For many years this storefront was a very popular pop-up art gallery. Then when the real estate market improved and new renters took over, the gallery left.

I read an article in Artsy about pop up galleries called Condo New York, which took over a bunch of empty spaces in Manhattan this summer. They lasted for 10 days to three months.

This is not a new concept and while artists pay to be a part of these pop up galleries, for years, in my town, Coconut Grove, Florida, there were pop up galleries that lasted years and their duel purpose was to show and sell art, but they also were filling up spaces in empty storefronts, which the town had a lot of.

For quite a few years, galleries were all over the village and they paid nothing or next to nothing, probably just paying for the utilities while making empty storefronts vibrant and lively.

As the storefronts started renting out and the neighborhood stated changing to higher rents and many more renters, the galleries all but disappeared.

I had a friend who was an artist and a realtor and he would combine the two. He would have a gallery in the condos he had for sale. So the open houses would be an art event as well as a sales event. That’s something I think you would see on the tv show Million Dollar Listing; they are always coming up with some sort of gimmick to show their real estate listings.

But pop up art can be in any empty space. Even during Art Basel here in Miami, there is art in shipping containers, each container being its own little gallery for a week. Heck, any empty room can be a gallery.