<p>Committed to both each other and the arts, this pair of local powerhouses hopes to keep the party going – indefinitely</p>

Riki Altman-Yee

20 Years of Art Basel Miami Beach: Dennis and Debra Scholl

<p>For decades, Debra and Dennis Scholl have been devoted art collectors and tireless advocates for artists. Debra, who is involved in a number of phil­anthropic endeavors, chairs the board of directors for Locust Projects, Miami’s lon­gest-running nonprofit alternative art space. And she serves as president of the couple’s real estate com­pany, Morada Ventures. Dennis produces award-winning feature films, shorts, and television programs through Scholl Creative, and for the last five years, he has been the CEO and president of Oolite Arts, a leading organization providing sup­port for Miami’s visual artists in the form of free stu­dio space, exhibition opportunities, and more. This husband-and-wife team has been integral since the dawn of Art Basel Miami Beach. Here, they share thoughts on its amplifying impact.</p>

<p><strong>You have been part of Art Basel Miami Beach since its inception. What’s a favorite memory?</strong></p><p><strong>Dennis: </strong>My most interesting memory was when, a couple of months before the fair, [it] was canceled right at the last minute after 9/11. Despite that, there were a couple hundred collectors that just said, ‘Well, I have tickets and I haven’t been to Miami in a long time. I’m just gonna go.’ We all started to network and we had a bunch of these greatest collectors in the world over to our house the night the fair would have opened. And people were excited about the fair and Miami. And I looked at Debra and said, ‘I can’t wait for next year because this fair’s gonna work.’ It was going to have a profound effect on our community. And, and my goodness, it did.</p><p><strong>Any traditions you’ve continued since?</strong></p><p><strong></strong></p><p><strong>Dennis: </strong>We’ve continued to open our home every year for the last 20 years. I think last year we got 500 to 600 people over a couple of hours.</p><p><strong>How does one get invited? </strong></p><p><strong>Dennis: </strong>We work out a list with the fair. </p><p><strong>Do you remember your first Art Basel Miami Beach purchase? </strong></p><p><strong>Dennis: </strong>We were walking by a dealer named&nbsp;<a href="https://www.artbasel.com/catalog/gallery/1292/Tanya-Bonakdar-Gallery" target="_blank">Tanya Bonakdar</a> and she showed me a video of a huge pipe spinning around in a warehouse with a fan on one end by artist&nbsp;<a href="https://www.artbasel.com/catalog/artist/8384/Olafur-Eliasson" target="_blank">Olafur Eliasson</a>. Debra and I walked away and looked at each other – we had to have it. That piece was the genesis of World Class Boxing [the Scholls’&nbsp;public art space in Wynwood, open from 2004 to 2016.].</p>

<p><strong>How big is your collection now? </strong></p><p><strong>Dennis: </strong>We’re closing in on 1,000 [works]. We made a gift to the Pérez Art Museum (PAMM) of more than 300 works upon its opening. And we gave over 200 works in a combined gift to the Met in New York, the Frost in Miami, and the Nevada Museum of Art.</p><p><strong>What tops your wish list nowadays?</strong></p><p><strong>Dennis: </strong>Now we’re just collecting works on paper. ‘Postwar to last Tuesday’ is how I like to describe it. We’re really focusing on the four decades after the World War because we think it’s very good value in the marketplace.</p><p><strong>How do you&nbsp;</strong><strong>‘Basel’</strong><strong>?</strong></p><p><strong>Debra: </strong>We start off always walking together.</p><p><strong>Dennis: </strong>Debra’s air-kissing everybody. [<em>laughs</em>]</p><p><strong>Debra: </strong>He’ll walk around on his own and then he’ll come back. And the next day or so we’ll go back together. </p><p><strong>Dennis: </strong>We’re there every day. The last day is good because sometimes [dealers] don’t want to take the stuff home. Last year, on the last day, I bought an incredible piece by Jason Moran. </p>

<p><strong>You’ve been to Art Basel in Switzerland. How does Miami’s compare?</strong></p><p><strong></strong></p><p><strong>Dennis: </strong>Basel, Switzerland, is very serious. Very old school. The clientele are quiet about what they collect – really talented collectors. And the work dealers bring is more archival. Miami is definitely more glamorous. It’s full on. It’s just the greatest fair in America. </p><p><strong>What do you think of Art Basel Miami Beach today and what it represents?</strong></p><p><strong>Debra: </strong>For me, Basel has done so much for the Miami community, bringing awareness to people from out of town. </p><p><strong>Dennis: </strong>It has succeeded beyond our wildest dreams. It’s impacted the community in so many ways, artistically. We now have buildings by Herzog &amp; de Meuron, Frank Gehry, and Zaha Hadid. We have PAMM. Miami began to get looked at cultur­ally differently in large part because people are com­ing here to see the fair and then putting a toe in the water and looking outside at our community. We’re undergoing a tremendous conversion. We have assets that we can be proud of. We have things that matter. And we began to behave differently. As a commu­nity, we need to make sure that we take this cultural blooming that we’ve had and keep it going, because we want the fair to stay here forever.</p><p>This article was originally commissioned for the <em>Art Basel Miami Beach </em>magazine 2022.</p><p>Captions for full-bleed images: 1. Jason Moran, <em>Blues fall down like hail 2 </em>(detail), 2020. 2. Sanou Oumar, <em>8/15/20 </em>(detail), 2020. Both images courtesy of Dennis and Debra Scholl.</p>

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Committed to both each other and the arts, this pair of local powerhouses hopes to keep the party going – indefinitely

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