This has been an unpredictable year in the Orlando visual arts scene, reflecting the uncertainty of the nation as a whole. We’ve lost some august institutions, while there have been gratifying signs of life from others. DIY spaces are doing their best to fill in gaps that will only get worse with the statewide cuts in arts funding, and despite cultural adversity, the depression that comes with adversity and, well, no money, local artists are still making amazing work. Hold on tight for a better future.
L: DeSantis wipes out art and culture funding statewide
In finalizing Florida’s 2024-2025 budget this summer, Gov. Ron DeSantis vetoed $32 million in arts and culture funding across the state, affecting every single nonprofit arts group that had planned to apply for state grants. When asked why he zeroed out all arts grants for the 2024 fiscal year, DeSantis specifically blamed Fringe, saying it was “a sexual festival” that he couldn’t support with tax dollars. With one petty little dick move, he screwed over Florida’s theaters, museums, children’s choirs, orchestras and zoos all for a little but of culture-war juice.
W: Orlando Fringe leaves downtown ArtSpace
Speaking of Orlando Fringe, their move into the former Mad Cow Theatre space upstairs at 54 W. Church St. was hailed by all, if only because it felt like an artistic sage-smudging of years’ worth of bad vibes. But the space became a drain on Fringe’s resources, as they were responsible for plumbing, electrical, air conditioning and general maintenance and repairs, not to mention security. Fringe leadership made the difficult but smart move in November to cut it off and refocus on their core mission, the May festival. Win.
W: Space Station finds a new home
The usual litany of rising rents, landlords, gentrification — take your pick — forced DIY creative hub the Space Station out of its Coolidge Avenue location. But from that, a (rare for a venue like this) happy new chapter began. This fall the Station, a gallery space-slash-print shop-slash-music venue, landed in SoDo with a new headquarters at 315 W. Grant St., where printing and curating operations quickly resumed. Here’s to the next phase.
W: Push exhibition at OMA
It’s been a long and very strange trip for trailblazing skateboard photographer J. Grant Brittain, from Del Mar Skate Ranch in the 1970s to Orlando Museum of Art this year, where his first museum exhibition, Push, premiered in September. Push satisfyingly pushes at the limits of adventure for the museum with dazzling shots of skate icons like Rodney Mullen and Tony Hawk defying the laws of physics and moody portraits of those same figures in the bloom of youth. Just as innovative has been the programming — and turnout — around Push: a lecture from Brittain; Brittain and Hawk chewing the fat onstage a few months later; and local skate legend Tim Payne reminiscing about the secret history of Orlando skating.
Mixed result: Torn Apart exhibition at OMA
On the other hand, we have the flagship OMA show that opened at the same time as Push. We can’t call Torn Apart: Punk + New Wave Graphics, Fashion and Culture, 1976-86, completely a win or a loss. It was good to see the museum produce something after the swamp of humiliation that their grifty former director dragged them into with his exhibition of fake Basquiats, so that’s a win. But the show itself felt more like a trawl through a few cool people’s storage spaces than a rigorously curated exhibition. Was it fun to see flyers, posters and zines from a vital cultural moment? Sure. Did the show do much to contextualize them or educate viewers who weren’t there when it all happened? Not really. We’ll chalk it up to a rebuilding year.
W: Chained Gallery joins Lil Indie’s and Stardust leveling up
Even as venues like Snap! and College Park Gallery close, some of that void is being filled by local arts-forward businesses becoming regular, ad-hoc gallery spaces. Of particular note is Chained Gallery, located inside Mills 50’s Framework Coffee and curated by Sapphire Servellon, which has hosted shows by Friday Trismegistus and Preston Hardwick. Stardust Video & Coffee, which has for many years hosted excellent exhibitions on its rough concrete walls, outdid itself in 2024 with shows from Daniel Harris Mendoza and Cassidy Jones, as well as Justin Luper and Hayley Boulicault; Heidi “Naysayer” Kneisl’s reliable years of work curating Lil Indie’s in 2024 included popular retrospectives from our own Jim Leatherman and the Mangled Hand. (She also runs group shows at the Falcon and Hammered Lamb that consistently impress.) Sometimes you have to bring the art to where people are.
W: A new crop of women in charge
We don’t wanna get bogged down in the intensifying gender wars, but we do look forward to seeing what Vicky Landon (Orange County’s new Arts and Cultural Affairs head), Azela Santana (just named executive director of the Orange County Regional History Center), and Orlando Fringe’s new triumvirate of co-leaders — Genevieve Bernard, Tempestt Halstead and Melissa Fritzinger — will bring to Orlando’s cultural scene. The jury is still out on Cathryn Mattson, OMA’s new director: Her background at Bestfoods and Unilever means she can read a profit & loss balance sheet, and she has kept the lights on at OMA post-DeGroft, no small thing. But it would be nice to have someone at the helm with a visual arts background. Running a museum isn’t, and shouldn’t be, just like selling bars of soap or jars of mayo.
L: Snap! closes its doors, and Orlando loses a sophisticated and wise arts advocate
Downtown Orlando gallery and staple Snap! is closing its doors after 15 years, with co-founder Patrick Kahn making the decision to focus on his health. Kahn has been running Snap! with partner Holly Kahn with a steady hand for the entire run, first as an annual pop-up, then renovating the historic Cameo Theatre in Mills 50, and finally moving downtown. The gallery had a big-city vibe, putting on all manner of photographic and otherwise exhibitions, always opening with parties that attracted Orlando’s creative cognoscenti. Snap! closes for good very early next year.
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