Art & Commerce
One of Lincoln Road’s Last Cultural Institutions Rents Its Gallery Space to Make a Little Extra Green During Super Bowl Week

“It was a very good offer.”

By Erik Bojnansky

Mortgage broker Jeremy Whit was among the lucky few who managed to watch the Super Bowl in Dolphin Stadium. And though he was drenched while sitting in the stands and his hometown’s team, the Chicago Bears, lost, Whit had the time of his life.

“It was sweet. Very wet,” Whit said. “The key: Have enough cocktails. I had a wonderful time anyway. It was fun. The Bears were in the Super Bowl, win, lose or draw.”

Now he was looking for T-shirts and other sports memorabilia for his family inside a South Beach storefront with windows plastered with signs reading “Super Bowl” and “Sale: 1/2 Off.”

But prior to Monday and the sale, business was generally poor for the NFL clothing and souvenir shop. “It was lousy till today,” manager Bob Del Prado told the SunPost Monday, as he scanned credit cards and took cash from a long line of out-of-town customers. “The weather killed us. Everybody complained about the weather down the street,” Del Prado said.

And then there was the lack of business from locals. In other cities that hosted the Super Bowl, the residents frequented his traveling store, complained the proprietor, who did not give his name. Not the case in Miami Beach. “The local people didn’t spend five cents. This is the worst Super Bowl,” he said. Still, he was proud of his decision to set up shop. Wherever the Super Bowl goes, his business, Sports Parade, follows, he said. He has already booked a place in Arizona for Super Bowl XLII. And several months earlier, he had sought the use of a storefront at 800 Lincoln Road. “It’s a great spot, great location. There is glass on all sides; people walk by,” he said, adding that another temporary shop was set up in Fort Lauderdale. In Miami Beach, he said, “we approached the ArtCenter.” Then the owner asked that the ArtCenter South Florida not be mentioned in this article. When that assurance wasn’t given, he refused to give his name or talk further.

A day later, the shop was gone — its owners and employees, based in Connecticut, likely planning business for next year.

Usually the 800 Lincoln Road space and its windows are reserved for the works of 42 emerging artists affiliated with the ArtCenter/South Florida, a nonprofit organization that houses artist studios that are open to the public. Sometimes, the gallery is leased for a night to outsiders. Recent examples include the opening gala for the Jewish Film Festival and a party for the county’s Cultural Affairs Department. But this was the first time the space was rented to a non-cultural business enterprise for an entire week, acknowledged the Center’s executive director, Jeremy Chestler.

“It was a very good offer,” said Chestler. And though it was debated, the ArtCenter’s board, wracked with skyrocketing utility and insurance costs, felt the offer couldn’t be refused. “While [we are] a not-for-profit, it is very much a for-profit world we live in,” Chestler noted.

It’s a decision that has perplexed some of the ArtCenter’s resident artists.

“It is probably not one of my most favorite uses of the space,” said an artist who goes by the name of David Z.

Adriana Carvalho, a Brazilian sculpture artist who has been affiliated with the ArtCenter for three years, was disgusted with the choice.

“It is more than about money; it is about reputation,” Carvalho said. “Everybody is laughing at us, making fun of us.”

The decision to turn a portion of the nonprofit gallery that is partly supported with public money into a commercial venue for a week has received much commentary on the Internet from local bloggers.

“Art Center South Florida offers an incisive critique of the over-commercialization of professional sports with their ‘Super Bowl Super Store’ exhibition. Or, wait … is that what this is? It looks awfully realistic. Are they really actually selling this stuff?” asked a Jan. 31 post on CriticalMiami. “…This is a great idea: with so many people in town for the game, the Center’s prime location is going to be getting lots of eyeballs this week; why waste the attention on art? But it’s really the tip of the iceberg, right? I mean, let’s rent it for even a little longer; say, the period between Thanksgiving and Christmas. That’s when folks are really shopping. And for a couple of weeks before Halloween you could sell costumes. Firecrackers for July 4th. The possibilities are endless.”

