MIAMI — Miami Performing Arts Center Foundation announced today a landmark multimillion-dollar gifts from Carnival Corporation and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, two Miami-based organizations whose involvement with the Center dates back to the planning stages.
The Center has been renamed Carnival Center for the Performing Arts in honor of a $20 million aggregate gift from Carnival Corporation, the largest gift to the Center to date. Concurrently, the Center’s Concert Hall, previously known as the Carnival Concert Hall, has been renamed the Knight Concert Hall in appreciation of $10 million in grants from Knight Foundation.
Sherwood M. Weiser, chairman of the board for the Miami Performing Arts Center Foundation said, “As great institutions define the nature of a community, there is no question that Carnival Corporation and Knight Foundation have been among the most influential and largest contributors to the quality of life and educational programs in our community.”
“We are enormously grateful to the Arison family and Carnival Corporation for their generosity in naming our soon-to-be world-renowned center. Nothing could be more appropriate than the Carnival Center being visible to the millions of visitors by sea and to our citizens who each have a special relationship with the magnificent Carnival Center for the Performing Arts,” said Weiser.
One of the Center’s first financial benefactors, Carnival Corporation has been associated with the performing arts center from its infancy when the late Ted Arison, Carnival’s founder and chairman emeritus, made a substantial personal financial gift in the early 1990s to help fund the development of the facility. Carnival Corporation has also provided ongoing support for Carnival Center’s resident companies – Concert Association of Florida, Florida Grand Opera, Miami City Ballet and New World Symphony, America’s Orchestral Academy.
“It is so tremendously gratifying and fitting that this extraordinary facility, which was a long-held dream of Ted and Lin Arison, will carry Carnival’s name. The Carnival organization has always been and continues to be enormously passionate about South Florida and fostering the arts within our community. This is a proud and rewarding occasion for our company and our employees,” said Howard Frank, Carnival Corporation & plc vice chairman and COO.
Weiser continued: “Equally important is the influence and substantial financial support that has been extended to this community, consistently and generously, by Knight Foundation in honor of the founding brothers, John S. and James L. Knight. This gift is but another example of their support and commitment to the arts and the community.”
Since 1995, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation has made numerous grants in support of the Center’s artistic initiatives and its capital campaign, and has also provided support for its four resident companies. With this latest gift to Carnival Center, Knight Foundation has awarded a total of $1 billion in grants over its 56-year history. In the Miami area, the foundation has made 1,002 grants totaling more than $155 million to nonprofit organizations working in journalism and communities.
“This new complex has been the catalyst for the most phenomenal transformation of an urban downtown since Lincoln Center caused a revival of New York’s Upper West Side. And in the region, it will augment Miami’s reputation as a world-class cultural destination,” said Alberto Ibargüen, president of Knight Foundation. “Our dream is of a Knight Concert Hall where the city’s great diversity of residents and visitors will hear and see themselves reflected in their music, interests and heritage; a place where the highest quality art will help build the strongest kind of community bond.”
These two momentous gifts bring the total raised through the Center’s Capital Campaign to $80 million against a goal of $85 million. They are also evidence of both expanding and intensifying support from the community for the Center. In the last 20 months alone, the Center has successfully raised more than $30 million.
“Carnival Corporation and Knight Foundation are shining examples of the enthusiasm and interest Miami’s business and arts community has for this project. We hope their outstanding gifts encourage others to support the Center in a substantial way as we move into the development phase of our fund-raising efforts,” said Weiser.
Once the capital campaign for construction is completed, the Center will continue to raise funds to expand its endowment fund and support programming and operations. Additional opportunities exist for naming rights for the Center’s Studio Theater, the stage of the Concert Hall, dedication of the Center’s six public art installations, as well as public and private areas through the Center.
About Carnival Center for the Performing Arts
Opening in downtown Miami October 2006, Carnival Center is Miami-Dade County’s largest ever public/private-sector partnership, comprised of an $85 million private capital campaign conducted by the Carnival Center for the Performing Arts Foundation and public funding drawn primarily from the County’s Convention Development Tax revenues, as well as the City of Miami Omni Redevelopment District Community Redevelopment Agency. Greatly enhancing the artistic and educational opportunities in South Florida, Carnival Center for the Performing Arts also will have significant and long-term economic benefits for the city and the region.
Carnival Center, designed by world-renowned architect Cesar Pelli of Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects, will include the 2,400-seat Sanford and Dolores Ziff Ballet Opera House, the 2,200-seat Knight Concert Hall, a 200-seat black box Studio Theater, the Peacock Education Center, a restored Art Deco Tower, and a Plaza for the Arts that will unite the Center buildings across Biscayne Boulevard, providing a magnificent setting for outdoor entertainment and informal gatherings. The key members of the design team include theater planning and design consultant Joshua Dachs of Fisher Dachs Associates, Inc. and acoustician Russell Johnson of ARTEC, Inc., both of whom have been working on the project since its inception.
Under the leadership of President and CEO Michael C. Hardy, Carnival Center will be a Miami venue not only for its four resident companies (Concert Association of Florida, Florida Grand Opera, Miami City Ballet, and New World Symphony), but also for many smaller South Florida arts organizations that will perform in its theaters on a regular basis, as well as for the finest popular and classical performances from around the world. With state-of-the-art performance facilities in Miami for the first time, Carnival Center will offer to South Florida audiences the best and most diverse theater, music, and dance — with a dedication to entertain, challenge, and educate all segments of the community. For more information, visit www.carnivalcenter.org.
About Carnival Corporation & plc
Carnival Corporation & plc is the largest cruise vacation group in the world, with a portfolio of 12 cruise brands in North America, Europe and Australia, comprised of Carnival Cruise Lines, Holland America Line, Princess Cruises, Seabourn Cruise Line, Windstar Cruises, AIDA Cruises, Costa Cruises, Cunard Line, Ocean Village, P&O Cruises, Swan Hellenic and P&O Cruises Australia.
Together, these brands operate 81 ships totaling approximately 144,000 lower berths with 15 new ships scheduled to enter service between March 2007 and spring 2010. Carnival Corporation & plc also operates the leading tour companies in Alaska and the Canadian Yukon, Holland America Tours and Princess Tours. Traded on both the New York and London Stock Exchanges, Carnival Corporation & plc is the only group in the world to be included in both the S&P 500 and the FTSE 100 indices. Carnival generously supports a wide variety of charitable organizations, both arts-related and community-service based, throughout South Florida, as well as in many other communities where the company’s brands are headquartered and its vessels operate.
About the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation
The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation promotes journalism excellence worldwide and invests in the vitality of the communities where the Knight brothers owned newspapers. To learn more about Knight’s transformational funding, visit www.knightfdn.org/annual.