New Home
Imagine a campus with expansive artist studios and exhibition spaces, bright and open spaces for the community to learn, and energy-conscious solar chimneys and wind catchers.
Opening in 2024, in time for the non-profit organization’s 40th anniversary, Oolite Arts’ new home will be a cultural hub for our city, a place where visual artists can come together with international curators and Miamians alike to exchange ideas and immerse themselves in contemporary art.
Our founder Ellie Schneiderman knew the value of supporting artists for their careers. We’re excited the new campus will be able to serve our community’s growing number of talented artists, while being a resource where people can learn about contemporary art, watch a film or even develop their own artistic skills.
While construction takes place, Oolite Arts will continue to house its resident artists and offer programming at 924 & 928 Lincoln Road in Miami Beach.
A Home for Artists and Miami
With the artist as its focus, the campus marries the private and the public – mixing reflective artist studios with bright and open spaces for community learning and gathering. There, you’ll find 21 artist studios for Oolite Arts’ signature residency program, exhibition areas, and a makerspace for experimentation. At the same time, the community can expand its own knowledge and skills by taking an art class, watching a lecture of film in the theater, or enjoying an event on the rooftop garden and reception area.
Located in the city of Miami, this new 26,850 square feet campus campus is accessible from different points in the city and close to other arts organizations and where many artists themselves live and work.
A Village Feel
Imagined as a village of artists, the architects included a repetitive element – a series of towers – to unite the cluster of buildings that span the campus. Each tower has a specific purpose. Some are solar chimneys that bring a diffuse light into the artist studios and exhibitions spaces. Others are wind catchers that help cool the buildings. Additional towers catch rainwater for the building’s re-use.
An Energy-Conscious Design
The building, which incorporates native plants in the gardens and energy-saving elements throughout, is seeking to be LEED certified, so that it can last to serve generations of Miamians.
The Architects
Oolite’s new campus is the Barcelona-based firm Barozzi Veiga’s first built project in the U.S. The firm’s principals—Fabrizio Barozzi and Alberto Veiga—have extensive experience creating cultural buildings around the world. Some of their projects include a revamp of the master plan for the Art Institute of Chicago, the Szczecin Philharmonic Hall in Poland and the Fine Arts Museum MCBA in Lausanne, Switzerland.
Read more in our press release in English, Spanish or Creole.
Oolite Arts strives to be a leader in the South Florida contemporary cultural scene as a creative learning center and internationally recognized as a world-class cultural center.