Inside the Miami non-profit that is rethinking art patronage

As well as their fees sponsoring new art, members of Commissioner get involved in a range of mostly art-related activities, including, here, a trip to Montreal to visit galleries and studios. Photo by Dominique Claire-Marie

Written by Douglas Markowitz, published on December 3, 2024

Since 2018 the organisation Commissioner has helped Miamians connect with and collect local artists while fostering a sense of community

On a hot Sunday morning this autumn in Miami, the members of Commissioner were getting ready to see some art—and maybe even make some. Over cafécito at Andrew Reed Gallery in Allapattah, the patrons of the art membership programme were about to participate in a workshop hosted by Rafael Domenech, a Cuban American artist whose practice focuses on abstract, conceptual works centred around bookmaking. Using stencils and spray paint, members of the group took turns creating their own art to take home.

Workshops like this are one of several different types of event organised by the non-profit Commissioner. The organisation has hosted gallery and studio visits—and also thrown block parties and taken its members on scuba-diving trips, into the Everglades and to local landmarks such as the Venetian Pool. Art tourism trips have also been organised to cities including Detroit and New Orleans.

For Commissioner’s members, community is part of the appeal. The group at Andrew Reed Gallery consisted of an ethnically and professionally diverse cross-section of Miami locals: doctors and lawyers, teachers and real estate agents, Black, Hispanic and Middle Eastern. Some are born and raised Miamians, while others are longtime transplants. Most articulated some kind of desire for community in this notoriously unfriendly city. Some cited a lack of third places—sites for socialising outside home and work. Others felt the meet-ups are a good place to network without having to drink.

“More people want to be stakeholders in their community, and this might give them an avenue or an entrypoint that’s more accessible to be that stakeholder,” says Dejha Carrington, the co-founder of Commissioner. “When we were thinking about this project we were really thinking about the importance that artists have in our community… how the arts can help provide this connective tissue for us to care about each other and think about supporting artists maybe a little bit more as a civic duty.”

Supporting artists is the organisation’s other main goal. It charges annual membership fees, ranging from a $90 base level to an $1,800 “collector” tier. It also sponsors memberships for artists and art workers, with total participation capped at around 60 members. The funds are used to commission an editioned work from a local artist. Carrington says the hope is that members will build relationships with commissioned artists and fund or collect their work beyond the initial encounter. The group does not announce commissioned artists until all sign-ups are complete.

Collecting as stewardship

“We’re really asking people to trust, but also to buy into the vision first, that this is more about doing it together than it is about doing it fast, or acquiring an object,” Carrington says. “If we care about the creative city, we need to think about how we can help artists sustain their practice, whatever that might look like. I see collecting as stewardship and a way of decentralising this idea of memory.”

Antonia Wright was one of the artists selected to produce work for Commissioner this year. She is also a longtime supporter of the programme, which launched in 2018.

“What they do is fantastic, it’s very unique,” Wright says. “What Commissioner does is always synonymous with community. They’re all about creating these communities and fostering dialogue and conversations.”

With much of her recent work focused on reproductive rights, a heated topic in the deep-red state of Florida, Wright is perhaps used to provoking dialogue. Her installation State of Labor, on view at the Pérez Art Museum Miami (until 9 February 2025), incorporates sound recordings of women in labour. The sounds are tied to an algorithm that tracks how far a woman in a particular place must travel for safe abortion access, increasing in volume and intensity as the distance gets longer.

Wright did not reveal details of the work she will produce for Commissioner but she did talk about the plan for its “reveal”, when members will visit her studio on the Miami river. The off-the-beaten-path location reflects a lesser-known side of the city, which Wright sees as consistent with the group’s ethos.

“What makes Commissioner different is this idea of talking to and meeting artists, and demystifying art buying and collecting and interacting with artists and the art world,” Wright says. “That’s what Commissioner’s so good at, inviting people in—it’s very inclusive.”

Dejha Carrington