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The Museum of Graffiti launched in 2019 with enormous success, earning major accolades as the first institution of its kind in the entire world. Despite the challenges of the pandemic, the Museum of Graffiti rapidly outgrew its original space in Miami’s Wynwood neighborhood and developed the urgent need to expand to showcase its growing collection and welcome more visitors to experience the power of graffiti art. The new Museum of Graffiti will nearly double the Museum’s capacity and allow the educational and outreach initiatives, cultural programming, and community events to grow.
Once reserved for only vandal outlaws, graffiti has gone mainstream with a vengeance. To fully appreciate the current position of the movement it is essential to know and understand the work of the original graffiti artists, who started tagging in the New York City subways in the early 1970s and early ’80s.
The Museum of Graffiti will re-open with new features such as spotlights on graffiti superstars from different eras and locations throughout the past 50 years and experiential moments where visitors can immerse themselves within installations that recreate certain well-known environments from graffiti history. For example, visitors will have the opportunity to feel as though they are inside the Queens-based Shirt Kings store at the Coliseum Mall that became iconic in the hip-hop scene of the early 1990s. Rich text will explain how graffiti artists used their talents in ways that went on to have an enormous impact on mass produced apparel that formed the foundation of streetwear as we know it today.
In line with the Museum’s original programming, a portion of the new space will be dedicated rotating exhibitions that will change on a quarterly basis. The opening show, entitled “Estillo Boricua (Puerto Rican Style),” will highlight the work of Puerto Rican graffiti artists including Sen2, Ske, DonRimx, Manuel Acevedo and Part One. An objective of the show is to bring Puerto Rican artwork back to Wynwood which was long referred to as Little San Juan or El Barrio because of the many Puerto Ricans who immigrated to the neighborhood from the island and northeastern cities since the 1950s. Wynwood was home to a great abundance of Puerto Rican-owned restaurants, shops, markets, and other businesses until the mid 2000s when the neighborhood was inundated with outside investment and rapid development.
The new Museum of Graffiti building will also include a private gallery space, available by appointment only, for collectors looking to take home an original piece of work by artists of the genre from yesterday and today. The Museum wants to provide graffiti artists with a platform to sell their works, as many artists were marginalized and excluded from mainstream galleries and blue-chip art shows in the past.
“It’s wonderful to see how our community, our region, and tourists from across the nation and around the world have embraced the Museum of Graffiti,” Allison Freidin, co-founder of the museum, said. “With the number of visitors we welcome, it’s time for us to move to a bigger and better location and make sure more people can access these offerings.”
The Museum of Graffiti will host a press-preview and celebrate the VIP opening of the new location the first week of March 2022.
Tickets: General Admission tickets are $16; Children 13 and under are free. Tickets are available online and include access to all museum exhibitions. To purchase tickets visit our website from your desktop at home or your mobile device, museumofgraffiti.com
Hours: The Museum of Graffiti is open from 11 AM – 6 PM weekdays and 11AM– 7PM on weekends. Please check www.museumofgraffiti.com for special holidays, extended hours, and unexpected closings.
Location: The Museum of Graffiti, located at 276 NW 26th Street, Miami, FL 33127.
Follow the Museum of Graffiti on Instagram @museumofgraffiti
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