Conversations | The Miami Effect: the Craig Robins, de la Cruz, and Margulies Collections

Conversations | The Miami Effect: the Craig Robins, de la Cruz, and Margulies Collections
Art Basel Miami Beach 2022, November 30
As Art Basel Miami Beach turns 20, this panel brings together collectors who have helped shape the city as a cultural destination. What can we learn from the Miami ecosystem and the collectors who have contributed to it? What have been their parallel journeys over the past two decades? How do they hope to inspire a new generation of collectors and foster new artistic talent?
‣ Craig Robins, CEO and President of Dacra, Miami
‣ Carlos & Rosa de la Cruz, business owners and contemporary art collectors,Key Biscayne, Florida
‣ Martin Z. Margulies, Collector, Miami
‣ Katherine Hinds, Curator, Margulies Collection, Miami
‣ Moderator: Jane Wooldridge, Senior Director, Miami Herald, Miami
‣ Craig Robins is an entrepreneur, real-estate developer and art collector focused on developing investing in creative communities that integrate art, design, and architecture to accelerate asset-value creation and enrich urban life. Robins is the Chairman and Founder of Design Miami/, which he owns in partnership with MCH Swiss Exhibition, the producers of Art Basel.
‣ Rosa and Carlos de la Cruz (Havana, Cuba) lived in both New York and Madrid before moving to Key Biscayne in 1975. They have been married since 1962, have five children, 17 grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren. Built over more than 30 years, Rosa and Carlos de la Cruz’s art collection - credited by ARTnews, among others, as being one of the most influential in the world - opened to the public in 2009 as the de la Cruz Collection: a privately funded, museum in Miami’s Design District. Admission, annual exhibitions, lectures, and workshops are accessible to the public free of charge. In partnership with the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, scholarship programming associated with the collection has impacted the lives of students from New World School of the Arts, Design and Architecture Senior High, Parsons School of Design, and School of Visual Arts, as well as through design competitions.
‣ Martin Margulies, father of four children, is a dedicated community activist with a longstanding commitment to the welfare of underprivileged and disenfranchised people in Miami. Consistently named on lists such as the ARTnews Top 200 Collectors, the Martin Z. Margulies Collection is considered by curators, artists, critics, and dealers as one of the most significant collections of its kind. Focusing on seminal works by the most important names in art history, the collection includes European Modernism, Abstract Expressionism, Pop, Minimalism, Conceptualism, Arte Povera, new media, film, vintage and contemporary photography, large-scale sculpture, and installation art. Margulies is also a founder of and a major contributor to Lotus House Shelter for Homeless Women and Children.
‣ Jane Wooldridge is an award-winning travel, business, and arts journalist. A veteran of the Miami Herald, she has led initiatives melding art, real estate, tourism, economy, and leisure travel, among others. In her current role as Senior Director, she leads partnerships with philanthropic interests to expand local journalism through high-impact initiatives. Wooldridge has covered Art Basel Miami Beach for the Miami Herald since the fair’s inception. In the process, she has chronicled the city’s rise from a cultural unknown to a powerhouse center for visual and performing arts. A passionate traveler, Wooldridge has visited and written about museums and visual-arts communities around the globe.
The Art Basel Miami Beach 2022 Conversations program is curated by Emily Butler.