LegalArt, with a generous grant from the Knight Arts Partnership from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, has created the first affordable live/work professional development residency and community building artists’ facility in Miami. LegalArt’s Residency includes seven approximately 600 square foot studios with a communal kitchen and showers; exhibition, lecture and legal counseling spaces as well as a comprehensive resource library, encouraging research, interaction, and collaboration.
Research indicates that communal live/work environments have been the most sustainable and successful for both the artists and the community. Thought of as an incubator, local Miami artists in residence will emerge after one year far more capable of realizing their greatest potential as both artists and stakeholders in the community. One of the studios will be filled with rotating short term residencies of national and international artists, allowing for greater collaboration with Miami artists. The final studio apartment is reserved for visiting curators, writers and scholars who will engage both with resident artists—by mentoring, leading critiques and exploring exhibition opportunities beyond Miami—as well as with the public—through lectures, readings, workshop and exhibitions.
Affordable live/work space has been recognized by the Urban Institute as being crucial to the development and continued viability of artists and artist communities in the United States. According to Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs Economist Ann Markusen, a majority of Miami artists are living below the poverty line, working secondary jobs and in desperate need of subsidized live/work space. This project nurtures artists, allowing them to concentrate solely on art making, thus stimulating inspired production. Through this initiative, LegalArt strives not only to create a home and permanent community center unparalleled in South Florida, but also one that engages artists and helps keep them in Miami over the long term. Finally, by reaching out to culturally diverse arts communities, through programming and outreach, the center will also be transformative by bridging the divide among traditionally disparate groups of artists, who often exist in the margins of arts programming and funding.
LegalArt’s staff, attorneys and experienced arts advocates, offer training in copyright and trademark, incorporation, portfolio management, writing skills and much more as well as maintain this center where artists from all over South Florida will be welcome to seek guidance, support, resources and a greater sense of community with their peers. LegalArt revitalized a 1924 Warehouse building in the Downtown Arts District. Artists have opportunities to contribute to the still developing neighborhood both physically and socially and reinforce an emerging arts cluster, leading to economic development and community partnerships.
