Robert Silk
Since its inception in 2001, Art Basel Miami has grown to become one of the largest contemporary art shows in the world.
Last year, for example, the show drew 77,000 people to the Miami Beach Convention Center. And at least as significantly, Art Basel serves as the marquee event in Miami Art Week, which this year will feature 20 arts festivals around the Magic City from Nov. 29 to Dec. 4.
But as Art Basel and Miami Art Week approach, organizers could have reason to be concerned. After all, most of Miami Beach, including the area near the convention center, continues to be designated as an area of active Zika transmission by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Meanwhile, the convention center itself is in the midst of a more than $600 million overhaul.
Nevertheless, promoters are expressing confidence one month before Miami takes its annual turn as the center of the contemporary art universe.
Art Basel, which runs from Dec. 1 to 4, will feature 269 galleries this year, just up from last year’s total of 267, a spokesperson told me in an email this week. Among those galleries will be 21 new entrants.
“While Zika has naturally come up in many conversations, none of our exhibitors or partners have canceled their participation in the upcoming show as a result of it,” the Art Basel spokesperson wrote.
Meanwhile, both Art Basel and the Miami Beach Convention and Visitors Bureau sounded at least cautiously bullish about attendance at the local events, at least as measured by advance hotel bookings.
“What we heard in the last two weeks is that things have picked up and are on pace for Basel,” the bureau’s marketing director, Rolando Aedo said, referencing discussions with area hoteliers.
He noted that while occupancy rates have been down in Miami in recent months — the drop in September was approximately 2% — the total number of available hotel rooms in the Miami area has increased by a larger 5% year over year as a result of numerous hotel openings. So even with the headwinds caused by Zika, the strong dollar and the steep recession in Brazil, the Miami area saw a 2.2% increase in hotel room nights sold in September.
The CVB also reported that booked seats into Miami Airport during Art Basel weekend are up by roughly 20,000 compared with last year.
As for construction at the convention center, Aedo said that it wouldn’t be a problem during the show. The convention center construction schedule was organized from the get-go to accommodate Art Basel, and workers will complete renovations on exhibit halls A and B before the show. Then they’ll wait to commence work on exhibit halls C and D until after Art Basel is over.
Aedo’s advice for potential visitors to Art Basel and Miami Art Week?
Follow the cautions of health officials, especially in the case of women who are pregnant or plan to become pregnant as well as their partners. But otherwise go and enjoy the offerings.
“It really is an amazing time of the year where art lives and breathes in every nook and cranny of the community,” he said.