Continuing the art scene just off the Dixie Highway Corridor is PB County’s newest Art Collective, The Peach. Carved out of a warehouse block with an old wooden storage building, SubCulture Group’s Rodney Mayo has created an inclusive, free form space that holds monthly art walk weekends, live entertainment, creative vendors, open art studios, and Troy’s BBQ.
An open space courtyard holds seesaw art, a room for vendors, and a covered stage area, there will also be educational and community events. A 4-foot high neon peach sign illuminates the site.
Right now, the warehouse spaces are cleaned up, air-conditioned, and filled with an unusual variety of artist spaces. Former WPB Magazine cover boy Craig McInnis is the manager of The Peach’s cooperative with six units and space for 12 artist studios.
McInnis and Mayo are hoping The Peach will be a regular source of community entertainment with two-night weekend art walks, DJs and vendors, and guest artists and bands performing on non-art-walk weekends. The artist tenants of The Peach will host regular educational components, workshops, and classes.
The third location of Troy’s BBQ, Troy Davis’ acclaimed barbecue restaurant – also in Boynton Beach and Boca Raton – has opened in a renovated wooden building with indoor and outdoor dining and a bar. Troy’s provided free meals for thousands of newly laid-off restaurant workers during the height of the pandemic last year.
Opening weekend found a three-day blowout with live music by Matt Brown, Derek Mack Band, food, drinks, DJ Bo Weezy, art, and more. We lined up with the other fest-goers for a taste. Choosing between the pulled pork, brisket, and the chicken was difficult, especially after seeing – and smelling – the juicy BBQ being made right next door in the giant smoker. We got the pulled pork sandwich, made on a light fluffy bun, doused with spicy sauce. A side of house-made coleslaw and lemonade completed the meal, though the chess pie and banana pudding looked awfully tempting.
“First, get the fire just right. You don’t want a flame — no flames, just smoke. Get good ribs. I use three-and-a-half-down spareribs,” Troy Davis, the pit-boss and owner of Troy’s BBQ, referring to a butcher’s designation of size. “These are most recognizable as a St. Louis-style sparerib, preferred to baby backs for long and slow cooking.”
As for the wood, Davis says: “I use a combination of charcoal and oak. I don’t have a thermometer on the big smoker outside. You do it a while and you know the heat’s right. I keep it at around 350, 375; a normal heat, with vents in the smoker. And I cook with the hood down to keep the smoke in and keep the meat tender and falling off the bone.”
A SubCulture coffee booth fueled the rest of the afternoon while grooving to the sounds of another WPB Magazine cover boy Matt Brown. A full lineup with horns and percussion kept the beat going all afternoon despite the heat.
One of the art spaces is Blink Studios, run by Gina and Michaela Kyle.
Gina is a self-trained artist who creates large scaled artworks of several disciplines. Michaela Kyle, an active member of the South Florida art community since 2008, is also self-taught, her illustrations and paintings are inspired by the inner world using graphite and ink drawings, and richly colored paintings.
At the Mind Like Sky Studio, Alex Powers, an avid fisherman, creates artwork inspired by the sea. Now a Florida resident, he is looking forward to creating new work at the Peach.
Craig McInnis’s new studio is clean and spacious, with clothing and art supplies added to the artwork for sale. Pulling out of Northwood, he now manages The Peach. In addition to his full-time art career, he also runs the annual Fright Night at South Florida Fairgrounds which returns this year to give us all a scare.
Alex Lorenzo, a West Palm Beach native is the president of ALL AXIS Studios. His career spans over three decades acting as both a designer and educator who specializes in Computer-Aided Design and 3D technology including 3D printing.
At Art of Recovery, Manny Mendez runs art programs for ex-convicts and those in recovery. Mendez was born in Cuba and migrated to the US in 1980 at 9 yrs old. “I adapted well for the first few years until I hit my teens, says Mendez. “Then a shift took place for the worst and I became a troubled youth, I found myself in juvenile programs and detention centers a lot. It was there that I got close to art, just drawing!”
Next door, Ates Isildak uses short films, music videos, and photography, to create a safe space and medium in which marginalized communities can exuberantly express themselves.
As a new community space, The Peach is providing a cool new hang for art, music, food, and creativity. Take a bite.
Online at: ThePeachwpb.com
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The Peach, a new Art Collective in West Palm Beach
