Veteran antiques writer Wendy Moonan has a new home for her weekly column at the website New York Social Diary, which made a name with party photos of the uptown canape crowd. Her first column can be found here.

Moonan wrote her weekly Times column for 12 years until “philosophical differences” led to a parting. Moonan also writes for Architectural Digest.

Arrived in Miami Tuesday afternoon. Visited the beach. Checked out the new sleek W Hotel, stocked with Warhols, Hirsts and other high-octane names. Rooms still available for the weekend, according to reception desk.

Enjoyed cocktails at the Betsy where passersby included Larry Warsh, Cristin Tierney and Suzanne Egeran. Last night attended crowded opening of the Art Miami fair where a mixed bag of exhibitors showed off wares.  Afterwards hit a cocktail party at the Rubell Family Collection. Mera Rubell sported a spiky black wig.

Readers: confession. I devoured a chocolate chip meringue for breakfast. But let me explain. The confection had great provenance. I purchased Sunday afternoon at the quirky Partners and Spade gallery on Great Jones Street during painter Will Cotton’s afternoon bake-off.

The artist, who paints glamorous pin-up gals wafting in fantastical candy lands, wore an apron and tempted me with a  fruit tart.

A bevy of art world helpers, wearing cupcake topped tiaras, hustled around the gallery whipping up cakes, tarts, pies and macaroons. They included art adviser Christine Zehner, photographer Tina Heijmanek, Gagosian Gallery’s Rose Dergan and Kara Vander Weg.

Cotton’s bakery continues Nov. 15 and 22.

The defunct Bridge Art Fair, a non-profit memorable for dubious art,  has been reincarnated as Verge and comes to Miami Dec. 3-6 at the Catalina Hotel.

The fair has been trimmed down to about 20 exhibitors. The selection committee boasts notable names including Richard Feigen, Dan Cameron, James Yood and Beth Rudin DeWoody.

Exhibitors:

Antidote          Brooklyn, NY
Carl van Brunt     Beacon, NY
ecoartspace     NY, NY
Front Room Gallery     Brooklyn, NY
Galerie CP     Paris, France
Gitana Rosa     Brooklyn, NY
MANIAC     Los Angeles, CA
Nroom Artspace     Tokyo, Japan
Max Protetch     NY, NY
Rush Arts      NY, NY
Smack Mellon     Brooklyn, NY
Mindy Solomon      St. Petersburg, FL
Brenda Taylor     NY, NY
Tsatsis projects/Artforum     Thessaloniki, Greece
Vagabond     NY, NY
Vinyl Contemporary Brooklyn, NY
Wild Feasties     NY, NY
Xinfu     Shanghai, China
Zvono     Belgrade, Serbia

Amid fears that the end of 2009 will bring another wave of gallery closures, Chelsea dealers are finding ways to cut costs.

ATM and Freight and Volume have announced an “alliance.” They will be operating from 542 West 24th Street (ATM is moving into Freight and Volume’s digs) to “consolidate our talents and reach an even broader audiences,” according to an email from ATM gallery.

ATM was located at 621 W. 27th Street.

The galleries will continue to present separate exhibitions in one venue. ATM is to be renamed ATM-Bill Brady.

London collector James Brett mounted his rambling and raw Museum of Everything, in a former dairy and recording studio in the quaint Primrose Hill neighborhood.

The exhibit pulled together 200 outsider artworks from Brett’s collection, alongside commentaries by other artists, curators and cultural figures including David Byrne, Ed Ruscha and Annette Messager.

Wall text near the start of the show explains it all:

“For these artists there are no studios, no press junkets, no art fairs, no magazine spreads. Instead there are treasure troves of untrained work, discovered under rocks, in basements and attics, its creators often unaware their art would every see the light of day.”

A ground-floor space on the corner of 79th and Madison, long occupied by Asian art dealer E & J Frankel Ltd, has been cleared out and is hung with a for rent sign.

The gallery’s website gives no indication whether the gallery is moving or has closed.

The gallery was founded 42 years ago in 1967 by Edith and Joel Frankel.

Large posters based on artworks from the New-York Historical Society give a lift to window displays at Saks Fifth Avenue.