[Music] hello and welcome to this special edition of your South Florida Basel art week and Beyond I'm your guest host Darius V dartry I'm a writer and director and the founder and executive artistic director of art prevails project a performing and literary Arts nonprofit with the mission of making art accessible by providing authentic and engaging artistic and cultural experiences this month South Florida is all about the visual arts as art basil and Miami art week sweep the region into an artistic frenzy let's jump in with what the art and creative Community bring to our bottom line the nonprofit Americans for the Arts tracks the economic impact of the Arts in communities its latest reports showed that in Miami dat arts and culture generate $2.1 billion in economic activity every year in browers that number is closing in on 400 million and in the Palm Beaches it's 335 million let's put some context to those numbers to understand where the numbers become this large it's it's something called a ripple effect if someone pays a dollar to an Arts Organization for a programming that has gone on and they've attended that but then that dollar then goes towards someone's salary in the Arts organization it goes to one some of it goes to a Handler some of it goes to the PR Company right so it goes into the operations of that organization that pays for that then that Handler that art Handler takes a fraction of that and spends it on a sandwich at a store around the corner the pr firm hires somebody with a fraction of that in their firm and they go out and spend it on something and it goes on and on and on joining me now to talk about the huge impact of the Arts on South Florida economically and Beyond as Dennis sh Dennis is a familiar face on the south Florida and National Art scene and he played a key role in bringing art basil to town over 20 years ago Dennis has also been a leader in the Arts with both the Knight foundation and uite arts welcome it's great to have you with us Dennis good to be here so um tell us uh initially like what was the the impetus in bringing something like basil from Switzerland to Miami well I think 20 25 years ago nobody ever thought of Miami as a cultural Oasis we got to be honest however in the last 20 years or so we have gotten the best teaching Symphony in America the best young Talent spotting organization in young Arts we have one of the the best ballets in America um and so Miami has kind of elevated as a cultural institution and when the bosel folks came to town over 20 years ago and said we're thinking about doing a second version of the fair we knew as a community that this was a chance to hit the motherload really and so we whed them and dined them and one of the things that happened was the collectors in town came together uh the rubel family the brayman family the De La Cruz family uh they all came together to try to convince Art Basel to come here and when it did it changed everything how hard was it one to convince both the O Basel to come here but also then for the community to to buy in and feel like this is something that we needed to have here it was actually harder to get the community to understand what it meant to have the fair here because there's a natural tendency to think well the art fair is coming somehow my art is going to be a part of of it but it's an international art fair with 200 and something galleries from all over the world with artists from various places all over the world so the actual footprint in the beginning of local artists was very limited so they did what artists always do they kind of figured out a way to get in the action and what they did was they would do these other events that were not part of Art bosil in the Mammy Beach Convention Center but big events big installations and that is what's become Miami art week you have art bosel the fair which is whatever everybody flies in for in their private jets and goes to parties and everything but then you also have all the ancillary events around it with local artists with people coming in to show films to do events things like that so it has become one wild party that week yeah so Miami art week uh I'll tell you like I I do and do a lot around that I go and and see a lot of these amazing installations you know spend way too much time you know down there so maybe talk a little bit more about some of those great things that you see happening um outside of the the convention center so one of the things that has happened is that all the museums have up their game substantially so uh this year for art bosel the Perez art museum has an installation a big exhibition by one of my favorite artist Gary Simmons uh he works with uh chalk on on big wall drawings and uh he he talks about the black experience and he's amazing amazing artist and we're very lucky to have him uh here during artart bosle but that's an example of what everybody does everybody kind of gets ready for art bosel to come to town and uh elevates their own exhibition program because uh you know people are in the convention center a lot when they come to town but they also move around the city and that's where we benefit we benefit from people getting to see Miami to see Miami Beach I would say that I think everybody knows that Miami has changed a lot in the last 3 or four years since covid we've had this huge influx of Financial businesses I would say in in some part that is because people would have come down before that seen Miami for a few days during aren bosil and said I could live here and they have and they've come yeah a lot of them a lot of them lot of them so with that being said um well I've seen it the evolution of Miami as a as an Arts city um from the rise of Winwood um and with with Art Basel being here so maybe Beyond just the the fair and and that week uh what's your ideas about how Miami has evolved as an art City well I think the big thing we are always shooting for is to make sure that uh Miami is an art City more than those five days when the fair is in town got to take care of the other 360 days and there are a number of organizations that have uh helped do that uh our Miami dat County government is one of the largest art funders on a per capita basis of any County government in