The Studios of Key West
The Studios of Key West is a center for the arts in Key West, an island community at the southernmost tip of the Florida Keys. Established in 2006 as a nonprofit cultural organization, The Studios works to promote multidisciplinary arts, to provide artist-in-residency opportunities for artists worldwide, and to maintain long-term studio spaces dedicated to Florida Keys
artists. Through classes, performances, lectures, gallery exhibits, partnership projects, and special events, The Studios of Key West unites Pulitzer Prize winners and world-renowned artists with local audiences and art practitioners at all stages of their creative careers. The organization publishes a yearly catalog of activities and maintains an extensive website at .
Campus
Eaton Street Facility
The Studios of Key West, located at 533 Eaton Street, is in the heart of downtown Key West just one block from Duval Street. The three-story building, an iconic piece of Miami Deco architecture, was built in 1951 at the corner of Simonton and Eaton, and is the former Scottish Rite Masonic Center. After a total renovation, the building now includes Key West's largest exhibition space dedicated to contemporary art, a full bar, a box office/information center, a 200-seat auditorium, nine artists' studios, and two classrooms. Coming soon will be a roof-top terrace called Hugh's View offering a 360 panorama of the island and providing event space in the sky. Adjacent to the Eaton Street space, artist accommodations continue to anchor the Artists In Residence Program. In 2016 Books & Books @ The Studios opened offering over 2,500 titles in a variety of subjects and continues to sponsor author talks, book signings, and other events.Books & Books
is the newest branch of the locally owned, independent-minded neighborhood bookstore, which has won Publishers Weekly "Bookstore of the Year," named by "Mental Floss" best store in Florida, and recognized by Buzzfeed as one of the best author-owned bookstores in the country. Books & Books serves as a community center for writers and readers, and hosts many author events throughout year.As part of The Studios of Key West, the bookstore has created a dedicated space for the literary arts alongside the visual and performing arts. Books & Books @ The Studios houses over 75 running feet of shelves and 5,000 titles, featuring local authors and art books alongside the latest best sellers and more. On-line shopping and special orders are available. Selections are carefully curated by Books & Books in Miami, with input from Key West literary luminaries like founders Judy Blume and James Gleick. The store also offers art supplies, book-related gifts, and gift cards.
Programs
According to the Key West Citizen newspaper, the mission of The Studios of Key West emphasizes partnership and collaboration, community interface and involvement, and cross-cultural exchange. Its programs work to build on the creative legacy of past and present Key West residents such as Ernest Hemingway, Tennessee Williams, Elizabeth Bishop, James Merrill, Richard Wilbur, Judy Blume, Meg Cabot, Mario Sanchez, , and Annie Dillard.Artists In Residency (AIR) program
The Studios of Key West launched a residency program in 2007. In 2019 The Studios acquired the historic guesthouse featuring a spacious courtyard and treehouse adjacent to the Eaton Street facility to be the home for Artists in Residence. The residency program hosts established and emerging artists and cultural figures from all over the world, including Madison Smartt Bell, Nemo Librizzi, New York street artist MOMO, Coleman Barks, Helsinki-based photographer Curt Richter, Lynn Benson, Suzanna Fields, Mario Kaiser, Ben Wahlund, Eric Dyer, Victoria Reynolds and Jeffrey Vallance, Jiayin Shen, Cheryl Tan, Sonya Chung, artist and marine researcher from Sao Paulo Beatriz Chachamovits, and many others.From hundreds of applications per year, up to 40 artists working in the literary, visual, and performing arts are selected by jury to spend a month drawing inspiration from the colorful sights, fascinating people, and remarkable culture of the island. In turn, the residents give back to the community during their stay by offering workshops, concerts, readings, performances, and exhibitions. Collaborations have included residencies for Art Students League of New York artist/instructors.
Exhibitions
The Studios of Key West hosts upwards of 40 exhibitions and installations each year. Proposals for exhibitions from local and visiting artists and are installed for two-week to one-month periods. The first Thursday of the month brings a recurring Key West event known as First Thursday. The Studios of Key West and other businesses and galleries in the neighborhood opens their doors for a festive gallery walk and multi-site creative adventure. The Studios of Key West presents its exhibition of the month in the first-floor Sanger Gallery and adjacent Zabar Project Gallery, the second-floor Zabar Lobby Gallery, and the third-floor XOJ Gallery. Also open for First Thursday are The Studios of Key West artists' studios on the third floor.Workshops and classes
Each year between October and July, The Studios of Key West offers a of weekly classes, workshops, and longer-term courses that cater to island residents and visitors. The Studios' largest program serves over 1,000 people each season, with more than 50 distinct classes in a range of media for artists from beginners to professionals. Instructors include year-round local artists and artists visiting from across the globe, either to live at The Studios of Key West for a month as Artists-in-Residence or just to teach what they know. Notable among the list are American cultural figures including painters Mike Rooney, Charles Reid, Richard Stephens, and Robert Burridge, writers Roxana Barry Robinson and Robert Stone, photographer Alan Rokach, and mixed media artists Thomas Mann and Roberta Marks.Weekly classes and courses provide opportunities for study with artists like Rick Worth, Karen Beauprie, Jim Salem, Rosalind Brackenbury, Richard Grusin, Mike Rooney, and others. The Studios of Key West also offers many multi-day workshops in the visual, performing, and literary arts each year. These workshops are taught by celebrated artists like Frank Francese, Robert Burridge, Dennis Zacek, ImprovBoston, Charles Reid, William Welch, and Susan Sugar.
