Today we’d like to introduce you to Bibi Baloyra.
1925 – the American Bakeries Company opened a 33,000 ft. industrial bakery facility in Miami’s newly created Wynwood neighborhood to bake and distribute Merita Bread;
September 12, 1985 artists from the shuttered Grove House including Helene Pancoast, Faith Atlass, and David and Nathalie Nadel with help of Miami-Dade (then Metro Dade) County and Flowers Bakery purchased the long abandoned American Bakeries Company building;
1986 – The Bakehouse Art Complex officially receives 501 (c)(3) not-for-profit status and begins fundraising with a board of Directors that includes Faith L. Atlass, Hélène Pancoast, Taffy Gould McCallum, Timothy D. Richards, and Edward Swenson;
February 1, 1987 – The Bakehouse holds its ribbon cutting ceremony and officially dedicates the Swenson Gallery in honor of local philanthropist and founding donor Edward Swenson;
1989 – The Bakehouse launches the Children’s Art Workshop, which would grow to deliver arts education to more than 4,000 underserved children a year;
1996 – The Bakehouse’s Children’s Art Workshop is recognized by the President’s Committee on Arts and the Humanities annual report “Coming Up Taller”;
2015 – The Bakehouse receives its first-ever grant from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) providing studio subsides to four working artists;
2017 – The Bakehouse celebrates the 30th anniversary of its ribbon cutting ceremony.
• 1200 Resident and Associate Artists since inception
• 2 dozen global public art commissions awarded to Bakehouse artists
• Major Museum Collections with Bakehouse Artist works of art: Perez Art Museum Miami; Philadelphia Museum of Arts, Philadelphia; The Museum of Modern Art in New York; the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art in San Francisco; the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago; the National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC; the Brooklyn Museum; Library of Congress and thousands of private and corporate collections.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
The tech bust of the late 90s coincided with our premier gallery being condemned as an unsafe structure. We spent the next several years raising funds for the renovations which was protracted and challenging with the concurrent drop in public funding due to the economic impact the events of September 11, 2001 rendered on the American economy.
As any organization entering its fourth decade, we have been engaged in a rebranding exercise that has included extensive external stakeholder input and a deep look inward.
The re-imagination of the Bakehouse intends to shakes things up a bit while aiming higher.
Please tell us about Bakehouse Art Complex.
Entering its fourth decade of service as a resource, gathering place, and incubator for creative exchange among local artists and the South Florida community, the Bakehouse Art Complex is Miami’s largest working artist community. Housed in a 33,000 sq. ft. repurposed 1920s commercial bakery, the Bakehouse provides affordable studio space for 60 professional artists, two exhibition galleries, a dozen exhibitions annually, comprehensive educational programs, and multiple artist facilities that distinguish our campus as an enviable resource.
Bakehouse facilities include a clean room with extractor; print room with two printing presses, resin box for aquatint, workspace and fumes extractor; woodshop with a table saw, band saw, drill press, belt sander and work benches; a darkroom with 9 enlargers to make silver gelatin prints in a range of formats from 35mm to 8×10”; and a ceramics facility with six throwing wheels, a glaze room, and a kiln room with electric and manual kilns, a gas kiln for soda and reduction firings, a front-loading electric high-fire kiln, and a small test electric kiln. We offer free Wi-Fi across our campus, 24/7 access for Resident and Associate Artists and secure parking.
Do you look back particularly fondly on any memories from childhood?
Our family dog.
Contact Info:
- Address: 561 NW 32nd Street,
Miami, FL 33127 - Website: http://www.bacfl.org/
- Phone: 305.576.2828
- Email: info@bacfl.org
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thebakehouseartcomplex/
Image Credit:
Melissa Nunez
Getting in touch: VoyageMIA is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
