ABOUT
Mission
The approval of 501.C3 public charity status in 2011 allowed Grace Arts Center (GAC) to formalize and expand programs '... taking art beyond gallery walls.' GAC's mission is to maximize donated resources, grants and in-kind professional talent to produce and present programs that identify emerging artists, embrace tradition, maintain excellence and create opportunities for innovation in arts and related fields of sciences and humanities. General programming has three areas: cultural exhibits, performances and urban design engagements. Each project features multiple disciplines and South Florida's leading Innovators to entertain and inform the public.
History
Grace Arts Center (GAC) is a public charity and evolved from years of arts and cultural community outreach of Grace Cafe and Galleries, a retail art gallery, studio, coffee bar & pop-up cafe owned by GAC's Founder and Creative Director, Clare Vickery. For over a decade, the gallery sponsored outdoor festivals, after school arts programs, scholarships, downtown vibrancy initiatives to restore historical areas, international design competitions, performances, and public art projects. The gallery business still engages professional talent providing opportunities for artists and designers to invest their time, talent and resources in platforms that inspire excellence and innovation benefiting people living or visiting South Florida.
Art Miami 2007 'Director's Choice' Artist Exhibition for the late self-taught Painter, Purvis Young, was a pivotal moment for the Gallery and the beginning of developing relationships with other artists who joined Young painting or performing in the gallery and cafe creating a niche for both Florida's distinctive Outsider Art community (such as Florida's Highwaymen landscape painters) and partnerships with institutionally trained fine art professionals. With the new charitable status, GAC expanded opportunities for apprentice programs, workshops, art exhibits and performances and even sponsored science projects to explore humanity and the arts through the lens of history, archaeology and geology.
Gallery and Studio work with tango, ballet, hip hop communities, filmmakers, musical bands, singer/songwriters, theater groups and visual artists created lasting collaborations and the foundation for non-profit arts center programming. Professionals from multiple disciplines continue to invest into the lives of students to create programs with wide support from the creative community, press and the public.
The three general programming areas have doubled the number of projects in each area of visual, performance and design arts.
Contact us if you are considering the arts as a means to raise funds for your organization. Ask about participating in programs and projects, suggest ideas or consider volunteering or donating to Grace Arts Center, a registered, licensed public 501 (c) 3 Florida charity.
Second Floor Gallery and Studio
the original cafe
Release party for local Hip hop/Indie fusion album 'The Dive' by '85' 2013
Big Band Jazz Nights at Grace Arts Center with 'Mike Norris Band' 2012
ArtMiami 2007 Director's Choice Main Exhibit Entryway