You know what they say: art imitates life. In Fort Lauderdale, life is looking fabulous with a new art district. It\u2019s colorful, cool and has enough creative energy to help the 954 thrive.<\/p>\n
Forget coloring inside the lines because anything goes at Thrive Art District, and they\u2019re ready for their close-up.<\/p>\n
Jonathan Fish: \u201cWe really have a lot of small different nooks and areas where people can kind of walk around and be immersed in art. We identified this area as an opportunity for the city and we started buying real estate here quietly.\u201d<\/p>\n
With three blocks of creative space, they\u2019re spreading the news.<\/p>\n
Jonathan Fish: \u201cA big, big part of our tenants here is word of mouth of business owners that are here already and they\u2019re excited. We have gyms, a brewery, so really, all of these tenants are adding to this amazing energy that we created in this district.\u201d<\/p>\n
Most of that energy comes from artists with over 60 murals around the area.<\/p>\n
Jonathan Fish: \u201cWe give opportunities to new artists as well and local artists. We gave a street artist an opportunity to showcase his art in the form of a painting, and we gave an opportunity to the gallerist, to the guy who\u2019s been painting in galleries, to put his piece a larger outside.\u201d<\/p>\n
And the county is all about it.<\/p>\n
Phillip Dunlap: \u201cHere in Broward County, we have 31 cities and we\u2019re right here in Fort Lauderdale. One of the things we think about at the [Broward County] Cultural Division is how do we weave together all of these different cities our cultural fabric. Places like thrive the Thrive Arts District become connectors for us.\u201d<\/p>\n
And they\u2019re connecting creatives with some seed money.<\/p>\n
Phillip Dunlap: \u201cYou look right here at the Connect Record Shop, through one of our artist grants, funded DJ Astani, who\u2019s doing open spin, which is a DJ education course for young kids.\u201d<\/p>\n
From start to nearly finish, this cultural hot spot is ready for so-flo.<\/p>\n
Jonathan Fish: \u201cWe have a music square, and then we have a walkway. The people are telling us what events they want. We have some big surprises that are coming up soon.\u201d<\/p>\n