The National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts held its annual gala on Saturday night at two landmark venues in downtown Miami. Formerly held at the Fontainebleau hotel, this year’s "An Affair of the Arts" gala moved to the Gusman Center for the Performing Arts and Alfred I. Dupont Building.
“Our office is downtown, so we felt a connection to our location and wanted to make sure people know we are here,” said Megan Harmon, the organization’s manager of special events and alumni relations. “We are a national foundation whose home is in this city, and Gusman is one of the most spectacular theaters we have in the city, so why wouldn’t we use it?”
Nearly 600 artists, dancers, writers, and patrons of the arts attended the fund-raiser, which serves as the culmination of the organization’s YoungArts Week series of classes and performances by 150 high school seniors from around the country. The night began at Gusman’s Olympia Theater, where YoungArts alumni like renowned modern dancer Desmond Richardson performed alongside 12 other alumni, representing the nine disciplines of the visual, literary, and performing arts.
The performance culminated with a group of 18 students walking into the audience and leading guests in a dance and music parade across the red-carpeted street to the Dupont Building for dinner and dancing. The cocktail reception took place in the building’s north ballroom, where more actors, dancers, writers, musicians, and cinematographers staged vignette performances representing their artistic discipline.
Following the hour-long reception, the nearly 400 dinner guests—the performers and the judges who determined the awards all week stayed only for the reception—made their way into the south ballroom for a dinner catered by Chef David Schwadron Catering & Event Design. Representatives from YoungArts and its sponsoring organizations recognized the 2010 YoungArts finalists and presented awards to dancer Desmond Richardson, Norwegian actress and director Liv Ullmann, and Alberto Ibarguen, C.E.O. of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, which donates money to arts organizations.
After the award presentations, the north ballroom reopened for dessert with a rice pudding bar with various toppings, a chocolate fondue bar, and assorted passed confections. The Valerie Tyson Band entertained the crowd until the event wrapped up around 11:30 p.m. The event raised $550,000 for YoungArts programs.
Correction: This story has been updated to reflect the final fund-raising tally for the event.
