Orene Harris, Marilyn Holifield, PAMM Director Thom Collins, Barron Channer & Peter London

Civic leaders are getting behind the Fund for African American Art at the new Perez Art Museum Miami, joining an ambassadors group and raising more than $30,000 so far to enhance the museum’s permanent collection.

The group also hopes to ultimately sponsor programming and an internship program.

PAMM Board Members Barron Channer and Marilyn Holifield chair the group, which hosted a recent reception coinciding with PAMM’s Caribbean: Crossroads of the World exhibit. They were joined by Trustees Carol Hall, Mireille Chancy-Gonzalez, Dede Moss, Aaron Podhurst, Gail Meyers and Debi Hoffman and Knight’s Dennis Scholl. Nearly 100 community leaders also attended, including prominent supporters Toni and Carl Randolph and Ron and Regina Frazier.

Carl Randolph, Rodney Royal, Carole Hall & Dennis Scholl

Knight Foundation and Jorge M. Perez began the fund, with donations of $500,000 each, to ensure the museum’s collection both reflects and engages greater South Florida. Several works in the collection continue to be on display in the museum’s Americana exhibit, including those by renowned artists Faith Ringgold, Al Loving and Xaviera Simmons.

Monique Hayes, Nicola Brown & Richard Standifer

The fund’s ambassador group will meet soon to tour the El Anatsui exhibit at the Bass Museum of Art, and then again the fall when artist Gary Simmons creates a mural for PAMM’s project room.