Zero Empty Spaces Podcast

In this episode of the Zero Empty Spaces Podcast, we sit down with Cara Houser, CEO of the Downtown Berkeley Association, at Zero Empty Spaces Berkeley at 2036 Shattuck Avenue to explore the role of creativity, community, and collaboration in bringing new life to downtown.

Cara began as CEO of the Downtown Berkeley Association in August 2026, succeeding John Caner after his 17 years of leadership. A UC Berkeley alum, author, and speaker, she brings 20 years of experience in Bay Area real estate and community development, including helping deliver 3,000 homes. Her work connects the places we build with the communities and people they serve.

In this conversation, we explore downtown revitalization, activating vacant storefronts, and the role of placemaking in creating welcoming, connected communities. We discuss the Zero Empty Spaces Berkeley partnership and how affordable working artist studios can bring creative activity into underutilized commercial space, support local artists, and give people new reasons to visit and spend time downtown.

Guest: Cara Houser, CEO of the Downtown Berkeley Association
Location: Zero Empty Spaces Berkeley, 2036 Shattuck Avenue, Berkeley, California

Join us for the Zero Empty Spaces Berkeley Grand Opening on Saturday, November 7, 2026, from 5 to 8 PM! Meet the artists, explore the studios, and celebrate with a ribbon cutting.
RSVP: https://zes-berkeley-grandopening.eventbrite.com

About Zero Empty Spaces Berkeley: Our first California location brings affordable working artist studios and an arts marketplace to the former Half Price Books storefront at 2036 Shattuck Avenue, in the heart of Downtown Berkeley. Visitors can meet local artists, see work in progress, and buy directly from the people who make it, with artists keeping 100% of their sales. Zero Empty Spaces Berkeley is made possible with support from Visit Berkeley, the Downtown Berkeley Association, the City of Berkeley, and Gordon Commercial Real Estate Services. Artists interested in a studio can apply at www.zeartistspaces.com/rentspace

At Zero Empty Spaces, we are dedicated to transforming vacant commercial real estate into working artist studios that serve as vibrant hubs for creativity and community engagement. We activate these spaces where artists can create and collaborate at an affordable price while having the ability to be discovered and sell artwork out of their studio. Our innovative approach addresses the challenge of urban blight and retail vacancies by temporarily occupying unused spaces until permanent tenants are secured by property owners.

Through this model, we breathe fresh life into new and neglected areas, fostering artistic expression and economic revitalization. All with the goal of expanding the appreciation of various genres of visual art and helping to create a thriving cultural community in more cities across the world. Current locations include Berkeley (CA), Minneapolis (MN), Richmond (VA), and St. Petersburg, Jensen Beach, Hallandale Beach, Dania Beach, and Boca Raton (FL), with more coming soon!

For More Information Log On To www.zeroemptyspaces.com Or E-mail [email protected]

#Podcast #ZeroEmptySpacesPodcast #UniteUsGroup #ZeroEmptySpaces #Berkeley #DowntownBerkeley #California #CaraHouser #Placemaking #DowntownRevitalization

In this episode of the Zero Empty Spaces Podcast, we sit down with Pua Owan, a Berkeley-based mixed media artist and one of the first artists to join Zero Empty Spaces Berkeley at 2036 Shattuck Avenue.

Raised on the island of Oʻahu, Pua draws inspiration from Nature and the Creative Spirit, creating work charged with what Pua calls "raw Big Bang energy": an explosion of color, movement, density, expansiveness, and rhythmic patterns. Pua's practice moves between drawing, painting, and collage, pairing the transparency and fluidity of inks and watercolors with the precision and grit of colored pencils, markers, and wax and oil based crayons. When curiosity leans toward the representational, mixed-media collage becomes a kind of alchemy, combining found images from books and magazines in unexpected ways. Pua holds a BFA in Fine Art Drawing and Painting from Pratt Institute, with a minor in Art History.

In this conversation, Pua shares how growing up on Oʻahu shaped a lifelong relationship with creativity, how that energy finds its way into a finished piece, what collage makes possible that a single medium cannot, and what it means to have a dedicated studio to create in outside of the home.

