Art Basel Miami Beach is Coming

Miami is ground zero of the imploding U.S. mortgage market, matching both Detroit and San Diego for the steepest decline in housing values. Local government in Miami is looking at a loss of $836 million in annual property tax revenues -- and is counting on "art tourism" to make up some of the slack.

Enter Art Basel Miami Beach, Dec. 6-9, 2007, and the two dozen or so additional contemporary art fairs now scheduled to open simultaneously along the pastel streets of the sunshine city. Temperatures are predicted to be in the high ‘70s, with clear or partly cloudy weather conditions for much of the week. Things are looking good for the seventh annual artstravaganza.

Art Basel Miami Beach is installed at the Miami Beach Convention Center, and a slew of fairs take their place in its orbit in South Beach. Returning from 2006 are the Aqua fair (now dubbed Aqua at the Aqua Hotel to distinguish it from its own franchise, about which more below), Bridge, DiVA, Flow, Ink and Pool.

New to the Miami Beach axis are Art Now Fair, RAM Miami and the Red Dot Fair.

Across the causeway in Miami proper, Design Miami returns to the so-called Design District, while Art Basel’s heavy-hitting satellite fairs all make repeat appearances in the neighboring Wynwood Art District: NADA, Pulse and Scope, alongside a few less-proven fairs that debuted last year, Photo Miami, the miniature Fountain Art Fair and the Zones Art Fair.

Brand-new fairs in the Wynwood Art District in 2007 are the AIPAD Photo Fair, Aqua Art Miami and Art Miami.

That’s a lot of art. And as each fair tries to set itself apart with special events and parties, and Miami area institutions try to take advantage of the attention, it all adds up to one overwhelming social calendar.