The Soho Beach House arranged for a talk at locustprojects in the Design District in Miami. Its a “not for profit exhibition space dedicated to providing contemporary visual artists the freedom to experiment with new ideas without the pressures of gallery sales or limitations of conventional exhibition spaces. Local, national and international artists are encouraged to create site-specific installations as an extension of their representative work. Locust Projects supports the local community through educational initiatives and programming that are free to the public.” (http://www.locustprojects.org/about/).

I was on time at the wrong location as a few of us realised quickly. Actually not to bad as I made a new acquaintance 🙂 We decided to walk together to the new venue that was 2 blocks away.  Our way brought us through the design district and it was soooooo sad. Luxury shops are lined up and dominating the scene. “Its appalling” she said “and you will never ever find a single person in the shops. This is what they did within 2 years in a neighbourhood that is income weak!! “Luxury fashion shops and art?  And a few galleries for the ones who have everything to enrich themselves with art?” “Oh no, don´t expect a correlation in Miami. People with appreciation for art don´t have the money over here! Its sad but this is how it is.!”  😦

Now I was even more curious and also wanted to see what Ali Subotnick (https://www.artist-info.com/users/curatorpublicpage/231815) had to tell us. She shared how she became what she is today, differences in the art scene LA, NYC, Miami and Berlin. 2 highlights for me: I enjoyed the part when she was talking about the art exhibit they did in the Jüdische Mädchen Schule in Berlin which happens to be one of my most famous buildings in Berlin (http://www.maedchenschule.org/en/home.html). They arranged for an exhibition before the gym turned into a expensive restaurant and shared some pictures from when they discovered the building and the neighbourhood around 2006.

The second highlight was an exhibition in LA (Venice beach) without any labeling of the artists (street artists and known ones) for the viewer to explore what they like or dislike without getting manipulated by a name or label which clearly irritated some. The message was simple and clear: Look and see. A great evening that ended with a light dinner and a great conversation.