By Laurie Morrissey

Sunshine, sandy beaches, socialites, supermodels…Miami has all these, but George Neary wants you to know it also has culture—lots of it—including beautiful architecture, a symphony orchestra, an acclaimed neoclassical ballet company, several art museums, and an international film festival. For the past eight years, it has been his job to promote the artistic and cultural gems of his adopted city and its surroundings. The Saint Anselm history grad is associate vice president for cultural tourism at the Greater Miami Convention and Visitors Bureau.

"Never a fan of snow," the East Hartford, Conn., native got his first taste of the tropics as a Peace Corps volunteer on the island of Saint Vincent in the West Indies—but it was 16 years before Neary’s career brought him back to a year-round sunny climate. He worked for the Peace Corps in New York City and Washington, D.C., and later for AFS Intercultural Programs, one of the world’s largest student exchange organizations. He also ran his own marketing company in New York.

Now, he loves living where he can walk on the sand just a block from his house and drive around with the top of his convertible down. He also loves Miami’s diversity, cultural scene, and non-stop activity.

Neary was attracted to the city in 1991 by a job as executive director of the Miami Design Preservation League, which promotes the city’s historic Art Deco District.

"Miami’s number one cultural gem is its Art Deco District. It is the world’s largest collection of Art Deco architecture and a cultural icon of America," he says. The one-square mile South Beach neighborhood contains 800 1930s–1940s-era buildings that were preserved during a time when, according to Neary, "urban renewal usually meant urban removal."

Art Deco style buildings are characterized by clean lines, rounded edges, round porthole windows, and pastel colors. Miami’s district was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979.

"It was a reinvention of community," Neary says. "Instead of tearing buildings down and replacing them with tall buildings, they reinterpreted and revitalized them and added air conditioning." He appreciates the neighborhood’s pedestrian scale: "You’re not an ant. You become a partner with the buildings, the palm trees, the ocean and the sand."

Neary lives in a 1936 Art Deco structure designed by L. Murray Dixon, one of the preeminent architects of the era with more than 200 buildings to his credit on Miami Beach.

With his job at the convention and visitor’s bureau, Neary’s role expanded to the wider business and arts community. He is out four or five nights a week at events such as films, art exhibit openings and performances, and he travels to showcase Miami’s culture as far away as Shanghai and Beijing. One of the city’s highlights he promotes is the second largest performing arts center in the country, which opened in October.

"I have always been interested in arts and culture. It’s great to get paid for something you love doing," he says.