Reginald O'Neal: Remembering Rainbow Village

How do we remember home?

Artist Reginald O’Neal’s childhood home in the historically Black neighborhood of Overtown—specifically, the Rainbow Village housing development—is being torn down to make way for something new. Painting from a place deeply connected to his roots while simultaneously navigating an art world on shifting ground, O’Neal’s work reminds us that we are all, in very different ways, grappling with change and uncertainty.

In our first-ever community commission, we’re honored to present Reginald O’Neal: Remembering Rainbow Village — a meaningful intervention in art ownership and collective memory. In this rare opportunity, when folks collect a work, a second edition is offered to a former resident of O’Neal’s Rainbow Village community. Not only does this model disrupt notions of traditional art ownership, but it also creates an opportunity for the people of Overtown, for our shared communities, and for each one of us to be stewards of the artist’s practice.

If all of us, and not just a handful, become the memory keepers of our own stories through collecting art, we see a future twenty years from now where works by O’Neal will be present in both our flagship museums and on our living room walls. They will say, “A generation of locals came together to uplift the work of Miami artists reflecting on the many stories of their communities.”

Where we fell in love,
a film by Margo Hannah & Terence Price II

Edited by Margo Hannah & Terence Price II
Poem by Reginald O’Neal
DP & sound: Terence Price II 
Actors: Surzelle Bertrand, Nathaniel Watkins, T'Liyah Rollins, Kawhi Auguste, and Reginald O'Neal