Miami Art Week has a particular kind of energy. For a few days each December, the city becomes a meeting point for artists, collectors, curators, designers, and everyone working somewhere between contemporary art and culture. There are exhibitions to visit, people to meet, dinners to attend, and inevitably, several things happening at exactly the same time. Experiencing the week as a visitor is one thing. Organising your own cultural programme in the middle of it is another.
HOTELS
For DSCENE, Miami Art Week 2025 was particularly important. Together with D’Puglia, we brought our artist residency project, Go Where The Wind Takes You, from the Adriatic coast of Southern Italy to Miami, presenting the Puglia, Unframed artist book and a series of events celebrating the artists and collaborations behind the publication.
Throughout the week, Moxy Miami South Beach served as our official hospitality partner and home base, giving our team a place to work, regroup, and occasionally escape the beautiful chaos happening across the city.
The Right Address
for a Very Busy Week
Located at 915 Washington Avenue, Moxy sits in the centre of South Beach, within walking distance of Ocean Drive, the beach, restaurants, and many of the neighbourhood’s cultural and nightlife destinations.
Location becomes especially important during Art Week, when travelling across Miami can easily take longer than anticipated. Having a base in South Beach gave us a convenient starting point for our daily programme, whether we were heading to an exhibition, meeting collaborators, or preparing for one of our own events.
What we particularly appreciated was that Moxy felt connected to the city around it. Stepping outside meant immediately encountering the movement and character of Miami Beach, while returning to the hotel offered an opportunity to gather our thoughts before the next engagement.
Moxy also has a personality that suits the creative crowd descending on Miami each December. It feels informal, energetic, and comfortable with the idea that guests might be there for work, leisure, or some combination of the two.
Design That Understands Miami
For a publication like DSCENE, the design of a hotel is always part of the experience.
Developed by Lightstone, with architecture by Kobi Karp and interiors by Rockwell Group and Saladino Design Studios, Moxy South Beach draws inspiration from Miami’s layered cultural identity. References range from the glamour of mid-century Havana and the city’s Art Deco architecture to contemporary Latin American design and tropical surroundings.
The result is a playful interpretation of Miami hospitality. Bright colours, patterned surfaces, decorative details, and indoor-outdoor spaces create an environment that feels connected to the city without relying on conventional resort aesthetics.
The hotel has 202 guestrooms, designed to make efficient use of space through practical furniture, floor-to-ceiling windows, and thoughtfully organised interiors. These are rooms intended for guests who spend much of their time experiencing the destination.
During Art Week, that approach makes sense. Our schedule revolved around events, meetings, and the ongoing coordination of our programme. At the end of the day, having a comfortable room to return to was exactly what we needed.
I also appreciated the contrast between the relative privacy of the guest rooms and the hotel’s lively communal areas. Depending on the hour, Moxy could feel like a place to concentrate, meet someone for a drink, or simply spend a little time away from the crowds.
A Hotel That Works
Beyond the Guest Room
Moxy’s public spaces are among its most interesting features. The hotel was conceived around the idea that guests should have several different places to spend time throughout the day.
The second-floor pool deck, framed by tropical greenery and private cabanas, offers a change of pace from the surrounding streets. Upstairs, The Upside provides rooftop views across South Beach, while Serena brings open-air dining and a lively atmosphere to the property.
At street level, Bar Moxy acts as a social meeting point, and Tiendita offers coffee and casual food. The hotel’s dining and drinking venues, together with its communal seating and work areas, create opportunities to move between different activities without leaving the building.
For anyone visiting Miami during a particularly demanding week, this flexibility is valuable. A hotel needs to accommodate very different moments: a quiet morning with a laptop, a quick coffee before leaving, a conversation with colleagues, or a late return after an event.
Moxy’s casual approach to hospitality makes those transitions feel natural. It is also part of what makes the property interesting beyond Art Week, particularly for travellers who prefer an active, urban atmosphere over the more formal environment of a traditional luxury hotel.
