There are times when the effort of searching for the right destination pays off.
Artistically, such is the case with the Northwood Art & Music Warehouse. If you’re looking for a casual, comfortable venue with indoor and outdoor stages and a house PA system for live music; paintings, drawings and other crafts by local artists, and craft beers and imported wines, look no further.
Or, rather, look further, because it isn’t along the beaten path. Situated several blocks west of the restaurants, shops and cafés of the Northwood Village area of West Palm Beach, the Northwood Art & Music Warehouse is in an industrial area criss-crossed by railroad tracks. You won’t find it easily by casually walking or driving by.
But for the uninitiated, the site’s forthcoming Flag Day celebration June 14 could be a great icebreaker. Its centerpiece will involve children and grandchildren of veterans, ages 2-8, contributing their handprints as the stars for a 14-by-12-foot American flag design, with its stripes made of epoxy and textured materials, by local artist Ariel Basso (www.ArielBasso.com). His own art studio sits adjacent to the venue.
This is one of multiple stops being filmed for Basso’s forthcoming documentary film We Are America to celebrate the nation’s 250th anniversary in 2026. His website features a “Stay Connected” button where veteran parents and grandparents can sign up children to provide handprints and list their own branches of service.
“I’ve been working on this project for a few months now,” Basso says. “We want veterans from all branches of military service in South Florida to join us. There will be live music and food, and I’m trying to get parents and grandparents who are veterans to sign up their kids and grandkids online to submit handprints for the flag in advance, especially since there will only be 50 spots.”
The live music will be by Hot Toddy, a country music act led by singing guitarist Bethany Lynn and Low Ground bassist/vocalist Amanda Acardi, from 4-5:30 p.m., and the Adam Douglass Band, a jazz/fusion act led by its namesake guitarist, from 6:30-8 p.m.
Northwood Art & Music Warehouse owner Joe DeStephan is a New Jersey native who moved north from Miami Beach, where he saw the city’s Wynwood district transform into an arts hub. He was previously leasing his local warehouse to a tenant who was using it for storage. When the tenant vacated, DeStephan, who’d moved to be closer to his aging, Stuart-based parents, started his own transformation by obtaining cheap bar equipment during the COVID-19 pandemic and turning the site into his personal man cave.
Since formally opening that cave to the public in 2022, he’s continued to foresee Northwood eventually becoming another Wynwood, which has seemed unlikely in recent years. Yet high-rise construction projects are now underway in the area. Basso is a Miami native who moved to Brooklyn before the Wynwood renaissance, yet he saw the New York borough undergo a similar transformation.
“This area is on its way toward that,” he says. “It’s on an upward trajectory here.”
DeStephan concurs. “The construction projects are going in different phases,” he says. “I believe the first phase is set to be completed by the end of this year. And one building should have around 270 units and another 480, so that’s a good amount of much-needed density for us.”
DeStephan’s beer choices, plus visual artwork, vintage cars and trucks, and live music selections have officially been flowing for public consumption for nearly three-and-a-half years now. Northwood Art & Music’s outdoor stage is a repurposed shipping container that can be opened up to face its spacious, fenced-off courtyard. Inside the large, half-circle-shaped warehouse, there’s comfortable seating from couches to high-tops and a stage in the northeast corner. Its 20-foot-high ceiling, ventilation, fans and oversized doors on either end offset its lack of air conditioning, which will be a plus for the indoor We Are America afternoon Flag Day festivities.
The live music went dark at the multipurpose venue last summer, as it will again starting in July, but Basso and the other artists always continue on with events and exhibitions through all four seasons. With such an emphasis on development in the Northwood area over the past year, 2025 could be the start of the space’s slow upward trend through both its music and visual art.
“I’d like this documentary to be submitted to the Tribeca and Sundance film festivals for next year,” Basso says. “And I’d hopefully like to do a tour of museums where I can facilitate a presentation involving both the film and the flag artwork.”
If You Go
We Are America Flag Day celebration at Northwood Art & Music Warehouse, 933 28th St., West Palm Beach.
When: 4-8 p.m. June 14
Admission: $10
Info: 561-425-9040, northwoodartandmusic.com