Knight in Shining Armor

Foundation gives golden donation to the arts

By Cynthia Archbold

The Knight Foundation made a shocking announcement last Thursday, backed up with giant checks, when it gave $40 million in cash to the arts in South Florida — the biggest single gift the foundation has ever given to any entity.

Knight Foundation CEO Alberto Ibarguen said $20 million will be used to establish endowments for the Miami Art Museum, the Museum of Contemporary Art and the New World Symphony.

The other $20 million will be used for artist challenge grants, spread over five years, “to fund innovative ideas in the arts in Miami-Dade and Broward counties.” Each of those Knight dollars must be matched by other donors, which will potentially bring in a total of $60 million.

Ibarguen, who announced the gift in a packed Miami Art Museum auditorium, encouraged anyone “with big ideas for the arts projects” to apply, joking that County Mayor Carlos Alvarez might want to submit some poetry and asking Mayor Manny Diaz to discover “if he has an artistic bone in his body.”

“We’re proud to add to a tradition that has long included the Knight brothers, Ted Arison and the Arison Family Foundation, Adrienne Arsht, Sandy and Dolores Ziff, and Pat and Phil Frost,” he said.

Arsht beamed at the news that the Knight Foundation was topping her $30 million gift to the recently renamed Arsht Center of the Performing Arts.

“I don’t know that I started a trend or if I came in at the beginning of one, but I am very proud to be in it,” Arsht said.

 Ibarguen handed out the first payment checks, which he assured everyone were not “phony,” to the Miami Art Museum for $2 million and the Museum of Contemporary Art and the New World Symphony for $1 million.

“I think it’s fantastic,” said Mary Luft, founder and director of Tigertail Productions, which produces five or six major artistic events in theaters and 20 or so events in libraries and schools each year. She said she definitely plans to apply for a grant.

“The timing is incredible,” she said. “I’m sure it will impact many organizations, and many of us will be out there trying to get a piece of that.

“It’s an incredible opportunity because we’re looking at an economic environment that is in a process of change,” she said, referring to a 30 percent cut in state arts funding last year that followed the mandatory property tax reduction.

But Ibarguen pointed out that the arts have exploded in South Florida despite the economy, adding that the Knight Arts Partnership grew from 100 arts institutions 25 years ago to more than 1,200 now, with major events such as Art Basel, the Miami International Film Festival and the Miami Book Fair.

The $10 million for the Miami Art Museum will allow 40,000 school children each year to see the exhibitions and learn about making visual art, through an endowed art education program.

The $5 million for MOCA will allow the museum to mount up to three exhibits a year and feature more emerging artists, new public programs and events, lectures and film screenings.

The $5 million for the New World Symphony will enhance Internet 2, which permits performers and audiences to share real-time experiences with other artists around the world. Once construction is finished on the new $200 million Gehry-designed home for New World Symphony, it “will be the world’s most technologically advanced classical music performance space,” Ibarguen said.

“Because we are looking for big, exciting and new ideas we have made the process as easy and open as possible,” Ibarguen said regarding the $20 million community challenge. “There are only three rules: The ideas must be about art, the projects must take place in South Florida and the idea must find funding to match Knight Foundation’s commitment.”

Up until this $40 million gift, the Knight Foundation has given generously to arts and culture in Miami — donating  $12 million, including $10 million to the Knight Concert Hall at the Arsht Performing Arts Center, in the last two years.

“The arts build ties that bind neighbor-to-neighbor and community-to community,” Ibarguen said. “It is these social networks that translate cultural vitality into economic dynamism. But most of all, when art hits home, it fills your soul; it moves you and makes you better. It helps us understand ourselves and our world.”

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