The Betsy Hotel Celebrates Art Week with New Art Installations, Jazz Performances, & Grand Opening Event on Dec 6
The Betsy Hotel is hosting an array of new art installations including special jazz performances during Miami Beach Art Week, as well as through out the year. It is recognized as both a luxury resort hotel and a global cultural destination.
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During Miami Beach Art Week 2024, The Betsy will celebrate 15 new exhibiting artists, while presenting live dance, a new public art installation, literary programming, and daily jazz performances. The hotel’s growing permanent art collection will be on display as well. Artwork is for sale with a portion of proceeds benefiting ZARA’S CENTER, The Betsy Hotel’s charitable haven for children in Zimbabwe.
“The Art of the Orb” by Robin Hill is a permanent exhibit found inside The Betsy Orb @thebetsyhotel. The Orb is a connecting bridge (doubling as public art) designed by @shulmandesign between the two wings of the Betsy Hotel.
On Friday, December 6, from 5-8 p.m., The Betsy will host its annual property-wide art opening and artist meet-and-greet. Selected exhibiting visual artists along with Poet E. Ethelbert Miller and Choreographer Peter London will be present. The event is free and open to the public. RSVP on Eventbrite.
From December 1–12, The Betsy Orb will be a canvas for Augmented Visions of the NatureVerse, an installation by digital artist [dNASAb] as part of the City of Miami’s No Vacancy 2024. In areas adjacent to The Betsy ORB - in the Alley (at 14th Place and Ocean Dr.) - featured window installations include [dNASAb]’s augmented reality activated stills, up through January 1, 2025.
dNASAb]’s installations of augmented reality activated stills will be on display at (14th place) in the Alley adjacent to The Betsy Orb from December 1, 2024 thru January 1, 2025, in partnership with the City of Miami Beach. Photo by [dNASAb]
Throughout Art Week 2024, The Betsy will feature the “Art of Miami Jazz Past and Present,” a series of jazz performances at The Piano Bar, all free and open to the public.
Saturday, November 30 | 9 p.m.: Vocalist Nicole Yarling & Pianist Jim Gasior celebrate Josephine Baker in partnership with the Black Affairs Committee of the City of Miami Beach.
Thursday, December 5 | 6-11 p.m.: Jazz Pianist extraordinaire Leonard Reina performs.
Friday, December 6 | 6 p.m. to midnight: Simon Mogul, young tenor sax talent and Curtis Lundy, Miami-born, award-winning double-bass player known for his work with Betty Carter, perform in partnership with the FIU Wolfsonian Public Humanities Project.
Saturday, December 7 | 6 p.m. to midnight: The Harden Project, a Miami-born team that includes singer and composer Ja’Nia Harden and musician and composer John Harden.
The Betsy Hotel’s Carlton Room galleries will display work by Elinor Carucci (b. 1971) an Israeli-American photographer best known for The Collars of RBG (2023), a collection that highlights the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s lifelong triumph over adversity and gender discrimination - as well as the individualism she expressed through her diverse collars.
Elinor Carrucci, from The Collars of RBG, All Rights Reserved (top) 2015- State of Union Address Collar, 2020 (bottom) South American Collar
“I see this project as being (very) personal,” said Carucci. “Ruth Bader Ginsburg held special significance for Jewish women like me who dreamed of living a life that combined career success with (service to community). She represented my identity, values, and connection to America - and the values I hope to one day hand over to my daughter, [who, like Ginsburg,] is an American Jew, the child of an immigrant.”
At The Betsy’s signature restaurant, LT Steak & Seafood, which also serves as one of the Hotel’s most visible and visited exhibition spaces, the curated photo collection is the work of Lillian Bassman (1917-2012) — a celebrated contemporary of Richard Avedon and Irving Penn, known as the most important fashion woman fashion photographer of the last century. Her work has recently received more critical and historical acclaim than she received during her lifetime.
Anne Saint-Marie, New York, Chanel Advertising Campaign, 1958 - Photo by Lillian Bassman, Courtesy of Peter Fetterman Gallery
In The Betsy’s Gallery, viewers find featured work by Florida-born conservation photographer Mac Stone. The collection images from Stone’s time spent in the Everglades and highlights his success in using a photo lens to ‘change public opinion towards these often misunderstood and maligned ecosystems’. To celebrate this collection, Peter London Global Dance Company will present a new dance piece at The Betsy’s December 6 opening party, that includes music from the Everglades Songbook Suite by Jose Elias , a Cuban American composer/musician.
The Betsy’s Carlton Room Galleries will also include work by French artist Sonia Hamza (b. 1975), featuring imagery produced by weaving and stitching ‘into’ the pixels of photos of her ex fiancé whose rejection jump-started Hamza’s successful arts career. The work can be described as self-reflective mixed-media art that coalesces textiles, graphic design, and photography.
Chant de laine-June, Artwork by Sonia Hamza, used with permission.
Lesley Goldwasser, co-owner of The Betsy Hotel, is also its principal exhibitions curator. In 14+ dedicated spaces, providing 25,000 sq. ft. of space to showcase (mostly) photography, Goldwasser curates new collections annually to premiere in tandem with Art Basel Miami Beach. Maintaining a separate collection of almost 1000 additional works that rotate periodically throughout the property, Goldwasser also works year-round with major global galleries and artists at all career stages, from emerging to established, and is a board member of WOPHA.
Gallery, community, and charitable partners for The Betsy’s 2024 Miami Beach Art Week include Peter Fetterman Gallery, Edwynn Houk Gallery, The Everglades Foundation, iWitness/Iris Photo Collective, FIU Wolfsonian Public Humanities Lab The Jorge Pérez Family Foundation, PG Family Foundation, City of Miami Beach, GMCVB Arts & Culture and Mexica Tequila.