America’s artists have persevered through some tough times. Just a decade ago when the financial crisis prompted hard looks at local government budgets, many questioned if the arts were even necessary at all. Now, as ArtServe marks two pandemic years, the organization is feeling energized because COVID also brought a silver lining as Broward County’s cultural community underscored its strong support for the work being done there.
“Imagination, connection, community, creativity and inspiration.” The essence of both ArtServe’s mission and the fundamentals of human self-actualization, these same words were recently permanently emblazoned on the side of its Fort Lauderdale headquarters in an uplifting, forward-facing mural to mark the building ArtServe has called home for nearly 35 years as one of America’s most prominent and award-winning arts incubators.
ArtServe helps artists of all kinds find their place in the world. Then, it shows them how to make the world a better place. Whether it’s visual or performing arts, dancers, theatrical actors, producers, musical composers or any sub-genre in between, ArtServe offers artists of all types a chance to learn, collaborate, display, perform and grow, with the goal of helping them earn a living doing what they love most. For funders and supporters, the joy of watching artists create brings satisfaction on yet another level.
Indeed, art is universal. From package design to CGI movie graphics, to our favorite music and the promotional designs that entice us to buy it, to the gallery artworks that enrich a sense of culture at home . . . someone, somewhere who creates these seemingly everyday items was once a budding young artist just like those whom ArtServe helps on a daily basis.
But when COVID struck, many ArtServe graduates like fashion accessories designer Erin Bassett had built thriving nationwide businesses that literally evaporated overnight. Creative people were hit especially hard with feelings of loss, isolation and depression.
ArtServe didn’t miss a beat to help them recover. Pivoting in response, it launched a lively, upbeat virtual show called “ArtServe Live” that focused on giving artists the tools to get back on their feet conveyed through a series of events focusing on the business management and professional development skills imperative for navigating through COVID’s uncharted economic turmoil. Even the difficult topic of depression and how to cope with it was tackled. Importantly, artists also got virtual space to do what they do best—create, display and perform. The response was resounding.
“The stereotype of the struggling artist is real, but COVID brought a paradigm in which those who had actually transitioned into successful businesses were struggling once again,” explained ArtServe Executive Director Jason Hughes, who formerly chaired the ArtServe Board during the virtual transformation to ArtServe Live. “Whether we’re online or in person, ArtServe provides a forum where those who have been successful can pass along their skills to those who need it, whether they’re starting from scratch, or they need some fine tuning.”
ArtServe Live became so popular so quickly that the organization gave it a permanent home on its website, ArtServe.org, so anyone, anywhere can always access the now-robust library of lively discussions, demonstrations, workshops and concerts to consult with for their own creative inspiration.
Most recently, ArtServe was nominated as one of 211 Broward’s Community Choice nonprofits.
Broward County Cultural Division, ArtServe Helped Restart Local Arts
“What has been a devastating year for the arts has also been a time of opportunity as we’ve re-
examined the essential role of arts and culture in our community,” said Broward County Cultural Division Director, Phillip Dunlap, as local leaders distributed COVID relief funds to nonprofit arts organizations in Broward County like ArtServe late in 2020. That funding helped preserve jobs and support organizations forced to limit operations due to the pandemic.
After first covering public health costs, the Broward County Board of County Commissioners approved the allocation, led by arts advocate, Broward Cultural Council member and then-Mayor Steve Geller.
“Broward’s arts and culture sector is an essential component for our community’s public health and for our local economy,” Geller said. “People look at support for arts and culture as an optional luxury, but it is so much more than that. This significant allocation solidifies the County’s ongoing support of the impact of arts and culture in our community.”
In 2021, Broward County re-affirmed its commitment to the arts, allocating more than $5 million to Cultural Division grant programs like ArtServe that enrich the area’s diverse cultural life and thus make it a welcoming and accessible destination. The impetus for the funds focused on flexibility and accessibility to encourage individual artists’ career advancement through creativity, innovation and their sustained commitment to artistic work.
