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Art-loving crowds venture into the Miami
Beach Convention Center for last year’s Art Basel Miami
Beach. File photos by George Barreiro/firedogphoto.com
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There’s a symbiotic relationship between Art Basel Miami
Beach and the greater Miami metropolitan area. So, what’s good
for one is good for the other.
There are
plenty of reasons why the predominately Swiss organizers of Art
Basel brought the massive artistic showcase to
Miami Beach
in 2002.
“One, the
proximity from the convention center to hotels allows visitors
to walk back and forth,” said Bob Goodman, a Miami Beach-based
publicist and political consultant who serves as Art Basel’s
local spokesperson. “Two, the climate is ideal in December.
Three, there is a very vibrant community in South Florida of art
collectors.”
In fact, it was
that community of art collectors that helped persuade Messe
Schweiz to set up shop in
Miami Beach.
The Swiss company runs 25 shows and festivals, most of which are
in Basel,
the third most populous city in the Swiss Confederation.
Although Messe
Schweiz runs shows exhibiting technology, jewelry and
construction, its most famous is Art Basel, an art fair that has
been held each June since 1970. Throughout the years, Art Basel
became renowned for displaying the best works of the 20th and
21st centuries, attracting artists, gallery operators, museum
managers and art collectors from all over the world.
A number of
Miami-Dade County art collectors frequented the Swiss event —
including Craig Robins of the development company Dacra,
hoteliers Don and Mera Rubell, and car dealership owners and
philanthropists Norman and Irma Braman — and eventually
convinced Messe Schweiz to set up a spinoff art fair in Miami
Beach.
The company
initially planned to debut the Miami Beach art fair in 2001, but
canceled the event following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in
New York City and Washington, D.C. Then, when it finally debuted
in 2002, Art Basel Miami Beach drew 30,000 visitors.
Why choose
Miami Beach? “It is wintertime in Europe,” Peter Vetsch, the
marketing and communications manager for Art Basel, explained in
2002.
Since then, Art
Basel Miami Beach has continued to grow, this year attracting
more than 40,000 art collectors, journalists and museum
delegates from all over the world to South Florida for Basel and
corresponding satellite fairs.
Art Basel Miami
Beach itself will showcase the works of 2,000 artists from 200
galleries in the Convention Center and in public spaces in Miami
Beach. At the same time, numerous other organizations set up art
fairs throughout Miami Beach and Miami, particularly in the
Design District and Wynwood.
“There are
events going on everywhere,” said Michael Spring, director of
the Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs. “You can
go down south to Fairchild Tropical Garden and there’s a
Roy
Lichtenstein
show. The area
is coming alive and putting its best foot forward.”
Those satellite
events don’t compete with Art Basel Miami Beach; they complement
it, as Messe Schweitz intended.
“It would have
been far easier for them to say, ‘We are a commercial fair, we
want to capture [the audience] for ourselves.’ Instead, they did
something to make this a community event,” Spring said. “They
pursued partnerships. They encouraged local people with Art
Basel.”
Basel
organizers even promoted some of the events that started coming
to Miami
to capitalize on the Swiss show’s success.
“They see
nothing but success from this strategy,” Spring said. “You are
building more reason for people to come to Miami for the central
attraction.”
Art Basel week
has become so large that the event actually changed the tourism
industry for the entire region, said Rolando Aedo, senior vice
president of marketing for the Greater Miami Convention and
Visitors Bureau.
“Art Basel has
meant more to the
Miami
brand than any other brand in its short life,” he said. “In its
short time, Art Basel has been the synopsis of what
Miami is
becoming, ever more sophisticated. I can’t remember any event
that has had so much of an impact. It made almost a paradigm
shift in positioning the community in terms of events.”
Aedo said Art
Basel has enabled the tourism industry to promote Greater Miami
as something “more than just sun and fun” — as a cultural
center, with a greater focus on visitors with millions of
dollars in disposable incomes.
“What Art Basel
has given us is a layer that we didn’t have before,” he said.
That layer is
the upscale visitor, something that the hotel and entertainment
industry only recently has been able to entice.
“Go back nine
years ago — the first hotel in 30 years was built in Miami
Beach, the Loews Hotel, thanks to a cooperative effort of
Miami Beach,”
Aedo said. More luxury hotels opened after that, but it was
events like Art Basel Miami Beach and the South Beach Wine and
Food Festival that attracted the wealthy visitors and the
publicity.
The tourism
industry hasn’t been the only beneficiary of the Art Basel
effect. Art Basel has generated so much media attention that
Miami-Dade’s cultural scene has finally gained the international
exposure it has long coveted, Spring said.
“We have one of
the most diverse and energetic cultural lives in the hemisphere,
but the world doesn’t know that,” Spring said. “Miami is still
young as a city. It would have taken 20 years to get the message
out [without the Art Fair]. Art Basel took a spotlight and
pointed it at Miami for the international media.”
Yet, Art
Basel’s direct financial impact on the area has never been
calculated, said Jaap Donath, vice president of research and
strategic planning at the Beacon Council. “No one has done a
formal analysis of what the impact might be,” he said.
However, area
hotels are getting more business and charging higher rates.
Miami-Dade hotel room occupancies for the week of Dec. 9
increased 116 percent from 2000 to 2006, according to records
collected by the Greater Miami Convention and Visitors Bureau.
Hotel room rates increased 109 percent in the same period. From
2005 to 2006, hotel occupancy rose 12 percent while room rates
increased 55 percent.
“Miami is not
an inexpensive destination,” Aedo said. “At certain times of the
year, we lead the world in room rates. We are going after
high-value customers, and the Art Basel event goes after those
high-value customers.”
In fact, there
are so many wealthy individuals coming to Miami and Miami Beach
that the county has been asked to issue more limousine licenses.
“The demand for limousines outweighs the supply,” Goodman said,
adding that more private jets are flying into Miami
International Airport for this year’s Art Basel than for
February’s Super Bowl.
“Visitors come
from across the
U.S.
and throughout the world,” Goodman said. “Whether it is
limousines or taxis, it is a very positive impact for everyone.”
The Beacon
Council, a public-private partnership that promotes Miami-Dade
County as a place for businesses to locate, wants to exploit Art
Basel’s success in areas other than tourism.
“We have tried
to use Art Basel as a major event to somehow try to increase
exposure for the business side of things,” Donath said. “A lot
of people who come to visit Art Basel don’t just collect art —
they own businesses and we are trying to create that link.”
With the help
of then-Gov. Jeb Bush, the Beacon Council created the CEO Forum
in 2005 to coincide with Art Basel. By 2006, the forum grew to
include delegates from Switzerland. Now, the council is working
to increase trade relations between Florida and that country.
“In many cases
when company executives look at relocating their business, they
want to know about quality of life,” Donath said.
A strong
cultural arts community, Spring said, goes a long way toward
improving that atmosphere.
“We are
competing to attract businesses and a skilled work force here,”
he said. “The Beacon Council goes out and says to these business
owners, ‘we have a great sea port, we are a great crossroad for
international trade.’ They can also say, ‘we’re a great place to
live, too.’”
In the
meantime, Messe Schweiz has benefited from choosing Miami Beach
as the location for its second mega art fair and can use its
location to expand the Art Basel brand throughout the Western
Hemisphere.
“Miami is an
international city and close to South America,” Goodman said.
“There are a lot of art buyers in Latin America.” |