the country so they have have always stepped up you couple that with a community that has the KN Foundation which has put over $200 million into arts in Mii Dade County uh over the last dozen or so years um and then there are other organizations I I happen to have run up until recently an organization called ulite Arts that you mentioned and we work with individual artists and we also put money out to individual artists to help keep them going so there's this great safety net that has been built over the last couple of DEC ades for working artists in our community um that seems great the only issue recently has been of course housing housing has become very difficult for everybody but particularly for artists because they're gig economy people they they work in gigs so they have time to work on their practice so um there's a lot of discussion about that oite Arts has just decided to give artist housing stipend to artists so that if you become an ulite resident artist you get a free Studio but you also get a housing stipend you know to help fight back against what has happened to R so I would have to say that M Dave county is a very welcoming place for artists and it is a place where uh we have built up this uh set of tools as an artist that you can access got to do something about giving artists a way to live otherwise you're going to lose them so then to that point as an artist myself um I know what it's was like me for like for for me growing up how do we help Shi the idea of what it means to be a working artist right you know to so that people can start to think about Artist as just part of society just as a doctor or an engineer or or an educator yeah well I think the disconnect is that people love art but sometimes we forget that it comes from artists and that's tough I mean it's a difficult situation to be in so I think as you said we have to begin to treat artists like any other professional in our community and to and to acknowledge that without artists our community would be a much different place and so you've got to find a way to create housing opportunities for them you've got to understand that they work differently than other people in terms of like I said the you know they'll take gigs versus have a nine-to-five job so we've got to continue to fight for artists in our community because without it it would be a much sadder Place yeah absolutely absolutely you hear that everybody fight for artists um so before we go what are you looking for you mentioned the uh the exhibit at at Pam uh anything else that you were looking forward to this upcoming SE season well you know Art Basel Miami Beach the fair itself at the convention center is just a cornucopia of opportunities when it comes to seeing art you can see art from probably 40 countries and uh within the fair there's always something new I actually go through the fair uh every day because I I Walk This Way one day and then I walk the other way the other day and this way this way you know I mean the fair is so big and so massive and you know they do change it o overnight if things are selling really well that you know things change so I have to confess that I spend most of my time at the art fair itself the other two fairs that I really enjoy going to are called Untitled and that's right on the beach uh on 12th Street and uh just off of Ocean Drive there's a big tent right on the beach they build it and then a really young Fair where you see artists that someday will be in the main fair is one called nat which is a fair that's on 14th Street on at the city of Miami it's it's across the bay um both of those are really fun really young and you can find something you can afford you know it's art art is comes at all levels and all prices and so in those fairs it's pretty easy to find something really cool Dennis thank you so much for joining us and hopefully I'll see you down at the fair we'll see you down there and come by and see the collection with love to have you I sure will I sure will we checked in with a couple of local curators for their strategy to tackling the frenzy and traffic of art week here's commissioner Deja Carrington in art scene 365's Dany Tapia for some thoughts on planning your best art week experience I love to think about it as Miami are weak more than Basel even though you know it's Basel is so so important but I like to think of how great an opportunity it is for our local artists and for our local organizations to be seen by many people from around the world my name is Danny Tapia I'm the founder and curator for art scene 365 pretty much all the institutions and local venues will have an offering during Miami our week and it's they are great choices for the public for the locals to actually be part of the Miami art week without necessarily probably incurring into the expenses of the our or the traffic and at the same time have the opportunity to be part of the of the ex signment the museums for example the pisar museum always has new shows new offerings and it's a great venue for people who wants to go and be part of it without being in the mainland without necessarily going to to Miami Beach also uh a local projects a local artist Cornelius tulo is going to have an installation and I'm looking forward Cornelius have had a great year he had had shows in New York you know have had some installations over here but I'm really looking forward to what he's going to do in at Locos because this is what Locus projects is known for like giving artists an opportunity to really stretch themselves stretch their practice and and create something new I am very excited for a program that the city of Miami Beach put together called No Vacancy where basically they do an open call and commission 12 artists to do installations at uh local uh hotels and then this is open to the public completely free and it gives the artists an opportunity to do an installation to show their work my name is G Carrington and I am the co-founder and executive director of commissioner some of the things that I'm most excited about is this artwork commission that we're doing with giovana Gonzalez we Commission giovana in season 3 of commissioner um to do a performance and installation and she'll be bringing that back in an all new