Expanding horizons: with the Miami art world in the throes of rapid change, the author examines the impact of growth, spurred by the arrival of Art Basel, on public institutions, galleries and artists - Report From Miami

The Key Biscayne home of Rosa and Carlos de la Cruz is both a residence and an exhibition space. Art fills an extended series of adjoining white-walled galleries of varying dimensions, many with soaring ceilings, designed to accommodate the growing collection. While their museum-residence is not open to the public on a regular basis, the de la Cruzes frequently welcome art-interested visitors. The collection began with, and remains heavily committed to, art from the Latin diaspora, including multiple pieces by Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Jose Bedia, Ana Mendieta, Teresita Fernandez, Pedro Reyes and Arturo Herrera, some of whom have strong Miami ties. A large upstairs gallery presents about 50 works by Gabriel Orozco. Counterpointing the Latin focus, an adjoining all-red space features British artist Isaac Julien's double-projection video installation Vagabondia (2000). The collection also includes work by Tracey Emin, Sarah Morris, Thomas Schutte, Peter Doig, Gerhard Richter, Jim Hodges, Yoshitomo Nara, Takashi Murakami and many others.

Another energetic contemporary collector, Arturo Mosquera, has an unusual presentation strategy. Mosquera, an ardent supporter of several Miami museums and a member of the board of Locust Projects, has been collecting advanced Latin American art with his wife, Liza, since the late '80s, acquiring some 400 works in all mediums; they are installed not only in the couple's home, but in the offices of his orthodontic practice. For several years, the waiting room has served as one of Miami's most unusual art spaces, featuring solo shows of often challenging work by Leandro Soto, Glexis Novoa, Ana Albertina Delgado, Jorge Pantoja, Eduoard Duval-Carrie, Luisa Basnuevo, Elizabeth Cerejido and others.

Art and Real Estate

Craig Robins, whose real estate company, Dacra, was founded in 1987, has been a leading force in the development of the Miami Design District, a once dilapidated 18-square-block neighborhood between downtown Miami and South Beach that is now a major center of the home furnishings and interior design industries in South Florida. In large part through Robins's efforts, it is also currently replete with galleries, alternative spaces, artists' studios and public projects, many of these originally (and some on a continuing basis) funded by Robins himself. Robins is the district's biggest landlord (he owns or is in the process of developing some 35 buildings), and, as in his previous projects, like the development of Lincoln Road in the early '90s, he encourages the area's growth through the incorporation of art and design. (Lincoln Road, once studded with contemporary galleries, enjoyed a brief flowering as an art center until rising rents and the lack of a local art market in the mid-'90s caused its demise.) In 2000, Dacra began Aqua Development Project on Allison Island in North Beach, a luxury residential development of modernist design; now under construction, it will feature commissioned public art works by Kuitca, Richard Tuttle, Handforth and others.