Welcome to our first Artscope magazine of 2016.

We hope you had a chance to follow our coverage from Art Basel Miami Beach on Instagram and Facebook in early December; this issue features two reports by Suzanne Volmer from the event and its satellite fairs as well as impressions from three of New England’s top gallery directors — Adam Adelson of Adelson Galleries, Mike Carroll of Schoolhouse Gallery and William Baczek of William Baczek Fine Arts.

As we were putting this issue together, we learned that we’ll be returning to the Art Basel Collective Booth in Basel, Switzerland this June and more pressingly, will be represented in the media exhibition area at Art Palm Beach in West Palm Beach, Florida from January 20-24, allowing us to continue our mission to bring New England’s artists, galleries and museums to the attention of audiences and collectors outside the region.

Art Basel Miami Beach 2015 reported strong sales. Given the high quality of the work shown and the large amount of media attention the show receives, artscope publisher Kaveh Mojtabai reported that the uninitiated would be surprised to find out how inclusive the Basel fairs are — without the expected exclusivity — “except,” he added, “the sales prices.” Basel continues to be the event “where the best in the world comes to you,” he said.

Attending Basel, in both Switzerland and Miami Beach, has allowed artscope to hone in on what types of pieces and work are bringing high prices, and has given us a better understanding of what the world’s top galleries are bringing to the art world’s biggest events. It certainly raises the bar on our own expectations for the work we see in New England.

The start of each year usually includes a series of group shows intended to celebrate a new group of artists joining a gallery roster — such as at the Copley Society of Art’s annual New Members Show, which never fails to add new “must-watch” names to our future coverage list (and which we’ll be reviewing in our zine on artscopemaga- zine.com) — or in the instance of the “30. Below” exhibition, on view this January at the Cambridge Art Association (CAA). It’s a first-time, big-city look at New England artists under the age of 30 from all genres in a juried capacity (in this instance, by Fitchburg Art Museum curator Mary Tinti).

“30. Below” is a show that we’re proud to sponsor, and we’re glad to have gotten an early peek at the work to be featured, so that Franklin W. Liu could share an early view in this issue of what visitors to the CAA exhibition can expect.

Covering a group show is among our writers’ greatest challenges, thanks to the limits of a word count and needing to whittle down a large group of works into the select few that each writer feels is most worthy of coverage. This issue also features reviews of “hello, world!” — a show exploring queer identity — that’s currently on view at Artspace New Haven (and reviewed by J. Fatima Martins) and “Blauww: Celebrating Blue,” which opened at the Van Vessem Gallery when we were already deep into our production process; it was quickly reviewed by Don Wilkinson so we could include it in these pages.

Thanks to their hard work, we feel we’ve been able to put together a good survey of the artists to keep an eye on over the next 12 months who will shape the area’s art scene in the years to come.

While attending the Center for Contemporary Printmaking’s Monothon 2015 Benefit Auction and Party in November — another event we helped sponsor — Mojtabai mentioned to Kristin Nord, artscope’s Connecticut correspondent, that the Modernist houses of New Canaan, Conn. would make a good story, pointing out that winter was the best time to see the structures due to the leafless trees revealing the homes in full splendor; Nord put together this issue’s “Wander- lust: New Canaan” feature.

It’s packaged with her review of the “Pedagogy and Place: Celebrating 100 Years of Architecture Education” exhibition that’s at the Yale School of Architecture and my own artist profile of Derek “Deek” Diedricksen, who is nationally renowned for his tiny houses, cabins and tree houses — and rapidly becoming known for his artworks made of the remains from those structures — in advance of an early February “Hands-On: Build Small” workshop he’ll be hosting at the Fuller Craft Museum. It’s another event to which we’ve lent our sponsorship.

In the midst of finishing up his finals at UMass-Amherst, John Stapleton visited the Smith College Museum of Art to check out its recently completed renovations — his report convinced me it’s time for another trip out to Northampton – while Elizabeth Michelman spent a day at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston observing Marilyn Arsem’s “100 Ways to Consider Time” performance piece; we’re hoping it’ll encourage you to take in the daily event before it closes on February 19.

One feature in this issue that all artists should take a look at is Laura Shabott’s article on exploring available artist grants and residencies and how to put together your best possible appli- cation in applying for them; she’s also included links to regional and national organizations’ websites to help you in your search.

This issue’s centerfold contest winner, with a Sci-Fi/Fantasy theme, is Pecan. Thanks to our judges: commercial and comic book artist (and creator of “New Zodiax”) Joe St.Pierre; Cambridge School of Weston gallery director Todd Bartel; and Catamount Arts gallery director Katherine French. For our next contest, we’re looking for your best original paintings; full details can be found in our Classifieds section.

Our next issue will be our 10th anniver- sary issue — we premiered in March 2006 — and if you’d like to advertise in that very special issue, give our office a call at (617) 639-5771.

Whether you’re an artist, museum or gallery visitor, administrator or staff person, lover of stimulating visual additions to your city or town’s landscape or an art collector, I’m sure you’re going to enjoy what’s ahead in the pages of this issue. As always, we value your feedback and suggestions, so please don’t hesitate to drop me a line.

Brian Goslow, Managing Editor [email protected]