The woman who opened ARRAE Gallery on Grand Avenue in Little Bahamas has turned a tiny storefront into a showcase for local artists, creating an opportunity for Grove residents to connect with Miami’s homegrown art scene.
Anai Fonte remembers the day she first spotted a “for rent” sign on the empty storefront next to Dogtown, her pet services business on Grand Avenue in Coconut Grove.
She immediately pictured an art gallery inside the small space.
“I was like, that could be a really neat art gallery,” Fonte said.
But she had a problem. She was headed out of town and wasn’t certain the space would still be available when she returned.
Undeterred, she reached out to the landlord and asked to see the space when she returned. The landlord held the space for her, despite other inquiries.
Today, Fonte remembers that bit of luck as the moment she knew her latest venture – the ARRAE Gallery at 3680 Grand Avenue in Little Bahamas – was meant to be.
Luck was with her as well as she moved the project forward. “Even the logistics, which are rarely smooth in Miami, unfolded with surprising ease,” she remembers.
Fonte says that experience shaped her approach to the project and her thoughts about what she wanted the gallery to be – a showcase for local artists and an opportunity for Grove residents to connect with Miami’s homegrown art scene.
As an artist herself, Fonte also thought about the Grove’s history as a mecca for artists and how a small gallery on Grand Avenue might help to revive the local art scene.
“The Grove is where I came for art when I was younger,” Fonte said.
“I always talked about how I missed those days when there was art everywhere in the Grove,” she added. “So, I’m like maybe I can do that in this space. Maybe this could be a little art gallery in the Grove and it can support Miami-based artists.”
To get started, Fonte posted an open call on Instagram, inviting artists to apply. Some 150 artists responded. From those, Fonte chose 40 artists for her first installation, and hung 120 works of art, salon style, in the gallery’s 300-square-foot space. “I really wanted to be able to support as many artists as I could,” she remembers.
Since then, the gallery has hosted two more salon-style shows and some memorable events, like a night of poetry in December featuring women writers from SWWIM (Supporting Women Writers in Miami).
The event paired six poets with six works of visual art. The poets wrote poems inspired by the art and then read their poems in front of a standing-room-only crowd.
Mary Block, a Coconut Grove poet who helped to organize the event, describes ARRAE (pronounced “array”) as an important new space for artists, and part of a growing effort to build community and increase collaboration in the Grove.
Fonte says that’s intentional.
“I grew up just outside of the Grove, and I use to cut school to come into the Grove,” she says. “I loved it so much. I was like an escape, and it was like 15 minutes from where I lived. A completely different world.”
Fonte was a teenager back then, in the mid-1990s. She’s 43 now with a 11-year-old son, a pair of businesses on Grand Avenue, and indelible memories of the Grove as a place where art – and artists – set the vibe.
“That’s the Grove that I recall, but I don’t know how many people that are part of this community now recall those days. Because it has changed so much,” she said.
“I guess this is my way of bringing that to life, so other people can experience it, just this tiny little sliver of what it was, that meant a lot to me.”
For each of her shows, Fonte stacks works of art by local artists on top of each other, creating a visual rhythm that invites both casual browsing and deeper engagement.
The gallery walls are dense with art. Prints, photographs, and paintings bump up against each other in the small space, making the room feel both cozy and dynamic.
Each show stays up for months, but rarely looks the same for long. As soon as one work of art is sold, another takes its place. Fonte’s gallery feels like a living canvas, constantly changing as pieces are added or sold.
Fonte said that’s intentional, too. “I knew I wanted to change it. I wanted to keep it fresh. I didn’t just want things that would be on the wall forever,” she said.
Most of the artwork on display is priced at under $2,000 – a price point that allows first-time collectors to start a collection. “That’s important to me too. To be able to attract new collectors,” Fonte said.
“For people my age – 30s, 40s – who are looking to get into art collecting, it can be quite intimidating. You go into these spaces (art galleries), there’s usually one artwork on the wall (and) there’s one person, speaking art-speak that most people who are not in the art world will not understand,” she said.
“You are intimidated to ask questions, or look silly, and I really wanted to do away with that,” she added. “I want people to be able to own art that they love for the sake of just loving it.”
So far this year, Fonte and the gallery have hosted seven open-house events with a rotating roster of local artists. The “activations” are meant to be casual and participatory.
Recent workshops have included an embroidery collage workshop led by fiber artist Pangea Kali Virga, where guests used threads and fabric to create their own personalized pieces.
ARRAE also invited photographer Xavier Menrique to discuss the art of using expired film, which he uses to create unexpected, surprising effects in his photographs.
On April 3, Fonte opened her third show – Volume III – with a packed house on a Friday night. Fonte isn’t sure how long the show will stay up. Perhaps until the end of June.
But she’s already thinking about her next event – a short piece of live theater, produced in collaboration with some of the creative talent behind the Coconut Grove Theatre Festival, which returns this weekend to the Woman’s Club of Coconut Grove.
“It takes people to bring the arts and culture back to the Grove,” Fonte said. “We need to have more galleries.”