Artist: Pua Owan
Location: Zero Empty Spaces Berkeley, 2036 Shattuck Avenue, Berkeley, California

About Zero Empty Spaces Berkeley: Our first California location brings affordable working artist studios and an arts marketplace to the former Half Price Books storefront at 2036 Shattuck Avenue, in the heart of Downtown Berkeley. Visitors can meet local artists, see work in progress, and buy directly from the people who make it, with artists keeping 100% of their sales. Zero Empty Spaces Berkeley is made possible with support from Visit Berkeley, the Downtown Berkeley Association, the City of Berkeley, and Gordon Commercial Real Estate Services. Artists interested in a studio can apply at www.zeartistspaces.com/rentspace

At Zero Empty Spaces, we are dedicated to transforming vacant commercial real estate into working artist studios that serve as vibrant hubs for creativity and community engagement. We activate these spaces where artists can create and collaborate at an affordable price while having the ability to be discovered and sell artwork out of their studio. Our innovative approach addresses the challenge of urban blight and retail vacancies by temporarily occupying unused spaces until permanent tenants are secured by property owners.

Through this model, we breathe fresh life into new and neglected areas, fostering artistic expression and economic revitalization. All with the goal of expanding the appreciation of various genres of visual art and helping to create a thriving cultural community in more cities across the world. Current locations include Berkeley (CA), Minneapolis (MN), Richmond (VA), and St. Petersburg, Jensen Beach, Hallandale Beach, Dania Beach, and Boca Raton (FL), with more coming soon!

For More Information Log On To www.zeroemptyspaces.com Or E-mail [email protected]

#Podcast #ZeroEmptySpacesPodcast #UniteUsGroup #ZeroEmptySpaces #Berkeley #DowntownBerkeley #California

In this episode of the Zero Empty Spaces Podcast, we sit down with Lisa Middag, an urban planner and the inaugural Senior Director for Economic Development for the Mpls Downtown Council and Mpls Downtown Improvement District. Lisa works at the intersection of economic development, creative placemaking, public-space activation, and community building—bringing together businesses, property owners, cultural organizations, artists, entrepreneurs, and civic partners to help shape a more vibrant and inclusive Downtown Minneapolis.

Lisa’s professional journey spans film production, a decade at the Walker Art Center, community development, wayfinding, placemaking, and downtown economic development. We explore how those experiences shaped her people-centered approach to revitalization, why successful placemaking must extend beyond one-time events, and how thoughtful partnerships can turn commercial vacancy into lasting opportunities for local artists, small businesses, and the broader community.

Through the Mpls Downtown Council and Mpls Downtown Improvement District, Lisa and her colleagues are doing important work to strengthen Downtown Minneapolis as a welcoming, connected, economically resilient destination. Their efforts support cleaner and safer streets, public-realm improvements, meaningful programming, business development, stakeholder collaboration, and a long-term vision for a downtown that serves residents, workers, visitors, entrepreneurs, and creatives alike.

That shared commitment to building a more active and accessible downtown helped bring Zero Empty Spaces to 815 Nicollet Mall. With support from the Mpls Downtown Improvement District and the City of Minneapolis, vacant commercial space was transformed into affordable working studios where local visual artists can create outside their homes, connect with one another, engage the public, and contribute new cultural energy to the heart of downtown.

We are proud to partner with Lisa and the Mpls Downtown Council and Downtown Improvement District. Their willingness to invest in artists, embrace creative approaches to vacancy, and build cross-sector partnerships demonstrates what can happen when downtown leadership views underutilized space not simply as a challenge, but as an opportunity to support people, culture, entrepreneurship, and community.

In this conversation, recorded in the studio of Zero Empty Spaces resident artist Marge Buckley, Lisa shares what Downtown Minneapolis has learned through changing patterns of office use, retail, street activity, and public perception—and why artists, small businesses, and unexpected human connections will be essential to shaping downtown’s next chapter.

Guest: Lisa Middag, EDFP, LPM
Organization: Mpls Downtown Council and Mpls Downtown Improvement District
Website: https://www.mplsdowntown.com
Instagram: @mplsdowntown
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lisa-middag-066b65b
Location: Zero Empty Spaces at 815 Nicollet Mall, Minneapolis, Minnesota

At Zero Empty Spaces, we are dedicated to transforming vacant commercial real estate into working artist studios that serve as vibrant hubs for creativity and community engagement. We activate these spaces where artists can create and collaborate at an affordable price while having the ability to be discovered and sell artwork out of their studio. Our innovative approach addresses the challenge of urban blight and retail vacancies by temporarily occupying unused spaces until permanent tenants are secured by property owners.

