A group of art insiders descended on the Le Gray hotel in downtown Beirut to celebrate the beginning of the Beirut Art Week, which runs Sept. 18-25 with a multifaceted program dedicated to contemporary art and design. Together with Lebanese Culture Minister Ghattas Khoury, the group was taken on a 16-stop tour of public art installations by Lebanese and international artists throughout the city’s galleries and open spaces.

The walk curls from the Le Gray hotel at Martyr’s Square down through the Beirut Souks and back into the popular neighborhood of Gemmayzeh for its last stop. Beyond just showcasing public artworks, the tour intends to highlight the cultural heritage and architecture of the city through exhibits like “Building With Fire” held in the old L'Orient-Le Jour building and a "ciné-concert" combining archival footage with live performances on the terraces of the Opera Gallery.

This rich and visually stimulating tour set the tone for the ninth edition of the Beirut Art Fair, which opens Sept. 19-23 at the expanded Seaside Arena — formerly the Beirut International Exhibition and Leisure Center, known as BIEL. The Beirut Art Fair was founded by director Laure d’Hauteville in 2010 and has steadily grown over the past eight years, establishing itself as a landmark event in the MENA region. With the number of attendees predicted to rise to 32,000 from 28,000 in 2017, the space allocated for the event has increased by 45% this year.

This year’s event boasts a range of works by 250 established and emerging contemporary artists with some 1,600 pieces in 33 returning galleries and 18 new booth exhibitors from 20 countries. For the first time, the Beirut Art Fair team has assigned renowned architect and urban planner Patrick Boustani to recreate the city of Beirut within the exhibition space itself.