Art Basel Miami Beach is open to the public for three days, Dec. 4 through 6, from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the Miami Beach Convention Center. The City of Miami Beach's own art program opened on Nov. 12 and closes Dec. 19. That's more than five weeks of public art, and most of it is free and close to home if you live on the island.
In its Art Week announcement, the city sets Art Week Miami Beach for Monday, Nov. 30 through Sunday, Dec. 6. Mayor Steven Meiner put it this way: "For one week, all of Miami Beach is the gallery." The city's own calendar runs much longer. The parts built for people who live here open first, and they stay up after the fair crowds leave.
The hotel lobbies opened on Nov. 12
No Vacancy, Miami Beach is the city's juried public art competition, now in its seventh edition. Twelve artists and collectives each got a $10,000 stipend to make a site-specific work for an assigned hotel. The prize money totals $35,000: a $25,000 juried prize and a $10,000 public prize. The tours are daily and self-guided, and the works stay up through Dec. 19.
The 12 hotels run from the bottom of Ocean Drive to North Beach, so you can see them as a few short walks rather than one long trek:
- South of Fifth and Ocean Drive: Marriott Stanton South Beach at 161 Ocean Drive, with Marlon Portales' Busco en El Monte Amparo. Balfour Hotel at 350 Ocean Drive, with Luján Candria's Living Archive. Avalon Hotel at 700 Ocean Drive, with Morel Doucet's To Bloom Under the Midnight Stars. The Betsy at 1440 Ocean Drive, with Ricardo E. Zulueta's RISING GLITCH LEVELS.
- Collins Avenue near Lincoln Road: The Royal Palm South Beach at 1545 Collins, with Diana Eusebio's Home, Safe. Kimpton Surfcomber at 1717 Collins, with Alex Nuñez's You Cannot Step into the Same Ocean Twice. The Shelborne By Proper at 1801 Collins, with Yanira Collado's Converging Timelines/Woven Silhouettes.
- Mid-Beach: Casa Faena at 3500 Collins, with Kevin Arrow's The Magic Is You! Hotel Croydon at 3720 Collins, with Justin H. Long's Abyssal Wunderkammer. Eden Roc at 4525 Collins, with Emmett Moore's Riviera.
- North Beach: International Inn on the Bay at 2301 Normandy Drive, with Lulu Sanchez's Palm Court Ship: The Jury is Out at the International Inn. Sherry Frontenac at 6565 Collins, with Gonzalo Hernández's AMERICA.
The public prize also makes No Vacancy one of the few parts of Art Week where locals have a say in the outcome. Seeing the lobbies before Nov. 30 also means a quieter Collins Avenue and an easier drive.
This weekend, residents pick the Convention Center's next permanent artwork
The second resident-facing piece of Art Week opens tomorrow, Friday, Nov. 20. The city's Legacy Purchase Program is in its eighth year. The Art in Public Places Committee selects three works by emerging artists from Art Basel's Positions and Nova sectors. This year the pool also includes galleries that are new or recent entrants to the main Galleries sector and show early-career artists. Public voting runs Nov. 20 through 23. The winning piece will be bought by the City of Miami Beach, unveiled on Dec. 1 and permanently displayed in the Convention Center.
The city describes the collection as acquired "on behalf of the residents of Miami Beach." Earlier purchases include works by Farah Al Qasimi, Sanford Biggers, Amoako Boafo, Anneke Eussen, Ximena Garrido-Lecca, Ebony G. Patterson, Nina Surel and Juana Valdes. So voting starts before any fair opens, and the result stays in the building after the tents come down.
The week before the fair belongs to Collins Park
Public Art Fund's Between Tides goes up in Collins Park on Sunday, Nov. 29: six ping-pong tables designed by artists. It runs through Dec. 6, daily from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. On Monday, Nov. 30, the Paddle in the Park Classic is set for 4 to 6 p.m. That Monday is the first official day of Art Week and two days before the private Basel previews, so the park should still feel mostly local.
The Bass faces the park at 2100 Collins Avenue and keeps its 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. hours all week, with guided tours at 2 p.m. On view are Yuko Mohri: Unviolated Imperfection, Sarah Zapata: Against a State of Malevolence, Amalia Pica: Lecturas Posibles, Pedro y Juana: Aquí, Gabriel Rico: IX Mural, Abraham Cruzvillegas: Autocontusión and assume vivid astro focus: XI. The museum's talks start in the morning. Pedro y Juana talk with chief curator Philippe Vergne on Wednesday, Dec. 2 at 10 a.m. Architects Johnston Marklee talk with Tom Healy on Thursday at 10:30 a.m. Amalia Pica talks with assistant curator Jasa McKenzie on Friday at 10:30 a.m.
