‘Part of Next Chapter’: Oolite Names New CEO To Start In January

John Abodeely will become Oolite Arts’ new president and CEO in 2025. (Photo courtesy of David Brown)

Oolite Arts has a new president and CEO. John Abodeely, who currently serves as CEO of Houston Arts Alliance, will join the Miami  arts nonprofit and residency program for artists in January 2025.

Abodeely is replacing renowned arts leader Dennis Scholl, who retired to pursue his own art career.

Maggy Cuesta will continue to serve as interim CEO until February.

Abodeely will start his new job after the swarm of Art Basel and Miami Art Week. The new CEO is joining the arts group in wake of a turbulent 2024 where it was caught in a controversy amid the removal of pro-Palestinian artwork.  It then canceled its annual Ellies event, which awards grant funding to local artists and arts educators. Cuesta told the Miami Herald that much of the programming at Oolite would be paused through the end of the year and that the new CEO, when found, would “undoubtedly want to put their own stamp on the organization.”

But the pause is over. Oolite is re-launching programming with Art Week/Art Basel. The first is an invitation-only conversation with Pablo Leon de la Barra, who is curator, Latin America at the Guggenheim Museum, New York, which will be held at the Oolite Arts studios at 924 Lincoln Road on Friday, Dec. 6 from 6 to 9 p.m. The talk will feature artists Guadalupe Maravilla and Matteo Callegari. On Saturday, Dec. 7 from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. and open to the public, Oolite will feature an open studios, brunch and gallery exhibition to kick off “Healing Nature,” curated by Omar Lopez-Chahoud.

Speaking from Houston and getting ready to head to Miami for a taste of Art Week  — something he says he hasn’t experienced before having never been to Art Basel Miami Beach or Art Week, Abodeely says he’s looking forward to Oolite’s programming.

“I’m especially impressed with Oolite’s Art Week program this year. Multiple national arts leaders have come together for the exhibition program. It’s intimate, thoughtful and I think it showcases Miami in a special way.”

Abodeely is gearing up for January when he’ll settle into his new position. It was global recruitment firm, Russell Reynolds Associates, working on behalf of Oolite Arts that alerted him to the opening. “They were actually the same team that placed me in Houston after my Obama administration engagement and here it was seven years later they were contacting me about the Miami job.”

He is currently CEO of the Houston Arts Alliance, an arts agency that, according to a press release from Oolite, grants about $15 million in public funds annually to Houston artists, nonprofits, and collectives and builds $5 million in public art projects each year.” Prior to joining the Houston Arts Alliance, he was the acting executive director and deputy director of the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities, a White House advisory committee that addresses policy, arts and humanities education, cultural exchange, and the creative economy.

It was what he calls “the twin assets” Oolite offered that attracted him to the job.  .” . . Of working in an environment like Miami, which is of global importance in the contemporary art worlds as well as the financial assets that Oolite has that make it a unique artist service organization,” says Abodeely.

When asked about the bumpy road that Oolite has traversed since Scholl left, the soon-to-be CEO of the organization says, “I think it is very normal for organizations to have different moments in time. Organizations are living organisms, right? They are a collection of humans making decisions. What’s next for Oolite, which is obviously where I’m focused, is all about what’s possible for South Florida artists and the people that love the arts in South Florida.”

Abodeely will be at the helm as Oolite continues work on its $30 million headquarters in Miami’s Little River. The new building is scheduled to open in 2026.

“It’s an incredible opportunity  . . . I’m really excited about the location in terms of its proximity to other arts incubation activities, the development of artists, galleries, in Miami. So, I’m thrilled about it,” he says.

He says what he’s most excited about, however, is having conversations to find out what the building means to “the staff, the board, the community.” And, as he puts it, what is the dream for the space?

“How are we going to activate it? What’s our dream for what it can do for the city and for the art sector in the city? That’s the big question mark, isn’t it? . . . it’s about the potential for the building and for the organization.”

And what about coming to Florida to run an arts organization in light of the complete veto of state funding for the arts after Gov. Ron DeSantis cut $32 million from the state budget in June? Abodeely says he has a perspective that the “arts are important to everyone” and particularly on a hyper-local level in communities. “As context changes, people with power come and go and that changes. I think the value of the arts and the importance of the arts doesn’t go anywhere. It doesn’t shift. Maybe the role it plays in our lives changes as life changes around us.”

The other overarching question for Miami’s visual arts scene is the lack of studio space and housing for artists to live and work in South Florida. “It is an important question. I believe that Bakehouse Art Complex is doing some really remarkable work in that there are a lot of people thinking about that for the Miami community. I know it’s difficult because Miami has such an expensive real estate market. I do think it’s going to be important for us to address that question and to support our peers and partners in the community who are already leading on (this issue).”

He’s previously held positions as manager of national partnerships for the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and manager of education at Americans for the Arts. Abodeely is a former graduate professor for education policy at the Corcoran College of Art and Design at George Washington University.

He is a graduate of Amherst College with a Bachelor of Arts and double major in Biology and Fine Arts and has a master of business administration degree from Johns Hopkins Carey Business School.

What he sees in Oolite is being part of its future.

“Oolite’s evolving story is one of potential. What Dennis (Scholl) and his team did with this potential is amazing. What Oolite has done for 40 years is also amazing. It’s unique in the world. I’m lucky to be a part of its next chapter.”

ArtburstMiami.com is a nonprofit media source for the arts featuring fresh and original stories by writers dedicated to theater, dance, visual arts, film, music and more. Don’t miss a story at www.artburstmiami.com.