SPRING 2026 Ransom Everglades LOG 15 other ultra-contemporary artists, and the Art of Hip Hop, a separate museum that tells the story of the photographers, videographers, graffiti artists and visual creators behind hip hop’s iconic aesthetics. The goal for all of these spaces is to be community-driven and communityresponsive. For example, Freidin said, “We believe in the democratization of graffiti and street art, and so we do many murals on the outside of buildings by world-renowned artists that are really intended to be public.” Freidin’s dedication to protecting and democratizing the art she loves is not accidental, nor did it begin with the legendary 2019 Art Basel launch party where she and Ket introduced the Museum of Graffiti to the world. Years before the museum was even an idea, Freidin had already begun getting involved more deeply in the Wynwood art community by using her legal skills to represent artists on a pro bono basis. She did so out of a sense of justice for local artists who, because they made their art in the street, were being scorned or unrecognized in their capacity as artists. It was through this work that Freidin first gained the trust of the Miami artist community (and met her co-founder, Ket). The more Freidin became embedded in the art world, the more she found herself looking for a space beyond the courtroom through which to celebrate and support the street artists whose work she so admired. She soon realized that what Wynwood was sorely lacking was a hub dedicated to educating people about street art and graffiti. Ket, a graffiti expert temporarily in Miami for Art Basel in 2017, agreed. It was their shared vision of street art education, exhibition and preservation that culminated in the Museum of Graffiti. Even today, Freidin dedicates her time to pro bono work defending graffiti artists whose work is used in advertisements without permission, for example, or who face vandalism charges and arrests for making urban art in the very neighborhoods that then capitalize on their creations, like Wynwood. Recently, she won a case for an artist Freidin argued was unjustly arrested for using a stencil on a Wynwood sidewalk. “If you look outside at the walls, they’re all art-covered, and with fewer walls in Wynwood, artists have taken to sidewalks. It’s one of the most expensive neighborhoods [in Miami], and that’s based on the graffiti artists,” she explained to me. “You can’t have it both ways.” “What Wynwood was in 2005 is different from what it was in 2015, and very different from what it is in 2025.” – Allison Freidin ’03 Museum of Graffiti restroom Preparing for the opening of the Museum of Graffiti
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