Bal Harbour Art Nights

Carolyn Travis Provides the Inside Scoop

Carolyn Travis is the executive director for tourism in Bal Harbour Village. As part of her responsibilities to The Village, Carolyn created and oversees the Bal Harbour Cultural Initiative. Carolyn has more than a decade of experience in the luxury tourism marketing segment, specializing in the launch, rebrand, and global sales of luxury hospitality entities. Past projects have included The Setai South Beach, GHM Americas, Design Hotels TM and Virgin Charter.

Please explain why Bal Harbour has chosen to have a cultural arts series?

Since the inception of Art Basel, the cultural community in South Florida has really thrived – from the evolution of our museums, to our local music scene, to our visual artists – we think it crucial for a community like ours to give a platform to such groups and to celebrate what is going on around us.

How will Bal Harbour’s art walk differentiate itself from other art walks throughout Miami-Dade?

Well, Bal Harbour Art Nights is in collaboration with Art Nexus and will host themed monthly collector worthy installations throughout the Bal Harbour Shops.

The premiere for the series, next Wednesday, November 17th will celebrate the world of Design.

Design Miami’s Craig Robins has actually loaned some spectacular pieces from his personal collection that will be installed in select stores. Also on the bill, Saks Fifth Avenue will host a Design chat by Craig and Mickey Wolfson of the Wolfsonian – FIU.

Also for each BHArt Night, The Residences at St. Regis Bal Harbour will create a visually stunning Art Walk lounge in the center courtyard of the Bal Harbour Shops. A sneak peak of what’s to come…

Combining fashion and art is certainly different. How did you decide to partner the retailers at the Bal Harbour Shops with artists?

But Haute Couture IS art! From the artistry of apparel construction to the specialty fabrics, the synergy has always been there. Designers like Karl Largerfeld, Alber Elbaz, Carolina Hererra …they are artists. Also, so many brands in the luxury space have been supporting local and global art initiatives for decades. Just last spring, Bal Harbour was thrilled to welcome the first Louis Vuitton Salon featuring artist Teresita Fernandez.

How do events like the arts and culture series bring a community together?

I love that Bal Harbour, with its global platform, is able to give groups like Overtown Music Project, Miami Light Project, MOCA’s Optic Nerve, the Miami Film Festival the additional recognition that they deserve.

But I equally love what it does for the community. The series launched with “Manolito the Gypsy” playing in the Cabana Green at ONE Bal Harbour Resort & Spa. Bal Harbour born and bred Lisa Petrillo was the emcee and in the audience was a beaming multigenerational crowd. The 20 and 30 something’s made it up from South Beach, the 40 and 50 something’s brought their kids, and the babies and the grandparents quite literally did not stop dancing. It was gorgeous.