In 2010, the City of Miami Beach received a Knight Arts Challenge grant to inspire and unite South Florida with a third annual Sleepless Night festival, featuring indoor and outdoor art and performances at dozens of Miami Beach venues. The City of Miami Beach also won a Challenge grant for the festival in 2008. Knight Foundation interviewed Gary Farmer, cultural affairs program manager for the City of Miami Beach, about some of the 2011 Sleepless Night festival’s highlights and how it engaged the community.

Knight Foundation: Sleepless Night featured 185 events at 74 locations around Miami Beach. What were some of the highlights? Gary Farmer: Because of the encyclopedic programming we offered, each audience member might choose different favorites; here are a few of mine by zone.  North Beach: Miami Lyric Opera’s production of “Marina” at the Band Shell, Miami Symphony Orchestra’s “big band” at Normandy Fountain, and Colombian singer-songwriter Julian Barrios.  Collins Park: Marco Brambilla’s video “Civilization” at the Bass Museum, Carpetbag Brigade’s stilt theater piece “Callings” in Collins Park, and J.F. Bouchard’s photo exhibit “Still Life” at the Shore Club.  Lincoln Road: Livio Tragtenberg’s “Cabinet of Dr. Strange” interactive sound installation, Miami Poetry Collective’s “Poem Depot,” Scottish street performers Big Rory and Ochie, Erwin Georgi and Gabriel Pulido’s digital deconstruction of “La Dolce Vita” on the SoundScape wall, and Sans facon’s “Limelight: Saturday night” installation and video project on 17th Street.  Ocean Drive: the street theater piece “Fishes” by Barcelona-based Sarruga, Portland, Oregon’s March Fourth Marching Band (coming back for this year’s Sleepless Night,) and the Tiger Lillies.

How did the festival engage South Florida residents? Was this part of your outreach plan? It engages residents on several levels: with the city as a whole and with specific locations within the city, seen from new points of view; with the weather (how much rain is too much?); with each other – with the whole gamut of South Florida “others” of every age, type, and background; and with the arts of course.  Residents and visitors got to curate their own evenings.  They had the opportunity to make lots of choices (Indoors? Outdoors? Sit? Stand? Run? Watch? Participate? etc.) and to decide whether to seek out new or familiar artists and locations. Two of my favorite comments: resident, artist and curator Charo Oquet, said “This is the best thing that ever happened in Miami.  This is the first time we get to see what our community really looks like.”  And Claudia Urdaneta, producer of the International Theater Festival in Caracas, said “I’ve never seen so many happy people in Miami.”  Definitely part of the plan.

What made the city decide to apply to the Knight Arts Challenge? When I first read the first description of the first Knight Arts Challenge, I felt like it had been written especially for Sleepless Night.  I sat right down at the computer and typed my 150-word pitch and sent it in immediately.  “Creating community through the arts” is exactly what Sleepless Night does, so I knew it would be a perfect fit.

Have questions about the 2012 Knight Arts Challenge Miami? Join a live web chat at 1 p.m.  March 7 at KnightArts.org and an in-person, town hall meeting on March 14 at the Little Haiti Cultural Center. The deadline for the Knight Arts Challenge Miami is March 19. Apply now!