"Making Miami" Chronicles the City's Early Art Scene

It can be hard to imagine the Miami Design District as anything other than the glitzy luxury shopping mall it is today. But before the Gucci-Louis-Fendi-Prada-fication of the neighborhood, it was a cradle of Miami's art scene.

During the late 1990s and early 2000s, just before Art Basel Miami Beach supercharged the city's art scene, the neighborhood was home to four crucial nonprofit art spaces: Bas Fisher Invitational (BFI), Diaspora Vibe Cultural Arts Incubator, Dimensions Variable (DV), and Locust Projects. Developer and Design Miami founder Craig Robins had been slowly buying up property in the neighborhood starting in the mid-'90s, and just as he and fellow developer Tony Goldman had done in South Beach, he began offering the vacant buildings to artists, some of whom took the extra room and opened exhibition spaces. Leases were generous and often extended for multiple years.

"All the artists were so happy with him because he never overpromised," says Katerina Llanes, a former curator with the Pérez Art Museum Miami who now works with the creative-focused legal firm Jayaram, which has offices in the Design District. "But really, the larger narrative is that because they had free space for that long, they were able to establish nonprofit spaces as they shared. He would have given them 2,000 or 5,000 square feet, and they were like, 'I don't need all of this.' So they started to share it with other artists and create these nonprofit spaces."

Most of these spaces have moved on from the neighborhood as rents have risen. But this past Miami Art Week, a new exhibition has coaxed them back. Organized by Jayaram and curated by Llanes, "Making Miami" explores that critical period, with all four spaces staging exhibitions in a temporary space on NE 39th Street.

"I thought that it was really important to give the flowers to these specific four because to be artist-run and nonprofit is the hardest of all things," Llanes says.
Each organization was given a wooden pavilion to exhibit in, similar to the national pavilions at the Venice Biennale. Students from nearby Design and Architecture Senior High (DASH) and the New World School of the Arts built the pavilions on the vacant lot. The students were also invited to create and show work as part of a sculpture garden on the same site, next to works by established artists such as Kenny Scharf, Antonia Wright, Ruben Millares, Daniel Arsham, and FriendsWithYou.

Inside the pavilions, each nonprofit space decided to dip back into its history and Design District era. Locust Projects, for instance, restaged the exhibition "Whirl Crash Go!" by the TM Sisters, featuring photo portraits of roller derby skaters and synchronized swimming. During Miami Art Week, at the VIP opening party for "Making Miami," one of the artists performed a synchronized swimming routine in an inflatable pool inside the pavilion.

Diaspora Vibe showcased work from artists hailing from Jamaica, Cuba, Haiti, Bolivia, and the Dominican Republic. Dimensions Variable, meanwhile, staged a tribute to Box, a former art space on Bird Road that existed around the same period, alongside work from its current artists at DV in Little River.

"A lot of these artists are still making work, and they're out in the world doing amazing things. And we wanted to showcase them," says Leyden Rodriguez-Casanova, cofounder and codirector of DV. "I think as the city continues to mature culturally, we're all kind of trying to research and tell our cultural history. And there's a kind of movement to digitize archives and ensure that cultural history is there. So we've been actively trying to ensure that we get some of that story told."

BFI's display featured more confrontational work. Across from a TV showing the latest ribald video from beloved local band Donzii, another screen showed a video by A.L. Steiner featuring an online fee calculator created by the nonprofit  Working Artists and the Greater Economy (WAGE). The site aims to alleviate the financial burden faced by artists and empower them to demand fair compensation from museums and cultural institutions. Naomi Fisher, who cofounded BFI with Hernan Bas, says Steiner, one of WAGE's founders, wanted to "remind people that even in the context of Art Basel, artists' work is labor, and we need to get paid."
"There are artists who have shown at BFI who are having housing issues, who are having challenges, living in their cars. People who were born and bred in Miami, we are not secure."

BFI resided in the District until 2011 and now exists as a pop-up art space. Fisher, who also contributed work to the show, says she isn't bitter about having to leave the neighborhood. In fact, she credits Robins for giving up space in the first place, lamenting that the newer class of property developers and real estate stakeholders entering Miami doesn't seem to have the same consideration for artists that Robins did.

"Craig was one of our biggest supporters; we still do things here," she says. "I wish more people who own a lot of real estate, instead of letting it sit vacant, would find ways to provide that space for artists, musicians, anyone in need in any kind of way, that are trying to support a community. There should be no vacant real estate. Temporary is fine. As long as the parameters are understood, temporary is incredible and can provide a jump-off for growth. The temporary spaces Craig provided allowed our community to grow in a way that we are not finding in similar spaces today."

"Making Miami" is also accompanied by a hardcover book featuring essays and conversations between important figures in Miami's art scene. Published by Jayaram, Knight Foundation, and Exile Books, the volume is available from the exhibition website and will be stocked at Books & Books. The show will run until December 26, in part to make it accessible to locals who would have been busy or otherwise sequestered during Art Week.

"Some people don't go outside during Art Week," Llanes says. "The sentiment [of the show[ is that this is for the city. This is a love letter to Miami, and we want to make sure that everybody in the city has an opportunity to see it."

"Making Miami." On view through Tuesday, December 26, at 75 NE 39th St., Miami; makingmiami.com. Admission is free. Monday through Saturday 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. and Sunday noon to 6 p.m.