Advocates For Art

For artists to create their most prolific masterpieces, they need affordable studio space outside their home in which to work and collaborate.

For that reason, Evan Snow and Andrew Martineau, arts advocates and community builders, designed the Zero Empty Spaces concept in 2019. The goal was to revitalize empty spaces and areas around venues by providing studio space for artists at an affordable price.

“As of October 2022, we’ve opened up 27 locations (26 in Florida; 1 in Massachusetts, with anywhere from 10 to 20 spaces within each location). These stay open until the landlord finds a permanent tenant for the location,” Martineau explains.

“We advocate for the arts, make them more successful and try to move art forward through the engagement with government officials interested in infusing art into their communities,” explains Snow.

“We promote art in the community through artist presentations and talks focusing on the arts culture and creative economy,” adds Martineau, 46, whose background is most recently in shopping center and retail development.

Both are passionately involved in supporting Broward County arts and culture community initiatives, including their own Fort Lauderdale Art & Design Week.

The pair’s ad agency, UniteUs Group, markets Zero Empty Spaces, their main endeavor, plus other projects, and works with cities and various brands on overall creative marketing strategies.

Finding affordable artist studios in vacant spaces has been relatively easy for the full-time entrepreneurs and business owners.

“We actually don’t find them; they find us,” Snow, a former realtor, 36, points out. “All of our spaces have come through outreach — property owners, brokers or property managers and endorsements from city commissioners, mayors or municipal officials looking to incorporate art into their cities.”

The duo met in 2016, and in 2017 created “The Art Fair on the Water,” a curated event that transports attendees by water taxi along the Intracoastal with stops at vacant multimillion dollar waterfront properties that feature artists and galleries exhibiting art. That endeavor led to a connection with Sotheby’s.

“As that concept became more popular, we were continually approached by commercial real estate developers to bring art into their spaces,” Snow says. “We drove around Broward County and saw that there was an abundance of empty spaces.”

While Broward County may be the least affordable place for houses, the pair wanted to make it one of the most affordable for artists to pursue their art, he explains.

“So, the Zero Empty Spaces concept came about.”