The Wynwood Walls in Miami’s Art District

One of the greatest public art works of all time is Wynwood Walls, located in the Wynwood Arts District of Miami. It has become a mecca for art collectors and connoisseurs from all over the world. Interestingly enough, the project wasn’t conceived by an artist or even an art organization, but by a real estate developer – Tony Goldman. “My father was a visionary,” Goldman’s daughter Jessica Goldman Srebnick said.

Goldman started his remarkable career in the 1960’s when he purchased a block of buildings on New York’s Upper West Side because, although the neighborhood was drug ridden and rundown at the time, the architecture was beautiful. He renovated the buildings, moved in businesses, and the neighborhood soon changed. Goldman repeated this successful blueprint in Soho and the Financial District before heading south to Miami.

Goldman saw the Wynwood area of Miami to be full of promise, which up until 2009, was an urban blight on the sun-filled landscape. He gobbled up 30 buildings (mostly warehouses and garages), and keeping in the spirit of the graffiti that covered the area, he turned the neighborhood into a street art mecca. “People had never even heard of this area two or three years ago,” Jessica said. “My father created a vision for the neighborhood and then the creative classes wanted to be here and moved in.” Goldman brought in the foremost graffiti artists to cover the walls. The walls keep changing every year or two, so even if you’ve already seen them you can pop in and see something new.

“We like to keep it fresh,” Jessica said. “Always changing.” Artist Peter Tunney, who is in residence at Wynwood, added, “It’s not graffiti anymore, it is now high level art. Tony gave respect to the street art community and they gave it back.”