[narrator] Art loft is brought to you by, [narrator] Where there is freedom, there is expression.

The Florida Keys and Key West.

[narrator] The Miami-Dade county tourist development council, the Miami-Dade county department of cultural affairs and the cultural affairs council.

The Miami-Dade county mayor, and the board of county commissioners and the friends of South Florida PBS.

[narrator] Art loft.

It's the pulse of what's happening in our own backyard, as well as a taste of the arts across the United States.

In this episode, a town hall conversation on the state of women in the arts in South Florida with our special guest host, Commissioner co-founder Dejha Carrington.

Hello, and welcome to this Art Loft town hall.

Women artists have long been underrepresented in private and in public collections.

And while things seem to have been shifting in the academic phase, with women making up over 60% of MFA students, the national museum of women in the arts in Washington notes only 30% of gallery shows focused on female artists plus major US museum collections remain overwhelmingly white and male.

As of 2019, 3/4s of the collections were made of works by white men.

Tonight, our panel is focused on changing those numbers in Miami and beyond.

Eco-feminist artist Mira Lehr is a painter and sculptor working in mixed mediums including Ben Potter and fire and after six decades, she is still creating new books.

She has a solo show opening next week at the Epic Hotel in downtown Miami.

Mira welcome to the panel.

Thank you.

It's good to be here.

Also joining us, is multidisciplinary artist, sculptor and curator GeoVanna Gonzalez.

GeoVanna's works on architectural forms and the spaces they open to connection are absolutely breathtaking.

GeoVanna, welcome to the panel.

Thank you.

Thank you for having me.

And finally, Marie Vickles is the director of education at the Perez Museum, Miami.

Marie is also an incredible and remarkable independent curator in her own like organizing shows around the country.

Marie, happy to have you with us.

Thanks so much Dejha.

It's great to be here.

So Miami is a star on the international arts scene but it wouldn't have gotten here, without some incredibly strong women and we're thinking about people like Rosie Gordon-Wallace of Diaspora Vibe Cultural Arts Incubator.

Ellie Schneiderman, who was the founder of Art Center South Florida now known as Oolite Arts and curators like Bonnie Clearwater, formerly of MOCA North Miami, and now with NSU Art Museum in Fort Lauderdale and of course our guest Mira Lehr.

Mira launched the Continuum Gallery in 1960.

It was one of the country's first and foremost female artists co-op.

Mira, can you please tell us about The Continuum and about the Miami art scene in the '60s and '70s?

Well, it was a cultural desert here.

I spent many years in New York and came back to Miami in 1960 and I was very sorry to see there was nothing going on here.

So to make it a better place, to make it more advantageous for my living here, I said I gotta do something about it and I formed a co-op gallery for women.

And we had 10 women to begin with, and it was the only place around and we brought down, well, many well known artists from New York., we gave classes, we did it all for nothing.

We chipped in our own money to get this started and we had a great success.

It lasted for 30 years and well, we were innovators and we were credited in some places for being the preview to Art Basel, which I can't take credit for that but they did say that, and it brought a whole art scene to Miami which was fairly needed.

You know Mira, you experienced what must have been a very male dominated time for art from your perspective, what has changed since.

Well in the 1950s in New York that was the centerpiece of the whole art world.

You had to be male, being from New York was so important, being female, being in Florida, was a no-no, being married with children was a bigger no-no, and the whole scene was focused on male oriented in New York City.

So little by little as The Continuum kept growing the scene started to change.

Women were having shows, more artists were moving to Miami, the museums were having bigger audiences and it just started to evolve.

It happens very slowly, but it did happen and it's still going on and I'm very proud of what we did then and I'm very pleased with the progress that it's all making now.

You know, that brings me to my next question for GeoVanna.

Speaking about paving the way for today's art scene, GeoVanna you've been working in Miami for a few years.

Perhaps you could tell us a little bit more about your experiences as a queer fan artist coming to Miami and what working has been like for you here.

Yeah, definitely.

