CULTURE SPY | 2024: An End-of-Year Cultural Calendar 

With the Paris Olympics, the U.S. presidential election, and everything in-between, 2024 has already been quite a year. See it out, and ring in 2025 a bit, with these fantastic, can’t-miss global cultural events.

Art Basel Miami Beach | Miami Beach, Florida, December 6-8, 2024  

Art Basel Miami Beach is, and will be, seen on lists of top end-of-year cultural calendars pretty much in perpetuity (case in point, it features in Navigator’s annual Holiday What’s On column later in this issue). That is because, while intriguing competition is always growing, it remains as the top American (if not arguably, global) art show in existence. Even in the pre-final planning stages, we can report that significant work and artists representing the best of modern and contemporary art will arrive in sunny Florida from five continents.

The main Galleries sector hosts no less than 283 important global galleries and the work they are choosing to bring to the show, from Spain’s 1 Mira Madrid showroom to the bi-coastal David Zwirner Gallery. Meridians, the show’s platform for large-scale installations, is being curated by outgoing Director of Portikus and Rector of Frankfurt’s Hochschule für Bildende Künste-Städelschule Yasmil Rayond; expectations are running high on her curation.

Galleries spotlighting the best of new artists creating new work in the past three years can be found in the Nova sector, and conversely, new, young galleries get a solo artist focus in the Positions channel of the show. A more historical retrospective can be found in the Survey sector, while the Kabinett program pulls focus on galleries hosting more unique, harder-to-find exhibitions. And, of course, you can expect lively seminars, panel discussions, and talks in the Conversations programming of Art Basel Miami. artbasel.com/miami-beach 

F1 Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi Grand Prix | Yas Marina Circuit, Abu Dhabi, UAE, December 5-8, 2024 

Culture? Well, car culture. If the art of speed is more your cup of petrol, the culmination of an already dramatic F1 racing season arrives in the luxurious Emirate while Art Basel luxuriates in Miami. And with team standings shifting at nearly every race on the 2024 program, it is anybody’s guess which team will emerge victorious for the year. At press time, the Oracle Red Bull Racing Team (with lead driver Max Verstappen leading the individual driver standings) was almost running neck-and-neck with the second-place McLaren Mercedes team (whose lead driver Lando Norris is similarly in second place in the driver standings), with Ferrari (and team leader Charles Leclerc) hot on both of their heels.

It may come down to the 58 grueling laps on the challenging, creek-surrounded 5.281-kilometer Yas Marina Circuit to determine the final victors. Don’t miss it. formula1.com

Sundance Film Festival | Sundance Resort/Park City, Utah, January 23-February 2, 2025 

Utah’s ski region goes Indie Film glitzy each winter with this fabled cinema happening. However, launched by the state film commission back in 1978 and taken over by Robert Redford’s Sundance Film Institute in 1985, the rollicking celebration of the best of independent filmmaking may have grown in celebrity-spotting and artistic gravitas, but it is still a fun, disruptive, indie-spirited cinematic experience of its very own.

While the festival team is still pulling together programming and spotlight films to screen for 2025, the fact that important productions like Blood Simple, Reservoir Dogs, Get Out, and many others got their first exposure at Sundance gives you a hint as to the festival’s role connecting art, cinema, and popular culture. With over 10 screening venues across Park City, Salt Lake City, and Redstone, you’re sure to see a few new-jack masterpieces (and more than few industry luminaries enjoying the show) well before they arrive at your local theater. sundance.org