As the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts of Miami-Dade County enters its fifth year serving South Florida, its leaders are rolling out a special 5th Anniversary Season that will celebrate the institution’s success as a presenter of world-class programs that reflect Miami’s diverse population, an economic engine in the City’s thriving urban core, and as a model public/private partnership that has made critical investments in important community-based initiatives.
The Arsht Center’s mission will factor prominently into a special 5th Anniversary Season Gala event to be held on the stage of the Sanford and Dolores Ziff Ballet Opera House on Thursday, October 28, 2010. A focal point of the Gala evening will be the dedication of two newlyengraved donor walls featuring the names of hundreds of individuals, families, businesses and organizations that have supported the Center dating back to its initial planning phase. The wall’s newest additions will be names that participated in the Adrienne Arsht Center’s 2010 Donor Wall campaign, which raised more than $2 million as said by Suzanna Valdez, the Center’s Vice President for Advancement.
The success of the Donor Wall campaign is only the latest in a string of milestones that have defined the Adrienne Arsht Center’s first four years. These range from philanthropist Adrienne Arsht’s $30 million gift, the Center’s first complete summer season in 2008, the recruitment of M. John Richard as President/CEO and the decision to pay off the institution’s bank debt seven years early. The past two years have seen the Center achieve steady financial performance, new audience cultivation, membership and new donor growth, and commercially/ critically-successful programming endeavors. In addition, the Center has added new amenities designed to enhance the patron experience, such as the 2009 opening of specialty restaurant Prelude By Barton G. and the planned fall 2010 debut of a new street-level Bombay Sapphire Lounge, a Bombay Sapphire Gin-branded lounge. Today, the Adrienne Arsht Center is revered as a fixture in South Florida’s cultural landscape and as a centerpiece of Downtown Miami’s transformation into a vibrant urban center.
“While the Adrienne Arsht Center has set out to achieve many objectives, the common thread throughout our mission is our role as a new ‘town square’ for Miami, a place where members from all corners of our community come together to share transformational experiences that enrich the mind and soul,” said M. John Richard, President and CEO of the Adrienne Arsht Center. “As we reflect on our past and look to our future, we are confident that we have established the Adrienne Arsht Center as an invaluable component of our community landscape, be it through diverse programs, innovative arts education initiatives, or our role as a catalyst for economic development. The success of our Donor Wall campaign sends a clear signal that our mission enjoys broad-based support throughout our community.”
For additional information about the Adrienne Arsht Center’s 5th Anniversary Season, visit arshtcenter.org. To RSVP for the 5th Anniversary Season Gala, call 786- 468-2020 or email gala@arshtcenter.org
