The Museum

Open
Universe

Putting depth back into art.

Open Universe is the world's first museum dedicated exclusively to artists with disabilities.

A fundamentally new museum model — anchored in Miami and connected across the country through a physical institution, national partner network, and living collection in continuous circulation.

Open Universe creates a connected cultural ecosystem where more people can live with, experience, collect, and participate in art.

Built for a generation seeking deeper connection, Open Universe exists to restore art as a vital part of contemporary life, expression, and human experience.

Founded
Miami, Florida
Status
501(c)(3) · Actively operating
Network
150+ organizations · 4,000–6,000 artists
What the museum is

A museum whose collection never stops moving.

Open Universe operates through a hybrid model: a physical hub anchored in one of Miami's established arts and cultural districts, combined with a distributed network of museum nodes across the country — hospitals, corporate offices, hotels, and public institutions that actively host and present the collection.

Exhibitions are embedded in everyday environments, transforming them into sites of cultural connection. The collection is not stored and occasionally shown. It lives in the world, generating income for artists and genuine human encounters for the people who pass through these spaces every day.

The Hub — Miami

The Hub is the institutional anchor — the address, the permanent collection space, the place where the museum is undeniably real. It is where visiting artists come, where collectors experience the work in depth, and where the curatorial and operational infrastructure of the museum lives.

We are establishing the Hub in one of Miami's established arts and cultural districts, building toward a permanent address that gives the museum the physical presence it deserves — and that the artists whose work it holds have never had.

Location
Miami arts and cultural district — permanent space in development
Function
Permanent collection · Rotating exhibitions · Public programming · Cultural events
Status
Active — permanent space in final negotiation

How the museum ecosystem works

01
Open Invitational
The national art fair
New York · Miami · Basel. Studios bring their artists. Free for studios, free for the public — the most significant platform for disability art in the country.
02
Open Studio
Year-round gallery · New York
127 Henry Street, NYC. Exhibitions, sales, and collector access — connecting artists to the institutions and collectors that take the work seriously.
03
Open Universe Collection
Permanent institutional record
Works acquired through the fair and gallery enter the permanent collection — establishing each artist's institutional record with lasting cultural value.
04
The Living Collection
Works in active circulation
Collection works rotate through museum partner locations nationwide — hospitals, offices, hotels, and civic buildings — generating ongoing income for artists.
05
Open Universe Nodes
The distributed museum
Hospitals, offices, hotels, and libraries become museum satellites — forming the distributed infrastructure that makes Open Universe a national institution.
06
Open Universe
The institutional framework
501(c)(3) · Miami Hub. The nonprofit infrastructure that holds everything together — the permanent collection, the hub, and the long-term cultural system.
Fair Gallery Collection Placement Institution

"The art world has always had edges. We're building the institution that lives there — permanently."

Open Universe · Miami

The team

RM
Ross McCalla
Co-Founder · Executive Director

Ross brings the operational infrastructure — the nonprofit structure, the institutional relationships, and the long-term vision to establish Open Universe as a permanent cultural anchor in Miami. He manages the museum's programming pipeline, donor relationships, and expansion strategy across four cities.

DF
David Fierman
Co-Founder · Executive Director

David has operated FIERMAN Gallery in New York since 2016, placing work with the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Studio Museum in Harlem, and the Speed Museum, with coverage in The New York Times, The New Yorker, and Artforum. He has consulted for major New York hospitals on art programming for over a decade — making him uniquely positioned to build the museum partner network.

The institution is being built.
Be part of it.