What is the mother of all art events?

That’s easy – Art Basel in Switzerland and Miami Beach are the largest and most significant art fairs in the world.

Rather than host the typical stuffy art fair in an enclosed convention center, Art Basel Miami Beach for instance, is regarded as a mulitmedia beachfront fiesta, with concerts, dancing, and food tasting, with exhibition sites located in the city’s beautiful Art Deco District – a vibrant creative haven unto itself. Also, the art among the 195 galleries and 2000 artists isn’t just expressed in paintings and sculpture, but ever increasingly in forms that appeal to us on a daily, practical basis: music, film, architecture, design and fashion. The last Art Basel Miami Beach attracted 30,000 visitors.

It’s kind of like taking Austin’s First Thursday (profiled yesterday), DC’s Art Party, and a community of cutting edge designers, then multiplying twentyfold. The opportunity to cities however, is learning how to create neighborhood versions of Art Basel.

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