“Having permanent artworks plus constantly changing exhibitions probably helps repeats, as it definitely affects the experience for people staying with us,” says Lesley Goldwasser, co-owner and chief curator of The Betsy Hotel, Miami Beach.
The hotel, which stretches from Ocean Drive back a block to Collins Avenue, has 330 paintings, photos and sculptures in all public areas, in its 140 bedrooms and suites and along corridors, including some fascinating early Beatles portraits.
During the annual Art Basel Miami in the first week of December, Miami Beach is one big arts extravaganza but at The Betsy, it is year-round. There are, in addition, always several pop-ups going on at the same time.
Currently, a year-long exhibition, Facing Ourselves, Past and Present, includes “The Last Resort,” Andy Sweet color photos of mid-century Miami Beach life with subjects wearing our grandparents’ bathing attire. Some of these photos, including blow-ups lining one of the elevators, are rumored to soon be going to a national museum.
“We really are concentrating on photo art,” said Goldwasser, simultaneously showing some of the exhibits and trying to control her 8-month golden Lab, Rosa, already the hotel’s canine ambassador. Goldwasser also is exhibiting portraits, mostly self-portraits, by Nigerian-American photographer Iké Udé.
There are Michael Halsband’s black and white photos of artists Jean-Michel Basquiat and Andy Warhol clowning around. Diners in the hotel’s all-day restaurant, an extension of the main lobby, are fascinated by black-and-whites of “a rare glimpse into the life of a champ” – one shows a 22-year-old Cassius Clay’s extraordinary Miami victory on February 25, 1964, over heavyweight champion Sonny Liston.
“I start planning exhibitions a year ahead, and we do take a small commission on any sales. We do try to cover costs,” she admitted.
When it opened in 1942 the hotel, designed by architect L. Murray Dixon, was named The Betsy Ross, for the four-times-married upholsterer, 1752-1836, credited with sewing the first American flag. Lesley Goldwasser and her husband, Jonathan Plutzik, re-opened what was a 62-room hotel in 2009. Son Zac Plutzik is managing director. The family later added the Carlton, on Collins (a unique third-floor covered connecting walkway looks, from the outside, like a giant orb sculpture).
Although Goldwasser, back home in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, originally wanted to be an astronaut, she is now as arts-involved as all the Plutziks. Jonathan’s father was Pulitzer poetry nominee Hyam Plutzik.
His aunt, Deborah Plutzik-Briggs, heads PACE (philanthropy, arts, culture and education), the hotel’s arts DNA. This includes serious books in all rooms and public areas, and, every year, over 200 PACE events, many held in the hotel’s Writer’s Room.
Each night there is live music in the lobby bar, and the hotel is prominent at local festivals, including this week’s Miami Jewish Film Festival. Because of such activity, the hotel was honored in 2017 by Americans for the Arts.
But, apart from the philanthropy, does this all make business sense? The hotel really does no marketing other than pushing its PACE programs, through social media and via a proper color-printed newspaper, The Betsy Bulletin. The hotel does not release business data other than the fact that 50% of guests are international and therefore average stay is above-average, allowing plenty of art-viewing time.
“Art also makes our 200 employees feel good. People working in customer-facing roles are surrounded by images, and they know this is Miami,” said Goldwasser.