MIAMI BEACH – In New York, the brushes in the artists’ studios are dry, the traffic in the galleries is light, and the boardrooms of the city’s art museums are empty.

The New York art world is on holiday this week, having found the ultimate vacation package: Art Basel Miami Beach, a four-day international art fair showcasing 20th- and 21st-century artists in a variety of settings, from beach cabana to convention center.

Dealers, collectors, and artists from all over the world have already started to arrive, and more will touch down when the fair officially opens tomorrow.

Here is a look at a few of the players on the scene.

THE ARTISTS

“It’s Club Med for the art world,” said 33-year-old artist Julian LaVerdiere, one of the creators of the Tribute in Light at the World Trade Center site. Yesterday morning, he left his rooftop work space in Chelsea for a sunny room at the Greenview, a South Beach hotel.

Last night he was already on the town, “jumping around” to parties at North Miami’s Museum of Contemporary Art (where he had his first solo museum exhibition in 2003) and at Rosa and Carlos de la Cruz’s mansion in Key Biscayne, reserved exclusively for the display of art (the couple lives in another mansion on the same property).

“What’s so amazing about Art Basel is that it’s this complete baroque environment where you have all these extraordinary collectors opening their homes. It’s really hospitable,” he said.

Another element is the art installations created for the parties, such as Aida Ruilova’s video works, commissioned for the de la Cruz party last night. “Aida’s work is a unique installation that you’ll never see otherwise,” said Mr. LaVerdiere, whose studio is just down the hall from hers.

Ms. Ruilova, 30, installed video works on the interior and exterior of the de la Cruz residence. In the work for the outside of the house, a woman appears on the side of a cliff with an audio track of heavy breathing. The image is combined with the projection of a landscape. “All have been re-animated to create a forced living and breathing environment,” wrote Ms. Ruilova before the party. “I hope it will make the home feel like its living and breathing.”

Mr. LaVerdiere also has artwork on display – at his gallery’s booth at the Art Basel show, the main fair at the Miami Beach Convention Center. “It’s a new work, completed last month – an obelisk mover,” he said. The piece, “Prime Mover,” is cast in silver and stands on a walnut pedestal.

But he won’t be hanging out with his art dealer (Lehmann Maupin) to explain it.

“I let the gallery do the talking; I’m always a little suspicious of artists standing in their booths,” he said.

For this artist, the fair isn’t about hustling for business. “The reason to go is it’s fun, the fanfare, the pomp and circumstance, because there are so many parties.”

There is an aspect of struggle, he admitted. “It’s like you’re a cow going into the slaughterhouse – it’s a little tough on your psyche. But when you get over that and you get over yourself, it’s actually really amazing. It’s not like a giant museum; you can see all the art of today simultaneously,” Mr. LaVerdiere said.

THE COLLECTORS

“It’s like a destination wedding, where they figure a lot of people are coming from out of town, so they have to plan all sorts of stuff,” said Beth Rudin DeWoody on her way down to Miami Beach Monday afternoon.

“What I do is I write down the different things and the timing and then I just let myself be flexible,” she said. “I’m going for the whole week because I’m hoping to get everything in.”

Some events are nonnegotiable – for example, her son’s photography exhibit at the Frisbee Art Fair, a new alternative show at the Cavalier Hotel (others include Scope, at the Townhouse Hotel, and the New Dealers Art Alliance Fair at the Ice Palace Film Studios).

Then there are the exclusive events planned for the Whitney Museum of Art’s Directors Council. Ms. DeWoody is a trustee of the museum and a chairwoman of the Directors Council.

Mrs. DeWoody’s goal is to see as much as she can.

“Obviously there are artists I like and collect, but I’m always just keeping an open mind to look at everything; you never know what’s going to hit you.”

She will make a point of visiting the booths of European galleries since she often visits New York galleries.

As for buying art: “I would love to buy lots of art but I’m hoping that I won’t only because I’m just trying to be good,” she said.

The founder of the Whitney Contemporaries, Lisa Anastos, is also shy on buying. “If I see something that I find fabulous, that would be great. If not, I’m definitely interested in seeing what all the different galleries are showing.”

The parties are secondary. “For me, seeing the art is the most important and the parties are a bonus,” she said.

Maybe that’s because Ms. Anastos is focused on her own art party back in New York. Just two days after she returns is the Rx Art Ball, which features an auction of more than 100 holiday ornaments designed by artists (Sarah Mitchelson, Jenny Holzer, Henry Vincent), fashion designers (Zac Posen), and a fashionista novelist (Plum Sykes). Proceeds help place art in hospitals. Yesterday afternoon, Ms. Anastos was sending out reminders about her event (she is a chairwoman) as she nailed down details of her trip to Miami Beach.

