Want to make art more accessible? Make Miami’s Wynwood Walls free for locals | Opinion

I frequented Wynwood Walls as a teenager with my friends because it was free. We were young artists enjoying the artwork and interpreting the murals with each other. It was a go-to location, a fun alternative to the beach, Sunset Place (rest in peace), a park or someone’s house — all budget-friendly choices. If I were a teenager now, I would no longer be able to go to Wynwood Walls as much as I did then.

Wynwood Walls is a world-renowned outdoor museum dedicated to the street-art genre and artists from around the globe. Entry was free before January 2021, but now it requires paid tickets in allotted time slots. Tickets are now $12 per adult, $10 for seniors and military, $5 for students and free for children under 12.

It’s too expensive for many local residents. But there is a solution: Let locals visit Wynwood Walls at no cost through community tickets or designated free days.

While the ability to provide crowd control at the venue offers the potential for new types of engaging events, an admission fee prevents many in the community from seeing once-accessible artwork. Many Miamians, no doubt, are facing more hardships right now, with the housing crisis flooding many once-affordable neighborhoods with wealthier out-of-towners. We shouldn’t exclude Miamians from the arts, as well.

It is ironic that this celebration of street art — by definition accessible to the public — is now not free. The price of admission, however, can be lifted through community tickets or designated free days. Other internationally recognized museums have successfully incorporated these policies.

When I studied abroad in Florence, Italy, I planned on visiting museums for free on the first Sunday of the month. While the pandemic ended my program just shy of the first Sunday in March 2020, once I arrived home, I got to visit the Pérez Art Museum Miami in 2021 through its Free Second Saturdays. Other venues also take this inclusive approach: Brooklyn Botanical Garden in New York also offers public community tickets.

If the Uffizi Gallery, in Florence, and PAMM can accommodate people, Wynwood Walls could as well. After all, the goal behind ticket sales was to rebrand Wynwood Walls as a proper museum.

Even the founder of Wynwood Walls described the location as a public square for street art. In “Here Comes the Neighborhood,” a 2011 YouTube docuseries produced by Ben Solomon, Wynwood Walls founder Tony Goldman explained his vision: “Let me find the greatest of international street artists and put them all in one place and open it to the public and make it a town center.”

That town center is Wynwood Walls.

Yes, there is street art outside Wynwood Walls, but this is a venue with trees, tables, rocks and benches for people to enjoy the art. It’s a lovely place for families, friends and art lovers to soak in the work on exhibit there. It is not as lovely to peek past gates and over the walls to try to catch a glimpse of artwork that was once free to the public.

It’s notable that Wynwood Walls created free tickets for children under 12 and $5 student tickets, while offering discounts for seniors and military personnel (which are all cheaper than PAMM prices). This still doesn’t include families with teenagers or single adults trying to enjoy art on a budget.

Tickets are already cheap enough, one might argue. Yes, but parking can be expensive. An outing to Wynwood quickly becomes pricey before arriving at the Walls.

CEO of Goldman Global Arts and curator Jessica Goldman Srebnick — daughter of Tony Goldman— took up the baton of Wynwood Walls after her father passed away in 2012. In a recent interview with Miami Modern Luxury Magazine, she shared an exciting future of Wynwood Walls that includes a Big/Little mentorship and residency program to promote local artists (the Wynwood Walls Foundation). I am hopeful that Goldman Srebnick will consider the proposal to return the Walls to the public. She already is guiding Wynwood Walls toward a community-oriented path.

Miamians supported the art scene that now generates astronomically ridiculous real-estate values. There’s a responsibility to create ways for everyone to enjoy the arts in the city. It won’t solve rampant gentrification or the affordable-housing crisis, but at least we can work toward policies that are more welcoming of everyone.

Bianca Sproul, @biancadeayala, is a local freelance writer and media storyteller.