Tiny in stature, the Rev. Carol Hoffman was a giant in arts and culture

The Rev. Dr. Carol Hoffman was a woman who didn’t blow her own horn. Yet, her love of the arts, and her fellow human beings, led her in helping others blow their horns — literally.

Although small in stature, Hoffman was a giant in her role as a humanitarian. She died Dec. 5. She was 79.

I first met Hoffman in the mid 1980s, when she was a new arrival here, working as a social worker in a program at First United Methodist Church in Coral Gables, then known as Miami Urban Ministries. We became fast friends.

She was a curious person, always wanting to know from the people she met, where they were from, said her daughter Sage Hoffman.

“She wholeheartedly embraced Miami’s mosaic of people and cultures. She loved the city’s melting pot and couldn’t wait to hear your story. She wanted to know about your ancestors, foods, music and what you planted in your garden. With every conversation, she wove a tapestry of inclusion, connecting the beauty and significance of cultural rituals and practices,” Sage said.

Hoffman was born in 1944 in Denver, Colorado, which explains her love of the mountains and the Southwest desert. She studied anthropology at Cornell and Columbia universities and participated in archeological excavations on Native American lands in Arizona.

After moving to Miami, Hoffman enrolled at Barry University, where she received a master’s in Theology. She later studied at Florida International University, where she earned a doctoral degree in sociology.

An artist at heart, Hoffman launched her career as an artist in the 1970s. Her soft sculptures and other works of art were exhibited in the Denver Art Museum and other prominent art museums in Colorado. For 10 years, Hoffman also served as the publisher and editor of Craft Range, an art magazine that featured artists from the Rocky Mountains.

When she moved to Miami, she quickly became a part of the city’s mosaic. She learned to cook the traditional Haitian pumpkin soup Joumou and served it to friends on New Year’s Day. She loved all living creatures — and that included plants of all kinds. She even loved the lowly lizard, she painted in a series. In the yard of her Miami Shores home, she also planted native plants as a tribute to her new home.

Hoffman’s love of people and their cultures reached all the way to the Dominican Republic, perhaps encouraged by her marriage of 28 years to Roberto Guzman of Santo Domingo. She wrote her doctoral thesis on contributions of middle-class Dominican immigrants in South Florida.

In 1999, Hoffman’s passion for people, cultures and the arts prompted her to become the founder of Arts@ St. John’s. The non-profit program provided a venue for emerging artists to perform and grow. Hoffman became a surrogate mother to young artists, nurturing them and helping them to get grants..

Presenting young artists in concert at St. John’s United Methodist Church on Miami Beach’s Pine Tree Drive grew in popularity and brought together races and cultures from throughout South Florida.

Hoffman used Arts @ St. John’s to open other doors. She helped create Common Roots, an art exhibit about native and traditional plants of Florida and the Caribbean. She was instrumental in starting the The Diaspora Women’s Dance Festival, featuring Afro Cuban, Middle Eastern, Caribbean and Contemporary dance. In addition, Hoffman created a writers’ group, Writing Women’s Voices.

To help promote harmony among Muslims, Christians and Jews, Hoffman created a series called Convivencia Miami, which celebrated the period in Spain in the 1400s when Muslims, Christians, and Jews lived, created, and worked together in relative harmony until 1492.

To say that Hoffman believed in modeling intercultural understanding, cross-fertilization and ethnic and religious tolerance is an understatement. It simply was a way of life for her.

In addition to Sage, Hoffman is survived by two other daughters, Claudia and Silvia Guzman and six grandchildren.

A memorial service will be at 10:30 a.m. Sunday Jan. 14 at Miami Shores Community Church.

Senior pastor to be installed

The community is invited to celebrate with Faith Community Baptist Church at 3 p.m. Sunday when the Rev. Brandon R. Dunn, pastor-elect, will be installed as the senior pastor of the church at 10401 NW Eighth Ave.

Dunn, who comes from a long line of preachers, succeeds his father, the Rev. Richard P. Dunn II, as pastor.