With construction drawings completed and plans in for permitting, Oolite Arts is moving to the City of Miami’s Little River neighborhood. The nonprofit has been a fixture in the arts community on Miami Beach for more than three decades, where artists found affordable studio space.
The $30 million, 26,850-square-foot, one-story concrete building will feature built-in sustainable features such as skylights, water tanks, solar chimneys and wind catchers, all in an effort to become LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certified. It will also grow to include 21 studio spaces, seven more than at its current building, located at 924 Lincoln Road.
(Oolite Arts)
Among several energy-efficient, sustainable design features, Oolite Arts' new $30 million campus will boast a community garden.
“We feel we have an obligation to be sustainable; it’s our responsibility and it has always been part of our plan. We’re set to break ground in the fall and open in 2024,” said Dennis Scholl, Oolite Arts president and CEO. “We settled on this area because it’s where the artists are going. They’re moving into the Little River community looking for studio spaces.”
The Oolite board of directors were determined to create a signature building and for that “they needed a ‘starchitect’ which entailed looking at 100 firms around the world,” Scholl continued. “It was narrowed down to three and ultimately we chose Barozzi Veiga because they have a very strong portfolio of cultural buildings.”
Knowing that cultural buildings are different and there’s more a sense of play – as well as understanding that they need to be visually interesting and thereby entice the public to visit – “the firm threw us just a little sketch and we were immediately smitten,” said Scholl.
It’s also a neighborhood familiar to Scholl and his Oolite Arts team where they have established partnerships including hosting a lecture series at the Little Haiti Cultural Center and a virtual art lab that is part of the after-school program at St. Mary’s Cathedral.
(Gregory Reed)
Dennis Scholl, president and CEO of Oolite Arts, behind a 3D model of its new headquarters.
“Father Marino has been very welcoming to us at St. Mary’s Cathedral these past five years,” said Scholl. “The kids are great and so hungry for arts education, and we’re able to teach them to make videos in front of a green screen. It’s pretty great.”
Because of this, Oolite Arts plans to open a small storefront space a block away for the new site to offer classes as well as talks and film screenings. Scholl himself is a successful film producer and so film is always an important element of the Oolite Arts world.
Wanting to get further and deeper into the neighborhood while the building goes up, the plan is to move into a storefront space at NW Miami Court and 74th Street which will soon become available.
“Once the current tenant moves out we will be ready to move in immediately,” said Scholl.
A board-led process, the move is also significant because it’s been home for decades to established artists like photojournalist Carl Juste and his Iris Photo Collective Art Space, and the Haitian-born contemporary artist and curator Edouard Duval Carrié.
“Juste and Duval Carrié are pioneers in the area, and with other artists looking for studio space here we want to listen to the artists and support whatever ideas they have,” said Scholl.
(Gregory Reed)
Jen Clay is an artist-in-residence at Oolite Arts.
One of those artists is Jen Clay, an Oolite Arts artist-in-residence who has had a space there since January 2020 after applying several times. Knowing what a competitive space Oolite is, “when I got the call I’d been accepted I actually teared up,” said Clay.
Clay describes the Oolite residency as “concentrated jet fuel support, because Oolite has helped me strategize my career with the kind of mentorship that is hard to find and incredibly priceless. There are residencies where you go and they give you an assistant for three months but they won’t be as intertwined in your career.”
At Oolite the team has conversations with her about her career goals and with “the Ellies they’re funding your career,” she said. The Ellies is a grant program created by Oolite and offered to working and emerging artists, art educators and established, professionally accomplished artists. This year’s tab: $500,000.
As an artist, Clay said, “you don’t know if anyone is even noticing your work and so it’s incredibly validating to be accepted at Oolite. Their support and encouragement of my process has instilled in me a sense of security and allowed me the courage to experiment more because of the free space.”
The residency has provided her the encouragement to pursue projects she was passionate about, as well as a nurturing environment and acceptance of her process. Without Oolite “I wouldn’t be making the work I’m making now. It has also made my work a sustainable stream of income for me and therefore opened up my world a little bit,” said Clay.
(Oolite Arts)
Oolite Arts' new $30 million campus will include a theater for films and lectures.
She is excited for the new space and hoping they have a textile or “makers” space to accommodate her work, which on Oolite’s website is described as “elaborate installations and performances which feature non-human forms who speak to the audience through audio or sewn messages to make fear, anxiety, and uncertainty approachable.”
“It would be really cool if they had such a space. I’m excited too because having been a resident of Oolite, you always remain an alumni and it allows you to be a part of the community and hang out with everyone and see what everyone is doing,” said Clay about the new building. She feels it will be the perfect space to provide opportunities like this and also be “the place to be,” she said.
“We want to be part of the legacy to build one of Miami’s premier cultural buildings,” said Scholl, “and also continue to provide funding to artists.”