The Bakehouse Art Complex occupies a historic 1926 bakery, one of Miami’s earliest industrial buildings. In 1978 the American Bakeries Company went out of business due to labor issues, and 40 years later, local artists eventually seized the opportunity to secure the building with support from the city and county.
The site has been planned as an inclusive community that would not gentrify, displace or erase the character and culture of the neighborhood. On the subject of making this plan come alive, Bakehouse Executive Director Cathy Leff recently explained, “we were an active participant in and driving that plan, which then gave zoning tools and land use rights to move the neighborhood forward in a thoughtful way.”
For Bakehouse, Leff notes, the plan means the ability to add affordable housing to the site, including a cultural compound that will have approximately 250 units, renovated and new studio and fabrication spaces, cultural and community spaces, and shared public green areas. It aims to be a living think tank where artists, neighbors and civic partners not only work but work together to confront urgent issues and ignite collective action. Below, Leff talks more about this ambitious plan of revival and renewal in the service of art and culture.
Credits: Installation view of Bakehouse at Forty: Past, Present, Future. Photos: Silvia Ros. Graphic design: Hamish Smyth. Courtesy of the Bakehouse Art Complex.
Conceptual renderings of the future Bakehouse Art Complex campus. Courtesy of Michael Maltzan Architecture.
Tell us more about the origins of the site.
Bakehouse was founded 40 years ago when a group of artists were displaced from their working home in Coconut Grove (GroveHouse) due to rising real estate costs during a then-wave of revitalization. They reclaimed a 2.3-acre shuttered industrial bakery in Wynwood (a neighborhood in Miami’s urban core), the first industrial bakery in South Florida, and baked up a then-radical idea: to transform the 2.3-acre site into a community-embedded and embraced communal workspace so artists and artmaking would have permanence in the city. With support from the City of Miami and Miami-Dade County, they retrofitted the building, which was for practical purposes donated.
Today, 40 years later and after almost eight years of planning and learning about the neighborhood and its needs, those of artists working in Miami today, galvanizing support and demonstrating our work, we completed this past June a vision plan in collaboration with The Paratus Group, Michael Maltzan Architects, our board, artists, supporters and our neighbors in the Wynwood Norte community. Our initial goal of preserving affordable workspaces has evolved into a once-in-a-generation reimagining of a large site as permanent and expanded cultural infrastructure. This new vision includes affordable artist housing, expanded and renovated studios and fabrication labs, public green spaces, and areas designed for cross-disciplinary exchange. Now, the work really begins. We need to raise the funds—private and public—to realize this achievable plan.
What is the guiding goal of the center?
Our goal is to provide space, community and opportunity to Miami-based artists by eliminating the economic pressures that have resulted many to leave Miami because of Miami’s rapid and successful urbanization. As part of this, we aim to create improved and expanded cultural infrastructure for Miami’s artists: a vibrant cultural compound where creative forces can ignite transformative movements.
Who will be eligible for residency and how will that be determined?
Residencies, for the moment (that is until we have our own housing), will continue to be open to Miami-based emerging and mid-career artists across disciplines who first qualify for merit and seriousness of practice and then demonstrate they would benefit from giving to or deriving benefit from working among a community of peers—now about 100 artists. Studio costs are based on income, and, as we are a charity, most artists would not otherwise be able to afford a studio if not for Bakehouse.
A rotating jury of curators, artists and cultural leaders evaluate all candidates based on artistic merit, accomplishment, community engagement and how they plan to utilize resources and what they are planning for their practice. As we add approximately 250 units of affordable live/work housing, the residency model will evolve into a holistic support system, offering not only space but stability, community and access to shared cultural and civic spaces.
How has the Bakehouse been funded?
With a lot of help (and begging) from our friends—public, private and government sectors. Bakehouse has always thrived through a coalition of community, philanthropic and public-sector partners. Our growth has been supported by major foundations including Knight Foundation, Pérez Family Foundation/CreARTE, Arison Arts Foundation, Wege Foundation, Wille Foundation, the Lynn and Louis Wolfson II Family Foundation, among others; as well as Miami-Dade County, the state of Florida, the city of Miami; corporate partners, such as Bank of America, Baptist Health, Gapingvoid, City National Bank; earned revenue, private donations, and a small portion from artist studio fees—bits and pieces to construct a working budget.
Looking ahead, the redevelopment will likely be catalyzed by philanthropic investments paired with innovative financing tools such as 501(c)(3) tax-exempt bonds, affordable housing tax credits, mission-driven lenders, and other traditional affordable housing financing options—all rooted in the belief that keeping artists in Miami benefits the city’s cultural, civic and economic fabric. The good news is once the campus is renovated and completed, it will generate the income for Bakehouse’s sustainability, and even grow resources that allow the organization to do small-scale affordable artist housing development.
Will artists have a chance to reach out with their work to the public?
Absolutely. Public engagement has always been central to Bakehouse. Artists need and want a public, and the public derives a lot from engagement with artists and their process, not just the work. We host open studios, exhibitions, performances, workshops, have partnerships with schools and other nonprofits, and participate in many community programs. As our campus develops, these opportunities will expand dramatically. The design incorporates a central green, indoor/outdoor exhibition spaces, classrooms and public interfaces—creating a place where the public can see art in process, not just in its final form. Our aim is radical visibility: breaking down boundaries between artists and audiences and making public engagement a vital part of the creative engine. And while Bakehouse is the mothership for our artists, they have tentacles and are working, exhibiting and engaged all around Miami, nationally and internationally, through gallery shows, public art commissions, museum shows (group and individuals), as educators at museums and in public and private schools at all levels, and at pop-up community and cultural events.
You have been a tireless advocate for art, architecture and design in Miami.
Ultimately, our work is to create the conditions for a successful capital campaign for the future—to build and sustain permanent cultural infrastructure that supports artists and the community to thrive—something every major city wants and deserves.
For me personally, this is my last initiative. It isn’t just about building a project; it’s about building permanence and demonstrating how culture-driven revitalization can be inclusive, responsible, successful, and strengthen, not destroy or weaken, longstanding communities in the process. We hope our cultural compound will guarantee art and artists remain central to Miami’s evolving narrative and live, work and contribute to the neighborhood that welcomed us 40 years ago.
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