Community Partnerships + Programs

Representation Through the Artist's Lens: Conversations and Workshops for Children

In partnership with the Miami Children’s Museum, with support from the Lynn & Louis Wolfson II Family Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts, Bakehouse Art Complex artists lead lecture-demonstrations as part of a programmatic series dedicated to encouraging parents to talk to their children about race, representation, social justice and careers in the arts. This year, the program begins its second iteration, where it entails learning about visual and performing arts from a diverse range of artists in our community.

Bakehouse artists will impart three 30-minute, hands-on workshops to children within the 0 - 8 year range and their families, where they guide participants as they explore their work, how their culture and identity shaped their artwork, and how their art form is important to their culture.

Friends of The Underline’s Family Day

Friends of The Underline’s Family Day is an interdisciplinary arts education program, brought once a month to families and children from ages 6 to 11. Family day takes place at the Underline’s Urban Gym and features a range of activities, from artmaking projects conceptualized and guided by Bakehouse artists to musical activities brought by partnering organizations. The projects, mediums, and artists range from month to month, with each iteration focusing on a set of themes related to that respective month.

Photo documentation by Bakehouse artist Diana Espin.

Bring Her Flowers

April - May 2021

In partnership with O, Miami’s Poetry Festival, Bakehouse’s Curatorial + Public Programs Associate, Laura Novoa organized Bring Her Flowers, a month-long program imparted by visual artist Pati Monclus and poet Bianca Garcia to the high school-aged students of PACE Center for Girls - Miami. 

Hosted in the outdoor garden space at the Bakehouse Art Complex, Bring Her Flowers consisted of four, three-hour workshops that involved poetry readings, art-making, meditation/relaxation exercises, and movement-based activities segueing into the creation, design, and execution of a small mural in the garden by PACE students.  

The mural functions as a visual representation of the discussions, activations, and activities facilitated by Pati and Bianca around notions of sanctuary, instigating students to reflect on sanctuary, not only as a place of shelter and protection, but also as a space to meditate, rest, and play. Students will be prompted to think about how “safety” and refuge define their real and imagined frameworks for living and to envision and claim spaces of leisure and growth for themselves.

Photo documentation by Bakehouse artist Diana Espin.

PACE x BAC Virtual Art Club

Summer 2020

Curatorial Fellow Anita Braham developed PACE Virtual Art Club, a summer curriculum for students at Pace Center for Girls - Miami, a school serving at-risk middle and high school age girls.

The program saw the execution of online classes taught by Bakehouse artists Najja Moon, Almaz Wilson and Pati Monclus, which created unique lesson plans that were informed by their personal practices.

This program was funded by the John S. & James L. Knight Foundation.

Summer Studio Apprenticeship

July 1 - August 2, 2019

Bakehouse Art Complex hosted six student apprentices to work alongside our artists in their studio spaces on long-term or grant-driven projects. Throughout the program, students also developed a project of their own and presented it in our Swenson Gallery space, where they hosted family, friends, and artists from the Bakehouse community who provided advice and critical feedback.

This program was done in partnership with the Miami-Dade County Public School's Summer Youth Internship Program.

José de Diego Middle School + RMTF

2018 - 2019

Bakehouse Art Complex and Roberto Mata School of Photography imparted a program on digital photography to students from José de Diego Middle School. The classes were taught weekly and include lessons on the basics of digital photography. The goal will be to encourage a new generation of documentary photographers to create  a visual inventory of a rapidly changing neighborhood.

Community Clay Workshops

October 2020

This fall, Bakehouse Art Complex presents Future Pacific, an immersive, site-specific installation by Miami-based artist Lauren Shapiro that will feature large-scale, unfired clay structures that resemble architectural ruins covered with textures sourced from coral reefs.

To build the exhibition, Shapiro will engage the local community through a series of hands-on, physically-distanced workshops at the Bakehouse. Participants are not required to have previous experience in ceramics and may contribute to the installation by pressing clay into the silicone molds and then applying the forms to foundational structures inside of the gallery.

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This exhibition and accompanying public programming is made possible by the generous support from Thea, Jordyn, Jayde, Alexander, and Jonathan Mitzman, in honor of Robert Mitzman’s birthday and to celebrate his spirit of curiosity and imagination and the family’s interest in environmental protection advocacy.

Poetry in Schools with Pace Center for Girls

March 2022 - ongoing

As the continuation of an extended programmatic and community engagement initiative, Bakehouse’s Curatorial + Public Programs Manager, Laura Novoa and O, Miami’s Education Coordinator + Lead Instructor, Caroline Cabrera, organized a series of art and poetry workshops for the high school-aged students of Pace Center for Girls - Miami. 

In 2022, What’s in a line? brought writer Arsimmer McCoy and visual artist Patricia Monclus into Pace Center for Girls to impart weekly art and poetry workshops. A line, both in the visual and written sense, functions as the practical and contextual starting point for the workshops, which introduced Pace students to the fundamental principles of art-making and poetry writing. For the duration of the program, McCoy and Monclus engaged students through a joint curriculum, extending the possibility of art and poetry as vehicles for self-expression, which they used to address relevant social justice issues and current events.

In this year’s iteration, writer Arsimmer McCoy and Bakehouse artist Najja Moon worked with Pace Center for Girls in imparting workshops that engaged themes of liberation. Through exercises in art and poetry, students were able to explore what it means to be— and feel— free in space, in community, and in the body.

The eight-week program culminated with a poetry reading celebration and publication of a limited edition chapbook of the students’ work. 

Photo documentation by Bakehouse artist Diana Espin.

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Bakehouse would like to thank Patricia Seitz and Alan Greer and the Berns-Rothchild Foundation for their generous support, which makes this program possible. 

O, Miami Educational programs are made possible through support from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, The Jorge M.  Perez Family Foundation and the Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs. 

Modeling the Reef

March - May 2022

Modeling the Reef is an interdisciplinary public education and art project created and imparted by Beatriz Chachamovits to provide access to and awareness of ecological, social, and craft knowledge to students from ages 6 to 11. The project consists of three phases with distinct learning and material outcomes. Students will first discover Miami's underwater ecosystems through an interactive marine ecology lesson followed by a coral sculpting workshop on how to craft their own ceramic coral sculptures. The work produced by the children will contribute to a large-scale collective reef model which will form a public shoreline art installation.

Summer Youth Internship

July 1 - August 5, 2021

Bakehouse Art Complex hosted seven students as part of the Summer Youth Internship program, a work-based learning experience between M-DCPS high school students and organizations and businesses throughout Miami-Dade County. The interns were mentored by Bakehouse artists, participated in field trips to local arts institutions and other notable sites, and developed a proposal for an Inspiration Garden to activate an underutilized space on our campus.

The 2021 Summer Youth Internship program was designed for high-school students who are interested in the arts, but do not have the opportunity to engage in art-making on a regular basis. This initiative was facilitated by artist and educator Loni Johnson, assisted by Nailah Allen, and overseen by Curatorial & Public Programs Associate Laura Novoa.

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Bakehouse Art Complex's participation in this year's Summer Youth Internship program is made possible by a lead donation from Henri Spiegel.

Wynwood Norte Art Delivery Project

September 2020

Bakehouse Art Complex gave back to our neighbors in the Wynwood Norte community by delivering over 1,000 artworks created by artists Rhea Leonard, Jimena Montemayor, and Nicole Salcedo.

This initiative was organized by Curatorial Fellow Ricardo Mor and supported by the John S. & James L. Knight Foundation.

Video documentation by Bakehouse artist Pedro Wazzan.