Now that the art world has finally caught its breath after a sun- and champagne-soaked Miami Art Week, it’s worth remembering that Miami Beach does more than host the annual influx of collectors, artists, and fashion pilgrims. The city is also an active cultural player in its own right—not just during the fairs, but throughout the year.

Last week, that role sharpened into view with the announcement of the 2025 Legacy Purchase Program winner, the city’s headline public-art acquisition timed to coincide with Art Basel Miami Beach. Residents and visitors voted to select Ximena Garrido-Lecca’s Modulations – Sequence XXIX, a copper-rope work shown with Livia Benavides Gallery, bringing the Peruvian artist into a growing municipal collection that already includes Sanford Biggers, Amoako Boafo, Ebony G. Patterson, and Farah Al Qasimi. The purchase is the program’s seventh since its launch in 2019 and will eventually enter permanent display at the Miami Beach Convention Center. 

Drawn from the emerging artists of Art Basel’s Positions, Nova, and Galleries sectors, this year’s finalists also included Patrick Dean-Hubbell and Ken Tisa, selected by the city’s Art in Public Places Committee before the final vote was opened to the public. Garrido-Lecca’s winning work continues her examination of copper’...