Commented the cultural blog Worm-Hole Laboratory: “What’s sad is that the South Florida Art Center’s gallery on Lincoln Road has sold out and turned the gallery into a Superbowl [sic] Super Store! Come on, guys. You worked so hard to transform this place and took 2 steps back. Someone has some ’splainin’ to do.”

After being practically abandoned in the 1970s, the pedestrian Lincoln Road mall started attracting art galleries, theaters and even an orchestra and a dance company in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The art institutions helped make Lincoln Road popular again, but that resulted in higher rents that forced many such cultural beacons, like Area Stage and the Miami City Ballet, off the road. Increasingly in their place cropped up international retail chain stores, like Pottery Barn and the Gap, and pricy restaurants.

Foreseeing that trend, the ArtCenter founders sought state grants that enabled them to purchase buildings on Lincoln Road in 1984 to create an artist colony of 21 storefront spaces.

Today the ArtCenter is located in three buildings: 800, 810 and 924 Lincoln Road. “The nearly 60,000 square foot campus encompasses 52 artists’ studios, exhibition galleries, art education classrooms and administrative offices,” according to the ArtCenter’s Web Site. It’s also seen as one of the region’s more unique cultural institutions, a place where the public can not only see unique art, but actually watch the artists create it — free of charge. “ArtCenter exposes the public to the artistic process on a daily basis, helping promote the idea that everyone can be connected to the creative energy of art-making,” the Web site states.

More than 120,000 people visit the ArtCenter every year, Chestler said, and its studios are much sought after by artists all over the world who, if chosen by a panel, rent out space at a discount for a term as long as three years in one of the most popular destinations in South Florida — South Beach. Artists can rent a whole work studio, depending on its size, for between $200 and $600 per month, utilities included, Chestler said. Most commercial spaces on Lincoln Road ask for rents between $100 and $125 per square foot, utilities excluded, he said.

According to Chestler, the ArtCenter has an annual budget of more than $1 million, drawn mainly from state grants, from Miami-Dade County and from the city of Miami Beach, as well as from private donations. Another revenue source is a property the ArtCenter owns that is rented out by Lucky Brand, a designer jean shop, near 925 Lincoln Road.

But even though the ArtCenter owns the land it operates on (they even get revenue from the ATM machine attached to the 800 Lincoln Road building), the contributions are still not enough to keep the nonprofit in the black. “The cost of doing business continues to increase,” Chestler said. Rather than being faced with the prospect of raising the rents charged to artists, the ArtCenter decided to accept the infusion of cash from Sports Paradise. Neither Chestler nor Sports Parade’s owner would disclose how much was paid for the use of the 800 Lincoln Road gallery.

But why an NFL T-shirt shop, asked Carvalho. “It was dead…. No locals came. The tourists didn’t [explore the ArtCenter],” she said. “I believe that before they make any decision they should ask us. We pay them rent.”

Most of the center’s other resident artists the SunPost interviewed were, if not in agreement with the management’s decision, sympathetic to it.

“It’s not appropriate for an ArtCenter, [but] I’m here to work as an artist,” said David Z. “I leave it up to the administration to decide what is best to bring in revenue… They are looking out for us. If they think it is appropriate, then so be it.”

“It certainly changes the dynamic of the place for that week,” said Susan-Lee Chun, an installation and performance artist from Chicago who has been affiliated with the ArtCenter for a year. “They [the ArtCenter] provide a great opportunity for artists.”

Chestler, who has been the ArtCenter’s director for the last two years and, prior to that, worked for the Museum of Contemporary Art in North Miami, said he does not foresee the nonprofit temporarily renting out exhibition space to a commercial vendor again in the future. “We certainly don’t want to set up more shops in here,” he said. “My hope would be that the community will understand that a not-for-profit needs to raise funds.”

The CriticalMiami blog offered this pointed advice to the ArtCenter: “The lesson is this: Stop worrying so much about showing art all the time, find stuff that people want, and put it on sale. You can really, um, make a profit.”

Comments? E-mail erik@miamisunpost.com.