When you walk into your first museum exhibition, you’re expecting to stay for maybe ten minutes. You’re not sure what you’re supposed to do, or if you’re even allowed to ask questions, but then you find yourself standing still in front of one piece longer than you expected, watching how the surface changes as you move.
Then you overhear the artist talking with someone about their work in a way you understand, about what they noticed, what they tried, what they kept, and what they scrubbed away and rebuilt. That’s when the so-called “art world” ceases to feel like something intangible and more like a community you belong to.
The local art community is one of the most accessible groups you can join. In many ways, it is simply a group of people coming together to create and share art with their neighbors. Supporting local artists goes beyond buying local art. It means supporting your community of creatives in Florida so they can continue making fantastic work.
Understanding the effort required to create art is the first step in supporting local artists. Florida Prize winner Nathalie Alfonso muses on the hidden cost of art in her 87 ft wide by 17 ft high gallery wall, LineScape-Onset, “Visitors have no idea how to encounter a piece like this…they don’t necessarily know the physical labor that went behind every single stroke of my hand.”
This article offers ideas for supporting artists in Orlando and across Central Florida. There are several simple and realistic ways that you can support Florida artists, even if you don’t have any money to contribute right now.
That’s the heart of supporting local artists. It isn’t only about individual transactions or whether you buy local art. It’s about helping create a thriving creative community where artists based in Florida can keep making work, keep taking risks, and keep showing us new ways to see the place we live.
Supporting Local Artists Strengthens Communities
There are many benefits to supporting local artists, and these have a ripple effect throughout the art community. A few of the main benefits of supporting local artists include:
- Economic impact: Buying from local artists strengthens the local creative economy by attracting cultural tourism and circulating money through small businesses, including framing companies, printers, fabricators, photographers, and installers.
- Cultural vitality: Supporting local artists helps preserve the neighborhood’s unique cultural identity. The Florida-based artists you support can create work that reflects your community’s environment, history, and diverse voices.
- Social fabric: When you support local artists, you gain opportunities to connect with your community and engage with people from different backgrounds. Attending gallery openings, artist talks, or workshops provides an easy way to make new connections.
- Creative ecosystem: A strong artistic community offers opportunities for everyone from students to established creatives, fostering a rich environment for creativity and ensuring the local art scene has a future.
- Personal connection: Getting to know the artist behind a piece adds to its meaning and value. Supporting local artists allows you to attend their events or collaborate with them, leading to work with a stronger impact because of their personal connection.
These benefits are just a few reasons why you should support local artists. There are many ways to get involved and make a difference in your community, regardless of whether you’re an artist yourself. You don’t have to spend a lot to make an impact; you just have to start somewhere.
Beyond Buying: Ways Anyone Can Support Local Artists
Buying an artist’s work is only one of many ways to support them. If you’d like to support local artists but aren’t in a place financially where you can buy their artwork, your attention and advocacy still matter. Support can take many forms: choose what works best for you in terms of budget, comfort level, and lifestyle, then branch out.
No or Low Cost Options
There are many ways to support emerging and working artists without spending any money. Consistency and sincerity matter here; keep showing up, keep paying attention, and help the artists reach the right audiences.
- Attend exhibitions and opening receptions when you can. Your presence makes a difference for local artists in the community.
- Follow artists on social media and engage with their work by leaving thoughtful comments and starting a discussion.
- Share artists’ posts and exhibition announcements with your network, including easy directions on where and how to attend.
- Attend artist talks, panel discussions, and public programs at local art venues and museums.
- Recommend artists to your friends, colleagues, or organizations in need of creative services.
- If you have an online platform, write a review or a short feature, and use your own language and curiosity instead of “art world” jargon.
- Volunteer at art organizations and artist-run spaces when you can.
If you do only one of the above, do this: show up. Artists will remember who keeps showing up to their exhibitions, who asks questions, and who is thoughtful enough to share their work.
Medium Commitment
If you want to go a bit further, you can support artists in ways that are feasible for your circumstances. These more accessible options lower the barrier to entry for art collecting and are ideal for first-time buyers.
- Buy prints, small works, or art objects that resonate with your home and budget.
- Commission work, even if it’s a small one, whether it is a drawing, a portrait, a design job, or a site-specific piece.
- Become a member of museums and galleries that support local artists, so they can sustain year-round programming and visibility.
- Gift local art or museum memberships to friends and family for birthdays, graduations, weddings, and housewarming gifts.
- Attend fundraisers and benefit sales when you’re able, especially if they directly support artists and art programming.
- Subscribe to artist newsletters or Patreon to stay connected if that model works for you.
If you’re nervous about buying, follow your taste. You can’t get it “wrong.” Choose work that you want to be around and keep returning to.
Organizational/Community Support
Support also involves making the community more welcoming for artists. This type of support can take the form of advocacy, partnership, and inviting artists into spaces where their work can benefit others.
