Miami Beach and the Wynwood arts district have been the home of Art Basel Miami Beach in past years. For 2008, however, six satellite exhibits have sprung up in midtown Miami, the latest up-and-coming area of the city, through Sunday.
- Green Art Fair Miami focuses on the environment in every way-from highlighting and showcasing artists who use recyclable materials in their works, to eco-centered programming including fashion shows and educational film series, to the fair's solar-powered 15,000-square-foot tent of reused and recycled aluminum and fabric, created by EventStar. Additionally, organizers have used LED lighting throughout the space, given out reusable shopping bags for its promotional materials, partnered with Waste Management Systems to recycle all of the waste from the five-day exhibit, and will be donating all of the tent's interior design materials to Habitat for Humanity after the fair wraps up on Sunday. The tent is set up on NE First Ave. between 31st and 32nd streets.
- Adjacent to the Green Art Fair are the conjoined Scope Art Fair and Art Asia tents. Also constructed by EventStar, the 60,000-square-foot Scope fair partnered with Art Asia-Miami's first international Asian contemporary art fair-as a way to "introduce international collectors to new and provocative Asian artists and Asian galleries to American and European collectors," Alexis Hubshman, president of Scope, told The Miami Herald.
- Just across the street, a 100,000-square-foot EventStar tent is home to the 19th annual Art Miami. With a wide variety of art from more than 100 national and international galleries, the show opened with a special press and V.I.P. preview on Tuesday. A portion of the ticket sales from that night benefited the Sundari Foundation and Lotus House-a Miami-based charity dedicated to the education and social inclusion of homeless women and children-as part of its Heart Miami program.
"We teamed up with the Sundari Foundation, as we feel it is important to give back and enhance our community that has supported the growth of our fair and the arts for all of these years," said Nick Korniloff, show director of Art Miami.
At the center of the tent, Pamela Cohen of Perminak Consulting LLC coordinated with Alain Perez of EventStar to create a bilevel space for the Nespresso café on ground level and the BlackRock Investments-sponsored V.I.P. lounge above-with furniture from Nuage Designs-overlooking the exhibit floor.
- After two successful years on Miami Beach-this year at the Catalina Hotel and Beach Club and Maxine Hotel-the Bridge Art Fair has branched out to midtown with its inaugural Wynwood exhibit. Just north of Art Miami, the 60,000-square-foot tented exhibit hosted the New York Art Exchange's launch party on Tuesday for its new Web site for buying and selling contemporary art.
"We are thrilled to debut the launch of the New York Art Exchange online ecommerce platform at the Bridge Art Fair Miami event," commented Catherine McCormack-Skiba, C.E.O. and founder of the exchange. "It's been my vision for years to make great art accessible to a broader audience through technology and the Internet."
Later that night, the opening-night event featured unconventional entertainment for an art exhibit, with performances by Dream nightclub's Chat Noir review produced by CircX.
- Similar to the Bridge Art Fair, Red Dot Miami has locations both on Miami Beach at the South Seas Hotel and in a 30,000-square-foot tent from EventStar adjacent to the Bridge fair. Co-produced by Ilana Vardy and owner George Billis, the inaugural showcase was designed to complement the other art at the surrounding satellite exhibits while providing exhibitors with "ample space in which to build upon the engaging presentations and diverse styles that the fair has already established," according to the fair's Web site.
