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(Photo by Clara Toro)
Locust Projects, Miami’s longest-running nonprofit alternative art space, has hired arts veteran Munisha Underhill as its first deputy director. In her new role, Underhill will lead fundraising efforts, helping the organization achieve its goals and building sustainability as it continues to maximize its new, expanded Little River space.
Underhill has spent her career growing Miami’s eminent art institutions. Before joining Locust Projects, Underhill served as vice president for development at Oolite Arts, one of Florida’s largest artist support organizations.
Previously, she was a senior leader at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts, served as director of development at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) North Miami and worked as a fundraising specialist and strategic advisor for clients, including the Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM) and the NSU Art Museum.
Underhill also served on Locust Project’s board of directors for a decade, including chairing the development committee and founding the annual benefit dinners.
In addition to her professional roles, Underhill is a board member for Key Biscayne Art in Public Places and has served on the Art Basel Junior Host Committee member since its inception in 2001.
“We’re thrilled to have Munisha, our long-time supporter and collaborator as someone with such deep knowledge of our arts community, join our staff,” said Lorie Mertes, Locust Projects’ executive director. “As we continue to shape Locust Projects’ future path and grow our expanded space as a hub and resource for artists and community. Munisha will help us secure increased levels of support and engagement that ensures Locust Projects continues to serve our community as an incubator of new art and ideas for many more years to come.”
The only organization in Miami focused on commissioning experimental large-scale exhibitions, Locust Projects gives artists the freedom and expansive space to realize ambitious ideas that no one else is willing to produce that lead to vital career breakthroughs and opportunities.
Double the size of its previous location, Locust’s Little River industrial warehouse is a laboratory for artists to dream big and introduce new art and ideas relevant to Miami and to the times we live in to the public through their exhibitions and related performances, programs, and events.
“For 26 years, Locust Projects has offered a unique space in Miami’s arts ecosystem, that lets artists push their practice in large-scale ways outside of the commercial pressures of a gallery or museum and spark dialogue on issues and ideas that challenge the public to see and think differently about art,” Underhill said.
“Together with Lorie, the staff and the board, and the momentum of our new space, we have many ideas for bringing the community together within the worlds our artists create to help advance the organization to the next level in Little River,” she added.
Upcoming opportunities to visit Locust projects and experience the work they do includes, The Elephant Never Forgets, a major multimedia installation commissioned for the 2,800-square-foot Main Gallery the form of an uncanny backstage TV studio lot inspired by “la vecindad,” the iconic setting of the 1970s sitcom El Chavo del Ocho, by Daniel Arturo Almeida (b. Caracas, Venezuela) and Adrian Edgard Rivera (b. Austin, Texas) and Niñalanida Skycoaster, a multimedia VR rollercoaster experience created for the Project Room by Miami-based artists LIZN’BOW. Both shows open with a reception on Saturday, Sept. 7, from 6 to 8 p.m.
For more on upcoming programming at Locust Projects, visit locustprojects.org.
About Locust Projects
Founded by artists for artists in 1998, Locust Projects is Miami’s longest running nonprofit alternative art space. It produces, presents, and nurtures ambitious and experimental new art and the exchange of ideas through commissioned exhibitions and projects, artist residencies, summer art intensives for teens, and public programs on contemporary art and curatorial practice.
As a leading incubator of new art and ideas, Locust Projects emphasizes boundary-pushing creative endeavors, risk-taking and experimentation by local, national, and international artists. It invests in South Florida’s arts community by providing artists with project grants and empower creative careers by supporting the administrative work of being an artist through an onsite artist resource hub and access to pro bono legal services.
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