Xavier Ignacio Cortada (born September 13, 1964, in Albany, New York) is an American eco-artist, public artist and former lawyer. As a National Science Foundation Antarctic Artists and Writers Program fellow and a New York Foundation for the Arts Sponsored Artist, Cortada created works at the North Pole and South Pole to generate awareness about global climate change. He has worked with groups globally to produce collaborative art projects, including peace murals in Cyprus and Northern Ireland, child welfare murals in Bolivia and Panama, AIDS murals in Switzerland and South Africa, juvenile justice murals and projects in Miami and Philadelphia, and eco-art projects in Taiwan, Hawaii, and the Netherlands. Cortada has also been commissioned to create art for CERN, the White House, the World Bank, Florida Botanical Gardens, Miami City Hall, Miami-Dade County Hall, the Florida Turnpike, the Phillip and Patricia Frost Museum of Science, Museum of Florida History, Port Everglades, the Patricia and Phillip Frost Art Museum, and at ten Miami-Dade Housing Authority sites. Early life Cortada was born in Albany, New York and was raised in Miami from the age of three, his parents both Cuban immigrants. The Latino artist holds three degrees from the University of Miami: Bachelor of Arts, College of Arts and Sciences (1986), Master of Public Administration, Miami Herbert Business School (1991), and Juris Doctor, School of Law (1991). At the University of Miami, he was inducted into the Iron Arrow Honor Society, the highest honor bestowed by the university. Cortada was fascinated with mangroves early in his childhood upon taking family trips to Bear Cut Key in Key Biscayne, Florida. The plant functions as a central theme to many of his socially engaged artworks and public art projects. Early career As an emerging artist, Cortada received support from Miami-Dade Cultural Affairs Council's Community Grants to implement art projects with organizations like Miami-Dade Art in Public Places, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, University of Miami School of Law, Centro Campesino, Miami Lighthouse for the Blind, Citizens for a Better South Florida, Hands-on Miami, and Office of the Public Defender from 1997 to 2007. With the Miami-Dade Cultural Affairs Council/Art Center South Florida's New Forms Artists Grant awarded in 1999, he was able to implement the “WebStudio Project,” an Internet-based collaborative art project using two webcams and a live chat room. The State of Florida Division of Cultural Affairs’ Artist Residency grant helped