ICA Miami Announces Expansion, Acquires de la Cruz Building

In what may be the most significant news yet in a tumultuous year for Miami's art scene, the Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami announced today that it will take over the vacant de la Cruz Collection building.

The contemporary art museum announced in a press release that ICA Miami would expand to the building at 23 NE 41st St. in the Design District, down the block from its current premises. The three-story space was formerly owned and operated by the de la Cruz Collection, which shuttered earlier this year after the death of its founder, Rosa de la Cruz.

The expansion will add 30,000 square feet to the ICA, effectively doubling its exhibition space and allowing the museum to take up half of a city block. This will give the museum a profile similar to that of the Museum of Modern Art in New York and allow the ICA to better compete with other institutions, such as the Pérez Art Museum Miami, for the position of Miami's preeminent art institution. The ICA also plans to use the de la Cruz building for educational programs in the next few months before renovating it.

"At this pivotal moment in Miami's arts landscape history, ICA Miami's expansion represents a natural next step in its trajectory by providing crucially needed space to share the work of important artists and to deepen our educational reach," said Alex Gartenfeld, ICA Miami's artistic director, in a statement.

According to the museum, the building was acquired for $25 million "through a robust capital campaign supported entirely by private funds." That fundraising campaign includes a $5 million Knight Foundation grant in support of digital innovation. Other benefactors include Design District founder Craig Robins and ICA Miami board chair Ray Ellen Yarkin.
The ICA's acquisition of the de la Cruz building had been long rumored. According to sources close to the situation, even before Rosa de la Cruz's death in February of this year, there had been negotiations between the two parties for the ICA to take over the building. Some saw the ICA as a natural new owner of the building, given its proximity and similar mission.

The acquisition has the support of key members of the de la Cruz organization. Asked for comment from New Times, Melissa Wallen, outgoing director of the de la Cruz Collection, says, "This marks a significant moment for the de la Cruz Collection, which has long been dedicated to making contemporary art accessible to the public. ICA Miami is poised to honor this mission, ensuring that the legacy of inspiring and engaging with the community continues."

Christie's took control of the de la Cruz art collection shortly after Rosa's death and began to auction it off earlier this year, a move which upset some in the Miami art community due to the fact that important works by artists such as Ana Mendieta and Felix Gonzalez-Torres would leave the city. Writer Carolina Drake wrote in Hyperallergic, "As major artworks leave Miami, perhaps never to return, questions have arisen regarding the city's over-dependence on private art collections for its cultural ecosystem, whether other models should be explored."

ICA Miami came under scrutiny earlier this year when it pre-emptively censored an ostensibly pro-Palestinian artwork, temporarily removing Charles Gaines' portrait of the late Palestinian-American scholar Edward Said.

The museum was founded in 2014 after several of its patrons split from the Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami. The institution occupied the Moore Building nearby in the Design District until its current premises at 61 NE 41st St., designed by Aranguren & Gallegos Arquitectos, opened in 2017. The new building was primarily bankrolled by billionaire Miami car dealer Norman Braman, a prominent Republican political donor who has also made headlines for funding Israeli settlements in the West Bank.

The institution celebrated its tenth anniversary this year with an exhibition of its permanent collection titled "Toward the Celestial: ICA Miami's Collection at 10 Years." The museum has welcomed more than one million visitors since opening and has organized nearly 100 exhibitions, as well as lectures and performances from musicians such as Sega Bodega, Actress, and Sophie. Notable shows include presentations for emerging artists such as Sasha Gordon and Jadé Fadojutimi; major art world stars such as Sterling Ruby, Betye Saar, Donald Judd, and Judy Chicago; and locals, including Tomás Esson, Carlos Alfonzo, Tomm El-Saieh, and Purvis Young. It is also one of the few major institutions to have acquired and exhibited NFTs, the artistic and monetary value of which has been called into question.