Even though she was just in South Florida (she spent Thanksgiving in Palm Beach), she has to completely repack her suitcase when she flies down Thursday. “The Ralph Lauren attire is going to give way to the hard-core Pucci,” she said.

Ann Tenenbaum had her pick of organized museum trips, but she chose to go with friends. She’ll be traveling with Lauren Pack, Jeanne Greenberg Rohatyn, and Fiona Rudin. The foursome will be in town from Thursday morning to Friday night, staying at the Mandarin Oriental. For their one night out, they’re planning to stop by a party with Andre Balazs and Yvonne Force Villareal and then have dinner on their own. Other New York collectors attending the fair include Donald Marron (who flew down yesterday) and Stephen and Christine Schwarzman.

THE DEALERS

Yesterday at the Miami Beach Convention Center, the site of the main Art Basel Miami Beach Fair, two Miamians at the “Polish Business Days” conference looked out of place as scores of rail-thin European and New York dealers fluttered around them. Holding paint, duct tape, and the tools required to pry open huge wooden shipping containers, they stayed busy all afternoon setting up their gallery outposts, which are unveiled to VIPs today.

German, Italian, and French echoed through the endless maze of hallways, escalators, and meeting rooms inside the convention center. Though the exhibition hall is bursting with color, no one would have a clue from the outside: The convention center itself is a bland monolith that spans several blocks. There were a few signs of the imminent art happening: six Europeans smoking cigarettes outside the entrance, Art Basel banners waving in the sea breeze on Collins Avenue, and black BMW SUVs on the streets, emblazoned with the Art Basel Miami Beach logo.

The loading dock was wide open all afternoon, letting in the only natural light the room will see until it’s time to pack up and go home. The powerful air conditioning in the building leaves no hint it is balmy outside, but dealers know the weather helps them.

“The 80-degree weather gets people in a good mood,” said Peter Ryan of Roebling Hall, a Williamsburg and Chelsea gallery exhibiting at the New Art Dealers Alliance Fair.

Becky Smith, the owner of Bellwether Gallery in Chelsea, arrived Monday night. She’ll be exhibiting at the Nada fair as well.

“It takes me a day usually to install a booth. I like the get it done pretty quickly,” she said. She was elated about the fair’s new location, the Ice Palace Film Studios (which accommodates more galleries).

“It’s just beautiful, it’s got this big open ceiling with skylights, it looks really really nice, and everyone feels really happy.”

As for the parties: “They’re surprisingly fun for someone who doesn’t like to go to parties. They’re just sort of irresistible, these beautiful hotels that have these vast cabana poolside backyards that lead to the beach, tons of drinks flowing, even people who are socially phobic tend to let their hair down,” Ms. Smith said.

But it’s the collectors who can really enjoy the party scene. Dealers have work to do. “I get to stand around for nine hours a day. It’s exhausting. I’ve never been more exhausted in my life than after this fair last year:” On the other hand, “We’re making a lot of dough. The money leaves a smile on your face,” she said.

Ms. Smith, 38, is showing two artists she introduced last year with great success, Sharon Core and Marc Swanson, as well as a crop of new artists, such as Cynthia Chan and Tanyth Berkeley.

THE LAST – MINUTE TALENT

Robert Colacello’s invitation to Art Basel came Sunday from a good friend in Zurich, Matthias Brunner, a player in the Continental art and film scenes. Mr. Brunner asked him to fly down to introduce a screening of Andy Warhol’s “Trash” Saturday at the Gusman Theater. (The film’s director, Paul Morrissey, wasn’t able to make it.) It’s one of a series of talks, performances, and screenings taking place around the fair.

Mr. Colacello was happy to fill in at the last minute – after all, his writing career began when Mr. Morrissey and Warhol took notice of a review of “Trash” he wrote as a homework assignment at Columbia’s film school.

Speaking from his home in Amagansett on Monday, Mr. Colacello recalled the review. “I said ‘Trash’ was a great film in the sort of Roman Catholic, Mary Magdalene tradition – Andy was redeeming these hustlers and junkies through his art; all sinners can be redeemed, no matter how bad the sin,” he said.

After reading the review in the Village Voice, Mr. Morrissey invited him to meet Warhol.

“When I walked into his office, I saw Warhol sitting at the receptionist’s desk eating spinach and carrot puree. He offered me a spoon of it,” Mr. Colacello said.

He started writing film reviews for Interview magazine, which Warhol and Mr. Morrissey were just getting started. Within the year, he was the editor.

