in defense of the alternative Art Space

“The great failing of contemporary art is that it leaves no mark on the public and that is because the public simply doesn’t understand it because the public does not interact with it…so [the art world’s] great failing is it’s absence of impact on society more broadly.” Candice Prendergast

This is a significant failing, and I would say crisis in the art world today. Accessibility, education, and conversation are the keys to impact and the current contemporary art market has virtually silenced an entire generation of artists and ostracized the public by throwing away the keys and becoming increasingly opaque and exclusive. When taste and value making are determined by output, product, and object by an elite few we see a colonization of creativity and art.

The tragedy is that in an object focused market, the creator and their concept are disregarded, secondary or outrightly contradicted. The focus on performance, production, object and outcome is a construct architected in white supremacy.

In this way - Alternative art spaces, at their core are revolutions. Decolonizing art with a focus on the PROCESS not the PRODUCT.

As many economists and the newly art curious delve deeper into the unregulated stranglehold the art market has on valuation, taste-making and the ultimate success or demise of an artist’s career, perspectives are shifting on alternative art spaces as not just small, experimental spaces created by rogue curators and artists in the 1970’s but crucial members of the larger arts ecosystem, allowing artists a voice and believing that art IS a public good.  

To demonstrate this in stark relief, Tschabalala Self and Mickalene Thomas have both pointed out the utter vulgarity of auctioning off their work, which involves representations of black women. The art world seems oblivious to this blatant disregard for the history and story of both women’s work and in so doing, are playing directly into a colonizing and horribly repugnant part of our history.

This is the damaging and heartless blindness that comes with a market devoid of acknowledging personhood.  

Locust Projects has been pushing back on this in Miami for 24 years. As an incubator of new art and ideas, we rebel against this ignoble thinking through valuing and elevating the authentic purpose of artists: as a vehicle of change through idea generation.

Founded in1998 by 3 art school grads who stepped into an arcane art market that devalued them - they realized the dire need to create a platform, a safe space, an opportunity for the artist to be at the center of the conversation. They understood that by nature we cannot assign a monetary value to an idea or an immersive artistic experience, but we can fund and support it. With their values always leading us, Locust Projects is charged with protecting and advocating for the creators, for the concepts on behalf of the public good and we do not take that lightly.

We understand that by highlighting the creative process, not the product, we allow artists to determine what they deem valuable by reflecting their lived experiences, questioning authority, redefining aesthetics and breaking out and challenging socially constructed market structures. They are working for the community, not the dealers and billionaire tastemakers. They don’t want their work to be stored in a warehouse – imprisoning their stories and their selves – they want to be seen, they want to be heard. By so doing, they can change perspectives, inspire significant policy change, and transform our collective discourse.

And with that, Locust Projects continues to find its purpose - much bigger than the creation of groundbreaking, visionary projects meant to buck the system and the art market -– we exist to build community through accessibility and inclusion. Our doors are open, we never charge anyone to experience the imaginations and manifestations of groundbreaking, immersive projects.

We want everything we do to reflect the stories and sometimes painful realities of the communities we serve. We want everyone who enters our doors to question and stretch themselves to connect with the work, to feel seen and heard through the eyes of creators. In all these ways, alternative art spaces are still providing the much-needed answer on how to democratize and “recentralize” the art market system - by remaining artist-centric.  

Like many iconic alternative art organizations before us Locust Projects was built to be a sanctuary for all artists to share their untold stories and wild dreams in new, daring, and unconventional ways. These visual narratives have become the ultimate act of rebellion and an incredibly important part of Miami’s arts ecosystem. If all we are left with is the “white cubes” of traditional galleries and museums, art will remain inaccessible and an elite good. Art education and experience is and should remain a human right and artists should be seen as essential parts of our society.

Locust Projects’ mission is to advocate for artists of all career stages and disciplines. When artists are free to be who they are and create what they want, we all call out the system, we break free from the art market’s imprisonment and colonization of creativity and we realize no key is needed because the doors were never locked.