Miami Art Museum Corporate Luncheon To Honor Bank Of America For Its Support Of South Florida’s Arts Community
Friday, May 13, 2011
Four Seasons Hotel Miami

Fourth Annual Miami Art Museum Corporate Luncheon

Miami’s business, civic and cultural leaders will gather to honor the private sector’s impact on South Florida’s cultural landscape during the Fourth Annual Miami Art Museum (MAM) Corporate Luncheon on Friday, May 13, 2011. Bank of America, one of the world’s largest financial institutions and a mainstay of support in South Florida’s cultural community, will receive the 2011 Miami Art Museum Corporate Honors for its community development activities including its Museums on Us program, and its philanthropic efforts and consistent support of South Florida’s cultural institutions. Since 1998, Bank of America has provided sustaining support to the Annual Fund for exhibitions and education at Miami Art Museum.

This year’s MAM Corporate Luncheon, presented by South Motors Automotive Group, will be held at the Four Seasons Hotel in downtown Miami from 11:30am until 2pm. Luncheon proceeds will support The Record: Contemporary Art and Vinyl, an exhibition which Miami Art Museum will present in 2012 with the support of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation’s Knight Arts Challenge initiative.

“We are proud to honor Bank of America for its longtime commitment to enacting positive change in South Florida,” said Aaron Podhurst, chairman of Miami Art Museum’s board of trustees. “Bank of America’s support for the arts is a shining example of how our community’s corporate citizens are directly impacting our cultural institutions, and in the process, our economy and quality of life. Miami Art Museum’s strength as a public-private partnership will take on added significance as we continue our capital campaign in the span leading up to the debut of our new building in Museum Park.”

Antonio L. Argiz, CEO and managing partner of accounting firm Morrison, Brown, Argiz & Farra, LLC, will serve as 2011 Luncheon Honorary Chair. Pedro A. Fernandez, principal of Bernstein Global Wealth Management, and Alex Espenkotter, partner with law firm Heller Waldman, PL, will serve as Luncheon Chairmen.

Thomas Collins, director of Miami Art Museum, and Dennis Scholl, Vice President, Arts, for John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, will serve as keynote speakers during the luncheon. In an address, entitled “Growing Miami, Growing Miami Art Museum: A Dialogue for the Corporate Community,” Collins and Scholl will discuss the current state of affairs in Miami’s arts and cultural landscape, which has undergone a dramatic resurgence in recent years.

“Miami Art Museum’s annual Corporate Luncheon is an opportunity for our business and civic community to reflect on the collective impact the private sector has had on raising Miami’s profile as an international arts destination,” said Collins. “Looking ahead, our corporate partners will play an increasingly pivotal role in our institutional advancement as we expand our programming and educational initiatives in our new Museum Park home.”

Collins is an arts administrator, art historian, educator and author with more than 15 years of museum experience. He joined the Museum as director in 2010 after serving for five years as director of the Neuberger Museum of Art in Westchester County, New York. An art collector for more than 30 years, Scholl has lead local and national philanthropic efforts in the visual arts. In addition to having served as founding co-chair of the Miami Art Museum Collectors Council, he has served as founding chair of the Guggenheim Photography Committee and of the Tate Modern American Acquisitions Committee.

Luncheon sponsorships are available, ranging from $2,500 for a partial table to $20,000 for two tables of ten. Individual tickets range from $150 for a single ticket to $1,500 for a partial table and recognition in the event program. For additional information or to reserve seats, please contact Brooke Minto at (305) 375-2617, or by email at bminto@miamiartmuseum.org.

Miami Art Museum Corporate Luncheon supporters include: Presenting Sponsor South Motors Automotive Group; Diamond Sponsor The Fairholme Foundation; Gold Sponsors Bank of America, Bilzin Sumberg Baena Price & Axelrod LLP, Frank Crystal & Company, Grossman Roth, P.A., Hall, Lamb and Hall, P.A., Lehman Auto World, Mallah Furman, Morrison Brown Argiz & Farra, LLC, Podhurst Orseck, P.A., Rice Pugatch Robinson & Schiller, P.A., Shutts & Bowen LLP, SunTrust Bank Florida and U.S. Trust; Silver Sponsors Bernstein Global Wealth Management, John Moriarty & Associates, LAFCO New York / Santa Maria Novella and Merrill Lynch; and Media Sponsor PODER Magazine.

Miami Art Museum, a modern and contemporary art museum located in downtown Miami, FL, is dedicated to collecting and exhibiting international art of the 20th and 21st centuries with an emphasis on the cultures of the Atlantic Rim—the Americas, Europe and Africa—from which the vast majority of Miami residents hail. Recently, Miami Art Museum has presented exhibitions of works by Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller, Carlos Cruz-Diez, Quisqueya Henriquez, Guillermo Kuitca, Wifredo Lam, Susan Rothenberg and Yinka Shonibare, and its Permanent Collection includes works by Doug Aitken, José Bedia, Mark Dion, Marcel Duchamp, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Ann Hamilton, Arturo Herrera, Alfredo Jaar, Sol LeWitt, Vik Muniz, Wangechi Mutu, Robert Rauschenberg, Gerhard Richter, James Rosenquist, Tomas Saraceno, Lorna Simpson and Rachel Whiteread. Miami Art Museum’s educational programming currently reaches more than 30,000 people every year, with the largest art education program outside the Miami-Dade County Public Schools. The new Miami Art Museum at Museum Park, designed by Herzog & de Meuron, is scheduled to open to the public in 2013. The new facility will provide room to showcase growing collections, expanded exhibition space to bring more world-class exhibitions to Miami-Dade County, and an educational complex. For more information about Miami Art Museum, visit miamiartmuseum.org or call 305.375.3000.

Accredited by the American Association of Museums, Miami Art Museum is sponsored in part by the State of Florida, Department of State, Division of Cultural Affairs and the Florida Arts Council, and the National Endowment for the Arts; with the support of Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs, the Cultural Affairs Council, the Mayor and the Board of County Commissioners. Miami Art Museum is an accessible facility. For sign language interpretation or assistive listening devices please call Miami Art Museum’s education department 305.375.4073 at least five days in advance. Materials in accessible format may be requested.