“Arts and culture are critical for a healthy economy, and they are a key driver for a successful economic recovery. This funding ensures our arts and culture sector continues to thrive and provide the public with enriching and enjoyable cultural experiences in Broward,” Geller noted in his affirmation.
Once Broward’s COVID protocol allowed in-person gathering to resume, ArtServe partnered with Florida’s Small Business Development Center in the recovery to offer free workshops for emerging South Florida artists seeking to go professional. The intensive, six-hour course included education on how to start a business, as well as building and growing a marketing plan, securing grant funding and general professional development and business management skills.
Reaching Out As Recovery Grows
It’s often said that the smart Art Basel scouts know ArtServe is a great place to spot new talent.
Also knowing this, ArtServe’s new board chair, Julie Williamson-Bresset, is working this year to expand ArtServe’s reach by connecting West Broward to East Broward through supporting up-and-coming artists and their growing small businesses, as well as staging countywide art displays in the most unexpected places.
The Parkland mom, bank executive and youth sports coach is using her network to bring America’s northeastern arts community to South Florida and cement ArtServe in its role as a conduit for converging the arts, while expanding their reach and availability. She is also working to return some of ArtServe’s signature events and create ways to both recognize artists and the patrons who support them.
“The ability ArtServe has to go across all modalities of art is incredibly powerful,” explained Williamson- Bresset, who joined ArtServe three years ago and has worked to amplify its message since then. “In these challenging times, it’s important to serve, and the arts are something that creates discussion and connectivity.”
As Williamson-Bresset’s term as chair gets underway, the ArtServe building was renovated with new flooring, ceiling tiles, a new kitchen and the new external building mural entitled “Inspire, Create, Relate” painted by ArtServe protégé and resident artist Lori Pratico along ArtServe’s eastern entrance wall facing the newly refurbished parking lot and landscaping.
“I hope that it will make people feel inspired and that they will see themselves within the mural. My impact as an artist is to create a possibility for people,” Pratico said about her work. “For one person it might be an ‘I can do that’ or ‘I can be that’ moment. For someone else it might be a word they see that later in their day they’re reminded of, and it gives them motivation or inspiration.”
With images and words inspired by the mission and vision of ArtServe interconnected by strokes of paint and hard lines to represent the convergence of art, society and well-being, the mural’s abstract imagery is intended to be gender-neutral and inclusive, thus allowing all people to feel a sense of relatability.
Pratico rose to national prominence with the completion of more than 35 murals in 15 states. Her artwork has appeared on the wrapper of Hoffman’s Chocolate candy bars to raise funds for the arts alongside the work of acclaimed artists Guy Harvey and Clyde Butcher.
“Some Fort Lauderdale residents used to refer to our building as their local voting precinct. We set out to change that by branding it with this energizing, prominent mural that reflects what Artserve represents,” Hughes added.
Creating a Cultural Scene
Another popular initiative in progress is ArtServe’s year-long public art project partnership with the Hallandale Beach Community Redevelopment Agency that incorporates many talented, local street artists. Designed to enrich local color and culture by turning blank local business walls into giant canvases, the project is expected to increase business retention and create more opportunities for community engagement.
“Something magical happens when opportunity meets progress and innovation,” explained Hallandale Beach City Manager/CRA Executive Director Dr. Jeremy Earle. “Public art can bring a community to life. It can help cultivate a cultural identity and increase feelings of belonging, while also helping with the overall economic growth and impact.”
The project is moving quickly with two murals already completed on Hallandale Beach Boulevard. ArtServe Curator of Exhibitions and Public Art Sophie Bonet is directing the initiative, identifying emerging talent, planning the designs and collaborating with participating businesses.
Bonet explains, “It takes passionate artists, forward-thinking business owners and support from cities like Hallandale Beach to get a project like this off the ground.”
In conjunction with National Coming Out Day last year, ArtServe collaborated with the Art and Culture Center/Hollywood and Miami-based filmmaker Freddy Rodriguez to screen the award-winning documentary, “Open Dialogues: Stories From the LGBTQ Community.” Local community leaders interviewed in the emotional film revealed in intimate detail how the LGBTQIA+ community is often marginalized within families, schools, churches and public spaces and how they learned to empower themselves in these spaces.
