Photo: Moderator Victoria Rogers. Photo by Ryan/World Red Eye, courtesy of the Adrienne Arsht Center.

It was a muggy Saturday morning in Miami, but the large and lively arts crowd that turned out for ArtsLaunch2015 at the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts was not going to be stifled. And it turned out to be a real testament to just how much the cultural community has grown.

As part of DWNTWN Art Days and as a kick-off to Arsht’s 10th anniversary season, the center hosted a community conversation on the future of the local arts scene – and what it should look like in 10 years. Actors, musicians, filmmakers, visual artists, dancers, writers and heads of various cultural organizations all filed in and started conversing with one another immediately. But it wouldn’t become clear until the group discussions later in the morning that many others were here, too – engineers, teachers, simply interested citizens of all ages and ethnicities.

Looking back 10 years, it would be hard to imagine such a gathering.

John Richard, Sam Hyken, Mikhaile Solomon, Joy Lampkin Foster, Christine Dolen, Victoria Fear, Teo Castellanos and Victoria Rogers. Photo by Ryan/World Red Eye, courtesy of the Adrienne Arsht Center.

Knight Foundation’s Victoria Rogers, who led the event, began by asking the audience to start thinking about an “art ecosystem” for the future. She pointed out that major institutions like Arsht and the New World Symphony still need to be supported, but that grassroots initiatives are also critical to a healthy cultural base. Rogers stressed the importance of identifying where we need to grow, and then focusing on policies and organizational activities that will further this relatively young cultural city. “There’s still a lot of work to be done,” she said.

Highlighting the diversity of what is happening today, three artistic pioneers were each asked to give a very short, three-minute speech about the future of Miami. After pinpointing some fields that are lagging in Miami, such as a strong independent film industry, actor and director Teo Castellanos hit on a topic that emerged over and over. While not directly related to art in a traditional sense, he said that we need to build community-friendly infrastructure, where people can feel like they want to walk from the Arsht Center to the Perez Art Museum Miami, take the Metromover into downtown and hob-knob with each other.

Leaders of the local arts community participating in an open discussion about the future of Miami’s culture during ArtsLaunch2015. Photo by Ryan/World Red Eye, courtesy of the Adrienne Arsht Center.

Creating a sense of inclusivity through public art and spaces is what Mikhaile Solomon does for a living, as director of public art of the Opa-Locka Community Development Corporation. The city has long been a hard-scrabble place, with high crime rates and a sense of being left behind in the development frenzy further east. But thanks in part to Knight funding, Opa-Locka is experiencing an amazing artistic explosion, with artists covering public spaces, streets, rehabbed housing and schools with inventive, exciting contemporary expressions.

“Miami has always had an interesting cultural and ethnic makeup” with a unique mix of Latin and Caribbean histories, said Solomon. But too often they have remained isolated. “We need to bring in [more] communities to be part” of the cultural landscape.

“Miami is special,” she added, and the more we synthesize our voices, the greater our impact “on the global conversation.”

Sam Hyken is a musician and composer who won a 2014 Knight Arts Challenge grant for his 21st-century classical hybrid company, the Nu Deco Ensemble. A relative newcomer to Miami who confessed that previously he wanted to be playing in New York, he said he was impressed by his experiences. “I was told ‘no one works together here.’ I found the absolute opposite,” he said. Hyken said he couldn’t believe “how many young innovators are here,” and that this all bodes well for the future, where rising tides lift all boats, he said.

Audience feedback on Miami’s cultural future was recorded on big paper sheets. Photo by Marika Lynch.

After these commentaries, Rogers split the audience into three groups, a semi-chaotic and ultimately productive way to continue to explore Miami’s future needs. The leaders of the groups wrote down ideas on big paper sheets, and the audience in each group threw out a wide variety of needs, desires and realities about the next decade.

Aside from the universal agreement that literally getting people on the streets will foster community development – through mass transit, bicycles and on foot, which was particularly emphasized by Arsht Center President and CEO John Richard – the other themes ran the gamut.

For instance, the attendees named these priorities:

• Tapping into and creating a better philanthropic groundwork
• Finding ways to not only cultivate new talent, but keep that talent here in Miami
• Establishing more arts incubators where artists can create new works, as well as collaborating with local developers to find permanent space for arts organizations so that they can be rooted in communities
• Raising awareness and supporting arts groups that are already here – like the Arts & Business Council of Miami and Arts For Learning – rather than reinventing the wheel
• Physically bringing arts out to the public through innovative means, such as concerts in schools, a ballet bus, and outdoor plaza days at YoungArts and the Arsht Center
• Providing more opportunities for kids and disadvantaged populations to feel like they are part of the cultural community and have access to affordable tickets
• Making art part of the fabric of the city and attracting artistic tourism.

During all the discussions, people broke off for more intimate talks, and cheers and clapping erupted periodically. Harnessing the good vibes, Rogers concluded by telling everyone to not stop talking.

“We will fail miserably if we don’t follow up,” Rogers said.