You know, I arrived to Miami and I was accepted into Art Center South Florida, and I kinda I think I arrived at a time that was just good timing and in the sense that I was able to build communities pretty quickly, but I felt that there was also a lack of artist-run spaces in Miami and any kind of spaces for artists to experiment, which coming from Berlin was something that I was very much used to and I think it's really important for an artist practice and development.

So then after my first year in Miami, I went ahead and started an artist-run space that I was doing straight from my house essentially, which you know, I myself realized that there was a lack of this, but you know, hearing a bunch of local Miami artists also telling me the same thing after coming to the first opening I realized there was something really important happening here.

You know, it's interesting because speaking to you and to Mira, I'm seeing two innovators, right?

Change makers who not only are focused on their practice, but have found a way to create co-op or create a curatorial practice to bring other artists in.

From that perspective GeoVanna, do you feel like Miami's community for artists has grown since you've arrived a few years ago?

What changes have you noticed?

I mean, I think that there's little changes happening here and there, and there's a lot of people that are actively interested in change and you can see people like trying to experiment more and trying to think, but I do think there needs to be more of an overall push for change to happen and Miami is a special place where we have a beautiful landscape so there's so much potential to do things both inside and outside.

But I feel like, maybe there's too much weight being put on like the expectation of the institution to do something, where there should be more of this self-motivated, you know, if you wanna do something do it yourself, kind of attitude that I'm kind of all for, but that's maybe just me personally.

Let's speak to Marie who leads education efforts at the Perez, it's an internationally known museum, but it is still very much rooted and based in community.

Marie, can you please tell us about that balance?

Yeah.

That balance is so important.

I think first and foremost at the museum we think about our immediate communities that is you know, Miami-Dade county, the communities of Miami-Dade county in south Florida, and that is who our audience, you know, is that's who we are first thinking about when we're creating programs.

And within that audience that includes of course, the arts community, the creators of art, people that support the arts via their financial support, and collecting support, and also creating the works.

So that ecosystem that exists in Miami, the arts ecosystem is so important in the sense that it's made up of many different people and I do agree with what GeoVanna's saying in terms of an institution cannot do everything and it doesn't need to do everything but it needs to work in community with everyone within this ecosystem.

I love that.

And then a note on the Perez, in 2016 the museum hosted, Now Be Here in Miami, a one day gathering of over 300 local female and female identifying artists.

Marie, what was it like for you to bring in that many women artists together and any plans to do it again?

Oh my gosh!

That was amazing to be a part of it.

So it was something that was done in multiple cities, which was really cool, and it felt really special.

The most beautiful thing I remember about that day was just seeing the generations of artists that were coming in to be a part of this moment and also, you know, like I know we have our challenges really we have really big challenges in Miami when it comes to representation of black and brown artists.

So it was just beautiful also to see a lot of black and brown artists represented in the museum that day and of course all women so what's not to love?

I think it was girls club right?

And they called it and owned to the 305 women.

Yes.

GeoVanna you've been showing your work for over a decade and first in Berlin, now in Miami, what has the reception for your work itself been like, what has it been like to cultivate patrons and supporters and to build audiences.

Yeah, I mean, it's definitely been a journey it didn't happen overnight.

My work has been well received in a lot of ways, even incidents where people aren't fully, they're not fully grasping the whole idea around what I'm doing, they're interested.

And I think that that dialogue alone is really important and I think that continue to build the community and community of artists specifically too is something that's really important to me but I think to this kind of ecosystem that's happening in Miami.

That's that word again ecosystem which keeps on coming up over and over again.

It is so important that we're all cross pollinating, sharing information, supporting each other.

Mira, perhaps I can ask you, as a woman artist have you felt supported, have you felt like you have seen the community of arts in Miami evolve over time.

There was nothing really before the '60s.

It was just a desert here and look at it now we have thriving museums, we have multiple galleries, good galleries, a lot of good artists moving here, it's a lively scene so it certainly has evolved and still going.

And then we have all these environmental issues which I've always been interested in and South Florida is very affected by what's happening with this rising seas, and the warming of the seas, so it's important for art to be part of this whole thing and let people know what's happening and pay more attention to environmental issues which is happening through a lot of art being done.

