Meet the Art Collectors Looking to Add Miami Flair to D.C.

In 1993, Don and Mera Rubell housed the Rubell Family Collection in a former Drug Enforcement Agency confiscated goods facility in a run-down Miami neighborhood. The RFC is now one of the biggest privately owned contemporary art collections in Miami, and is surrounded by a bustling neighborhood filled with color, murals and local vendors. Nine years ago, the Rubells purchased a Best Western by the highway in southwest D.C., which now shines as the Capitol Skyline Hotel and features a lobby full of contemporary art.

If their past endeavors have been a testament to their burgeoning spirit, then the Rubells’ next venture should be no less successful. In an effort to preserve a historic building in D.C., Don and Mera bought Randall Junior High School on southwest I St., a school that closed in 1978 and then became a homeless shelter and studio for artists. The building’s future rests in its repurposing into a mixed-use hotel complex and satellite museum for the Rubell Family Collection.

Twenty percent of the project’s square footage will be reserved for live/work spaces for artists and the rest will house the contemporary art museum. The couple’s collections are known for bringing new and global artists to the limelight, which is what they plan to showcase with their new D.C. project. As active travelers who frequently jet set to meet with artists, the Rubells can be found visiting rural towns to discover artists, or keeping an eye out for alleyways in not-so-popular parts of D.C.

The Rubell family’s urban-renewal efforts aided Miami in the creation of Wynwood, the neighborhood that’s now the heart of Miami’s art scene. The couple’s success in converting the neighborhood into a cultural hub also led to the success of Art Basel, a yearly international art fair that draws thousands of art collectors from all over the world. Now, the couple hopes to bring this active art scene engagement into D.C.

In a city where young people are surrounded by traditional art museums, the Rubell family is interested in adding a provocative flair to the District’s more conservative artistic culture. With its location in the southwest part of D.C., the Rubells’ project will add to the regeneration of the area, hoping to be a boon for the community in a cultural and fiscal sense. As a family that’s proven its knack for finding potential in areas where others don’t, the Rubell family is presenting D.C. with the potential for transforming the average community into a cultural mecca.

To get a glimpse of some of the Rubell family’s work, you can visit the National Museum of Women in the Arts (NMWA) to see their current exhibit, NO MAN’S LAND: Women Artists from the Rubell Family Collection.