Santa Fe is the most artistic city in the America. Richard Florida confirmed it in an article for The Atlantic Magazine's Cities website.

Santa Fe is twice as artistic as the second city named in his analysis - San Francisco. Florida used data gathered by the U.S. Census Bureau for his study.

This month was the 10th anniversary of Art Basel Miami Beach. In what amounts to a week-long art viewing, hobnobbing, party-hopping bender, the international art glitterati descend upon Miami Beach to see, be seen, schmooze, acquire, revel, gossip, and generally carouse. In addition to Art Basel Miami Beach there are 16 satellite fairs scattered throughout the city, museum exhibitions, gallery openings, private collection tours, concerts, performances, brunches, and VIP events in a timeline better suited to a month-long endeavor than a five-day art event.

Art Basel originated in Basel, Switzerland and came to Miami in 2002. Over the years, the fair has profoundly transformed the city while it is there. Hotel rooms, flights, restaurants, stores, galleries, museums are teeming, and Miami garners the focus of international publicity on a previously unprecedented scale.

The week is a testament to the unassailable and unnerving fact that money and art are inextricably bound. This week lays bare and unabashedly celebrates the fact of their interdependence. The art world is an amalgamation of pretense and brilliance - breathtaking imagination alongside gilded Gucci-clad lemmings. Miami invites that dichotomy in its most extreme - amazing works by little known and experimental artists at the fringes of art making presented simultaneously with the insecurity, boredom, and keeping up with the Joneses that is the "dark side" of the art world. Read entire article.

Cyndi Conn is an independent curator and consultant working with Creative Santa Fe.