How to Seize the Art Week Moment

Art Basel and Miami Art Week are back with a bang! How can you make the most of the once-a-year opportunity? This is the moment to see art and connect with the curious and the cognoscenti—thousands of contemporary art lovers—your people—are streaming into South Florida from around the world.

Though you may not be presenting your amazing art or revealing your curatorial genius during this year’s exciting city-wide cultural event, we hope you’re still beating a path to Miami to immerse yourself in contemporary art. Yes, it’s time.

TEN Ways to Seize the Miami Art Week Moment

We’re illustrating this post with two views of an installation in process on Miami Beach. Savannah College of Art and Design presents Chroma, by Carlos Cruz-Diez in a container positioned next to UNTITLED art fair. As you can see, your experience of the art depends on your approach. Here follows a creative strategy to maximize your approach to Art Week 2017. Written especially with artists and curators in mind.

1. Dress creatively. Let your clothes introduce your stand-out professional style.
2. Remember your business cards. Be sure they feature current contact info, website and social media handles.
3. Do the research. Explore the Art Basel Miami Beach (ABMB) and satellite fair websites. Read the online Art Week previews. Look for your niche. At PRIZM, you’ll find the focus is on Diasporic art. Pinta concentrates on art from Latin America. Find out what’s on view in local galleries and museums, and who’s presenting talks, performances and special events. See our Miami Art Week 2017 What to See post for ideas.
4. Create a realistic daily schedule. Plot your course with a map of the city. Create an itinerary with the time, date and location of your must-see fairs and events. Art Basel’s online Event Schedule is a good starting point. Miami Beach, Downtown, Wynwood, Design District and Little Haiti are the main art zones this year. Getting stuck in traffic is not fun, so be strategic—plan for a couple of days on the beach and a couple of days in the city.
5. Take advantage of all that you can experience for FREE. This year, ABMB Conversations is a terrific (and FREE) daily talk program at the Botanical Garden across from the Miami Beach Convention Center. ABMB presents free nightly outdoor sound art and film screenings and public performances at Soundscape Park and Collins Park. Faena Art commissioned five immersive public art projects right on the beach. The Carlos Cruz-Diez container project pictured here is free to explore.
6. Introduce yourself to the fair director and curator, and to gallerists, artists and collectors you meet. Trade cards. Spark conversations about the art and events that you’re collectively encountering.
7. Ask questions. At all the fairs, you’ll find galleries exhibiting art that speaks to you. Spend time getting to know the work you really like and meet the people who make it and show it. Ask questions (a really good one: How much does this work cost?)
8. Create a mini-portfolio on your smart phone, a 10-image gallery of your best recent work.
9. Prepare and share your pitch—a 30 second intro to your work. After you show your interest in the gallerists, collectors, curators and artists you meet, be sure you’re ready to talk about yourself.
10. Follow Up. Within five days after you get home, take time to communicate with five people that you met during Art Week. Add yourself to the mailing list of at least two galleries that you would like to work with. Search for your new contacts on social media and get connected!

Contributed by Collete Mello with Evelyne Zapata and Cathy Byrd for Fresh Art International.

DON'T MISS AN EPISODE!

Listen On:

Click below to get our research guides:

TEN Ways to Seize the Miami Art Week Moment