Photo credit: Miami Light Project/Stephanie Berger

Miami Light Project

With its famous Second Saturday Art Walks, world-renowned murals and booming arts-focused businesses, Wynwood is known as a global arts destination. This week’s business spotlight first settled in Wynwood when it was still an industrial warehouse district, building a space for artists that helped solidify Wynwood as Miami’s center for arts and culture.

Business address: 404 NW 26^th Street; Miami, FL 33127

Tell us a bit about your business – the concept, what you sell and what makes you unique.

Photo credit: Miami Light Project

Founded in 1989, Miami Light Project is a not-for-profit cultural organization, which commissions, produces and presents artists from all over the world and throughout Miami. We support the vanguard in contemporary performance – dance, music, theater and multimedia artists who are internationally recognized for risk-taking innovation, technical virtuosity and thought-provoking content. Our programmatic vision has led the way in establishing Miami as an internationally recognized center for art and culture, with a vibrant locally based artistic community.

Miami Light Project’s mission is to present live performances by today’s leading innovators in dance, music and theater; to support the development of new work by performing artists who represent diverse, global perspectives; to facilitate workshops for community-based artists and educational programs for students of every age; and to cultivate the development of new audiences reflecting the diverse cultural and economic make-up of South Florida. Miami Light Project is a cultural forum to explore some of the issues that define contemporary society.

Why did you choose to open your business in Wynwood, as opposed to another Miami neighborhood?

In 2008, Miami Light Project visited empty warehouses in Wynwood’s industrial section and saw the opportunity to build a space for artists to develop new work and to ignite Wynwood as Miami’s center for creativity and innovation. We decided to build an arts space with the purpose of activating an underutilized neighborhood through art and culture. We partnered with Goldman Properties, the Knight Foundation and Ford Foundation to develop The Light Box at Goldman Warehouse. Over the last ten years, Wynwood has experienced a dramatic transformation driven by cultural activities, and we are one of the pioneers that have stimulated the resurgence of Wynwood. We develop artist-led community engagement projects, and leverage both community-based and national collaborators to achieve our goal of building a vibrant neighborhood with an engaged public.