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Written by Anne Tschida
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Page 1 of 2 What really is the place of alternative, non-commercial (which often translates to artist-run) spaces in a cultural community? The community’s history and sophistication play a part in such a determination - but in the end it’s the living, breathing participants themselves that make or break an alt scene.
Just like the city itself, the cultural scene in Miami is fairly young, with young institutions including the museums and schools. But it grew up quickly this century, after the arrival of Art Basel Miami Beach and all the repercussions the fair has had, good and bad. Yet, it is at this critical juncture that many people feel alt spaces are fundamentally important, as they can help foster creativity and experimentation at a time when the commercial is king.
In just a short ten-year span, Miami has birthed some spaces that have left remarkable imprints on the local art scene; and watched them fade or die, only to see new ones pop up, although never really in the same mold. One thread is common: they are generally short-lived spaces because they take so much blood, sweat, and tears to run, with the only real “pay” being personal fulfillment.
Step back to 1997, when four young artists opened Box. “We were upset over the difficulty of getting a show in town,” recalls one of the founding artists, Leyden Rodriguez-Casanova. “So we decided to do it ourselves.” Although Miami at that time had far fewer commercial galleries than today, the Box people saw a hole that needed to be filled. “We wanted a space for experimentation; a space where the prospect of selling was nowhere to contaminate the integrity of the ideas being shared. We wanted an independent space. Independent from a board of trustees, government funding, bureaucratic bullshit, just a place of ideas.” But eventually the time and money needed to run a space proved too much, and Box eventually closed for good in 2003. But by that time, other spots had started to fill the gap as well. “The House and Locust Projects were getting lots of support,” says Rodriguez-Casanova, who now is with the David Castillo Gallery. “They were getting support from the community, the state, collectors with plenty of money, so it was time.”
The House: Along with its next incarnation, Placemaker, this artist-run space will probably be the most prominent in Miami’s memory. Started by a number of artists in a run-down old house in Edgewater, the founders are now some of the local scene’s most mentioned, a.k.a Daniel Arsham, Bhakti Baxter, and Martin Oppel among others. The House’s demise came from a wrecking ball, as downtown neighborhoods were leveled to make room for the condo boom. But The House and Placemaker - also now disappeared - left visible marks on the art ground.
Locust Projects, founded by artists Cooper, Weston Charles, and Elisabeth Withstandley, however, is still with us and thriving, although its set-up differed in significant ways from other artist-run spaces. First off, it has a huge list on its board of directors, and now has a full-time professional director. Over the years, the Locust space - one of the first to open up in the now-desirable Wynwood - has let amazingly creative and experimental endeavors sprout from its walls.
Two show-stoppers back at Box were artists Naomi Fisher and Hernan Bas, who, founded The Bas Fisher Invitational art space in the wake of losing their favorite alternative art space ‘the House’ to Miami’s rapid gentrification; just to end up maintaining their new space in one of the most gentrified areas in Miami, the Design District. Their premise is to invite artists who they are inspired by to publicly showcase their work” According to Fisher, theirs has been a very hands-off approach. “We just want to help providing a space for people to really do absolutely whatever they want... “We don’t have any intention of having the structure of a commercial gallery, we are simply a space. Thus if an artist sell their work, we take zero percentage of the sale.” Back to the money: the lack of it is what can make an alternative space free to show whatever it wants, commercial viability be damned. The lack of it can also be such a literal drain on its founders that it becomes too much.
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