Nearly 25 years later, Mr. Colacello is immersed in the un-Warholian subject of Nancy and Ronald Reagan – he’s just published his first installment, “Ronnie and Nancy” and is at work on the second. But he remains a participant in the art world and has seen many changes since the 1970s.

“It’s much bigger now. Art in general, especially in both America and Europe, has become so ultra-fashionable, and not just within an elite any more. The entire upper-middle class is enthralled with going to museums and collecting art,” he said. (His fair acquisitions include a Peter Dayton collage and a Tom Sachs duct tape painting.)

As for the party scene: “It’s much more organized and slick now: Half these parties seem to have corporate sponsors. It’s a sign of tremendous growth.”

After sifting through invitations, Mr. Colacello decided on three parties: the screening of “The Life and Death of Peter Sellers” at the Raleigh Hotel on Friday; Terence Riley’s 50th birthday party, hosted by Patricia Cisneros, John Bennett, and John Keenan on Saturday; and a brunch in honor of Rem Koolhaas at the Raleigh Sunday.

THE CRITIC

Art critic Charles Finch offered a somewhat cynical take on why Art Basel Miami Beach has emerged so quickly as a must-attend orgy of events.

“This is all baby-boom driven. Collectors in their 50s and 60s are feeling a sense of their mortality, and with the dollar so cheap, the Europeans and the Asians come too,” Mr. Finch said.

He is skeptical about the value of it all. “You brag about something you bought or something you saw; it’s a lot of shop talk. Does it really advance anything? No, it fills up the time.

“Narcissism is involved too. People like to dress up. It parallels the fashion world in that you have a lot of young, attractive female artists, and a lot of older, lecherous collectors.”

TONIGHT
Expect the unexpected at a contemporary art fair. Fifty Shriners from the South Florida temple are expected to attend a party for Los Angeles-based photojournalist Lisa Eisner, whose photographs are collected in the new book “Shriners,” published by Greywolf Press, which she founded.

TOMORROW
New Yorkers will feel at home at a party celebrating Richard Meier’s “40 years of architecture and 70 years of life,” at the Raleigh. The host is Alexico Group, the developers of 165 Charles Street, the residential building designed by Mr. Meier, which opens in the spring. As guests take in the view of the Atlantic Ocean, they’ll hear Izak Senzabahar and Simon Elias of Alexico Group rhapsodize about the views of the Hudson available from the building’s loft like spaces.

The former Versace mansion, Casa Casuarina, is the location of a Piaget-sponsored party. Hosts include Rufus, Earl of Albemarle; his wife, sculptress Sally Tadayan, Countess of Albemarle; painter, sculptress and designer Hope Atherton; young arts patron Fabian Basabe; American for the Arts Junior Committee Co-Chair Fabiola Beracasa; Tuleh’s creative director Amanda Brooks, interior designer Celerie Kemble; hotelier Jeff Klein; Olivier Picasso; and painter, designer, and photographer Lola Schnabel. Many parties will be taking place at the mansion, which is relaunching as “an exclusive, by-invitation-only social membership club.” The event features an installation by Michael Counts.

FRIDAY
The opening party for the Richard Tuttle exhibit at the Wolfsonian-Florida International University takes place in the courtyard of the Best Western South Beach, across the street from the museum. Kate and Andy Spade are in charge of decor, with Todd Oldham serving as disc jockey. Revelers, be warned: Clandestine photographer Martin Parr is planning to snap the party (selling the photos later to benefit the museum). Mr. Tuttle’s works include an outside installation of nine streamers cascading from the museum’s tiered facade.

The connections between Texas and Florida go beyond the brothers Bush. Both states boast art-friendly cities, namely Miami and Austin. To strengthen the bond, the Austin-based organization Art house Texas is having a party at the National Hotel to launch its Art house Texas Prize for Contemporary Art. The prize, juried by Texans and non-Texans (such as Whitney Curator Shamim Momini) will give a Texas-based artist $30,000. At the party, about 200 guests will eat s’mores and other food items inspired by the “out on the range” theme. They’ll also receive straw cowboy hats from Stetson.

SATURDAY
“Xenon for Miami,” an installation by Jenny Holzer, is the focal point of a party hosted by Terra International, one of the fair’s sponsors and a real estate developer in South Florida. New York’s own Samantha Ronson is the disc jockey. The installation is open to the public today through Sunday, 6 p.m. to midnight, 666 Biscayne Boulevard, Miami, Florida.

Patricia Cisneros and others are hosting a 50th birthday party for the chief architecture curator at the Museum of Modern Art, Terence Riley. Guests will get to see the birthday present he gave himself: his new home, which he designed.

All events listed are invitation-only.