As Rents Continue to Rise, Miami Artists Get Creative to Stay Afloat

As widely reported, Miami-Dade residents have been hit hard by skyrocketing home prices due to out-of-state transplants and rising auxiliary expenses like home insurance and property taxes. Although many of these issues have been evident for quite some time now, they have been exacerbated by events no one could have foreseen, like the pandemic and the Champlain Towers South collapse.

Finding studio space had already been a challenge for local artists long before 2020. The days of low-cost, accessible studio spaces in what was once the vanguard of the Miami art scene have been replaced with fancy restaurants and tourist traps galore. Although there are always still some one-off arrangements where an artist can find a free studio through a magnanimous collector or a residency program for a limited time, many who are not able to secure a subsidized space have had to get creative with what their studio can look like and where it can be. In some cases, artists have banded together to create collective studio spaces where they can divvy up the rent and put on group open studios and exhibitions in some less conventional locales.

Tunnel Projects is an artist-run studio and exhibition space in the basement parking lot of a strip mall in Little Havana. Resident artists each hold their respective studio spaces throughout the lot and shared project space that features several exhibitions with residents and outsider artists alike.

In June, it presented "Ouroboros," a solo installation project by Yessica Gispert featuring lit, melting candles and abstract resin works hanging from the walls. The venue, which you can park directly inside to view any ongoing open studio or exhibition, is the quintessential up-and-coming artist space. Graffiti can be faintly discerned from the dim fluorescent lights throughout the lot as guests collect in and around the project space, which starkly contrasts its dark surroundings.
Red Thread Studio is a collective space led by Aurora Molina, which currently houses 18 artists in an open-concept, repurposed office lobby in Coral Gables. (Full disclosure: I freelance for the gallery representing Molina.) Nowadays, the sort of space it occupies is widely available, as local businesses have foregone commercial properties in suburban Coral Gables for more eye-catching and larger commercial properties in Brickell, downtown, and even Doral.

In her search for a space, Molina negotiated with the landlord to lease her the space for a more reasonable rent without having to do as extensive repairs as would otherwise be required; still, the large space and price required others to join her. "Most of the artists in this space are former students of mine, and so I approached them to ask if they wanted to continue onto this project together," Aurora tells New Times. "I am not in the business of being a landlord."

Spaces like Fountainhead and Laundromat are commonly known, as they host more established artists and are near the many galleries and museums north of downtown. In contrast to the more well-established art communities in locales like Allapattah, Little Haiti, and the Upper Eastside, these spaces and the artists participating in them reinvigorate visual arts in areas the arts community and connoisseurs have long ignored.

Real estate developers continue to alienate locals who bring value to the city beyond the bottom line and risk losing the very cultural cache that made Miami an attractive city for investment in the first place. Furthermore, limitations on space also limit the art our artists can even make in the first place.

Hopefully, the city will see investments in more affordable alternatives for new developments. Until then, it is certainly inspiring to see artists think of new spaces and structures in which they can maintain a studio for their practice. These grassroots efforts speak to the real demand for space for Miamians, artists or not.

Tunnel Projects. 300 SW 12th Ave., Miami; tunnelprojects.com.

Red Thread Art Studio. 283 Catalonia Ave., Coral Gables; instagram.com/redthreadartstudiomiami.