Company Profile
Locust Projects Inc
Company Overview
ABOUT LOCUST PROJECTS
As an incubator of new art and ideas dedicated to commissioning and presenting new work, Locust Projects seeks to make a significant advancement in delivering on its artist-centric mission to provide local, national, and international artists with opportunities and resources to experiment in the creation of new work and to introduce audiences to innovation in contemporary art and artistic practice.
OUR MISSION
Founded by artists for artists in 1998, Locust Projects is an arts incubator producing, presenting, and nurturing ambitious and experimental new art through commissioned exhibitions and projects, artist residencies, career boosting resources, and summer art intensives for teens. We foster the exchange of ideas through public programs on contemporary art and curatorial practice.
Our mission is to…
CREATE opportunities for visual artists at all career stages
INVITE risk taking and experimentation
ACTIVATE conversations around new art and ideas
ADVOCATE for artists and creative practices
INSPIRE the next generation of artists
LOCUST PROJECTS ENVISIONS A WORLD WHERE ART AND ARTISTS ARE SEEN AS ESSENTIAL TO SOCIETY.
Company History
Locust Projects was founded by three visionary art school graduates in a warehouse in Wynwood in 1998 to support artists with opportunities to work on a large scale and build critical dialogue around their work. From the outset, Locust’s mission was to cultivate an environment where artists could take risks and experiment on a large scale presenting new projects in critical dialogue with a community of artists. Gaining the attention of collectors and arts patrons shortly after, the organization established a board and received 501(c)(3) non-profit status in 2001.
One of the first artist residencies for visual artists in Miami, Locust has provided two week to two month residencies since 1999 fostering a dynamic exchange between local and non-local artists as they build their projects and are now a hallmark perk of an exhibition opportunity at Locust, creating new networks for artists.
Since its founding, Locust has commissioned 197 exhibitions focusing on major large-scale installations and featuring 509 artists from diverse locales and career stages. Despite having to move three times, we have defined our unique role in Miami's cultural ecosystem as the only organization committed to providing unparalleled opportunities for local, national and international artists to realize large-scale, site-specific solo installations that help them push the boundaries of their practice. As one of the nation’s leading nonprofit alternative art spaces supporting the commissioning of experimental artistic production, we are what the New York Times calls, “the place to see installations from tomorrow’s arts stars today.”
Learn more at locustprojects.org