You know Mira, in some ways your work is as much visual as it is social practice, the way that you're advocating and pushing for environmental issues.

Have you been feeling supported in your efforts both as an artist, but also as an environmental advocate?

I feel supported.

Yes.

The work has gotten out, multiple places, I show all over.

I think people appreciate it and I get a lot of email telling me how important my work is to a lot of artists here.

So yes, I feel very well respected and I feel that we're all in this together and we're all trying to pull for a better environment for the planet.

That's great to hear.

I mean, one question for all of you, where do you see the greater South Florida art scene when it comes to gender parity and representation, and perhaps I could just start with you Marie, what are your thoughts?

The discrepancy in representation of women within galleries, within museum collections, discrepancy of like black and brown artists in those spaces, pay differences, all of those things you see in other professional sectors so I think you know, it's to say that we have to do this work within our own professional industry, which is the arts, right?

It is a profession, it's something we have to take seriously and think about, you know, where does the arts, what is the importance of the arts in our society?

You know, that's so true and I think USA artists, United States artists has a study about how many people appreciate art but don't necessarily appreciate and invest in sustaining the practice of artists.

Mira, maybe I could put the same question to you.

Where do you see South Florida and especially when it comes to gender parity and representation?

Well, I think it's improving.

There always can be room for more women everywhere I think, but female artists today are quite popular more so than the male artists I think.

And I don't think it's as difficult as it used to be to get there.

I think there's a big support for female artists and lots of programs geared to them so I feel very positive about the future.

And what about you GeoVanna?

I mean, I think that we're not there yet.

I think that you know, that men do get a lot of opportunities and also women are being underpaid and their work isn't selling for as much.

And there's I think different kind of demands and then are being asked of male artists so, you know, there's more hoops that you have to jump through and I think that's true across the board whether that's you're an artist or working within an art institution.

And so I think in that regard, you know, we still haven't seen a complete shift.

GeoVanna for you.

What has it been like to get support on an individual level as an artist and do you think that artists are still challenged by that.

Yeah.

I mean, it's taken me a really long time up until this point, you know, to get support for the work that I'm doing.

And so you know, and I've been making art my whole life so there's been large gaps of my practice where I haven't gotten any support at all and everything I was doing was self-funded or, you know, like community coming together and asked in a show I have to pop up somewhere, but unfortunately it's taken you know, quite some time and I think that's true for a lot of artists and some artists never get there or never get those opportunities or maybe they just get one, right?

And so it's like, what are other ways that we can think about supporting artists in the community, right?

'Cause we want them to continue to be able to make their work and have their practice and afford to do that without being broke which you know, we don't wanna continue the same narrative of the starving artists, right?

You know, one of the interesting things of Miami in past years has been how dense it is in terms of arts institutions, artists residencies, funders, organizations.

But now we're seeing prices skyrocket when it comes to housing and rentals and just the real estate market in general.

Regardless of gender, how do you think that artists are gonna continue living in Miami?

Do you think artists will be able to stay here and will be able to continue and sustain the momentum that we've created with our arts community?

Marie, I'd love to hear from you.

Hmm.

Ooh!

That's a good one.

Yeah.

This is something that affects all of us.

If we, and I'm speaking about the larger collective we artists, galleries, museums, supporters of the arts, regular folks living here in Miami, if we don't come together and really address the challenges that we're facing as like a rapidly growing metropolitan area, we will inevitably see changes that will price a lot of us out, that will also you know, of course include artists.

And you know, at Commissioner we always say that cities are stronger when artists are at the forefront.

I mean, Mira you've been building for decades, what are your thoughts on where we are now?

Well, I think we need to improve, but we have come a long way.

I mean, I really think there should be funding for arts districts where the rent is cheaper for artists.

A lot of artists would love to have come to Miami, but they can't afford it.

It should be funded.

I think an arts district in midtown perhaps some place where artists will come from all over, because the opportunity is good, where they can live and it makes a community so much richer.

