The Art in Public Places Legacy Program was adopted by the City Commission on September 11, 2019 via Resolution 2019-30989. This initiative was established to deepen the connection of the City of Miami Beach residents and Art Basel Miami Beach by allowing the Miami Beach community to come together and select a legacy piece for our Art in Public Places collection to exist within the Miami Beach Convention Center campus year-round.

The Art in Public Places (AiPP) Ordinance (Ordinance No. 95-2985) was adopted in 1995. The ordinance was created to “enhance the aesthetic environment of the City of Miami Beach by including works of art on public property within the City and in City construction projects.”

The AiPP program is currently funded by 2% of all hard costs of City projects, including new construction, additions, and costs for construction of joint private/public projects. The fund is used for the commission or acquisition of works of art; conservation and maintenance of works of art; research and evaluation of works of art; printing and distribution of related materials; and administration.

The goals of the AiPP program are: overseeing the City's public art collection; enhancing the physical environment of Miami Beach with artworks of the highest level of quality and suitability for the site; serving as the coordinating body for all public art projects on City property; building partnerships with the private sector, non-profit and community groups that connect the AiPP projects to the life of the City; encouraging participation by artists based locally, nationally and internationally; and serving as a source of information about public art.

In a continued effort to support partnerships and build the Miami Beach Art in Public Places Collection in a thoughtful, strategic way, Miami Beach Art in Public Places and Art Basel Miami Beach established a legacy purchase program. On October 20, 2020, the Art in Public Places Committee held a meeting to discuss the continuation of this initiative and made a formal recommendation to continue the program as part of Art Basel Miami Beach OVR, via Letter to Commission 383-2020 issued on October 28, 2020.  

For its second year, the Legacy Purchase Program will focus on the purchase of a work from a Miami-Dade County based gallery, an artist who lives and/or works in Miami-Dade County, and/or by an artist who has a significant connection to the Miami-Dade community (represented by local galleries, attended University in Miami-Dade, spent significant time living or working here, etc.).

The funding for this purchase already exists and has been identified from the Art in Public Places fund, from contingency funding not utilized during the production of the Miami Beach Convention Center Art in Public Places installations.  All maintenance of the purchased piece will also come from this fund.

The Tourism and Culture department have been working directly with Art Basel Miami Beach to orchestrate this initiative and issued a call for available works to galleries participating in the Art Basel Miami Beach OVR 2020. The call will close on November 20, 2020 and selected a short list of artworks that will be considered for the Legacy Purchase Program. The artworks will be selected based on artistic excellence, relevance of the artwork in terms of current artistic practice, local, national and international representation, suitability of the artwork in a public environment and investment value to the Art in Public Places Collection. The recommended artists and representing galleries will be notified on November 23, 2020.

The short list of selected artworks will be posted on the City of Miami Beach's social media accounts, along with photos, descriptions and artist / gallery interviews (where possible) for popular vote on Wednesday, December 2, 2020 at 8PM. Residents of Miami Beach will also be encouraged to view the selected works through the Art Basel Miami Beach OVR, when Art Basel OVR opens to the public on Thursday, December 3rd at 3pm. Voting ends on Saturday,  December 5, 2020 at 8PM.

The artwork with the most votes will be announced on Sunday, December 6, 2020.  The selected work will become part of the Miami Beach Art in Public Places Collection and will be displayed within the Miami Beach Convention Center campus.

The intent of the Legacy Purchase Program is to connect the Miami Beach residents with Art Basel Miami Beach, by having them be an active participant in the selection of a legacy piece for our public art collection, while supporting artists and art galleries that participate in the annual art fair, while also bringing awareness to the investment the community has made in the Miami Beach Convention Center, where the art will be showcased for years to come.

In its inaugural year, the Legacy Purchase Program acquired two works, Cobalt Blue Earring by Amoaka Boafo and as the garden secrets a swarm of monarchs feast. ..a john crow awaits a carcass’ fall while scavengers gather to feast below, as we dig between the cuts…below the leaves…beneath the soil by Ebony G. Patterson. The Amoaka Boafo work is currently on loan to The Bass Museum for their reopening exhibition: Open Storage: Selections from the Collection and Works on Loan. The Ebony G. Patterson is being installed in the East Lobby of the Miami Beach Convention Center.

The funding for this item is up to $80,000.00, and has already been identified as coming from the MBCC AiPP contingency fund, which is a fund dedicated to the purchase of public art via the City of Miami Beach's Art in Public Places ordinance.