That's one of the several mixed-up points in the Herald front page story: "Noses pressed to glass, local artists experience Basel." Yes: "... Greater Miami trails far behind cities that boast older, more sophisticated and better-funded art scenes." This is a city whose public commitment to art is Britto deep.
The point about cities and art is that first you have to cultivate, then you can harvest. Miami doesn't cultivate art in the public sense. Every expression of civic virtue is an extension of "build it, and they will come." Instead of seeding the schools and younger generations with art classes, capacity and infrastructure, we build stadiums and art palaces like the carniverous performing arts center. That these are all cut off from places where people live and difficult to get to is an extension of build anywhere and everywhere.
The Herald is right: talent does shine through. We have exceptional examples in Miami. Their emergence is miraculous. One example is Miami playwright from Liberty City, Tarell Alvin McCraney. Talent like his emerges almost in defiance of obstacles, like the seed of a tree sprouting in a crack of granite. But we could have done a lot more in Miami to cultivate our arts so that Art Basel would seem an extension of a city rather than a convenient place for the wealthy to spend a week before winter sets in. Miami could have guaranteed that the Miami River district would be accessible to artists, not just real estate speculators. This is not to minimize the real contribution of Craig Robbins, a real estate visionary who understands these cultural connections. What a tragedy that we missed the Miami River as an arts district where young aspiring artists could affordably live, just to satisfy developers, bankers, land use lobbyists and lawyers who collected fees for the ultimate purpose of benefiting vulture investors. We could have invested in education, not concrete edifices.
The question of misplaced priorities haunts Miami, today. It is a question that is guaranteed to be reflected in art from around the world at Art Basel, but not the local mainstream press.
7 comments:
Art Fairs come and go. Basel has shrunk the art season into one week of binging followed by withdrawals.
For a taste of the REAL Miami arts community, visit Swampspace Gallery... the un-gallery.
There may not be a defining arts movement in the incorrigible city-britto, yet we do have plenty of dedicated talent but a shortage of nouveau riche collectors.
http://swampstyle.blogspot.com/2009/11/swampy-openings.html
Imagine life in Miami if Manny Diaz and his backers had spent time trying to foster the arts at the grass roots level instead of spending all his time and energy getting more concrete buildings built that now sit either unfinished or empty and forlorn.
Imagine Miami with a diversified arts community well funded and spread throughout every neighborhood vs Manny Diaz and his "insiders" goal of spending $250 mil on a new not needed building for the broke no-collection Miami Art Museum? Imagine that $250 mil spread to 10,000 artists and aspiring artists? What could 10,000 artists do each with $25,000?
Hopefully clearer heads will prevail to protect the taxpayers and prevent another Performing Arts Center fiasco.
FriendsWithYou open their boutique in the Design District tomorrow. They're local :)
http://www.friendswithyou.com
Carlos and Rosa de la Cruz collected their own art and then they designed and built their own museum. It opened in early December, 2009 in the Design District. It has more exhibit space and far better art than the Miami Art Museum. MOST IMPORTANTLY, they built their museum and they paid for all the art using private money. They used their own money.
Contrast with Miami Art Museum which has a weak collection and it wants free land and $200 mil from the taxpayers...
This blog post is spot-on. Miami-proper and Miami Beach are rapidly becoming a place geared toward tourists, and the wealthy ones at that. Most regular, everyday citizens, who actually work for a living and don't have the luxury of old money to live on, don't live Downtown or on South Beach. Most of us live in the suburban hinterlands in Dade County/Southern Broward. Yet, we are often ignored and are only asked to contribute our tax dollars to help feed the "Let's develope Downtown, Miami for the wealthy tourist" monster. I'm tired of it. I DO NOT support Art Basel because it DOES NOT build community. I'm sick of rich people. I'm sick of their greed, corruption and their stupid foundations where all the funds bottle-neck and never really get to folks who need help anyway. Yes, this is a rant -- a serious one!
The de la Cruz art collection is legitimate.
Watch out for the slick con artists (lobbyists) who want Miami-Dade taxpayers to pay all the costs ($250 Million) for the no-collection no-endowment Miami Art Museum.
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