The Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami, the free art museum in Miami’s Design District, has acquired the former site of the de la Cruz Collection, located next door to the museum.
The acquisition adds 30,000 square feet to ICA Miami, essentially doubling the museum’s size, which will be used for programming and exhibiting the museum’s permanent collection, said Alex Gartenfeld, the ICA Miami artistic director. ICA Miami purchased the de la Cruz Collection for $25 million, which was funded by contributions from dozens of South Florida philanthropists, including developer and Design District co-founder Craig Robins.
READ MORE: Miami’s De la Cruz Collection closed. Art headed to $30m auction after founder’s death
“It’s a really momentous occasion,” Gartenfeld said. “It happens to coincide with the close of our 10 year anniversary. It coincides with us welcoming over 1 million visitors. It really does feel like an affirmation of our mission, which is free access to the best in arts and education.”
The two-story building, located at 23 NE 41st St., was home to the de la Cruz Collection, a free art space that exhibited the internationally acclaimed art collection of power couple Carlos and Rosa de la Cruz, for 15 years. Following Rosa’s death at age 81 in February, Carlos immediately closed the museum. Auction house Christie’s began selling works from the remarkable collection, which included art by Christopher Wool, Mark Bradford and the late Ana Mendieta. The first sale of Rosa’s collection netted $34 million.
“I am really happy to have helped the ICA to grow,” Carlos de la Cruz said in a statement. “This combined space now gives Miami a museum about the same size as the Whitney Museum in New York City.”
With the expansion, the museum plans to use the building as a multi-purpose space for more educational programming, special exhibitions and a Knight Foundation “new media gallery” for artists experimenting with emerging technologies, ICA Miami said in a statement. The Knight Foundation awarded ICA Miami a $5 million grant to support digital innovation.
Most importantly, ICA Miami plans to dedicate gallery space to showing the museum’s expansive permanent collection, 99.5% of which has been in storage, Gartenfeld said.
“The opportunity to create galleries for our permanent collection is one that’s really going to be impactful in telling the story of contemporary art and to building literacy and familiarity with contemporary art, with our collection,” he said. “I can’t overstate how important it is to have this expanded space to really tell a story about our community.”
The building will undergo some renovations before officially opening to the public sometime before the end of next year, Gartenfeld said.
For many in Miami’s arts community the closure of the de la Cruz Collection was a big blow. But, Robins points out that the building that once housed one of the world’s best art collections will still show art.
“It is fitting that the space, which for almost two decades as the de la Cruz Collection presented thought-provoking, innovative contemporary art exhibitions, will continue that tradition,” Robins said.
“Of course, it took an unhappy occasion for the opportunity to arise,” said Gartenfeld. But he agrees that the acquisition allows ICA Miami to “carry on, in some way, the great legacy that the de la Cruzes have created as pioneers in the Design District.”
This story was produced with financial support from The Pérez Family Foundation, in partnership with Journalism Funding Partners, as part of an independent journalism fellowship program. The Miami Herald maintains full editorial control of this work.
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