ART: By Any Means Necessary comes to Miami
Film Director Rachelle Salnave Concludes Miami Chapter of Documentary Campaign at Bakehouse Art Complex
Film director and impact producer Rachelle Salnave recently hosted an artist workshop at Bakehouse Art Complex in June 2025, marking a significant milestone in her documentary project "ART: By Any Means Necessary".
In an email follow-up, Rachelle explains, “This project—this campaign—was never meant to be easy. It was meant to be honest. It was meant to be urgent. It was meant to be necessary.”
Over the past few months, Salnave has moved through Haiti, Guadeloupe, and now Miami—not just filming, but listening. Holding space. Uplifting the voices of artists, cultural leaders, and everyday citizens who understand the sacredness of creative space.
Through her work, she has asked questions about freedom. About art in a time of war and the crossroads of an independent Guadeloupe. She has explored censorship and who gets to create, and who gets to claim space. And she has done all of this with one intention: to protect our spaces.
When Malcolm X coined the phrase that Black people should protect themselves by any means necessary, Salnave titled her documentary with this understanding: that art is not a luxury—art is a right. And the spaces that hold art—church basements, street corners, performance halls, and pop-ups—are battlegrounds of resistance and beauty. They deserve preservation. They deserve policy. They deserve funding.
The artist workshop at Bakehouse Art Complex marked the final portion of the Miami chapter of this campaign, but it is by no means the end. This is only the beginning of the report, the policy conversations, and the art that will ripple outward.
As an artist and co-founder of collaboARTive, I was invited to participate in the Miami artist workshop. I found the experience transformative. Seeing the film and meeting some of the artists from Guadeloupe and Haiti was powerful and made me realize just how important what we as artists do for society. The artists of Guadeloupe have taken hold of an abandoned cultural center in the heart of their capital. Imagine Adrienne Arsht Center gutted and empty—abandoned because the funding was stolen from corrupt government officials.
As I reflect on the experience, I believe my observations underscore the film's urgent message about the fragility of cultural institutions. We take for granted the funding support that many of us receive—and now, the current administration appears to be moving in the direction of corruption and dictatorship. Shutting down the arts, education, and science to fund agendas that support billionaires and warfare have already negatively impacted our community here in Miami-Dade County.
The documentary, which follows the resistance of two art institutions in the Caribbean, resonates deeply with Miami's artistic community as they witness similar threats to cultural funding and creative freedom.
I encourage you to watch the film trailer, ART: By Any Means Necessary and let me know your thoughts. Artists have the power to transform—and together we can keep creativity flowing.
Salnave is preparing to return to Guadeloupe and Haiti, to finish what she started and share what she's learned. The film, which has been featured at Third Horizon Film Festival and includes an official trailer, continues to spark conversations about artistic freedom and the preservation of creative spaces worldwide. I plan to keep in contact with Rachelle and the community of artists she has called together, and will continue to share my experience with those in my own community.
Source: Email Newsletter for ART: By Any Means Necessary by Rachelle Salnave
