This is a city in which diverse strands of graffiti art, neo-Pop, Cuban art produced in Cuba and in exile, as well as performance, blue-chip, and digital art interweave, creating a uniquely Miami rigging for culture moving ahead.

Once considered a backwater, Miami’s visual arts community is stunningly international. Yes, Miami’s year-round growing season is celebrated for making tropical plants seem to grow overnight. But cultural flowering now apparent year-round in Miami didn’t happen overnight.  It’s the result of patient, indeed visionary, nurturing of the city’s extraordinary resources and upstart history.

Consider Contemporary Arts Project (CAP) at Vizcaya Museum and Gardens: for 2011 and 2012, Vizcaya  commissioned site-specific art by Naomi Fisher, Josiah McElheny, Ernesto Oroza, and Francesco Simeti.  This National Historic Landmark, perched on Biscayne Bay since it was built by forward-minded industrialist James Deering in 1916, began as an upstart haven for creative, visionary thinking. The strands first woven by Deering are still apparent in recent CAP art, Fisher’s “Jungle Sweat, Roseate,” a video and installation. Internationally known, Fisher is a Miami-bred artist. She weaves together Miami’s past and present with Vizcaya as poetic canvas in this new work. It gracefully incorporates the fabulous stone barge created by Stirling Calder, father of legendary American sculptor Alexander Calder, which seems to float in the bay a few yards from Vizcaya’s palatial waterfront.

Fisher and Hernan Bas, another Miami artist who’s achieved considerable fame, met in high school at New World School of the Arts. Later they shared a studio in the Design District. They also add to strands supporting Miami culture. They co-founded innovative Bas Fisher Invitational, an artist-run space giving new opportunities to up-and-coming artists, not far from their former studio. For their initiative, this space received prestigious 2008 Knight Arts Challenge grant from Miami-based Knight Foundation, a high-profile supporter of Miami culture joining others to make Vizcaya’s CAP possible.

More examples of how Miami’s cultural rigging forms and informs the city: In late 2011 NWSA, part of Miami Dade College, announced a season in performing and visual arts celebrating its 25^th anniversary. This included benefit art auction at boutique South Beach Sagamore Hotel, offering art by notable NWSA alums Hernan Bas, Bert Rodriguez, Mike Vasquez.  Auction was hosted by collectors Cricket and Marty Taplin, whose art collection graces Sagamore public spaces.  See museum-quality art at Sagamore, a cultural gem, year-round.  Don’t miss art by Miami artists often displayed there.

MDC, the nation’s largest and most diverse college, plays an active role on many fronts to weave Miami cultural strands.

Significant artists taught at MDC’s North Campus, including Duane Hanson and Robert Thiele, during the 1970s.  In December 2010 Thiele with artist daughter Kristen Thiele founded artist-run exhibition space Bridge Red Studios / Project Space, near Museum of Contemporary Art. Highlighting contributions of artists teaching at MDC-North, Bridge Red Studios presents this season a rarely-seen look back at their art of that era. “There was a productive interchange of ideas,” Thiele recalls.

University of Miami also contributes; innovative artist Robert Chambers once taught there. His luminous public art transforms Architectonica-designed South Miami-Dade Cultural Arts Center. UM showcases its talented art students with exhibits at UM Wynwood Project Space.

MacArthur “genius” grant winner artist Teresita Fernandez attended Florida International University, another school enhancing Miami’s cultural “rigging.” Frost Museum of FIU not only presented her art several seasons ago but this season showcased faculty artists Mette Tommerup and Bill Burke. They surely transmit multicultural Miami mystique to their students, one of whom may one day win another “genius” grant.

Many ingredients comprise this mystique: artistic traditions developed within an ever-evolving exile community, where so many people come from elsewhere to work and play in a city surviving traumas with names like Elian and Andrew.

Participate in this artistic culture. One day you might discover you’ve supported another Miami genius.

These “big four” maintain public hours and informative websites.

Rubell Family Collection has been active here since 1993. Transforming a DEA Agency warehouse in the once-unsung Wynwood, RFC not only generates exhibitions beyond Miami but provides the city with educational resources and changing opportunities to view its contemporary art collection. It features signature artists of our day: Jason Rhoades, Cindy Sherman and Andy Warhol.

Martin Z. Margulies established Margulies Collection at the Warehouse to showcase his legendary holdings in photography, painting, video, installation art, and sculpture. These include classic examples by Miro and Noguchi, as well art from such innovators as George Segal and Ernesto Neto. The Warehouse provides lectures and guided tours. Laudable feature: Admission fee supports Lotus House, a Miami shelter for women and children.

Another Wynwood treasure: World Class Boxing. Named for gym once housed in this building, WCB exhibits Debra and Dennis Scholl Collection, a varied gathering of contemporary painting, drawing, sculpture, and photography. It’s museum quality. You’ll find intriguing art selected by curators in Miami and beyond, as well as promising new art created for WCB.

Nearby in Design District is de la Cruz Collection Contemporary Art Space presenting collection of Rosa and Carlos de la Cruz. The building’s elegant, airy design enhances its bold contemporary art; this collection pays special attention to artists Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Jim Hodges and Ana Mendieta. Significant lectures are offered. Bonus bringing new energy here: It teams with New York’s SculptureCenter to create artist residency program in Miami.

As we know, magic has many manifestations. Some you see. Some you don’t. The following collections are infrequently seen by the public yet still magnify Miami’s cultural magic.

Also in Design District is Craig Robins Design Collection, filled with insightful connections between fine art and fine design. A distinguished urban treasure, it features historical and contemporary designers with unique and limited edition objects from 1940s to present day, including work by celebrated “starchitect” Zaha Hadid.

Dr. Arturo and Liza Mosquera Collection carries special resonance in Miami. Much of its art seeks to unravel or illuminate tangled ties linking the city to Cuba. With impressive historical reach, it includes work by Guido Llinás and Maria Brito. In a moving presentation, it was shown at Miami Dade College’s Freedom Tower. Ella Fontanals-Cisneros, of Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation (CIFO), is another collector making her mark downtown. The international character of her contemporary collection embraces photography and other media; it includes Latin American modernists Gego and Mira Schendel. Irma and Norman Braman Collection, one of the city’s most established, is famed for its Modern and contemporary art, especially by Americans. Also known for Modern and contemporary art: Aaron I. Fleischman Collection.

Diversity has always been a hallmark of Miami, and so too for its art.

Fascinating collectors Manita Brug-Chmielenska and Randy Burman is art constructed with found objects, whether or not artists are formally trained. Their diverse collection is international, with art by Liliana Porter and Robert Rauschenberg, achieving a Miami mystique with art by Edouard Duval-Carrié and Purvis Young. Jay and Jean Kislak Collections encompass many treasures. The Jay I. Kislak Collection, now in the Library of Congress, focuses on history and cultures of early Americas. The couple’s personal interest ranges from historic objects to painting by Frida Kahlo to sculpture by Alexander Calder to photography by Shirin Neshat. Jean Kislak’s own collection focuses on life and times of a long-ago British Empire beauty.

Vilma and Behrooz Garabaghi Collection embodies the collectors’ global love story traversing Iran, Africa, and Italy. Impressively diverse and museum quality, this collection mixes African masks with textiles from Central America and Africa. Stunning textiles have been shared with University of Florida Harn Museum. The Lowe Art Museum of University of Miami has borrowed many objects.

Collections in Miami clearly know no bounds. Why not start yours?