On December 4, 2013, the wait is over. Pérez Art Museum Miami makes its debut, during Art Basel Miami Beach, nonetheless. Marked as one of the most anticipated events of Basel 2013, the opening of Pérez Art Museum Miami is set to bring a revitalization to Museum Park in downtown Miami. Though we’ve seen snippets of what’s to be this pinnacle of art and architecture through Core Creative dinners and site tours, we’re anxious to see what else the marvel of a museum has in store.

And we finally will that upcoming fateful day in December. This year, the museum has a full list of Basel-esque activities to show off its new digs with Director Thom Collins at the helm. He, along with Associate Curator Diana Nawi recently showed an exclusive first look at Image Search: Photography from the Collection, which includes selected photographs drawn from the permanent collection.

Prior to the sneak peek, Collins led VIP tours, more than 200 total and complete with hardhats, of the construction site for everyone from artists to Miami luminaries. The 200,000 square foot museum, designed by Basel, Switzerland-based architects Herzog & de Meuron is set to be the new epicenter of culture in Miami.

It’s a big move for the museum, formerly called Miami Art Museum (MAM), which previously resided at the Miami-Dade Cultural Center for 29 years. Thanks to the help of billionaire real estate developer Jorge Perez’s donation of $40 million to MAM in 2011, the museum is now on to bigger and brighter beginnings. Pérez’s gift, which is half in art from his personal collection and half in cash, influenced the museum’s name change.

But that’s not all that’s changed. The museum now exists as a major influencer for Miami’s steadily growing art scene. Collins recently spoke at an art talk and discussed the new museum’s purpose to serve the community and foster the arts and culture in Miami. At the heart of its programming is education, which was taken into consideration when Herzog and de Meuron created the space. A main auditorium was transformed into the main staircase, which is reminiscent of the Old World Spanish steps where people would gather to eat, drink and write. Lectures and videos will be show in the main auditorium, while the staircase serves as a space for free thinkers to do what they do best, which is hopefully enrich their lives with discussions of the surrounding art.

Here, we take a look at the evolution of MAM to PAMM while we eagerly await the opening of its doors.

 Pérez Art Museum Miami