Miami Beach, Fla. is known for its nightlife, good food and tanned and toned beach-goers, but it's taking on another dimension on an artistic level. During a time when "interest has never been higher" for Latin American art, the vibrant, coastal city is embracing the Latin movement by opening its latest museum, the Pérez Art Museum Miami on Dec. 4.

"Latin-American art will be center stage in Miami Beach this month," as the new Pérez Art Museum Miami will open "a majestic new Herzog and de Meuron-designed building on the Miami waterfront," according to BBC Culture's Georgina Adam.

The Pérez Art Museum Miami opening coincides with the annual Art Basel Miami Beach fair, as well as a new addition, the Brazil ArtFair - "the first of its kind," which will feature Brazilian contemporary art and design.

Fresh off the Jumex Museum opening in Mexico City, art aficionados are expected to flock to Miami for the grand opening Pérez Art Museum Miami.

"This (Jumex Museum) was also opened last month by the leading Mexican art collector and fruit-juice heir Eugenio López, and will display his extensive art holdings, which range from American minimalists to Mexican artists such as Gabriel Orozco and Damián Ortega, whose installation Cosmogonía doméstica stands right outside the museum," BBC Culture reports.

López' $50 million dollar project that includes a marble building designed by the "guru of minimalism," British architect Sir David Copperfield, is across from the Soumaya Museum, belonging to the world's richest man, Telecoms billionaire Carlos Slim, which opened two years ago. The two museums, while they both feature Mexican artists, are distinctly different, however.

"Private collectors such as López in Mexico or the mining billionaire Bernardo Paz, who has created Inhotim, a 3,000-acre, open-air 'art park' in the depths of the Brazilian countryside, are a key element in the expansion of the market for Latin-American art," BBC Culture explained. "They do this by supporting their national artists - Paz was even married to one, Adriana Varejão, his sixth wife (they are now divorced) - and enhancing their profile by exhibiting them in their art spaces. Paz devotes whole pavilions at Inhotim to the Brazilians Hélio Otiticia, Tunga and Cilio Meireles."

Across the pond, "London's Tate gallery has established an acquisition group specifically for art from Latin America, while Paris's Pompidou Centre is also targeting the region through its international committee. And because the region's art galleries are increasingly exhibiting at fairs such as Art Basel Miami Beach, the collector base is growing. As well as local collectors following the lead of López or Paz and buying regional artists as well as international ones, there is international interest. Madonna, for instance, collects the work of the Mexican Frida Kahlo."

According to BBC Culture, Brazil, followed by Mexico are the two biggest countries for art sales (Brazil has a gallery in São Paulo, but there are high taxes on art imports that affect sales.)

"An ArtTactic poll on the Latin-American market this year found that 59 percent of the respondents believed that the market would rise over the next six months. Particularly tipped is Colombia, with its thriving art fair and which has benefited from the political unrest in Venezuela, causing collectors to move to the safer city of Bogotá. And Tate Modern has just appointed a Colombian, José Roca, as an Adjunct Curator of Latin-American art."

For this reason, Art Basel was methodical when choosing Miami Beach, rather than New York or Los Angeles, BBC Culture points out. Art Basel wants to form an American base while gaining access to the Latin-American market. "And this will only be reinforced in a few days, when artists from the region get greater exposure in the airy, light-filled spaces of the Pérez museum."