iteration called playl a act 6 at Untitled artfare but it's going to be free and open to the public so imagine performance on The Sands of Miami Beach that really explore movement as a political act another initiative I'm very excited about is what's happening over at the historic Hampton house I mean this is one of the gems of Miami the last Hotel of the green book and I think more recently known for being featured in the film One Night in Miami where Sam Cook and Muhammad Ali um and Malcolm X come together to have that that Monumental conversation but they're going to be hos in range of programming including an exhibition with a collection of Beth the Woody uh they're going to be featuring a sculpture by Reginal O'Neal as well as an exhibition by Miami's own Jared McGriff some of the ways in which I like to plan my week is geographically because traffic is real so first of all I decide whether it's a day to be in Miami Beach or it's a day to be on the mainland the other thing that I like to do is really just focus on the artist I know and then I think about what are some of the events or some of the exhibitions I can see that I won't see any other time of year because this is a special time um to be able to catch a popup show or something more ephemeral so I like to try and do something very different I ask myself is it weird enough is it interesting enough am I going to like the vibe and that's how I do it I also like to stick to maybe only two to three things a today I know um there's this impetus to want to have it all but sometimes you just need to be present with the work and so I try and take that pressure off and really just kind of align with my values and step into the places I want to be there's also a lot of people and families and you know that live on the west side of the county that sometimes have a harder time preaching or accessing the cultural offerings so that's why it's so important also to balance a little bit the the offerings towards the the west side of the county of course on that side we have the Frost Art Museum which is a a jewel of a museum and uh the Dural Contemporary Art Museum in terms of navigating the mainland um there's just so much going on between Miami based galleries so my uh trick is always to just input it in a map so I start with the Museum of Contemporary Art in North Miami which is going to be showing an incredible exhibition with Detroit based artist Jia Richards and then work my way down south and from there you can go to the galleries in Little Haiti maybe have a stop over at the historic Hampton House pass by the rubel collection come all the way back up for primary and spinello projects gradually and at new art dealers art fair the most important thing um about art week is to just be really curious and to remember that you belong in any space that you enter in so ask the questions um dive into the work stay present try and meet the artist if you can I think at best you come away from art week with new relationships with new topics that you want to look further into maybe with a travel plan to go visit their the artists in a studio wherever they may live think it's a time to build on um friend ship it's a time to immerse yourself in art and also a time to enjoy [Music] Miami joining us to talk more about an event designed to get you off the beach in exploring alternative Arts venues Dr Willie Logan president and CEO of tin North group and B car MB curator of the city of opal's art of transformation installations and Street party gentlemen welcome thank you glad to be here for having us absolutely we got we have a lot to go over here because you have an event during the week and I also want to talk about all a lot of the things that are happening in the city so Dr Logan uh first for you what is your vision for the city of opaka uh when it comes to the Arts and why is the city so dear to you well I think the vision for the city of opaka is similar to the vision of any City or any neighborhood and that is you want a community that has access to the best of everything everything in life and so whether it's food whether it's art um whether it's education um recreational activities Etc we believe that art is transformative um and art not only tells stories but um it reminds us of times of the past but it also lays out a framework for the future and it gives us an opportunity to share the experiences of um people from various walks of life and it also brings people together and it serves quite frankly as a c Catalyst um for interaction and for understanding and so with that what how have you seen that um impact the cities thus far in a very positive way I I I think when you mention the word opalak now people don't first think of something negative they think of a city that has unique architecture a city um that's growing um a city um where people want to come visit and and we believe that um very soon people want to live there um from all walks of life and not just folks who see it as a second choice community and and so we're very excited that um bringing art as a way of attracting folks a way of giving folks understanding and a way of entertaining people and bringing people from different walks of like together is very very important for any community in any neighborhood to prosper and for people to have understanding and empathy for each other absolutely that I I totally agree with that and so uh Dr Logan mentioned the art of transformation and as you know so Baba car if you can tell us a little bit I know I've visited and i' I've been around it so I know that the the whole exhibit the whole time that you all have there is around the African art and the AFC the full African diaspora so maybe if you can tell us a little bit more about that right yeah absolutely I think that uh both the uh series of exhibitions and the uh programs and the relationship to the neighborhood um as Dr Logan was just uh mentioning is is important the this year is very unique in the sense that it is a gathering of four different exhibitions within uh the the campus so um titled the global Africa Africa Global um where the citoral team which is overseeing these exhibitions is composed of a variety of people not only from the African diaspora but also of