ABOUT THE CENTER AND THE KAGEY HOME
About the Center
The Art and Culture Center/Hollywood is considered a leader among South Florida multidisciplinary cultural organizations for its presentation of contemporary gallery exhibitions, arts education for youth, and award-winning documentary film shorts. The Center’s mission is to cultivate creativity and the support of the arts in our community through education, innovation, and collaboration. The Center was founded in 1975 as the only visual arts nonprofit in south Broward County, operating out of a small community space on Hollywood beach. We now manage visual arts galleries in the renovated Kagey Home built in 1924, an Arts School that is adjacent to the main facility, and the 500-seat Hollywood Central Performing Arts Center located near downtown Hollywood. The Center impacts about 40,000 people each year through its programs and facilities. In 2019, the Center was allocated $2.5 million in City funds towards its Arts Ignite! building initiative as part of a General Obligation Bond referendum that was approved by Hollywood voters. These funds will support the City’s expansion of our facilities with the construction, in 2024, of a modern 5,000-square-feet Arts Education Wing that will adjoin the 1924 Mediterranean Revival architecture of the Kagey galleries and offices.
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The Center has presented originally curated gallery exhibitions featuring South Florida and national artists throughout its nearly 50-year history. Each year, 125+ artists representing a range of backgrounds and artistic media exhibit in our first-floor galleries. We collaborate with leading curators in Florida and such partnering entities as the South Florida Cultural Consortium, Miami-based Oolite Arts, and City of Hollywood to create innovative gallery shows and public-art projects. In 2023, the Center partnered with the City’s Community Redevelopment Agency on its Downtown Mural Project to create a new public mural on the west façade of our Arts School building. We are a three-time host organization, in 2011, 2017 and 2023, for the prestigious South Florida Cultural Consortium Fellowship Program. In 2024, the Center will collaborate for the first time with the Atlanta-based nonprofit South Arts to present its annual Southern Prize exhibition featuring fellowship winners from its nine-state Southeast region.
The Center annually presents up to 10 standards-based, multi-disciplinary arts education programs for youth that link curricula to other core subjects, such as math, science, literacy, and cultural studies. This shows students, from pre-K to high school, how the visual and performing arts may inform all facets of learning. Programs include Summer Arts Camp, the leadership development program Arts Aspire, Free Arts! Family Days, the Distance Learning Studio, Stage Kids, ENCORE!, ARTastic Artists, and Early Voices Collaborative Exhibitions. In 2016, the Center received an ArtsEd Forever! award from the Broward Cultural Division for Exceptional Service & Outstanding Contributions to Arts Education in Broward County.
In 2020, the Center launched its award-winning Open Dialogues film series to promote acceptance and inclusion in our community through documentary film shorts and other programming. The Open Dialogues films Black Voices | Black Stories, Queer Allies, Stories From the LGBTQ Community, and Gen QueerZ capture the personal narratives and artistic performances of South Florida residents who have been marginalized based on race and/or gender. Open Dialogues films have been screened with discussions hosted by nonprofits, faith leaders, HR departments, street fairs, schools, chamber of commerce groups, and numerous film festivals, among others.
Black Voices | Black Stories received a 2023 Suncoast Regional Emmy Award in the Diversity/Equity/Inclusion – Long Form category and a Silver Award Winner for Social Justice Film at the 2023 Telly Awards after airing on South Florida PBS and PBS stations nationwide. Queer Allies was honored with a Gold Telly Award for Social Impact in 2024.
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Through its programs and facilities, the Center fosters a creative environment where new and challenging work can flourish through exhibitions, films, and art-making activities that reflect the highest standards of artistry and diversity.
Mission
The Art and Culture Center/Hollywood cultivates creativity and the support of the arts in our community through education, innovation, and collaboration.
Core Values
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Creativity
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Education
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Innovation
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Collaboration
The Home of the
Art and Culture Center/Hollywood
The Art and Culture Center/Hollywood is located in what was originally the home of Mr. and Mrs. Jack Kagey, a founding family in Hollywood. The home was built in 1924 and is a beautiful example of Mediterranean Revival architecture. It is one of Hollywood’s first show-place homes and was completed a year before the City of Hollywood was incorporated.
Jack Kagey was the sales manager of Joseph W. Young’s Hollywood Land and Water Company. He earned the seed money to build the home by winning a contest held by Young for his salesmen during the height of the 1920s real estate boom. The Kageys were in the home for just two years when, in September 1926, the structure withstood a devastating hurricane that ended the land boom. Some of the special features of the Kagey home are the Batchelder tiles in the fountain in the main gallery, a central tower, the hip roof with Spanish clay tiles, the second floor balcony with Norman double arches, a balconette, and a rough stucco wall finish.
It continued to be used as a private residence until 1960, when it was converted into a funeral home and doubled in size to 12,000 square feet. The expansion included the addition of a chapel along the east side, which later became the Center’s main gallery. Many of the home’s original features from the 1920s are retained, such as the glass doorknobs, wrought-iron railings, tiles on the second-floor balcony, wood moldings and floors, and arches. In January 1990, the property was purchased by the City of Hollywood to become the new home of the Art and Culture Center/Hollywood, which was previously located in a building on Hollywood Beach. The home was renovated with private and historical grant monies and opened on February 2, 1992.
The Art and Culture Center/Hollywood now serves as a cultural landmark for both its original multi-disciplinary programming and for the distinctive character of the structure. In 2008, the Broward Trust for Historic Preservation honored the Art and Culture Center/Hollywood for its stewardship of the Kagey mansion. The building is currently designated by the State of Florida as a significant historical structure and is forever to be held for public enjoyment by city government.