As we begin a new year and a new decade, all of us at Bakehouse want to express our gratitude to you—the individuals and organizations—who have contributed to our achievement over the past year. We are especially proud of the future vision we have collectively shaped for Bakehouse—one that honors and expands upon our founders’ vision to provide affordable working spaces for artists in Miami’s urban core by seeking City approval to add residential uses to our underutilized site. Equally important is our resolve to become a more meaningful and critical node in Miami’s evolving and maturing cultural ecosystem, while addressing the affordability crisis in order to attract, retain, develop, and support Miami artists across all disciplines.
We celebrate our major accomplishments in 2019:
Our Board approved a new five-year plan, Vision for a Future Arts Campus, outlining the overarching goals that will drive our work ahead. Our artists also spearheaded a three-year program plan around artistic and professional development, facilities, community engagement, and tools to assess performance relative to each.
We added expertise to diversify and strengthen our volunteer governing Board.
We were recipient of a $150K investment from the Knight Foundation to create a curatorial cohort to foster greater connectivity between Bakehouse, its artists, and the neighborhood in which we are embedded.
We were active members in founding a new neighborhood organization, Wynwood Community Enhancement Association, and will continue to be participants in the development of a shared vision plan for Wynwood Norte, committed to equitable and participatory community revitalization. This plan, thanks to the lead support of Commissioner Hardemon and subsequent recognition by the City Commission, is now under review by the City administration, who are working with all stakeholders towards implementation.
Thanks to the generosity of Akerman LLP and associate Wes Hevia, we filed a land use change and the first of two rezoning requests to enable the addition of affordable housing for artists to our site. Our first public hearing is anticipated in the next few months and we hope we can count on your support—via letters of support or your presence at City hearings.
We had a busy year of public activities: exhibitions, installations, internships, collaborations, and public programming. We are proud of the accomplishments and contributions of our artists and the numerous opportunities that have or will enhance their development and practice. We hope you enjoyed Bakehouse Rising, our new online monthly, which provides an opportunity to better know our artists through featured profiles.
We inaugurate 2020—and this new decade—by welcoming and introducing you to our first cohort of curatorial fellows, made possible through the support of the Knight Foundation:
Anita Braham | Ariana Hernandez-Reguant | Ricardo Mor | Dorian Munroe | Helen Pena-Smicker
Over the next eight months, we will learn from and with them, our artists, and neighbors, to co-develop ideas and programs that are relevant to and emanate from meaningful hyper-local community engagement. This work will advance our understanding of how we can become an even more robust commons for critical discourse, civic engagement, and socially impactful creative practices.
Some other news…
With a recent gift of approximately 9,000 art books from the Boca Raton Museum of Art, we will be creating a new community art library, reading room, and space for communal learning and encounter, building community among artists, students, art enthusiasts, and the visual and literary arts communities.
Bookleggers Library, a non-profit organization, whose mission is to permeate Miami with books through public access points, programming, and installations in unexpected spaces, will take up permanent residence at the Bakehouse. They will be fully operational by early February and will continue to offer idiosyncratic and dynamic participatory experiences that serve as a conduit for engagement and exchange.
With a grant from Miami-Dade County, Bakehouse is establishing a community print and technology space to enable artists and enthusiasts alike to have access to printing equipment. It also enables us to expand our public educational offerings.
Mark your calendars for March 31, 6-9pm, for our next Open Studios.
Thank you again for supporting Bakehouse throughout the years. We look forward to beginning this new year and new decade with a clear path forward—one that understands art as a powerful platform for community-building and artists as active agents of change.
With best wishes from all of us for an empowered, creative, and constructive New Year!
On View at Bakehouse Between the legible and opaque: Approaches to an ideal in place brings together the work of nineteen artists, who use abstraction as both a formal and conceptual framework to render perceptions of place. The works, in their use of color, materiality, and language, contribute to varying degrees of legibility and evocativeness. Curated by Bakehouse artist Adler Guerrier.
Archeology of Memory: The site and sound of ceramics is comprised of ten artists working in and experimenting with clay, glass, metal, and cement. The use of material and the play with texture, color, and form becomes a mechanism from which to consider the works beyond their decorative language. Curated by Bakehouse artist Morel Doucet.
IN THE STUDIO is an installation of formal, carefully-staged portraits of Bakehouse artists. Through the use of specific lighting techniques and production design, the subjects are captured in the intimacy of their workspace. Photography by Bakehouse artist Pedro Wazzan.
The Passing of Time II, curated by The Gallery Club — Amsterdam, presents four Miami-based artists, Amanda Bradley, Maritza Caneca, Stephan Göttlicher, and Luis Lazo, who explore the notion of time, memory, and history through their photography.
Succulent: Recipes for Architectural Consumption,curated by Dawntown, architects Germane Barnes and Joachim Perez, is an installation that explores the processes through which we digest the built environment. It features the work of six architects and architectural collectives.
