Above: The 2013 Miami Knight Arts Challenge Winners. Music credit: Knight Arts Challenge Winner Joey Bargsten of meme experi mental ensemble. Tonight, on the New World Center stage, we’re celebrating 49 local artists, the impact they are having on our cultural community and our city, and their big ideas for the South Florida arts. Each is a winner of the Miami Knight Arts Challenge, receiving combined $2.72 million. We expect you will be seeing and experiencing their projects soon. Some are using technology in ways that will reshape how we view art. Others are using art as a lens to celebrate everything that is uniquely South Florida – from our history as a swampland to our historic landmarks like the Miami Marine Stadium and Venetian Pool. Together, they – and the Knight Arts Challenge winners before them – are helping to create an ecosystem that allows artists to stay here in Miami, to build a career and a name for themselves while creating a sense of community that benefits everybody. As a result, they are pushing the arts beyond Wynwood and Downtown, deeper into our neighborhoods and communities, from South Dade to Opa-locka and Miramar. Everywhere you go in South Florida, we want you to have an encounter with art. The opening of the Perez Art Museum later this week is testament that Miami is on that path. The challenge winners are fueling the art scene by ensuring art surrounds us all.
