News Release

What's In A Name? New Biscayne National Park gallery show highlights a unique twist on national park names

News Release Date: September 23, 2021

Contact: Gary Bremen, 305-338-6584

HOMESTEAD, Fla. — A new temporary art exhibit featuring Massachusetts artist Dan Narva, working under the name “Nine Day Weekend,” is now on display through Jan. 2, 2022, from 9 a.m. - 5 p.m. daily at Biscayne National Park’s Dante Fascell Visitor Center Gallery.

Titled, “What’s In A Name?” the exhibit offers renderings of graphic depictions on the written names of 63 national parks. Narva cleverly rearranges the letters of a park's name to illustrate a distinct feature of the park’s landscape or wildlife. The words “Hawai'i Volcanoes” become an erupting volcano, the letters in “Biscayne” transform into a shipwreck and “Joshua Tree” takes on the shape of the park’s eponymous plant. “I encourage viewers to have fun "solving" each image,” said Narva. “Depending on how many letters and how jumbled they are, some parks are definitely trickier to identify than others.”

Special events associated with the exhibit include a virtual National Parks Game Night Oct. 5 at 7:00 p.m. and an opportunity to meet the artist at an in-person reception Sunday, Nov.14 from 1 - 3 p.m.

What’s In A Name? is part of the park’s Community Artists Program, established in 1997 as an outlet for the works of artists who are inspired by the beauty of Biscayne National Park. Over the years, the gallery has hosted nearly 100 shows featuring photography, paintings and drawings in a variety of media. The program is made possible by the Alliance for Florida’s National Parks and the Florida National Parks Association.

Narva, who studied art at Williams College, founded Nine Day Weekend on Etsy in 2016, paying tribute to a life of adventures. As a child he spent summers hiking in New Hampshire's White Mountains. At the age of 20 he biked across America from Plymouth Rock in Massachusetts to the Oregon coast (visiting several parks along the way). Dan and his wife share their love of the outdoors with their son, whose first big trip was to five of Utah's national parks as a 2-year-old.

For more details about the exhibit, visit the park’s website at www.nps.gov/bisc or contact park ranger Gary Bremen at 305-338-6584. For regular updates from the park, follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram @BiscayneNPS.