Michele Oka Doner: BirdHouse

Standing 22 feet tall and six feet in diameter at Fairgreen Hill in Bayshore Park, BirdHouse is inspired by Doner’s childhood and the natural elements that characterize both the park and the city. A Miami Beach native, Doner grew up across the street from the park and recalls discovering an abandoned birdhouse nestled in a coconut palm tree — a formative image that informs the sculpture.

Composed of radiant mica, BirdHouse evokes both the familiar and the mysterious. The work serves as a luminous beacon within the landscape, inviting visitors of all ages to engage with the magic of the natural world and the artistic spirit that defines Miami Beach.

About Michele Oka Doner

Michele Oka Doner is an artist whose work is fueled by a lifelong study and appreciation of the natural world, from which she derives her formal vocabulary. Her artistic production includes sculpture, drawing, public art, functional objects, video, artist books, and costume and set design. She has created numerous permanent art installations throughout the world, including Radiant Site at the Herald Square MTA station in New York, A Walk on the Beach at Miami International Airport, and Velocity of Light, the entrance to the new Astronomy Museum in Shanghai. Her work is found in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum and Whitney, NY, Art Institute of Chicago, Detroit Institute of Arts, The Louvre, Victoria and Albert, London, and Michigan, Oxford, Yale and Harvard university art museums, among others. She has received many awards, including those given by UN Society of Writers and Artists, Pratt Institute, New York State Council of the Arts and the Knight Foundation. She was first Artist in Residence at the New York Botanical Garden and received an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Michigan, where she earned her undergraduate and MFA degrees. Oka Doner is the author or subject of numerous books, including Natural Seduction, Miami Beach: Blueprint of an Eden, Human Nature, Everything Is Alive, and Into the Mysterium. Born in Miami Beach, Michele Oka Doner was recently designated Guardian of the City of Miami Beach’s Great Banyan Tree and represents Miami Beach as Ambassador for Arts and Culture. Currently she is working on Talisman, in conjunction with the City of New York, on an installation for Park Avenue, opening March, 2026.