Art Basel Miami Beach is now the largest art fair in the country. [Photo: MCH Swiss Exhibition (Basel/Zurich) AG]

Miami may never rival New York or Paris in the volume and importance of its public art collections, but the city is taking a giant leap forward with an unprecedented expansion of its art museums. Last year, plans were finalized for a new $208-million home for the Miami Art Museum (MAM). World-renowned architects Herzog & de Meuron are designing the downtown waterfront complex, scheduled to open in 2010. In April, North Miami's Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) announced an $18-million expansion that will triple its exhibition space. Also in the works: An on-campus art museum at Florida International University due to open next year.

Craig Robins [Photo: Jeffery Salter]

Local arts patrons credit Miami's emergence as an international center for art trade. Art Basel Miami Beach, the annual December extravaganza of modern art and a hard-partying accompaniment of glitterati, is now the largest and most prestigious art fair in the country. Spinoff fairs abound. "Miami has truly become a cultural destination," says developer Craig Robins, a prominent collector and board member of MAM. "As a result, we're seeing a lot more importance placed on our public institutions, the public collections."

Art museums are not the only beneficiary of "Miami's renaissance," as Robins puts it. The new MAM will be adjacent to a $275-million facility -- scheduled to open in 2011 -- that will house the Miami Museum of Science and the Historical Museum of South Florida. A stone's throw away is the $461-million Carnival Center for the Performing Arts, which opened last fall.