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Pérez Art Museum Miami Receives $5 Million Capital Gift from Knight Foundation to Endow New Projects by International Artists

New Gift Brings Museum’s Endowment to Over $20 Million

Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM) received a grant for $5 million from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation to endow newly-commissioned projects by international artists, and related community programming, as part of its Project Gallery series. This new gift brings PAMM’s capital campaign to a total of $206 million raised toward its $220 million campaign goal. This will bring the museum’s total endowment to more than $20 million.

Miami-Dade County’s flagship art museum, PAMM features four Project Galleries, unique spaces dedicated to showcasing a new project by a single artist. These artists visit Miami over the course of a year to interact with the community and learn about the city, and their work frequently responds to the museum’s architecture and site, as well as the broader Miami community and South Florida environment.

“Work presented in the Project Galleries advances PAMM’s mission to support the work of living artists and promote cultural engagement with communities in Miami and South Florida,” said Tobias Ostrander, PAMM chief curator and deputy director for curatorial affairs. “With this grant, we will be able to offer rich programming that will give the community an opportunity to share in the artists’ process.”

Knight’s gift is part of a new $25 million investment in the Miami arts, that also includes extending the Knight Arts Challenge, a community-wide contest funding the best ideas for the local arts, for three years.

“In short time, PAMM has exceeded attendance projections and has become an important community gathering place for Miamians,” said Dennis Scholl, vice president of arts for Knight Foundation. “We hope new funding will help bring residents closer to the artists who show in the Project Galleries and their work.”

Current Project Gallery presentations include works by: Nicole Cherubini (b. 1970, Boston), Mario Garcia Torres (b.1975, Monclova, Mexico), Gary Simmons (b. 1964, New York), and Diego Bianchi (b. 1969, Buenos Aires, Argentina). Upcoming projects include a project by Shana Lutker (b. 1978, Northport, New York), the third work in her series born from her research on Surrealist fistfights which will open on Thursday, May 7, 2015, with a performative lecture based on the work; and a project by Miami-based conceptual artist Nicolas Lobo (b. 1979, Los Angeles) encompassing a group of mixed-media sculptures, which the artist cast inside a swimming pool, opening Thursday, April 16, 2015 with an artist talk. For more information about these and other upcoming program, visit pamm.org/calendar.

About Pérez Art Museum Miami
Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM) promotes artistic expression and the exchange of ideas, advancing public knowledge and appreciation of art, architecture and design, and reflecting the diverse community of its pivotal geographic location at the crossroads of the Americas. A 29-year-old South Florida institution formerly known as Miami Art Museum (MAM), Pérez Art Museum Miami opened a new building, designed by world-renowned architects Herzog & de Meuron, in Downtown Miami’s Museum Park on December 4, 2013. The facility and is a state-of-the-art model for sustainable museum design and progressive programming and features 200,000 square feet of indoor and outdoor program space with flexible galleries; shaded outdoor verandas; a waterfront restaurant and bar; a museum shop; and an education center with a library, media lab and classroom spaces. For more information, please visit www.pamm.org, find us on Facebook (facebook.com/perezartmuseummiami), or follow us on Twitter (@pamm).

Accredited by the American Alliance of Museums, Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM) is sponsored in part by the State of Florida, Department of State, Division of Cultural Affairs, and the Florida Council on Arts and Culture. Support is provided by the Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs and the Cultural Affairs Council, the Miami-Dade County Mayor and Board of County Commissioners. Additional support is provided by the City of Miami and the Miami OMNI Community Redevelopment Agency (OMNI CRA). Pérez Art Museum Miami is an accessible facility. All contents ©Pérez Art Museum Miami. All rights reserved.