Further out, the city lists Christopher Joshua Benton's kinetic sculpture A Lore Supreme on the beach at Faena, part of Faena's programming from Dec. 1 to 6. New World Symphony has a free mobile WALLCAST and live performance at SoundScape Park on Saturday, Dec. 5.
Inside the Convention Center, the resident ticket comes with a trade-off
When you do go into the fair, proof of Miami Beach residency gets you Art Basel's Reduced Ticket for $68. The regular day ticket is $92. The Reduced Ticket is good for one entry on Dec. 4, 5 or 6, and the earliest entry is 12 p.m., depending on your time slot. The First Access ticket costs $105 and lets you in at 11 a.m., an hour before general entry. Both tickets are single entry, and once you leave, you're out. Children 12 and under get in free with a ticketed adult. Tickets are sold through Art Basel's official ticket page.
The fair is also smaller this year. Art Basel has announced 272 exhibitors from more than 40 countries and territories. The show floor is about 12% smaller, the Galleries sector has around 10% fewer exhibitors, and there are four hospitality plazas instead of five. With a single-entry ticket, a smaller floor makes one afternoon visit more realistic.
The fair's lease with the city changed this fall too. The Miami Herald reported on Oct. 15 that the City Commission approved a new agreement keeping Art Basel here through 2031, with an option to extend to 2033. Under the deal, annual venue rent falls from nearly $1 million to $500,000. Art Basel pays $100,000 toward the city's transportation costs, and the city covers $300,000 in first-responder costs. That transportation money covers the free boats and buses that make a car mostly unnecessary that week.
Leave the car where the shuttles start
The city expects the heaviest traffic on weekday afternoons, getting worse toward the weekend. Ongoing FDOT lane reductions near the Biscayne Boulevard off-ramp are expected to slow westbound traffic leaving the island on the MacArthur Causeway. Two city measures help. A construction moratorium bars non-city road, sidewalk and lane closures all week. The East Venetian Causeway drawbridge stays closed to boats from 3 to 9 p.m., Nov. 30 through Dec. 6, except for emergencies and vessels in distress.
The free options are all built around garages, so you can leave the car near where you start:
| Option | Where you board | When it runs |
|---|---|---|
| Water taxi to downtown Miami | Maurice Gibb Memorial Park, 1790 Purdy Ave., by the Sunset Harbour Garage | Every 7 to 9 minutes; 10 a.m. to midnight Nov. 30 to Dec. 5, 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Dec. 6 |
| Art Week shuttles | Convention Center Drive and 18th Street, for the 17th Street, Pennsylvania Avenue and City Hall garages; Purdy Avenue and 18th Street; Royal Palm Avenue between 41st and 42nd streets, for the 42nd Street Garage | Every 10 to 15 minutes, same hours as the water taxi |
| Miami Beach Trolley | Regular trolley stops | Extra service 8 a.m. to midnight, Dec. 2 to 5 |
The Mid Beach shuttle stops at Collins Avenue and 22nd, 32nd and 46th streets on its way to the Convention Center. The Design District shuttle can use the inside shoulders of the Julia Tuttle Causeway. From the water taxi dock, the Convention Center is about a 20 to 25 minute walk. E-bikes and e-scooters are not allowed on the beachwalk or sidewalks, and there will be micromobility parking at Faena and Untitled. The city's Art Week map shows every route. Text MBAlert to 888777 for traffic alerts. From Dec. 2 through 6, police will add staffing at key intersections, in the residential streets around the Convention Center and along the 41st Street corridor, partly to deal with traffic.
Sunday, Dec. 6 is when the two calendars overlap
The satellite fairs cluster around the middle of the week. Untitled Art is on the sand at Ocean Drive and 12th Street from Dec. 2 to 6. Design Miami sets up in Pride Park beside the Convention Center, and its schedule has the public opening on Wednesday, Dec. 2 at 1 p.m. InScope at 801 Ocean Drive, Aqua Art Miami at 1530 Collins and KEY Art + Design at 4601 Collins all run Dec. 2 through 6.
Dec. 6 is the final public day of Art Basel and of Untitled, and the last day of Between Tides in Collins Park. It's also Free Community Day at The Bass, with free admission for everyone from 12 to 5 p.m. That afternoon, the museum's Art Cares workshop, Painting with the Pros, is set for 3 to 5 p.m. with artist David Sexton, for ages 7 to 15. On Monday the Convention Center empties out. The hotel lobbies stay open through Dec. 19, and the newly purchased artwork stays in the Convention Center for good.
If Art Week has you thinking about how life near Collins Park, Sunset Harbour or the Mid-Beach shuttle line affects what your place is worth, Rebecca Sundel can walk you through it with a valuation based on your building and your block. Request Your Home Valuation, and we'll talk it over once the fairs have packed up.