For More Information Log On To www.zeroemptyspaces.com Or E-mail [email protected]

#Podcast #ZeroEmptySpacesPodcast #UniteUsGroup #ZeroEmptySpaces

In this episode of the Zero Empty Spaces Podcast, we sit down with Marge J. Buckley, a Minneapolis-based painter, playwright, and founding artist at Zero Empty Spaces at 815 Nicollet Mall.

Marge’s multidisciplinary practice moves between painting, drawing, collage, theatrical design, and playwriting. Across these forms, she explores radical systemic change through experimentation, bold compositions, and community activation. Her visual artwork has appeared throughout the Twin Cities and Midwest, including her 2025 solo exhibition, Colorpilled, at Harper Steinbach Gallery and the 2026 group exhibition Carrying Each Other at Lanesboro Arts.

As a cofounder and Playwright-in-Residence of Commutator Collective, Marge also creates theatre that brings artists and audiences together through shared experiences. Her theatrical credits include Guillotine City, The Earth Room, Detective Chunk, and Wonderlust’s Hidden Herald. She was named a 2025–2026 McKnight Fellow in Playwriting at the Playwrights’ Center.

In this conversation, Marge shares how painting and theatre inform one another, why creative work can help communities imagine systemic change, and what a dedicated studio makes possible for both individual experimentation and collective activation.

Artist: Marge J. Buckley
Website: https://margebuckley.net
Instagram: @well_oiled_jorts
Location: Zero Empty Spaces at 815 Nicollet Mall, Minneapolis, Minnesota

At Zero Empty Spaces, we are dedicated to transforming vacant commercial real estate into working artist studios that serve as vibrant hubs for creativity and community engagement. We activate these spaces where artists can create and collaborate at an affordable price while having the ability to be discovered and sell artwork out of their studio. Our innovative approach addresses the challenge of urban blight and retail vacancies by temporarily occupying unused spaces until permanent tenants are secured by property owners.

Through this model, we breathe fresh life into new and neglected areas, fostering artistic expression and economic revitalization. All with the goal of expanding the appreciation of various genres of visual art and helping to create a thriving cultural community in more cities across the world. Current locations include Minneapolis, Berkeley (CA), St. Petersburg, Jensen Beach, Hallandale Beach, Boca Raton and more coming soon!

For More Information Log On To www.zeroemptyspaces.com Or E-mail [email protected]

#Podcast #ZeroEmptySpacesPodcast #UniteUsGroup #ZeroEmptySpaces #Minneapolis #NicolletMall #Minnesota

In this episode of the Zero Empty Spaces Podcast, we sit down with Siana Lakhan, professionally known as Sila Art, to explore how Caribbean heritage, bold color, feminine divinity, nature, and emotional healing come together through her painting practice.

Based at Zero Empty Spaces at the Design Center of the Americas in Dania Beach, Florida, Siana is a Trinidad-born artist whose work reflects a lifelong connection to creativity, color, and self-expression. With three years of formal art studies at Jacksonville University and more than 20 years of self-taught creative exploration, she has developed a visual language rooted in emotion, culture, and the power of art to help process life’s challenges.

Through Sila Art, Siana creates bold, expressive paintings inspired by artists such as Georgia O’Keeffe, Jackson Pollock, and Henri Matisse, while bringing forward her own distinct voice shaped by Caribbean influence, nature, feminine energy, and vibrant visual storytelling. Her work is colorful, personal, and intentional, often exploring themes of beauty, resilience, emotion, and connection.

This conversation explores what it means to create from the heart and use art as both an outlet and a form of healing. Siana shares how art has helped her work through emotions and turmoil, why creating continues to make her heart happy, and how having a dedicated studio space at Zero Empty Spaces gives her room to grow, create, collaborate, and share her work with the community.

This conversation is about more than painting. It’s about identity, heritage, emotional expression, and the power of creativity to help people reconnect with themselves and the world around them.

