Vizcaya Museum and Gardens is turning one of the plainest buildings on its grounds into a working artist studio. The historic Chicken House in Vizcaya Village, newly rehabilitated, will host a South Florida artist for seven months in 2027 under a new program, the Vizcaya Arts Residency + Commission. The open call is live now, and local artists have until 11:59 p.m. on Monday, November 2, to put their names in.

For most people the name Vizcaya means the Main House on Biscayne Bay and its stone terraces. The village is the other half of the estate: the farm and service buildings that kept the place running, sitting at 3250 S. Miami Ave. across the road from the main grounds, between Coconut Grove and the Roads. Putting an artist to work inside it is a small shift with a long tail, because it moves contemporary art at Vizcaya from something you visit to something you can watch being made.

A first for the estate

Vizcaya has shown contemporary work for years through what it called the Contemporary Arts Program. The new program replaces it and adds what the old one never had: a dedicated studio on site. Under the old model, artists made work and brought it in. Under this one, a single artist moves into the Chicken House, a 375-square-foot space with exclusive use for the length of the residency, and builds the project at the estate itself.

The money is real by local standards. The selected artist receives a $12,500 fee plus a production budget of up to $25,000 for fabrication, installation and presentation, with separate pay for public programs and open studio hours. Collectives and artists working through an LLC are eligible on the same terms. Housing is not part of the package, which is one reason the call is limited to people who already live here.

Holding Time, inside the Main House

Each year will carry a theme, and the first one is Holding Time. Vizcaya is asking artists to treat the Main House as a vessel that has been storing time for more than a century, and to use the building as both the setting and the subject of the work. The finished project will fill the first and second floors of the Main House, which means visitors walking the period rooms in late 2027 will meet something that was conceived and built a few hundred yards away.

The timeline runs long, which is part of the appeal:

  • Submissions close November 2, 2026.
  • Shortlisted artists hear back by December 31, 2026, with interviews in January 2027.
  • The chosen artist is notified in March 2027.
  • The residency runs May through November 2027.
  • The exhibition opens in November 2027 and stays up through May 2028.

Who can throw a hat in

The call is open to visual artists at any stage, emerging, mid-career or established, working in any medium, as long as they are based in Miami-Dade, Broward or Palm Beach County. Past participants in the old program are not shut out. Vizcaya is not asking for a full exhibition proposal at this stage, which lowers the bar considerably. What it wants is a short bio, an artist statement, a CV, five to ten recent images or video files, a statement of interest responding to Holding Time, and one letter of support. Everything goes in through the SlideRoom portal linked from Vizcaya's open call page, and a recorded information session is posted there for anyone weighing it.

One artist per submission. Duos cannot enter separately, so a pair working together should come in as a collective.

Where the rest of us come in

This is the part that matters if you are not an artist. The residency comes with obligations that face the public. The resident has to spend at least ten hours a week in the studio, lead two public programs during the exhibition run, and keep ten hours of scheduled open studio time during the Sunday farmers market in Vizcaya Village, when the studio also stays open longer than its usual daytime hours.

That market is already one of the better Sunday mornings in the city. It is free, it starts at 9:30 a.m., and the village pairs it with a $5 yoga class and a $6 guided tour of the historic farm buildings. Starting next spring, the same stroll past the produce stands will include a door you can walk through to see a working studio inside a building that once housed the estate's chickens. The market is running every Sunday this month, with a Halloween Harvest edition and free family crafts on October 25.

Why it is worth paying attention to now

Miami's art calendar tends to peak in one loud week each December and then disperse. A paid, year-long commission at the most recognizable house in the county, reserved for artists who live here and built in plain view of the neighborhood, pushes in the other direction. If you know a painter in Little Haiti, a sculptor in Hialeah or a filmmaker in Fort Lauderdale who has been waiting for a reason to make something big, forward them the link before November 2. And if you are simply a Sunday regular at the village, you will get to watch the result take shape one market at a time.