Noah Horowitz, the executive director of the Armory Show, has been appointed director of the Americas for Art Basel. Horowitz, who starts his new job in August, will oversee Art Basel Miami Beach (3-6 December).
It’s a new role largely aimed at “deepening” the fair’s network of museum directors, biennial curators and private collectors across the US and Latin America, according to Marc Spiegler, the overall director of the Art Basel group of fairs. “It’s not about recruiting more galleries, it’s about the other stakeholders who make a fair great,” he says.
Spiegler notes that last year more than 100 museums groups visited Art Basel Miami Beach. There are, however, an “infinite number” of collectors, he says. “We live in a moment where more and more people are starting to collect and we want to get them deeply engaged in buying from galleries as early as possible in their collecting careers.”
Miami is well placed geographically, Spiegler adds, to capture these collectors. “Miami is easily accessible from Europe and New York, it is close to major cities between the US coasts, such as Chicago, Dallas and Houston and has ties to the West Coast. It is also the de facto capital of the socio-economic elite of Latin America,” he says.
Building an audience is something Horowitz has experience of. He joined the Armory Show as managing director in 2011 and became its executive director in 2012. He is credited with injecting quality back into the New York fair, slashing the number of galleries from more than 270 in 2011 to 199 this year.
As well as attracting collectors from across the Americas, Horowitz gave the Armory Show an international slant by focusing on regions and themes such as Chinese contemporary art.
It will, Horowitz says, stand him in good stead. “I’m looking forward to rolling up my sleeves and doing a lot more of that homework in our own backyard, which I began during my time at the Armory,” he says.