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Miami’s longtime history museum is getting a full identity overhaul with a name that sounds a lot more like the city it’s trying to capture.
After 86 years as HistoryMiami Museum, the downtown institution has officially rebranded itself as the Museum of Miami, in a change that leadership describes as a major evolution from a traditional history museum into something far broader.
The change comes with a new logo, a new tagline (“Love the Story”) and a plan to become what the museum calls a “museum without walls,” meaning exhibitions, storytelling projects and other programming will increasingly move out into neighborhoods across Miami-Dade instead of staying confined to its downtown building.
“This is more than a name change, it’s a shift in how this community experiences Miami’s Museum as a living, breathing archive,” CEO Natalia Crujeiras said in a statement announcing the rebrand. “Museum of Miami perfectly reflects our strategy to embrace and present new experiences that provide everyone an opportunity to see themselves reflected in Miami’s past and active in its future.”
The museum says the rebrand followed a three-year listening tour that included conversations with residents in neighborhoods including Little Haiti, Liberty City, Homestead, Kendall and Miami Beach. One recurring theme: people felt the museum had grown beyond the word “history.” And honestly, the museum’s recent programming already hinted at that shift. In recent years, the institution has hosted exhibitions on everything from migrant communities and Seminole artists to elaborate nail art.
Upcoming projects include “Cafecito Stories,” a traveling ventanita-on-wheels designed to collect stories from locals across the county, plus “Wishes for America,” a digital mural where residents can submit hopes for the country in real time.
The newly renamed museum is also preparing to host one of its biggest national exhibitions yet. Beginning June 20, the Museum of Miami will present the National Archives’ traveling “Freedom Plane: Documents That Forged a Nation” exhibition, featuring rare founding-era artifacts including the Treaty of Paris, a draft printing of the Constitution and signed oaths from George Washington and Alexander Hamilton.
The building at Flagler Street is still there. But increasingly, the museum seems less interested in being a place you visit and more interested in becoming something Miami keeps bumping into.