Concerts
The Studios of Key West also hosts a diverse range of each season, including a contemporary singer-songwriter series. Past performances have included Peter Mayer, Emily Saliers, Livingston Taylor, Susan Werner, Noel Paul Stookey, Carrie Newcomer, and Ben Harrison. By popular demand, some artists make yearly appearances, like singer-songwriters Zoe Lewis and Seth Glier. Each year The Studios of Key West presents classical and chamber music concerts with esteemed musicians from around the world.Performances
at The Studios of Key West includes dance, performance art, small-scale theatrical productions, and burlesque and circus arts. Highlights have included "Hedwig and the Angry Inch" and "Naomi's Flight" by Mara Neimanis. The Studios' hosted , the first act of a contemporary opera in progress set in Afghanistan. In a less-serious vein, New York City's Wendy Taucher Dance Opera Theater mixed original tunes with Mozart in what they billed as the 1780s' top forty. For laugh-out-loud fun, Dave Barry, Mike Peters, and Mike Luckovich took the stage together in 2019 to present "Laughter in the Time of Cholera."Lectures
The Studios presents several speakers of note each year. For example, it recently hosted American newspaper columnist and former assistant managing editor of The Washington Post Eugene Robinson and Pulitzer Prize for Drama winner Ayad Akhtar. Bob Perlow presented "Tales from Hollywood," which revealed an inside look at shows he's worked on from Laverne & Shirley and Cheers to The Tonight Show.Past events in the free lecture series co-sponsored with have include leading writing and cultural figures such as Calvin Trillin, Jean Carper, Lee Smith, Lou Harris, former US Poet Laureate Maxine Kumin, poet Billy Collins, and authors James Gleick, Barbara Ehrenreich, Judy Blume, and Meg Cabot.
Youth education
The Studios of Key West believes that everyone is born an artist and most people just forget somewhere along the way. The Studios strives to be an integral part of Key West life. Central to its community programs are youth education programs and creative experiences designed to last a lifetime, presented in collaboration with other institutional partners such as the , , and the Marion Stevens Fund. School at The Studios launched in 2019, a partnership with May Sands Montessori School, with the galleries getting transformed into living classrooms for elementary and middle school students to visit. Not only do the students get to see the exhibitions, but they also get to meet the artists who made them possible. Also, The Studios is proudly home to the Key West High School's Drama Club, hosting regular rehearsals as well as their spectacular Spring Musical and Holiday Review. The popular annual Summer Art Camp has different themes each week throughout the summer and plenty of one-on-one attention through small class size and hands-on activities. Students can experiment with mixed media, create artwork from recycled materials and even try their hands at pirate-themed stage fighting!The Studios' newest youth program is the Youth Arts Fellowship, where each year, a small number of high-achieving high school artists are hand picked for one-on-one mentoring by professional artists to get them ready for college and beyond. Youth Arts Fellows also benefit from free access to Studios' classes and events and other pre-professional support.
Artist studio tours
An annual event, the studio tours are organized around different locations and an ever-changing variety of Key West artists including wood workers, welders, potters, jewelry makers, painters, and more.Trips
Each year The Studios of Key West sponsors and organizes a trip to /Art Basel Miami and its auxiliary events such as , and over 20 pop-up art festivals in the area. The Studios of Key West also plans trips to explore local art and culture in destinations such as Arkansas' Crystal Bridges and Cuba.History
The Studios of Key West proceeds from the traditional approach to the artist colony established by the likes of Yaddo and the MacDowell Colony and expanded more recently by Anderson Ranch, the Vermont Studio Center, and the Atlantic Center for the Arts. But this organization and its programming add a unique tropical and Conch Republic vibe. Founding executive director Eric Holowacz was installed in early 2007 and was responsible for developing and implementing a strategic plan that would position the organization as one of America's most interesting new artist communities. Since its establishment, The Studios of Key West has invited, grown, and responded to the island's creative needs, and advanced a unique artist residency model with a heavy focus on community engagement and cultural identity in the 21st century. Core programming has grown from a few workshops in 2007 to over 100 creative classes each year, live music series, lectures and humanities programs, ongoing visual art exhibitions, and special projects.Between 2001 and 2006, initial ideas for The Studios of Key West were developed by civic and arts leaders throughout the community. The Studios of Key West was officially founded in 2006 as a 5013 non-profit organization cultural organization, with a mission to support the island's creative community, the development of artists and audiences in the Conch Republic, and new partnerships near and far. Following the initial strategic plan, Holowacz rapidly developed the campus, programming, brand, and external partnerships as a combination of artist studios and residencies and inclusive community and cultural programming. The key founding staff included Sharon McGauley, Elena Devers, and Lauren McAloon. Founding Board members were Peyton Evans, Lynn Kaufelt, John Martini, Ken Domanski and Ann Henderson; and the first home for The Studios of Key West was the historic Armory on White Street, originally built between 1900–1903 as the drill hall and armory for the Florida state militia. Following continued growth over its first decade, The Studios of Key West acquired a new headquarters at 533 Eaton Street, where the non-profit organization has been based since 2015.