Via Brett Sokol for New York Magazine:

If the glory, freneticism, excess, and sunny evanescence of the current contemporary-art boom has a symbolic home, it’s Miami Beach. Thanks to the appearance of an exponentially more fabulous Art Basel Miami Beach fair each December since 2002, the once-tattered resort town has gained a new sense of itself as an aesthetic destination that goes beyond the mere appreciation of a set of well-wrought silicone implants. Now members of the local Establishment, enamored with their smart new friends—collectors, artists, and curators from around the world—want to see if they can get them to stick around. It’s partly about wishing to be taken seriously as a cultural alternative to New York and Los Angeles. But it’s also a bet that fertilizing the creative class is good economic-development policy—especially in a city hit hard by the real-estate meltdown. Which is why a local developer and collector, Craig Robins, is starting a free postgraduate art program in Miami.
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The 6th annual Art Basel Miami Beach closed Sunday reporting a higher overall attendance, more gallery participation and more international media coverage than in past years.

Messe Schweiz, the art fair’s owner, reported 43,000 visitors attended the fair, which officially kicked off Dec. 6 but began informally with collector parties, museum exhibition openings and other cultural events on Dec. 3.

The 200 galleries from 30 countries were selected from 850 applicants — the most the fair has received since it launched in December 2002. Art works by more than 2,000 artists were exhibited for sale inside the Convention Center and in shipping containers retrofitted for gallery space in Collins Park.

In addition to setting new attendance and gallery participation records, this year’s fair was the last under Art Basel Miami creator & director Sam Keller, who launched the inaugural fair as a sister to the original Art Basel in Switzerland.

In January, Keller will become director of the Fondation Beyeler in Riehen, Switzerland.

He will be replaced by a triumvirate to include director of operations and finance Annette Schonholzer, artistic director Cay Sophie Rabinowitz, and director for strategy and development Marc Spiegle.