If you’re inspired by stories of creativity, healing, culture, community, and the power of artistic expression, this episode is for you.

Artist: Sila Art / Siana Lakhan
Instagram: @silaart.llc
Location: Zero Empty Spaces, Design Center of the Americas (DCOTA), Dania Beach, Florida

At Zero Empty Spaces, we transform vacant commercial real estate into affordable working artist studios and creative hubs. Our spaces give artists a place to create, collaborate, be discovered, and sell artwork directly from their studios while helping property owners, communities, and cities bring new life to underutilized spaces.

Through this model, we help activate vacant storefronts, office spaces, and commercial properties into vibrant creative placemaking destinations. These spaces support artistic expression, walkability, economic revitalization, and stronger cultural communities.

Learn more about Zero Empty Spaces and our mission to transform vacant commercial spaces into affordable artist studios and creative hubs at:
https://www.zeroemptyspaces.com

For more information email [email protected]

#Podcast #ZeroEmptySpacesPodcast #UniteUsGroup #ZeroEmptySpaces #DCOTA #DaniaBeach #SilaArt

In this episode of the Zero Empty Spaces Podcast, we sit down with Andrea Bello, professionally known as Miss Bello, to explore how bold color, intentional design, and immersive visual storytelling can completely transform the way people experience a space.

Based at Zero Empty Spaces at the Design Center of the Americas in Dania Beach, Florida, Miss Bello is a creative visionary, designer, and space transformer whose work lives at the intersection of art, design, architecture, and brand experience. With a background in graphic design, she brings a refined visual language to custom murals, statement art pieces, architectural finishes, installations, and creative concepts that move from idea to fabrication to installation with precision.

Through Miss Bello, Andrea works with brands, interior designers, business owners, and creative collaborators to elevate environments through powerful, customized visual experiences. Her practice combines digital art, printed and layered surfaces, installations, and backlit displays, creating work that feels vibrant, dimensional, polished, and deeply intentional.

This conversation explores what it means to create art that does more than hang on a wall. Miss Bello’s work is about atmosphere, identity, emotion, and the ability of visual design to shift how people feel when they enter a room. From large-scale creative concepts to refined installation work, her practice reflects the growing connection between contemporary art, interior environments, and creative placemaking.

This conversation is about more than art. It’s about transformation, vision, and the power of creativity to shape the spaces where we live, work, gather, and connect.

If you’re inspired by stories of creativity, reinvention, community, and the power of artistic expression, this episode is for you.

Artist: Miss Bello / Andrea Bello
Website: Missbello.com
Instagram: @bymissbello
Location: Zero Empty Spaces, Design Center of the Americas (DCOTA), Dania Beach, Florida

At Zero Empty Spaces, we transform vacant commercial real estate into affordable working artist studios and creative hubs. Our spaces give artists a place to create, collaborate, be discovered, and sell artwork directly from their studios while helping property owners, communities, and cities bring new life to underutilized spaces.

Through this model, we help activate vacant storefronts, office spaces, and commercial properties into vibrant creative placemaking destinations. These spaces support artistic expression, walkability, economic revitalization, and stronger cultural communities.

Learn more about Zero Empty Spaces and our mission to transform vacant commercial spaces into affordable artist studios and creative hubs at:
https://www.zeroemptyspaces.com

For more information email [email protected].

In this episode of the Zero Empty Spaces Podcast, we sit down with Vanesa Miori to explore the emotional, playful, and spiritual world behind her oil, acrylic, and mixed media paintings.

Based in Dania Beach, Florida, Vanesa creates work that blends bold color, whimsical details, realist oil painting influences, and layered mixed media techniques. Her art is rooted in emotion, imagination, truth, and beauty, inviting viewers into a visual dialogue that feels both personal and expansive.

As a self-taught artist, Vanesa has built her creative foundation through ongoing exploration, experimentation, and study. Her training includes classes at Devita Art Academy, The Art Students League of New York, workshops in Mexico with recognized artist Carmen Basurto, and many online courses that have helped shape her evolving practice.

Her work includes memorable pieces and series such as Dancing Medusas, Talavera, aspen trees, serpents, and other imaginative subjects that reflect her love of symbolism, storytelling, and spiritual undertones. Whether working in oil, acrylic, or mixed media, Vanesa approaches each piece as an opportunity to spark curiosity, create joy, and connect with people on a deeper level.

