By Rebecca M. Gentry, YoungArts

From February 22-26, 2012, YoungArts hosted YoungArts Miami, a regional program bringing together the 57 national YoungArts winners from South Florida. Across the four-day period, the students experienced master classes and interdisciplinary workshops with visiting artists including Mikhail Baryshnikov, Michael Tilson Thomas, Edward Villella, Maria Martinez-Cañas, Daniel Arsham, Roberto Juarez, and other South Florida masters in a variety of disciplines. The visual arts, photography and cinematic arts winners displayed their work at Wynwood’s ARTSEEN gallery, and performances were held at The Colony Theatre and the New World Center.

On Sunday, February 26, more than 500 members of the community – including parents, high school teachers and officials, arts patrons of all ages and young people – enjoyed the final performance at the New World Center. This performance featured artists and other YoungArts alumni working together – pop and classical vocal performances combined with piano and guitar, as well as spoken word and jazz combinations and various forms of dance.

Following the performance, YoungArts recognized the winners and their high schools onstage and with a film by YoungArts alumni Rick Delgado (Visual Arts, 1992) and Isabela Dos Santos (Cinematic Arts, 2011). Each high school will receive an engraved award featuring the names of all 2012 winners from their school. David Stewart, 2012 Winner in Voice and a senior at Cardinal Gibbons High School in Pompano Beach, shared these thoughts on the experience:

“…thank you once more for another life changing week in Miami. This week was, perhaps, even better than the YoungArts (Finals) Week. It was a whole new level of personal (experience), having classes with these amazing teachers for 3 hours at a time, but having them alone to myself, or split with 2 or 3 others. It’s also breath-taking to involve myself in other people’s arts, working with dancers, musicians and artists alike to help me view my art from another point of view, and apply techniques of their art to mine. The opportunity to collaborate with these other amazing artists is just as beneficial as working with master teachers, we have just as much to learn from each other than we do from them, and this week allowed me to do just that. I now have a new appreciation for opera, jazz, poetry and visual art, one that I didn’t have before this week and these collaborations. That was truly the highlight of this week: working with others to create one work of art.

I cannot persuade you enough to do this regional program again. This was absolutely life changing, and I consider myself extraordinarily fortunate to have worked alongside some of the best teachers, students and coordinators in the world. My humble suggestion would be to not only do this in Miami, but perhaps take turns doing it in cities across America – Nashville, LA, NYC, Chicago, Boston, etc. I want everyone to have the same experience I have had in these past few days, so let me know what I can do to help and I will be there in a heartbeat.”

Other notable YoungArts alumni from South Florida include visual artists Daniel Arsham, Fabiola Arias, Hernan Bas, and Naomi Fisher; actors Raúl Esparza, Katie Finneran, Josie Loren and Tarell Alvin McCraney; writer and filmmaker Lucas Leyva; and dancer Yara Travieso. YoungArts Miami is made possible through a generous challenge grant by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation’s Knight Arts Challenge, as well as the Miami Council, Wells Fargo, and with the support of the Miami-Dade County Tourist Development Council, the Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs and the Cultural Affairs Council, the Miami-Dade County Mayor and Board of County Commissioners, and sponsored in part by the State of Florida, Department of State Division of Cultural Affairs, the Florida Council on Arts and Culture and by The Children’s Trust. The Trust is a dedicated source of revenue established by voter referendum to improve the lives of children and families in Miami-Dade County. Watch a clip from David Stewart’s performance at YoungArts Miami’s culminating performance at New World Center on February 26: