programming for young people.
According to Miami's Community Newspapers, Family Fest celebrates We Are Miami by bringing together families from Little Haiti, Little Havana, Miami Beach, Wynwood, and the Design District itself. The day includes neighborhood art expeditions that explore the museum's surroundings and draw inspiration from the histories, architecture, art, and design of Buena Vista and the Design District, alongside hands-on art making with artist-inspired activity stations for children and adults. Three interactive performances, each running 45 minutes and built around music, movement, and storytelling, round out the schedule, with the station's report noting that seating is limited and attendees are advised to arrive early.
Fantasy Theatre Takes the Stage
The live performance lineup for this year's festival features Miami's Fantasy Theatre, which presents interactive sessions blending music, movement, and storytelling for young audiences, according to the Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau. It's a different theme than last year's installment, when the September 2025 Family Fest was built around the title Florida Wild! and centered on local ecosystems, with activities like beeswax luminary crafting and Everglades-inspired art projects, per the Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami.
Tickets for this year's event run $50 for adults and $15 for children ages 3 to 17, with kids under 3 admitted free, per the same account from Miami's Community Newspapers. Tickets are non-refundable and include access to all activities, activations, and performances throughout the afternoon. Proceeds support ICA Miami's free weekend programming for youth, part of an education department that also runs the Young Artists Initiative, Saturday Art Prep, Portfolio Prep for academic programs, and K-12 Immersive School Tours, according to the Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami.
A Building With Its Own Museum History
The 30,000-square-foot expansion venue hosting Family Fest has its own layered history in Miami's art world. ICA Miami acquired the building for $25 million in October 2024, doubling its exhibition space and extending its Design District campus across half a city block, as reported by WLRN. For 15 years, the same building served as the private museum for the de la Cruz Collection before it closed in February 2024 following the death of co-founder Rosa de la Cruz.
Funding for the $25 million purchase included a $5 million grant from the Knight Foundation along with private contributions from Design District co-founder Craig Robins, auto magnate Norman Braman and his wife Irma Braman, the Steve Witkoff family, and Tony Tamer, according to The Real Deal. Ahead of hosting Family Fest, the museum used the expansion space from February to June 2026 to stage the immersive exhibition From the Heart to the Hands: Dolce&Gabbana, per ICA Miami.
From a Contested Split to a Growing Campus
ICA Miami's roots trace back to a 2014 legal dispute and split from the Museum of Contemporary Art in North Miami, after which the institution operated out of the Design District's historic Moore Building for three years before building its permanent home, according to WLRN. That main facility, a 37,500-square-foot building at 61 NE 41st St designed by Spanish firm Aranguren + Gallegos Arquitectos, opened in December 2017 with a metallic geometric facade and a 15,000-square-foot outdoor sculpture garden.
Between that December 2017 opening and the October 2024 expansion announcement, ICA Miami welcomed more than 1 million visitors under its permanent free general admission policy, according to FAD Magazine. The museum remains dedicated to continuous experimentation in contemporary art, advancing new scholarship and fostering the exchange of art and ideas, with its main building located at 61 NE 41st St, Miami, Florida 33137.
