OUR MISSION
collaboARTive serves visual artists and creatives in Miami-Dade County (and globally online). We offer services that include affordable studio space in a safe and welcoming environment, a community of other creatives, opportunities to make and show work, and resources like calls to artists and grant opportunities.
OUR PASSION
We are inspired by creativity, community, and conversation and believe that these lead to opportunities for personal growth and development. We seek to provide opportunities for more people to explore their own creativity.
MEET THE BOARD
IGNACIO FONT, BOARD CHAIR
Ignacio Font is an experienced Art Teacher with almost 30 years of experience teaching Photography, Printmaking, Art Education and Studio Art. Born of Cuban parents on the island of Puerto Rico, Ignacio received his Bachelor of Fine Arts at Florida International University and received his MFA from School for Visual Arts, New York.
He is the co-founder of Font Squared, a boutique arts marketing firm and co-founder of collaboARTive. Currently, Ignacio teaches art at a private school in Miami, and creates work whenever and wherever he can.
GERARD ALBERT III, SECRETARY
Gerard Albert III covers Broward County for WLRN. Before joining WLRN full time, he reported on crime and public safety in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. He was awarded the South Carolina Press Association's first place award for profile writing and third place for enterprise reporting. Gerard also reported on crime and public safety in West Palm Beach, where he reported on the intersection of mental health and the criminal justice system. Gerard earned his Bachelors degree from Florida International University where he served as the Editor-in-Chief of the student newspaper.
MICHELLE FONT
Michelle Font is a lifelong DIY creative with experience in event planning and crafting. She owned a party planning business for over 12 years and a gourmet gift basket company for over 20 years, catering to families and businesses all over Miami and the United States. Born and raised in Miami, she is a proud mother to three children.
ANNETTE FROMM
Annette B. Fromm is a museum specialist and folklorist. She has worked as educator to curator to director in primarily small museums in Ohio, Oklahoma, and Florida with emphasis on cultural diversity and taught anthropology and museum studies at the University of Tulsa and Florida International University. She has consulted in museums across the US and overseas.
She is an active member the International Council of Museums (ICOM), the American Alliance of Museums (AAM), and the American Folklore Society (AFS). Fromm is currently a member the Florida Folklife Council and past president of the International Committee for Museums of Ethnography (ICME).
ERIN PARISH
Raised in innercity Detroit, all four of Erin’s parents were artists. She received her B.A. from Bennington College in Vermont and went directly to graduate school at Queens College, New York, NY. She received her M.F.A. in 1990 and has been employed full time in the art world in art galleries, as an artist’s assistant, or since the early 2000’s, as a fulltime artist.
In addition to being an artist, Parish also is a curator, now based in Miami Beach. Of late, she is the Curator for the Tenth Street Gallery in Sarasota and previously was the Director of Exhibitions at the Laundromat Art Space in Miami.
TERRE RYBOVICH
Terre Rybovich creates large charcoal and pastel drawings—detailed, ethereal images. Her work has been exhibited across Florida and is in dozens of private collections plus several public ones.
Rybovich is also an artist advocate. She was instrumental in creating an aritsts’ organization with the West Palm Beach Community Redevelopment Association to initiate a series of annual studio tours in Northwood, complete with trolley service.
Rybovich has a Bachelors in Politics and Economics from New York University, and a Masters in Rural Sociology from Wisconsin-Madison. Her first career, in activist philanthropy, instilled daring she now channels into drawing.
Our Team
Jean Blackwell Font
Co-Founder & Executive Director
Jean Blackwell Font is the co-founder of Font Squared and collaboARTive. She is a mixed media artist, an arts marketer and administrator living and working in Miami, FL.
Working in assemblage, mixed media, and collage, Jean never stops learning about art and her own artistic practice, learning from people she knows personally or from studying the lives, art, and work of those she admires. Influenced by artists Betty Saar, Doris Salcedo, and Joseph Cornell, the artist has developed a visual vocabulary to express her ideas and concepts.
She is a member of ArtTable, the foremost professional organization dedicated to advancing the leadership of women in the visual arts, and Phi Kappa Phi, the nation's oldest and most selective all-discipline honor society. Her artwork has garnered the attention of several important collectors in Miami and is now part of Florida International University Special Collections.
Carol Jazzar
Exhibitions Support
Carol Jazzar is a self-taught interdisciplinary artist who lives and works in El Portal, Florida. Her work is centered on Nature, be it her own, or that of Mother Nature. To realize her artist goals, she sustains two practices: one in the studio, which revolves around collages, drawings and writing; the other outdoors, using photography and site-specific projects.
Between 2007 and 2014, she ran a contemporary art gallery out of the garage on her property in Miami's El Portal neighborhood, where she showed artists such as Jen Stark, Farley Aguilar, David Rohn, Shoshanna Weinberger and Ronny Quevedo, among others. Her previous creative incarnation was as a clothing designer under the label Chains Addiction. Her work is part of the collections of the Miami-Dade Public Library, Miami International Airport, Related Group, Girl’s Club and other private collections.
Juan Sebastian Restrepo
Exhibitions Support
Juan Sebastian Restrepo is an artist currently based in Florida. Sebastian employs a figurative language mainly using painting and drawing to depict major life events while exploring his intersectionality. He received his MFA in Painting from Southern Illinois University Edwardsville and a BFA in Painting from Pratt Institute. Sebastian has exhibited his work in different organizations throughout the US, most recently in the New World Gallery, New World School of the Arts, "intersections'' (2023); Edwardsville Arts Center, Edwardsville, IL, “Hybridity" (2018); Coral Springs Museum of Art, Coral Springs, FL, “Empty Walls'' (2024). And has been published in numerous journals, such as Quibble Lit: Issue 12, Red Cedar Review: Issue 59.1, Salmon Creek Journal: Growing Pains, and countless others. Also, he currently works as a Visiting Artist in collaboARTive, and Faculty Adjunct in Florida International University and Miami Dade College Kendall Campus.
Maria Patiño
Hosting Support
Maria Patiño was born in El Cairo Valle, a remote village located in the Andes mountains in Colombia. She has lived in New York, Texas, and Miami. Patiño received her BFA at School of Visual Arts, NYC and is pursuing her MFA from SCAD in Savannah, GA. A prolific and talented multimedia artist, Patiño works from her art studio located in Little Havana, Miami FL.