Behind the Scenes of
DSCENE UNFRAMED
The most meaningful part of our stay was Moxy’s role in supporting DSCENE UNFRAMED’s 2025 programme with D’Puglia.
Earlier this year, our artist residency had taken place in Castro, a coastal town in Puglia, bringing together international artists to respond to the region through photography, sculpture, design, writing, and other creative practices.
The experience became the foundation for Puglia, Unframed, an independent artist guide published by DSCENE Publishing. Edited as a collection of artistic responses, the book brought together work developed during the residency and reflected the participating artists’ encounters with Southern Italy.
Miami marked the next stage of the project.
Our programme began on November 30 at The Standard Spa, Miami Beach, with a gathering introducing the publication and its participating artists. On December 1, we returned to The Standard for a dinner celebrating the book and Vento, a fragrance developed through the residency in collaboration with Osmo.
The following evening, December 2, we hosted an artist meet-and-greet and book signing at AKA Brickell, bringing together Antonio Aricò, Coco Brun, Federica Livia, Lougè, and Vuk Ćuk.
There was a great deal happening behind each of these events. Invitations, schedules, guest coordination, editorial coverage, and last-minute changes all demanded attention.
Moxy provided the practical foundation that allowed us to navigate the week. Having a reliable place to return to between commitments, catch up with the team, and prepare for the next day made a genuine difference.
Why Hospitality Partnerships
Matter to Independent Art Projects
The connection between a hotel and an arts publication might initially seem straightforward: accommodation in exchange for visibility. In practice, a thoughtful hospitality partnership can mean considerably more.
Projects such as DSCENE UNFRAMED depend on bringing people and ideas together across different cities and disciplines. The creative work may begin during a residency, but exhibitions, publishing projects, and public events require coordination, travel, and the support of partners who understand what independent cultural initiatives involve.
For our 2025 programme, Moxy South Beach contributed by hosting the DSCENE team during one of the busiest periods on Miami’s cultural calendar.
Its involvement formed part of a wider network of partnerships that helped bring Puglia, Unframed to an international audience. Throughout the week, the project connected artists, cultural collaborators, hospitality venues, and guests who had previously encountered the work in very different contexts.
I find these relationships particularly meaningful because they demonstrate how hospitality can contribute to cultural production in practical ways. Supporting the people organising an exhibition or publishing project is also a way of supporting the work itself.
And for Moxy, whose identity is closely connected to design, social interaction, and the creative energy of Miami, the collaboration felt particularly appropriate.
A Place to Return to
By the end of Miami Art Week, we were reminded how much a good hotel can influence the experience of a destination.
Between the exhibitions, launches, conversations, and the constant movement across Miami, our days rarely unfolded exactly as planned. The schedule could be exhausting, although the excitement of seeing our project come to life made every demanding moment worthwhile.
Moxy South Beach gave us something essential throughout the process: a dependable base from which to experience the city and carry out our work.
I appreciated the hotel’s central location, its design-led approach, and the ability to move easily between the privacy of our rooms and its lively communal spaces. Above all, I valued the support that made our time in Miami possible.
As we continue developing DSCENE UNFRAMED into an international programme of artist residencies, exhibitions, and publishing projects, partnerships with places like Moxy remain an important part of making those ambitions tangible.
The most important thing was having a home in Miami while we introduced a project that began thousands of kilometres away, on the coast of Puglia. And after several days of organising, celebrating, and occasionally trying to be in three places at once, that was something we genuinely appreciated.
DSCENE’s accommodation during Miami Art Week 2025 was hosted by Moxy South Beach as an official hospitality partner of DSCENE UNFRAMED x D’Puglia.
Moxy Miami South Beach
915 Washington Ave, Miami Beach,
FL 33139, United States
sales@moxysouthbeach.com
+1 305-600-4292
marriott.com
