Arizona Iced Tea at Art Basel Miami Beach

Headlines are scattered across the internet about the "Art Museum on a Can." Lemon Fizz is a new drink designed by artist Richard Prince and produced by AriZona Iced Tea. This drink (and its artistically aesthetic can) will debut in December at Art Basel Miami Beach.

AriZona’s Global Communications Director Jackie Harrigan said, “The package design celebrates Richard’s creativity and history within the art world, with secret elements for consumers to discover that signify the union of our creative forces”

Marketing Art

What has the art world buzzing about this highly decorated lemon soda is that the artist approached the corporation and not the other way around. Instead of being seen as an endorsement, the new drink is actually a genius stroke of marketing material for AriZona Iced Tea.

Pictured in black and white, Richard Prince’s debonair pose is plastered on top of a colorful background of his work. His signature scrawls across the front.

Making a Splash

AriZona Iced Tea is a popular drink among the trendsetting crowd. Richard Prince contacted AriZona to make his own drink, moved by his love for lemon flavored drinks and tea. Prince states, "As a fan of AriZona’s Arnold Palmer line, it felt natural to collaborate and the partnership evolved from there. The outcome is Lemon Fizz, which is a fantastic beverage and one that I can employ in my own craft."

The new drink already has three events presenting it at Art Basel Miami Beach, and 23 other venues in Miami will also be offering Lemon Fizz. Even a special sorbet will be made with Lemon Fizz and other fresh ingredients, such as: ginger, pomegranate and basil.

Setting Apart Your Brand

When it comes to Art Basel Miami Beach, something original and over-the-top is how major brands and designers make waves. The event space Miami offers will be packed full of high fashion parties and galleries for a week long party in the Magic City. Reserving the right venue in Miami and creatively marketing your brand at Art Basel Miami Beach is the only way to stand out in a slew of competing designers seeking the attention of socialites and celebrities.

Art Basel 2013 - Start planning now!

Each year during the 1st week of December, Miami is the epicenter of the modern and contemporary art world. During those four days in 2013, Art Basel Miami will return to town, bringing with it an estimated 50,000 collectors, artists and gallery owners from around the globe to celebrate creativity and stunning innovation in the Wynwood District and beyond.

If your goal is to participate in this exciting art show, then now is the time to start looking for event locations in Miami for your function. Most event space in Miami is booked up many months in advance of Art Basel, so it is important to lock down a space as soon as you know the date that you want to hold your event.

Booking early will also allow you to choose from the best event locations in Miami versus having to settle for what is left. By far one of the best locations for an Art Basel Miami event is Soho Studios, which is located in the city's vibrant and exciting Wynwood Art District. Soho Studios is a huge, 70,000-square-foot building with high ceilings and flexible floor plans that can be configured to meet the specific needs of your function and is perfect for any Art Basel Wynwood event.

Soho Studios has hosted other Art Basel events in the past, including two of the world’s largest contemporary art fairs, PULSE Miami and SCOPE Miami. While this huge facility with its industrial detailing is a perfect showcase for big art fairs, it is also a multi-use site that can work for many different events, including concerts, seminars, meetings and parties. Soho Studios can also be used as a photography, television and film studio. Many have used Soho as a space to create videos and other media for Art Basel events.

Every year, Art Basel Miami grows bigger and bigger and adequate space for events becomes harder to come by. Art Basel Miami 2013 should be no different. That is why smart event planners will begin making plans early and booking event space Miami as soon as possible for their Art Basel events.

Building the Miami Art Scene

It is impossible to find a nonprofit organization that has had a greater impact on the Miami art scene than the Knight Foundation. It has donated a total of $86 million over a six-year period to provide funding to several key arts institutions and offer support to local artists looking to enrich Miami's culture.

One area where the Knight Foundation has had significant impact is in the Wynwood District. The Knight Arts Challenge led to the creation of an incubator for various Arts groups in 2009. It was opened inside the Light Box at Goldman Warehouse. Local arts groups were given performance space, gallery space and a shared office.

The Knight Foundation has helped foster the transformation of the Wynwood District into a hub for the arts. This personified with the presence of Art Basel Miami Beach, which uses the Wynwood District as one of its venues to showcase hundreds of works of arts to tens of thousands of visitors from around the globe. Benefiting from the presence of Art Basel Wynwood has become a must-see destination for art lovers everywhere.

One of the most recent developments will be the addition of more than a dozen artist-designed crosswalks to the Wynwood District. The first crosswalk, designed by Venezuelan artist Carlos Cruz-Diez, will be installed in front of the Wynwood Walls. 15 crosswalks are planned and each one will showcase original artwork from Miami-area artists. This is one more step in transforming a former industrial area into a pedestrian-centric neighborhood.

The Knight Foundation has played a major role in making all of these developments possible. It first demonstrated a serious commitment to supporting the Miami Arts with a generous $20 million donation in 2008 to fund endowments at the Miami Art Museum, the Museum of Contemporary Art and the New World Symphony.

The Knight Foundation’s support also continues through the annual Knight Arts Challenge contest, which provides funds to the best ideas designed to enhance the arts in Miami and South Florida. This challenge has helped spur many of the positive developments for the art community in Wynwood and will continue to influence it in the near future.

El Mac and Retna, Mural Masters of Miami

Not only is Miami's Wynwood Arts District home to four art museums and over 50 galleries, according to the Wynwood Arts District Association, it's the epicenter of street art for the city. In this former warehouse and factory neighborhood, graffiti art and murals mix on garage doors and stucco walls. Some of the most amazing murals you'll find in Wynwood are created by El Mac and Retna, two street artists who grew out of the graffiti culture.

El Mac and Retna work together to create large, masterful urban art portraits that showcase everyday people. Most of their murals feature one or two people, such as a young boy drawing, a mother and child, or a young woman in a hoodie. Surrounding the figures are vivid colors and intricate pattern work that showcase this mural team's skill. Included in this pattern is an alphabet that Retna developed, which pays homage to Chicano culture, Egyptian hieroglyphs, and Maya language. Both artists were inspired to take their graffiti skills and turn them outward, feeling like graffiti art and the tradition of tagging are more egotistical than murals, which celebrate something external to the artist. The two still create graffiti, so you may see El Mac or Retna tags as you explore the Wynwood District. They adapt each mural to the specific location and size of the wall, demonstrating flexibility perhaps learned from urban art culture.

As the Wynwood Arts District exploded, slowly transforming from a forgotten factory landscape to the art area it is today, Miami visionaries decided to curate a vibrant mix of street art murals in Wynwood to build upon the murals and tags already existing. El Mac and Retna were asked to contribute a mural, alongside other street art pioneers including Shepard Fairey, Swoon, Invader, Nunca, and other street art pioneers. Extending from factory walls and doors on 25th and 26th Street to additional locations in the Wynwood District, these murals tie the neighborhood together and showcase the talents of some of the best street artists in the United States and beyond.

Anyone that visits Soho Studios will notice the various art murals and tags across the urban landscape. The events at Soho are attracted to the mix of industrial space, artist vibe, and Miami chic style that makes up the Wynwood area.