Under the domed ceiling of Miami’s spiraling Faena Forum, more than 300 of the city’s cultural changemakers gathered last Saturday for YoungArts’s annual Gala. The organization, founded in 1981 by Lin and Ted Arison, supports high school-aged artists at the fledgling stage of their creative development. This year’s event, presented by the Italian brand Marni, raised nearly $1.1 million for YoungArts’s mentorship, professional development, and funding initiatives.
Tony Award nominee Daniel J. Watts served as the evening’s emcee, introducing a series of awards and ushering in performances by past YoungArts award winners—including musician Tippy Balady, artist Mario Layne Fabrizio, multi-instrumentalist Christian X. M. McGhee, and poet Carlynn Newhouse.
New York-based artist Derrick Adams was presented with the prestigious Arison Award, bestowed each year to an individual who has had a significant impact on the cultivation and nurturing of future talents. Peruvian-Dominican artist and fashion designer Diana Eusebio—a 2016 YoungArts award winner in Visual Arts herself, as well as a U.S. Presidential Scholar in the Arts—won the 2024 YoungArts Jorge M. Pérez Award. The prize, which includes a $25,000 award, recognizes individuals who strengthen their communities through their artistic pursuits.
Guests reached across dinner tables, laden with floral arrangements courtesy of Raúl Àvila, to toast the organization’s 43rd National YoungArts Week. The intensive, week-long program brings award winners together to collaborate with peers across mediums.
The evening’s co-chairs—Sarah Arison, Thomas Wilhelm, Jeffrey Davis, Michael Miller, Alberto Ibargüen, Craig Robins, and Jackie Soffer—were joined by committee members including Chloe Berkowitz, Simon and Nikolai Haas, and Michi and Charles Jigarjian, as well as guests including Laurie Simmons, Mickalene Thomas, and Harmony Korine.
As an extensive lineup of past YoungArts talents took the stage one after another, the necessity of organizations that support artists at their most nascent and vulnerable stages was on full display. “I think that the arts are the soul of our nation,” Ted Arison, the organization’s founder, once said. “I realized, especially with young people, that YoungArts will ensure the future of our soul.”
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