Overtown Performing Arts Takes Center Stage In Re-Emerging, Vibrant Overtown Community
Entertainment marketing powerhouse Circle of One Marketing tapped to manage The OPAC
MIAMI – Once home to the Ebenezer Baptist Church of Overtown, Miami, the new Overtown Performing Arts Center (OPAC) has been remodeled and repurposed to suit the needs of a historic community that has seen an influx of new businesses, new excitement and local and national attention.
The 2000 square foot) OPAC is one more step in the evolution of Overtown to a flourishing, culturally exciting eco-system adjacent to Miami’s ritzy financial district to the south, Wynwood, the edgy hip art mecca just blocks north and the jewel of Miami’s art and culture scene, Museum Park to the East, overlooking the Biscayne Bay.
The Overtown Performing Arts Center sits strategically in the middle of the curious confluence of authentically complex local communities working to re-shape the narrative of Miami’s urban areas.
The South East Overtown Park West Community Redevelopment Agency (SEOPW), led by City of Miami Commission Chairman Keon Hardemon, is working to turn the largely African American neighborhood into a vibrant live/work/play community that is safe for families, attractive to millennials, supportive of local entrepreneurship, inclusive of arts, entertainment and food, but most importantly a hub for economic empowerment for local residents.
“The arts continue to play a vital role in the revitalization of Overtown. The opening of the Overtown Performing Arts Center (OPAC) provides the community with additional space to showcase its talents” said Chairman Hardemon.
The SEOPW has selected entertainment marketing powerhouse Circle of One Marketing as Venue Management for the OPAC to exclusively operate, program and promote the facility while introducing the full range of its use to the community.
Circle of One Marketing is most widely known for branding the wildly successful Jazz in the Gardens brand, the fastest growing jazz/R&B festival in America for the City of Miami Gardens. The #CircleGladiators took the first-year festival from 8 tickets sold (yes, 8) to 1500 in 2006 to more than 70,000 for its 10th year in 2015.
The Circle handles marketing and brand strategy, public relations, social media, media partnerships, guerilla marketing, and word of mouth marketing the world over. “The Circle” is also home to other high profile national brands like OneUnited Bank, Related Urban Development Group and Harry Belafonte’s Many Rivers to Cross Festival.
“The #CircleGladiators are thrilled to present Miami’s entertainment offerings through the lens and on stage at the OPAC, a truly magical venue that echoes of good times in Overtown’s heyday as a hot entertainment destination for African-Americans” says Suzan McDowell, Founder, Circle of One Marketing & Executive Director of The Overtown Performing Arts Center, “today we want to welcome all to support the OPAC in “bringing the magic back to Overtown”.”
OPAC offers all the features of a Performing Arts Center without the need for large capacity or large budgets.
This “small but big” venue is ideal for any event from corporate meetings to intimate concert performances to a dinner theater, to music, movie or fashion shoots or movie, to an all-in-one wedding location to a pop up art gallery to a home for an extraordinary church service.
Additionally, a highly marketable OPAC offering is its newly minted large state of the art culinary kitchen, which is available for rental by select caterers for commercial use.
