A Miami Arts Organization Wants to Build Hundreds of Affordable Housing Units for Artists in an Art Deco Former Bakery

Although Miami sees the art world come and go each December for
Art Basel, at least one local institution is investing in the
city’s art scene long-term and year-round. Bakehouse Art Complex, an arts facility in
Miami’s Wynwood district, is planning to build 250 units of
affordable artist housing on its two-acre campus.

The organization’s five-year plan “is to redevelop the Bakehouse
site as a community-embedded, live-work arts campus,” wrote
Bakehouse’s lawyer, Wesley Hevia of Akerman LLP, in a rezoning
application to the city planning director. As a charitable
organization, Bakehouse is requesting to have its application
fees waived and are seeking a land-use amendment.

The space was founded in 1985 by a group of artists who had been
kicked out of their studio spaces in Coconut Grove. With a grant
from the government, they purchased a 1920s Art Deco building that
historically served as an industrial bakery, promising to preserve
it for artists’ use. Today, the building houses 60 studios
(occupied by some 100 artists), two galleries, and facilities for
printmaking, photo development, ceramics, woodworking, and
welding.

Applicants for Bakehouse studios are evaluated based on need and
merit, with an eye toward creating a community that is diverse in
both the artists’ cultural background, as well as their medium and
discipline. Studios are available to rent for a one-year period,
with the option to reapply.

“Bakehouse is the largest artist-purposed, non-profit-owned site
of its kind in the city’s urban core,” Hevia wrote. “For more than
three decades, it has demonstrated its commitment to artists, the
Wynwood neighborhood, and the larger South Florida community.”
Offering affordable artist housing in a city where the real estate
costs are continuing to rise will help Bakehouse continue its
mission to support local artists, allowing them to stay in
Miami.

The Miami-based Knight Foundation underwrote the development of
Bakehouse’s five-year strategic plan, and has also awarded the
organization a $150,000 grant. That money will be put toward
bringing in a group of curators to work with artists on
site-specific projects in and around the Bakehouse property.

The post A Miami Arts Organization Wants to Build Hundreds
of Affordable Housing Units for Artists in an Art Deco Former
Bakery appeared first on artnet News.