And what are your thoughts GeoVanna?

Yeah, I agree in that, you know, having subsidized studio spaces, like there's not a lot of organizations in Miami, you know, we have two really great organizations that are doing that, and that's Bakehouse Art Complex and then Oolite and other than that, there's no subsidized studio spaces or complexes out there and there's a lot of artists in Miami.

So you can imagine like if there's a big waiting list to get these opportunities.

You know, Marie, since you're in the museum space every day, how can everyday lovers of art and patrons of artists encourage their local museums to broaden the collections, to include women artists and to include artists of color?

Well, the wonderful thing is that most museums, at least in my experience are very receptive and open to what the public has to say, the feedback of you know, visitors, artists, the local community, what, you know, people that are coming to the museum think about and want to see on the walls in the collection, the experiences they have at the museum, that feedback and information is so important.

We really care about the work we're doing and we want to know that it's being received well and how we can do more and just make it connect with the people that we're making it for, which is our community.

So I would say, say something right?

Reach out, talk, get feedback, communicate.

And if there's an acquisitions committee, join the acquisitions committee so that you can have a say in what's being collected and the artist being supported.

GeoVanna, you know, we're huge fans at Commissioner of your work, as you know, and I'd love to just invite you to tell us more about what's coming up for you in your artistic practice, what do you have going on?

Where can we see your work?

Yeah.

So I have a temporary public art piece at Government Center Plaza in Miami-Dade county that was commissioned by Fringe Projects, which is also another local Miami organization.

And I'm also in a group show at Bakehouse Art Complex, which is also where I have my studio so that's the both worlds.

Amazing.

Mira, what about you?

What do you have coming up?

Oh, I have a new solo show, all new work at the Epic Hotel, March 3rd to April 19th and the title of it is The Continuum.

We'll be there.

And Marie what's happening at the Perez and in your own curatorial practice.

Oh, okay.

Yes.

So we've got some amazing things at the Perez.

I'll be quick.

We have some really nice selections from our permanent collection with our Artist as Poet exhibition.

We also have Felipe Mujica, The Swaying Motion on the Bank of the River Falls.

We have another amazing VR experience by Marco Brambilla's "Heaven's Gate" Jedd Novatt Nova with "Monotypes and More," and then an amazing installation by Simone Leigh called Trophallaxis.

Fantastic.

You know, I'd like us to finish off with a wish.

So GeoVanna, what is your wish for Miami when it comes to supporting artists in the next decade.

If we have to fast forward and think about what we wanna see over the next 10 years, what is your wish for Miami?

I mean, I think more diversity on boards, affordable housing and subsidized studio spaces.

And you Mira?

I'd love to see a great arts district with housing for artists, studio space available, galleries where they can show a whole district.

And you Marie?

Oh!

This is a hard one but I love what GeoVanna said, affordable housing.

Yes.

For everyone.

Definitely more affordable artists work spaces, studio spaces, even like live-work spaces and diversity across the sectors of arts organizations whether it's in boards, whether it's in staffing, whether it's in philanthropy to really see just a more diverse pool of people contributing to the arts.

So you're hearing it, Miami folks, listeners of Art Loft, we've put our wishes out into the universe and now it is up to us as a community to really think about how we wanna shape Miami over the next 10 years and the transformation that we wanna see in our arts communities.

I just like to thank you all so, so much for joining us this evening, in this special town hall.

Marie, Mira, and GeoVanna thank you for sharing your wisdom and your authenticity and just dropping the gems all evening long, we so appreciate you.

Again, I'm Dejha Carrington for Art Loft and Commissioner.

Goodnight everyone.

[narrator] Continue the conversation online.

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Find full episodes, segments and more @artloftsfl.org and on YouTube at South Florida PBS.

[narrator] Art loft is brought to you by, [narrator] Where there is freedom, there is expression.

The Florida Keys and Key West.

[narrator] The Miami-Dade county tourist development council, the Miami-Dade county department of cultural affairs and the cultural affairs council, the Miami-Dade county mayor and the board of county commissioners and the friends of South Florida PBS.