We Need More Arts Scenes – Not Destinations
Camila Castillo hugs a friend at Tripping Animals Brewery. March 27, 2023. Photograph by Bianca Sproul.
In a city where luxury and the arts are depicted married to each other, there remains a need where Miami locals can appreciate and indulge in the arts without barriers.
— At a class circa summer 2023, Professor Han Lin from the University of Miami presented his research and made an intriguing point about “Arts Districts” in Miami—can we truly call them an “Arts District” if they’re not so much about the arts anymore? Appropriately reconceptualized as Arts “Destinations,” Arts Districts such as Wynwood or even the Design District are arguably not intended for locals nor accessible arts events. Building on this, we need to direct our attention towards the efforts done by locals in our own communities to provide arts platforms.
Enter Find the Click, one of the many budding groups in the Greater Miami area that nurture a sense of creative community for locals. Co-founded by local artists Camila Castillo, Gabriela Osuna and Isabella Davila, Creative Monday is the primary event pushed by Find the Click.
Nestled between the many warehouses of Doral, locals can enjoy live music, craft beer, and free arts supplies in a weekly event hosted by the Tripping Animals Brewery every Monday since January 2023. Creative Mondays is the perfect example of how we should assess “Arts Districts” – by their ability to create arts events that make everyone feel welcome.
Mondays, a loathed weekday that heralds the start of another work week, instead provided an opportunity for Castillo.
“Every night you have something if you are trying to have a social life. But Mondays, it’s the day you’re supposed to get your [stuff] together,” Castillo explains, admitting that even she didn’t like Mondays.
Castillo is an artist herself outside her regular 9-5 day job. She credits her creative aspirations to the artistic figures in her family and recounts her childhood going to the theater in Venezuela. In her spare time, Castillo acts with Miami Improv Machine.
Creative spaces in Miami tend to be married to luxury. Arts spaces in neighborhoods such as Wynwood boast high-end galleries, boutiques, and spaces that often feel more directed to an out of town audience. It’s important, especially in the midst of rampant luxury development, that we support spaces for the arts for everyone—regardless of their economic status.
Camila Castillo wants to draw together local creatives in a space that allows people to come as they are.
Castillo remembered her friends staying up until 2 am in her house, painting and having deep conversations. She is reminded of that memory by those who partake in Creative Mondays. “And that's what warms my heart,” she smiled.
Creative Mondays is the brainchild of Castillo and her co-founders which carves out time for the arts in the work week for every-day Miamians.
Castillo hopes it starts a bigger movement: “The future is the community that we’re creating. We’re all growing here. You’re a writer, I’m an artist, there’s musicians, there’s producers, there’s videographers, we’re a whole creative ecosystem. But we’re not in constant contact with each other because we’re all doing our own thing.”
Polo Troconis (left) and “Lolo” Hernandez (right) looking at a painting Hernandez created. March 27, 2023. Photograph by Bianca Sproul.
Diego Landaeta (@diegolan12) DJing at Creative Mondays. March 27, 2023. Photograph by Bianca Sproul.
“But if we have this space to create all together… I’ve seen other people make connections here that help them.”
Castillo referenced her friends’ band, Estáticos, that played March 24th at Tripping Animals. “I’ve had friends’ bands play here because there was a middle ground. We are starting to allow these opportunities.”
Castillo using her own small organization to lift up the creative agencies of her peers is precisely how and why we need community-based arts programs. It provides a platform for aspiring artists home-grown in Miami-Dade.
Estáticos playing March 24th, 2023 at Tripping Animals Brewery. Photograph by Frederico Pelayo (@frederico.pelayo).
“As long as I'm able to create every Monday, and I can invite other people to also do it, I’ll continue it.”
With the success of Creative Mondays, there is hope that locals can provide their own arts scenes and platforms – even when their own city denies them that.
Note: This was an article I wrote Spring 2023 that was originally meant for publication in a mainstream outlet, but did not end up published until now.