Knight Foundation celebrates new commitment to the South Florida arts
The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation celebrated its new $23 million commitment to the South Florida arts with a night of performances, music and storytelling at the New World Symphony campus.
More than 500 people attended the event that kicked off with award-winning actor and playwright Tarrell Alvin McCraney’s reflections on Hamlet, and continued with percussionist Alfredo Chacon and the announcement of the 2012 Knight Arts Challenge winners.
Knight Foundation’s new support will lift both established institutions and grassroots organizations as a way to weave culture into South Floridians’ everyday lives. It includes funding for the continuation of the Knight Arts Challenge, a contest open to the entire South Florida community that for five years has encouraged and allowed artists to experiment and innovate. Institutions receiving funding include the Miami City Ballet, Wolfsonian-FIU, the Cleveland Orchestra, an arts education initiative benefiting the Design and Architecture High School and New World School of the Arts, the Miami International Film festival and the Borscht Film Festival.
“The arts not only inspire and challenge, they help create the shared experiences that connect people to one another and the places they live,” said Alberto Ibargüen, president of Knight Foundation. “The success of our earlier initiative in Miami has encouraged us to expand to Philadelphia and Detroit and, now, to take it to the next level in Miami.”
The support brings Knight Foundation’s total investment in South Florida’s diverse and dynamic cultural community to $86 million in six years.
photos by Patrick Farrell
Knight Foundation President Alberto Ibargüen, Director of the Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs Michael Spring, Miami Program Director Matt Haggman
Lisa Martinez, Luisana Cavallo, Cecilia Gutierrez-Abety, Enide Dufresne, Nicole Henry
Maria Del Valle, Gustavo Matamoros
Dennis Scholl, Knight Foundation; Holly Hudak, Managing Director, Cleveland Orchestra Miami
Jillian Mayer and Lucas Leyva, Borscht Corp
Tarrell Alvin McCraney performs a piece from Shakespeare's Hamlet
Emile Milgrim, Farrah Fleitman, Jason Hall, Jason Jimenez, Andrew Hevia, Colin Foord
Colin Foord, Jonathan David Kane, Arly Montes, Nick Ducassi, Jillian Mayer, Lucas Leyva, Andrew Hevia
Jaie Laplante of the Miami International Film Festival (at left), Lauren Reskin of Sweat Records and Igor Shteyrenberg of the Miami International Film Festival
Karla Ferguson, Yeelen Art Gallery
Vivian Marthell, O Cinema
Lisa Leone, Thought Loom; Mary Luft, Tigertail Productions; Heather Maloney, Inkub8.
From LAB Miami: Daniel Lafuente, Elisa Rodriguez-Vila, Wifredo Fernandez
Jeffrey Hodgson, New World School of the Arts; Stacey Mancuso, Design and Architecture Senior High
Spencer Stewart with Stephanie Ansin, Miami Theater Center.
Thom Collins, Miami Art Museum; Dede Moss; Robert Moss; Victoria Rogers, New World Symphony.
Abbey Chase, Chase Marketing Group; Deborah Plutzik-Briggs, The Betsy Hotel; Leslie King-Hammond, Maryland Institute College of Art Center for Race and Culture; Corey Randolph, The Betsy Hotel.
Achim Nowak, Influens; Lisa Leone, Thought Loom; Letty Bassart, Thought Loom.