- Advocate for public art, arts education, and artist funding where you live and work.
- Hire artists for projects (murals, events, design work, or workshops), and pay them well for their time and expertise.
- Partner with artists for community projects that connect people around a common cause.
- Invite artists to speak at schools, libraries, neighborhood associations, and workplaces to connect art with everyday life.
- Volunteer at your local museum when possible. You can find available volunteer positions on OMA’s volunteer page.
If you want to support art at the state level, explore Florida’s cultural resources, such as the United Arts Collaborative Campaign and grant programs. You don’t need to be an arts administrator to expand your support for local artists across the state. Researching these resources can show you why ongoing support is so important.
Florida Prize and Discovering Emerging Artists
One of the most immediate ways OMA supports artists living and working in the state is through the Florida Prize in Contemporary Art. Each year, the exhibition features 10 of the most progressive and exciting artists working in Florida today, with substantial juried and people’s choice awards.
The program demonstrates how linking artists with audiences drives visibility, validation, professional development, and community building, inspiring new artists year after year. Initiatives like the Florida Prize are crucial because they invite artists at all stages of their careers to be presented side by side.
Over the years, artists have entered the fray with impressive accolades, exhibition history, and audience engagement. Others are just on the verge, building that audience, exploring what’s possible, taking risks. They all remind us that “local” does not mean small; it means rooted in culture, and often, rigorously experimental.
Nathalie Alfonso’s Florida Prize-winning work is one example that connects endurance, labor, and landscape art in a way that feels both intimate and monumental. In LineScape-Onset, each line reinforces the power of commitment, the ability to see something through, and the brilliance of art that makes time for what others overlook and what might otherwise be lost forever.
For audiences, the Florida Prize is an opportunity to engage with cutting-edge contemporary work by emerging and established Florida artists and to start asking questions. It’s a time to broaden your understanding of what contemporary art can be.
Beyond the exhibition itself, OMA’s programming around the Florida Prize helps make that connection, supporting artists through programming, education, and professional development. Talks, events, and learning opportunities help you connect and stay connected to artists and ideas.
Where to Find and Connect with Local Artists in Orlando
If you’re new to Orlando, newly curious about art, or just ready to engage with the artists who make work in our community, the challenge is often knowing where to begin. Here are some low-barrier ways to begin to find and engage with Orlando and Central Florida artists.
- Museums and exhibitions: Museums offer a low-pressure place to start as they provide context, interpretation, and learning opportunities. Many OMA exhibitions feature Florida artists and are a great place to find art that resonates with you.
- Local galleries: Unlike museums, which focus on preservation and education, galleries tend to be more commercial, where you can shop for art that you want to see hung in your home. A local gallery is a great place to support your favorite local artists financially.
- Artist studios and collectives: There are working studios, artist residences, and collectives around Orlando that artists use to create and present work-in-progress, such as McRae Studios, Faith Arts Village, and the Art & History Museums of Maitland.
- Art festivals and markets: Orlando has a robust festival and market circuit, including the Winter Park Art Festival and Indie-Folkfest. These events are some of the easiest ways to meet artists, ask questions, and begin collecting smaller works.
- Social media and local hashtags: Many artists share what’s available, what’s coming up, and what they are working on over social media, especially on Instagram and community pages. Follow your favorite artists using local art hashtags.
- Websites and portfolios: Many artists have personal sites, newsletters, and shops that make discovery possible outside of galleries.
- Community events and public programs: OMA’s upcoming events, such as opening receptions, Art After Dark, educational talks, and other programs, can be great on-ramps to the art world because they give you a built-in reason to participate.
One example of how museums offer platforms for artists is the Echoes of the Ancient in Contemporary Voices exhibition. OMA introduces one artist’s work at a time, alongside pieces in our collection, curating a dialogue between contemporary artists and past ancient traditions.
Echoes is an exhibition designed as an ongoing conversation. Each month, it introduces new artists and their works. It can also serve as a reminder that discovering art doesn’t have to happen on your first visit. Every time you return, there’s always something new to uncover.
Starting Your Own Support Practice
If this list feels like a lot, that’s okay. You don’t have to do everything to make an impact. Pick one thing that feels manageable. Attend one opening, follow a few local artists, share an exhibition announcement with a friend, or purchase a print that brings you joy.
Support means different things to different people at different times. Sometimes you may want to show up for events, and sometimes you’d rather learn on your own. Some people prefer collecting or commissioning, and others would rather volunteer and advocate. The important part is discovering how you want to show up for the local artists in your community.
If you would like a straightforward starting point for supporting local artists, begin with OMA. Plan your visit, discover current exhibitions, and explore the events calendar. Allow OMA to be your launching pad for local art appreciation, then venture forth into the wider world of Florida artists.
