Meet Dorothy Blau, Ann Jaffe, Gloria Luria and Virginia Miller, the grand dames of the Miami gallery scene.

They were the pioneers, and the zeal they started with still propels them. They are proud of having been among the first supporters of contemporary art here, of having introduced it to the city, educating the public and helping build local collections along the way. But even more than their roles as innovators, they like being catalysts, people whose presence has made a difference.

And it has. When Blau opened her first gallery space in 1958, there was nothing like it in town. Within 15 years, all four had rented the street fronts, rolled out the gray carpets, hung the lights and opened shop. They insist that their enthusiasm far exceeded their knowledge of either art or the art business.

It is not enough to say they've come a long way. The historically correct conclusion is that the art scene in Miami is their doing. Today we have public and private galleries, museums, art centers, schools of art--but first there were four women.

VIRGINIA MILLER
Owner-director of ArtSpace/Virginia Miller Galleries

If Virginia Miller hadn't gone on that semester-long student cruise with World Campus Afloat, this community would have had one more psychologist and one less art dealer. Miller, a Miami native, says it was traveling that fixed her sights on a career in art.

"Art was something I loved," she says. "I knew artists, they needed to be shown, and I wanted to be the one to show them. I like to make things happen."

She sold her first work of art--a Malaysian artifact from that student trip--out of her living room to a friend. There were other sales from her home through the early '70s, when a silent partner promised her a gallery on Biscayne Boulevard. But the partner became ill and pulled out.

So it was back to private dealing out of the living room, to staging special events around art for various community causes (she's done two dozen over the years) until 1974, when she opened Virginia Miller Gallery, a tiny space in Coconut Grove.

Her current commodious ArtSpace in Coral Gables is a descendant of that gallery, where she showed works by artists never seen before in Miami--Alice Neel, Betty Parsons, Sam Gilliam and SITE, the architecture and design firm. Miller also was an early booster of Latin American art, which she first showed in 1975, and was among the first in town to exhibit photography.

"I still enjoy bringing new artists and new ideas to this community," Miller says, "I've always tried to find what I consider historically significant artists or artists who had the potential."

She readily acknowledges the risks--recessions, broken relationships between dealer and artist. "Art is a tough business," she says.

But she'd do it again in a minute. "My life," Miller says, "centers around my husband, art and charity work."