TIGERTAIL'S OPENING

The performing arts and Mary Luft are almost synonymous in South Florida. That's why she's receiving the Lifetime Achievement Award tonight at the Miami Beach Arts Trust Gala.

As founder and executive director of Tigertail Productions (named after her former street in Coconut Grove) she has brought innovative art to us since 1979.

Tigertail began its 32d season earlier this month with a magical party at Wynwood Walls. "Walls" is a Tony Goldman creation, an outdoor art museum featuring some of the world's most outstanding street art). It is located next to Joey's Restaurant, between NW 25th and 26th street on NW 2d Avenue. Go if you haven't already.

Being outside, it's open most of the time.

The party, like most of Mary's productions, was wonderfully eclectic. While young women challenged us with a spoken word performance, New York's Pat Oleszko gave tours of her giant, headless, naked woman.

Don't ask what

we had to zip open to peer inside.

Pat was hard to miss. She was the only the one wearing 39 inflatable breasts. As musicians started to play, a lady wearing a plastic fish net sashayed by. All this while surrounded by day-glo,

eye-popping graffiti.

Obviously, Tigertail's 32d season is off to a good start. Last Monday they premiered their latest poetry publication at Books and Books. Two weeks from now they will present, "The Cabinet of Dr. Strange", a free performance during Miami Beach's Sleepless Night.

You can learn more about Tigertail and their upcoming events by going to their website, www.tigertail.org.