Collecting Artists

The Biscayne Times explains a novel strategy by some Miami collectors who happen to have a spare house and an interest in art, so they’ve created an artist-in-residence program:

The Mikesells have both worked in the computer software industry (Dan currently runs Oracle’s communications division in Latin America), and both share a love of art. Kathryn notes that Dan’s parents were art collectors, and recalls that Dan himself “had a few pieces when we met — but it’s just gone crazy since then. It’s only grown.”

Indeed their home could be easily mistaken for an art gallery, with works on display in every room, including the garage, where Purvis Young paintings cover the walls. Even their two children’s bedrooms are decorated with works of art the kids have chosen for themselves. Clearly this is a family immersed in art. But as Kathryn explains, purchasing art and hanging it on the wall wasn’t enough. “We really wanted the opportunity to get to know the artists whose work we collect,” she says. “There’s something rewarding about seeing the artist’s process from start to finish.”

Since their marriage 11 years ago, the Mikesells have lived in the Upper Eastside’s Morningside neighborhood, though they’ve been in their current home for just five years. When a three-bedroom house across the street went on sale in 2006, they bought it with the intention of making it a place for their parents to live once they got older and needed more care.

But what to do with the home in the meantime? Rather than rent it, they decided to do something radically different. Why not let artists use it — for free? Thus was born the Fountainhead Residency, a program that allows select artists to live and work in the house for up to two months at a stretch. Since it opened its doors, the Fountainhead Residency has hosted more than 40 artists, many from New York and Boston, but also from Berlin, Chicago, London, Barcelona, and Los Angeles, among other locales.