After the screening, ArtServe held a panel discussion with celebrity guests against the backdrop of its “Stories From Within” exhibit, which explored LGBTQIA+ culture, history and experience through the presentation of multidisciplinary works inspired by the LGBTQIA+ social movement, its resilience, sense of community and artistic expressions.
Kicking Off 2022
While the world grapples with the evolution of what “normal” actually looks like in the COVID era, ArtServe welcomed Broward County Mayor Mike Udine to open its 2022 artistic season with a re-imagined “Su·i ge·ne·ris” exhibition that traditionally features artistic works transcending conventional genre boundaries.
This year’s version, entitled “Su·i ge·ne·ris – Converging Visions of New Identities,” runs through
Saturday, March 26, 2022. Admission to the exhibit is free.
“Su-i-ge-ne-ris, a Latin term that means ‘of its own kind and therefore unique,’ will touch upon politics, migration, belief systems, self-analysis and self-preservation,” explained Hughes. “Guests are invited to reflect on our ever-changing society, with artwork prompting questions of who determines what is normal, how do we establish new value systems and how do we move from analysis into action.”
Through an experimental curatorial approach that welcomed multidisciplinary works in photography, video and interactive pieces, Su·i ge·ne·ris artists were invited to present their expressions of identity and sociopolitical discourse.
“Social issues are driven by currents of cultural transitions,” noted Bonet, who curated the exhibit in conjunction with another ArtServe protégé, Carol-Anne McFarlane. “At the core of this project lies the desire to understand how contemporary structures mold and transform individual lives, gender, social power and the ideologies of class systems.”
McFarlane, an international speaker who focuses on social critique, gave her perspective on Su·i·ge·ne·ris, noting that its thrust is “. . . a response to our environment, our living conditions and the political structures around us. (Artists) looked inward, longed for connection . . . and many of us desired to escape.”
ArtServe continues to encourage social distancing and face coverings and provides hand sanitizer stations throughout the facility.
Su·i ge·ne·ris is supported by grants from Truist Foundation, Broward Cultural Division and Culture Builds Florida.
Looking Ahead
For its upcoming environmentally themed exhibit, “Pa hay okee: The Land of “Grassy Water”, planned to coincide with Earth Day, ArtServe is seeking multi-disciplinary works and performances conveying meaningful exchange, inspiring public understanding and appreciation for the Everglades. Until March 18, creators of installations and engagements that promote ecological awareness are invited to submit their work for consideration. Artists’ works that explore threats to local environments while drawing a sense of urgency to the human impact in South Florida’s fragile ecosystem are encouraged.
Last year as part of its environmental exhibit, “Changing Landscapes,” ArtServe convened Audobon Florida Everglades Science Coordinator Dr. Paul Gray, Muck City Black Lives Matter Founder Robert Mitchell and Friends of the Everglades partner and Knight Challenge grant recipient ArtSail to discuss how artists could contribute positive messaging solutions to the Everglades’ complex ecological impasse, as well as the social and ecological issues impacting the local communities and natural ecosystem.
About ArtServe
Named a “2020 Top-Rated Nonprofit” by GreatNonprofits, the leading provider of user reviews of charities and nonprofits, Fort Lauderdale-based ArtServe is an award-winning arts incubator that is advancing the arts for social good as a creative laboratory and hub for experimental artists committed to diversity, equity and inclusion.
Now in its 35th year, ArtServe has won several awards for innovation in the arts and is supported in part by the Broward County Board of County Commissioners as recommended by the Broward Cultural Council and Florida’s Department of State and the Division of Cultural Affairs. Each year, ArtServe programs contribute tangibly to the region’s economy, helping 2,000+ artists sell their work, build businesses and engage the community. To do that, ArtServe secures financial support through donations, sponsorships and memberships.
Become a member of ArtServe as either an artist or community member at www.ArtServe.org/member/ or become a founding member of Friends of ArtServe at www.ArtServe.org/friends. Requests and questions about the ArtServe facility or programs can be emailed to information@ArtServe.org.
