For several Pembroke Pines artists, the days of crafting art in cramped garages and spare rooms may be numbered.

The city is supplying South Florida’s brigade of painters and sculptors with massive, low-cost studio spaces beginning Sept. 1. Tentatively called the Laundry Room Art Colony, this 11,800-square-foot workshop provides ample room for local artists often burdened with converting their homes into claustrophobic makeshift studios.

The Artist Colony is slated to open at Howard C. Forman Human Services campus on the intersection of University Drive and Pembroke Road, on a slab of concrete once reserved for a mental hospital, said Pines Parks and Recreation Director Dean Combs.

The retreat includes 28 indoor and outdoor studios, three classrooms and art galleries to cull visitors to new exhibitions. Ideally, Combs added, the colony would yield profits from local foot traffic and tourists catching a glimpse of artists taking paintbrush to canvas, attending opening receptions or enrolling in specialty classes like jewelry-making.

The city’s Parks and Recreation Department are now creating waiting lists for those willing to rent studio space inside the Art Colony.

For more information, call Fletcher Art Center at 954-986-5027 or e-mail Jill Slaughter at jslaughter@ppines.com.