Through her studio practice at Zero Empty Spaces at Design Center of the Americas (DCOTA) in Dania Beach, Vanesa continues to share her artistic journey, unveil new works, experiment with new techniques, and invite others into the stories her art has to tell.

This conversation is about more than art. It’s about creative freedom, emotional expression, and the courage to keep exploring your own visual language.

If you’re inspired by stories of creativity, reinvention, community, and the power of artistic expression, this episode is for you.

Artist Info:

Artist: Vanesa Miori
Website: https://www.vanesamiori.com/
Instagram: @vanesamiori
Location: Zero Empty Spaces, Design Center of the Americas (DCOTA), Dania Beach, Florida

At Zero Empty Spaces, we transform vacant commercial real estate into affordable working artist studios and creative hubs. Our spaces give artists a place to create, collaborate, be discovered, and sell artwork directly from their studios while helping property owners, communities, and cities bring new life to underutilized spaces.

Through this model, we help activate vacant storefronts, office spaces, and commercial properties into vibrant creative placemaking destinations. These spaces support artistic expression, walkability, economic revitalization, and stronger cultural communities.

Learn more about Zero Empty Spaces and our mission to transform vacant commercial spaces into affordable artist studios and creative hubs at:
https://www.zeroemptyspaces.com

For more information, visit www.zeroemptyspaces.com or email [email protected]

In this episode of the Zero Empty Spaces Podcast, we sit down with South Florida artist Penny Fraser to explore a journey defined by reinvention, resilience, and creative expansion.

Before fully stepping into the arts, Penny built a successful career as an attorney. Today, she channels that same discipline and depth into powerful mixed-media portrait work that explores beauty, empowerment, and transformation. While many first discovered her through the widely celebrated 40 Over 40 Bombshell Series, her artistic evolution has moved boldly into painting, charcoal, gold leaf, pastel, and layered mixed-media techniques that reimagine the portrait as both subject and symbol.

We talk about what it takes to pivot professionally, the courage required to follow a creative calling later in life, and how her newer collections like Bloom and Sirens of the Sea reflect a deeper, more expressive phase of her artistry. Penny shares insights on being largely self-taught, continuing to grow through workshops and experimentation, and why community and collaboration are central to her next chapter.

This conversation is about more than art. It’s about transformation, creative courage, and giving yourself permission to evolve.

If you’re inspired by stories of reinvention and the power of artistic expression, this episode is for you.

🎨 Artist: Penny Fraser - https://www.pennyfraserphotography.com/ - https://www.instagram.com/pennyfraserphotography/
📍 Location: Zero Empty Spaces, Design Center Of The America's (DCOTA), Dania Beach, Florida

Learn more about Zero Empty Spaces and our mission to transform vacant commercial spaces into affordable artist studios and creative hubs at:
https://www.zeroemptyspaces.com

Follow Penny's work and connect with the Zero Empty Spaces artist community for more stories like this.

At Zero Empty Spaces, we are dedicated to transforming vacant commercial real estate into working artist studios that serve as vibrant hubs for creativity and community engagement. We activate these spaces where artists can create and collaborate at an affordable price while having the ability to be discovered and sell artwork out of their studio. Our innovative approach addresses the challenge of urban blight and retail vacancies by temporarily occupying unused spaces until permanent tenants are secured by property owners.

Through this model, we breathe fresh life into new and neglected areas, fostering artistic expression and economic revitalization. All with the goal of expanding the appreciation of various genres of visual art and helping to create a thriving cultural community in more cities across the world. Current Florida locations include St. Petersburg, Jensen Beach, Hallandale Beach, Dania Beach, & Boca Raton. Other locations include Richmond Virginia, and more coming soon!

For More Information Log On To www.zeroemptyspaces.com Or E-mail [email protected]

#Podcast #ZeroEmptySpacesPodcast #UniteUsGroup #ZeroEmptySpaces

In this episode of the Zero Empty Spaces Podcast, we sit down with Emi Subotovsky, a resident artist at our Dania Beach location, to explore a creative journey that proves it is never too late to answer the call to make art.

