ARTPOINT launches during Art Basel Miami Beach

Artpoint explores an important part of the contemporary art world by showing significant art that is being made and shown regionally. Artpoint encourages the de-centralization of the art world". We maintain that art organizations and galleries all over the US are showing emerging and established artists who deserve national and international attention.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact:    

Lisa Treister
(305) 531-5720 or (305) 785-6277
lisa@tma-pr.com

Janet Phelps
(718) 875-2717
janetsphelps@aol.com

ARTPOINT launches during Art Basel Miami Beach
**Press Preview Wednesday, December 4, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.**

New York City (November 13, 2002) -- Art lovers now have one more venue to browse during Art Basel Miami Beach with the addition of artpoint, a groundbreaking effort that will bring together innovative regional contemporary art organizations from all over the country for the first time in an art fair setting. Thirteen non-profit and non-commercial organizations will present their programs to a worldwide audience of curators, collectors and dealers in a new and accessible venue close to Art Basel Miami Beach.

artpoint, conceived and produced by Janet Phelps, who co-organized last years highly received FAST FWD: MIAMI, and Meat Market Art Fair in New York City, promises to be one of the most exceptional venues during the highly anticipated Art Basel Miami Beach. Art Basel has endorsed the event and has included artpoint in its official agenda.

It will be held December 5 -- 8 from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. at 1674 Meridian Avenue, Miami Beach, between 17th Street and Lincoln Road. The project spaces will be located in the lobby and on the third and fourth floors. Admission is free and open to the public.

Phelps invited art professionals from around the country to contribute by serving on the selection committee and by suggesting regional and under-the-radar spaces that fit the mission of artpoint.

artpoint explores an important facet of the art world," Phelps said. By showcasing significant art that is being made and shown regionally, we are making an important argument -- that the art world is truly less centralized. Spaces around the US are showing emerging and established artists who deserve national and international attention. Its an extension of what happened at Meat Market Art Fair -- artists and organizations who wouldnt normally have the chance, will be able to install new work and converge and share ideas."

Phelps hopes to expand the idea yearly to include alternative spaces from all over the world and will produce variations of this model in different cities around the country in 2003.            

artpoint is conveniently located only one block from the Miami Beach Convention Center, in a newly renovated building owned by Washington, D.C.-based Starwood Urban Retail XIII, LLC, and managed by Urban Investments Advisors, which has a long history of supporting artists throughout the U.S.

artpoint participants include: Studio LoDo, Phoenix; Arizona State University Art Museum, Tempe, AZ; Boom, Oak Park, Illinois; CCAC, Wattis Institute, San Francisco; The Dirt Gallery, Kansas City; Fusebox, Washington, DC; Gallery Four, Baltimore; Lump galley/projects, Raleigh, NC; Midway, St. Paul, Minnesota; The Soap Factory, Minneapolis; Spaceboat.tv, Seattle; The Suburban, Oak Park, Illinois.

Serving on the committee are Louis Grachos, Director, SITE Santa Fe; Pedro Alonzo, Adjunct Curator, inova; Paola Morsiani, Associate Curator, Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston; Brian Wallace, independent curator, Seattle; Kathryn Kanjo, Executive Director, ArtPace, San Antonio; Omar Lopez-Chahoud, independent curator, NYC; Dominic Molon, Associate Curator, MCA, Chicago; Bill Arning, Curator, MIT List Visual Arts Center, Cambridge; Gean Moreno, artist/critic/curator, Miami; Sean Kelly, Director, Grand Arts, Kansas City; Alexander Gray, Executive Director, The ArtCouncil, Inc., NYC.

Sponsors to date: Urban Investments Advisors LLC and The Starwood Urban Group, Art Papers Magazine, New American Paintings and Daniel and Mirella Levinas.

For up-to-date information about artpoint, visit www.janetphelps.com.