Cathy Leff: Institution & Community Builder
CATHY LEFF is the acting director of the Bakehouse Art Complex, and Director Emerita of The Wolfsonian-FIU. She is a seasoned cultural professional and creative entrepreneur who specializes in conceiving, developing, and executing cultural strategies and initiatives across platforms, with a particular interest in the intersection of culture and community-building. She has been involved with Bakehouse since March 2018, working with its Board and small team to forge a more relevant, impactful, and sustainable path forward for the organization. In 2018, with other old and new Wynwood Norte stakeholders, she became a founding director of the Wynwood Community Enhancement Association, which led a community-driven and inclusive visioning and planning initiative for this beloved historic urban neighborhood. Recently, the City of Miami approved the creation of the Wynwood Norte Neighborhood Revitalization District which codified the vision, an effort in which Leff was directly involved. This designation provides Bakehouse with the zoning, land use, and density to add artist housing to its site and renovate its historic 1926 former industrial bakery building as a better version of its current use as a center of art making and community building. Bakehouse is presently a working home to approximately 100 Miami-based working artists. Its Board is now working on plans for the future of the live-work campus.
Prior to Bakehouse, Leff was director of The Wolfsonian-FIU for 18 years, an internationally renown museum and research center, negotiating its gifting to Florida International University in 1997, and helping the University secure Florida State approval and funding. From 1990 to 2014, Leff served as Executive Editor and Publisher of the award-winning Journal of Decorative and Propaganda Arts, noted for its interest in scholarship of the period of 1875-1945. During her tenure, she published special theme editions on Florida, Cuba, Argentina, Brazil, and Mexico.
From 1975-87, she was Assistant Director of the City of Miami’s Community Development Department, where she was responsible for neighborhood economic and community development projects, oversaw its Art in Public Places Committee, and the city’s cultural programs. Bakehouse was one of the City projects she worked on in the mid-1980s.
After leaving The Wolfsonian, she took on several consulting projects, including assisting another private collector determine the future of his collection; conceiving and executing an experimental fashion-culture experience for Bal Harbor Shops, consulting with Miami Design District, and working with the Harvard Graduate School of Design on the Future of the American City initiative.
Leff has traveled extensively, and is conversant in Spanish, French, Italian and is studying Japanese.
Leff is also a regular contributor to Cultured Magazine.
The videos below were recorded via Zoom, are organized by Success Factor, and run between 30 seconds and 23 minutes. Click on any video. You must be connected to the Internet to view the videos.
EXPOSURE TO BROAD INFLUENCES: 2:31 min.
INSIGHT & INSPIRATION: 1:12 min.
CREATES A UNIQUE PERSONAL BRAND: 22:25 min.
EXPOSURE TO BROAD INFLUENCES: 2:25 min.
COLLABORATION: 00:30 min.
CREATES A UNIQUE PERSONAL BRAND: 5:10 min.
EXPOSURE TO BROAD INFLUENCES: 3:12 min.
COMMUNITY VALUES: 2:07 min.
CREATES A UNIQUE PERSONAL BRAND: 11:37 min.
COMMUNITY VALUES: 5:01 min.
COMMUNITY VALUES: 3:26 min.
UNDERSTANDS THE BUSINESS OF ART: 0:51 sec.
UNDERSTANDS ARTISTS’ NEEDS: 6:06 min.
UNDERSTANDS THE BUSINESS OF ART: 2:43 min.