European descent into exploring um the global nature of uh Black Culture through exhibition through um a garden of sculpture with 6.5 uh fit um uh sculptures uh from Africa and the Caribbean and to bring these curators from around the world black curators to opaka uh for example we have t mosaka who was the creator of the BNL of Johannesburg Professor yakoba konate who is the chair of the Department of art history at the University of Aban and who is who was also the curator of the AOS Pavilion at the last venis BNL uh Philip Thomas is from the adnam M School of Art uh Abdullah konate is a major African contemporary artist who is also a curator who is going to Cate so each of these curators works on a particular team too masaka is going to look at the fragmentation of identity through migration uh uh and a particular element in this is the invited country so last year for example you we were pleased to see you we invited Haiti uh so this year we are exploring Puerto Rico and these are uh separate unique uh Pavilion in which the full presentation of that country we invited could be uh explor with curators from that uh country Abel uh Ramos is from the University of Madrid but Puerto Rican who will be doing the uh exhibition on Puerto Rico the experience of uh both Island and diaspora those Dynamics so in terms of teams in terms of the scholarship that was brought into this from around the African diaspora provid us with an opportunity to present uh a unique P perspective on African and African diaspora people not only from the US and Africa but from a Global Perspective so for example for the the um unveiling of these magnificient sculpture made in Cuba uh conceived in Cuba which is almost a ton of in bronze which is imag the goddess of the sea but in a in a contemporary articulation so there are so many um layers in this year art of transformation which perhaps for the first time we are able now to bring all the component of the global Africa into one campus into four sites but walkable across each other that sounds amazing like I'm I'm you just talking about it has me hyped to go to go and be a part of it it is uh I well quickly maybe you mentioned it being the global Africa and maybe talk about uh either one of you why is it important to have that not only in opaka but like during this week of our Baza when when this is an International Festival why is it important to have that uh happening at this moment it's important that it's happening in opaka um because opaka is a majority African American Community um it's located off the beat of where most of the artists um or culture activities in Mii day County take place and we think that every neighborhood every Community every residents need within walking distance or a short ride um access to um the type of programming in other words to engage with these artists to understand their stories the type of entertainment so whether it's dance spoken word music and the visual art where the sculptures or paintings Etc should have access access to it and and and and they should have access to it within their neighborhoods we also recognize that that um once you bring culture and art and entertainment property values the interest of people living there the interest of people having businesses and working there um is is is is is multiplied by many times and and and that's evident and we can just see that throughout um Miami day County if not throughout the world I think also what makes us unique is that the increase in property value the increase in wealth the increase in income opportunities Once a community takes off um is important to the residents that are there and so our goal through this Auto transformation is not to is to transform the community by adding additional people additional activities additional Services additional programming but not displacing the people who are currently there which is I think you know it's always important right because as those property values you know increase what happens to the people that live there think that Scholars young kids um Young Artists aspiring artists um entrepreneurs alike um should um have access to these things and and so all of our programming is free we we we always um insist or require or invite the artist to to be in to do um to interact with the community we we we um we when our basil leaves our Art stays up you know for a couple more months because we're not doing it just for international crowd or our buyers we're doing it for um the people who are here and and then we share it with the folks who are visiting and so we we're very excited we we we believe that we have the most important collection of African and African diaspora art contemporary art or art and and we go back and forth was contemporary because as you know everything was contemporary at its time Absolut and and so we think our collection is is is significantly important um not only to this community but but to um the United States and Americas in general because of the fact that it is so Global in nature and it's so representative of the diaspora that we are excited and and barar cart and I Dr imbau and I um quite frankly are the elders you know you we we we reach out and we work with the curators we work with the artists we we work with the the program folks we we serve as advisers I I say he's our Grio often folks we refer to me as AG G in the sense that we're there um to to serve as a foundation support inspiration and to open doors and provide access to those who um will be be the next um leaders within our community and so whether it's the managers of um a CER whether it's the curator whether it's the artist or whether it's the person who's building the frames or the person who's actually I'm setting things up or whatever the case may be working in the behind the scene we think it's important that we empower folks in our community in this space in this industry and that's really the role that the two of us play Dr Ile Dr Logan thank you so much for joining us and I look forward to seeing you all down at the art of transformation thank you for Hing us for more on the art of transformation in this year's Miami art week follow us on Facebook at your southl I'm Darius V doy thanks for [Music] watching [Music]