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‘We Are America’ celebration aims to be Northwood draw on Flag Day
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
Northwood entertainment goes underground
Anyone turning east off Australian Avenue onto 25th Street in West Palm Beach might think they found the artistic version of desolation boulevard, at least until they near U.S. Highway 1 and the trendy establishments in the city’s Northwood section.
That’s because they’ll likely pass the Northwood Art & Music Warehouse, located roughly halfway heading east and three blocks north, without knowing it.
Open since February, the venue is the brainchild of owner Joe DeStephan, a 53-year-old New Jersey native who changed his warehouse from a storage unit to a music and arts epicenter, however off the beaten path. In relocating from Miami to Northwood, he had a blueprint for success.
“I started buying beer and bringing in musicians to turn it into my man cave,” DeStephan says. “I was living in Miami Beach when the COVID era started and bars were closing, so I was able to get cheap bar equipment through liquidation. I’d lived there since 1993, saw how its Wynwood district developed from nothing into an arts scene since, and figured I might be able to help make that happen here.”
His man cave features 20-foot ceilings, oversized doors, and ventilation and fans that eliminate the need for air conditioning. It has a stage and PA system for bands, couches and padded chairs in front of it, and high-top tables and seating through the center of the large room. Work by South Florida artisans adorns the nooks on the west wall, and the bar features wines and an array of unpredictable, Florida-themed draft and canned beers.
And that’s just the interior.
Food trucks sit outside the door to the north, and DeStephan’s customized classic trucks are hard to miss throughout the property. To the west of the warehouse is a spacious, fenced-in, gravel-covered yard with fire pits, a tiki bar and a former shipping container that opens up as an outdoor stage.
Word is spreading about this fledgling inside/outside combination, particularly among musicians, visual artists and their followers of all ages.
“It seems to be growing in popularity,” says Doug Lindsay, bassist/vocalist for variety act Groove Merchant, a recurring performer on the Northwood Art & Music Warehouse calendar. “It’s nice to see the mix in ages. Joe did a great job of converting a warehouse, and it’s definitely a band-friendly venue.”
Setting up shop in an industrial area decreases the likelihood of nearby residents complaining about volume. But the owner foresaw that possibility.
“They love that we’re here,” DeStephan says. “We’ve had birthday parties with bounce houses for their kids in the courtyard. People love to be able to be outdoors.”
A forerunner, Mathews Brewing Co. in Lake Worth Beach, has succeeded for six years in the warehouse district west of the city’s downtown by featuring outdoor live music, shade-providing huts and food trucks. DeStephan also has another similarity in the works: starting his own brewery and beer garden in and around one of the multiple smaller buildings on his expansive lot.
“It’s perfectly set up for a brewery,” he says. “It’s going to take a while, but my concept here is a themed combination of a brewery and art gallery, an artistic experience to go with the music and the vintage trucks.”
If successful real estate is indeed about location, location, location, DeStephan could prove clairvoyant by envisioning the future of what’s now a sleepy section of Northwood.
“What really helped make Wynwood so successful as a business district was the artists,” he says. “And when I look at this area, I see something that could develop similarly. I like the feel of an industrial area that’s not cookie-cutter. I actually see it as lending itself to the vibe and mystique.”
See the Holidazed Duo on Dec. 15, the Sierra Lane Band on Dec. 16, JP Soars on Dec. 17, the Delray Jazz Collective on Dec. 19 and Joey Tenuto on Dec. 22, each from 7 to 10 p.m., at the Northwood Art & Music Warehouse, 933 28th St., West Palm Beach. For further information, call 561-425-9040, or visit northwoodartandmusic.com.