Born and raised in Argentina, Emi was told early on by a high school art teacher that she would go far as an artist. Life, however, led her down a different path. She pursued a successful career in law before eventually retiring and fully returning to her creative practice in the United States.

Emi’s work moves between intuition and structure, evolving from expressive abstract painting into geometric abstraction and monotype printmaking. Through acrylics, mixed media, and print, she explores the balance between chaos and order, control and surrender. Her geometric forms reflect a search for clarity and structure, while the unpredictability of monotype printing invites surprise and discovery.

Throughout the conversation, Emi shares what it means to reclaim creativity later in life, how continued study and critique shaped her artistic voice, and how having a dedicated studio through Zero Empty Spaces has supported her growth, consistency, and visibility as a working artist.

This episode is an inspiring reminder that creative ambition does not expire, and that access to space can unlock entirely new chapters of expression.

🎨 Artist: Emi Subotovsky - https://www.emisubotovsky.com/ - https://www.instagram.com/esuboart19/
📍 Location: Zero Empty Spaces, Dania Beach, Florida

Learn more about Zero Empty Spaces and our mission to transform vacant commercial spaces into affordable artist studios and creative hubs at:
https://www.zeroemptyspaces.com

Follow Emi’s work and connect with the Zero Empty Spaces artist community for more stories like this.

At Zero Empty Spaces, we are dedicated to transforming vacant commercial real estate into working artist studios that serve as vibrant hubs for creativity and community engagement. We activate these spaces where artists can create and collaborate at an affordable price while having the ability to be discovered and sell artwork out of their studio. Our innovative approach addresses the challenge of urban blight and retail vacancies by temporarily occupying unused spaces until permanent tenants are secured by property owners.

Through this model, we breathe fresh life into new and neglected areas, fostering artistic expression and economic revitalization. All with the goal of expanding the appreciation of various genres of visual art and helping to create a thriving cultural community in more cities across the world. Current Florida locations include St. Petersburg, Jensen Beach, Hallandale Beach, Dania Beach, & Boca Raton. Other locations include Richmond Virginia, and more coming soon!

For More Information Log On To www.zeroemptyspaces.com Or E-mail [email protected]

#Podcast #ZeroEmptySpacesPodcast #UniteUsGroup #ZeroEmptySpaces

In this Zero Empty Spaces podcast episode, Evan Snow sits down with Miami-based Haitian-American artist Christian Charles (@christiancharles_art) for a conversation on creative beginnings, artistic evolution, and building a visual world that bridges the real and the surreal.

Christian shares how he first discovered his passion for art, what his experience at New World School of the Arts has opened up for him creatively, and why Romanticism and Surrealism continue to shape his approach to storytelling through paint. He dives into the influence of literature and film on his work, including how pieces like The Divine Comedy and Midsommar help fuel his narrative imagination.

We also explore his recent exhibitions at Frederic Snitzer Gallery, Locust Projects, and other South Florida spaces, along with his public mural created in partnership with the Miami Parking Authority. Christian reflects on what these opportunities have meant at this stage of his career and how he hopes to contribute to Miami’s creative community moving forward.

If you enjoy learning about emerging voices, contemporary painting, and the importance of cultivating space for artists to grow, this episode is a strong one.

To see more of Christian's work, follow him at - https://www.instagram.com/christiancharles_art/

At Zero Empty Spaces, we are dedicated to transforming vacant commercial real estate into working artist studios that serve as vibrant hubs for creativity and community engagement. We activate these spaces where artists can create and collaborate at an affordable price while having the ability to be discovered and sell artwork out of their studio. Our innovative approach addresses the challenge of urban blight and retail vacancies by temporarily occupying unused spaces until permanent tenants are secured by property owners.

Through this model, we breathe fresh life into new and neglected areas, fostering artistic expression and economic revitalization. All with the goal of expanding the appreciation of various genres of visual art and helping to create a thriving cultural community in more cities across the world. Current Florida locations include St. Petersburg, Jensen Beach, Dania Beach, Hallandale Beach, & Boca Raton. Other locations include Richmond Virginia, and more coming soon!

For More Information Log On To www.zeroemptyspaces.com Or E-mail [email protected]

#Podcast #ZeroEmptySpacesPodcast #UniteUsGroup #ZeroEmptySpaces #DCOTA