The Studios of Key West

[3] After a total renovation, the building now includes Key West's largest exhibition space dedicated to contemporary art, a full bar, a box office/information center, a 200-seat auditorium, nine artists' studios, and two classrooms (Filosa).

In 2019 The Studios acquired the historic guesthouse featuring a spacious courtyard and treehouse adjacent to the Eaton Street facility to be the home for Artists in Residence.

From hundreds of applications per year, up to 40 artists working in the literary, visual, and performing arts are selected by jury to spend a month drawing inspiration from the colorful sights, fascinating people, and remarkable culture of the island.

Each year between October and July, The Studios of Key West offers weekly classes, workshops, and longer-term courses that cater to island residents and visitors.

Past performances have included Peter Mayer, Emily Saliers, Livingston Taylor, Noel Paul Stookey, Carrie Newcomer, and Ben Harrison.

Highlights have included the following: Tonya Pinkins (Jelly’s Last Jam, Tony award) presented a workshop reading of her new play with a cast from New York, Charlottesville, and Key West; Tony Shalhoub, Marisa Tomei, Alyssa Milano, Joy Behar, Judith Light, Michael R. Jackson, and many others participated in Between Two Palms, a series of 44 one-hour streaming conversations with artists; Michael Urie (Ugly Betty), Ann Harada (Avenue Q original cast), Constance Shulman (Orange is the New Black), and Colby Lewis performed in Smithtown, a streaming play reviewed by the New York Times and The New Yorker; Blake Hunter (writer/producer, Who’s the Boss, WKRP in Cincinnati) wrote and staged a full-length musical; Mark Campbell (Pulitzer Award, Stonewall) co-presented an evening of original American opera shorts; Norbert Leo Butz (2-time Tony winner, Bloodline, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Catch Me If You Can) performed a benefit show for hurricane victims; Dave Barry (humorist), Mike Peters and Mike Luckovich (cartoonists), who share 4 Pulitzers between them, lectured on politics and humor.

For example, it recently hosted American newspaper columnist and former assistant managing editor of The Washington Post Eugene Robinson and Pulitzer Prize for Drama winner Ayad Akhtar.

Also, The Studios is proudly home to the Key West High School's Drama Club, hosting regular rehearsals as well as their spectacular Spring Musical and Holiday Review.

Hugh’s View sits on the roof of The Studios main building offering panoramic vistas across the rooftops of Old Town, from the Gulf of Mexico on one side to the Atlantic on the other.

An almost annual event, the studio tours are organized around different locations and an ever-changing variety of Key West artists including wood workers, welders, potters, jewelry makers, painters, and more.

Founding executive director Eric Holowacz was installed in early 2007 and was responsible for developing and implementing a strategic plan and building the organisation, programming, partnerships, community engagement ethic, and brand from the ground up.