{"id":1061,"date":"2012-10-22T16:50:37","date_gmt":"2012-10-22T20:50:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/students.com.miami.edu\/~travelwriting\/?page_id=1061"},"modified":"2012-10-22T18:17:03","modified_gmt":"2012-10-22T22:17:03","slug":"adrienne-arsht-center-gives-arts-stylish-downtown-home-for-performances","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/students.com.miami.edu\/travelwriting\/?page_id=1061","title":{"rendered":"Adrienne Arsht Center gives arts stylish downtown home for live performances"},"content":{"rendered":"

Posted Oct. 22, 2012<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

By EMMA REYES<\/p>\n

MIAMI, Fla. \u2013 Located in the heart of downtown Miami, with three main theaters, walls and floors adorned with artwork by Jos\u00e9 Bedia, Cundo Bermudez and Gary Moore, the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts of Miami-Dade County is a must visit place.<\/p>\n

The Arsht Center feature performances by <\/strong>the Florida Grand Opera, Miami City Ballet and New World Symphony, and America\u2019s Orchestral Academy,<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>

The interior of the John S. and James L. Knight Concert Hall. (Photo courtesy of Robin Hill).<\/p><\/div>\n

The Center occupies two blocks of Biscayne Boulevard and is surrounded by main highways, public transportation and Miami landmarks like the Freedom Tower, American Airlines Arena and Bayside Marketplace.<\/p>\n

The facility stands on 5.9 acres of land donated by Sears, Roebuck & Co. and Knight Ridder in mid-1991. Construction required five years to build what is considered to be a highly complex structure, according to Suzette Espinosa, assistant vice president of Public Relations at the Arsht Center.<\/p>\n

The architects and builders, world-renowned architect Cesar Pelli of Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects and theater planning and design consultant Joshua Dachs of Fisher Dachs Associates, Inc. and acoustician consultancy ARTEC, worked during that time to ensure that the Center had the best sound for each of its main theaters.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>

The John S. and James L. Knight Concert Hall (Photo by Emma Reyes).<\/p><\/div>\n

The Knight Concert Hall has the most pristine acoustics of any hall in the world and the Ziff Ballet Opera House has excellent sightlines and a high-tech stage area, according to Espinosa.<\/p>\n

\u201cJudging by the audience response and positive critical reviews, we have succeeded [that].\u201d<\/p>\n

Beatriz Sanz, who went to a concert of Gilberto Santa Rosa in the John S. and James L. Knight Concert Hall, said the Center was enjoyable.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe center is nice and welcoming. The staff is pleasant because they directed you to this area where you get drinks and appetizers before the concert starts. The building is art itself\u2026 it\u2019s beautiful to look at.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Outside<\/a>

Outside view of the Carnival Tower and The Sanford and Dolores Ballet Opera House (Photo by Emma Reyes).<\/p><\/div>\n

Melissa Quintana, who went to watch the Broadway Award-winning best musical, “The Lion King,” agreed with Sanz.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy favorite part about “The Lion King” show was how the animals and characters came through the rows and flew above the audience. No matter where you sat you were able to feel apart of the show,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The Center has become a place where art lives and a place where the best or best go to showcase their talents.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Arsht Center has come to be known as Miami’s new Town Square, welcoming more than two million guests for more than 400 widely diverse performances each year,\u201d said Espinosa.<\/p>\n

The Center has three main theaters and a variety of private meeting rooms, rehearsal spaces and the outdoor Thompson Plaza for the Arts for visitors to enjoy.<\/p>\n

\"<\/a>

“Ways of Performing” by Cundo Bermudez (Photo by Emma Reyes).<\/p><\/div>\n

The Sanford and Dolores Ballet Opera House home to Broadway in Miami and the Miami City Ballet holds 2,400 seats, the John S. and James L. Knight Concert Hall has 2,200 seats and is home of the Florida Grand Opera, one of the oldest performing arts organizations in Florida, and is the platform for live hip-hop, classical and jazz music concerts all year round.<\/p>\n

The Carnival Studio Theater, which is a flexible black-box space designed to 300 seats, hosts theater, dance and experimental performances about 44 weeks each year.<\/p>\n

The center has other spaces where a guest can experience what the Arsht Center has to offer.<\/p>\n

The Parker and Vann Thomson Plaza for the Arts is an outdoor social and performance space linking the two main houses across Biscayne Boulevard; the Carnival Tower, an architectural icon from one of Miami\u2019s oldest Art Deco buildings, holds the street-level BOMBAY SAPPHIRE\u00ae Lounge; and the Peacock Education Center, a 3,500 square-foot workshop and classroom space.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>

The John S. and James L. Knight Concert Hall’s Reverberation Chambers (Photo by Emma Reyes).<\/p><\/div>\n

The Arsht Center is also equipped with public art installations by five outstanding artists commissioned by Miami-Dade Art in Public Places that display the artistic talents the center showcases all year long.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Jos\u00e9 Bedia designed the lobby floors and balcony railings in the Sanford and Dolores Ziff Ballet Opera House and John S. and James L. Knight Concert Hall.<\/p>\n

Bedia\u2019s terrazzo floor murals are the centerpieces of the Sanford and Dolores Ziff Ballet Opera House and the John S. and James L. Knight Concert Hall lobbies.<\/p>\n

The murals illustrate outstretched hands, which are a metaphor for applause and a welcoming sign for the visitors coming in to the center.<\/p>\n

The hands serve as an iconic symbol for the Center; they reach across the plaza in a unifying gesture visually uniting the two buildings.<\/p>\n

The engraved glass railings that Bedia designed are transparent and allow visitors to enjoy a better view of the terrazzo floors.<\/p>\n

The glass railings of the Ziff Ballet Opera House are decorated with gold etchings to match the gold bands in the terrazzo floors and the engravings in the glass railings of the Knight Concert Hall are decorated in silver to match the silver bands in the terrazzo floor of that hall.<\/p>\n

Cundo Bermudez designed Ways of Performing,<\/em> a stunning 28-by-40 foot glass mosaic tile mural for the lobby of the Carnival Studio Theater in the Sanford and Dolores Ziff Ballet Opera House.<\/p>\n

The colored semi-abstracted figures of entertainers and dancers preparing to perform float on the bright blue background of the mural. This is a symbol of music and performance highlighting the artistic process and backstage activities of the theater.<\/p>\n

San Francisco-based artist Gary Moore designed Pharaoh\u2019s Dance<\/em>, a 6,400-square-foot art installation made of seating elements including a round raised platform lit in pink and purple neon that is used for outdoor performances, bronze medallions, a vibrant colored terrazzo and a planter of bamboo reeds.<\/p>\n

The installation that connects the structures is Water Scores<\/em> by Anna Valentina Murch. The installation is marble fountains and wavy benches that form a \u201ccollar\u201d of flowing water around the elliptical Thomson Plaza for the Arts. This piece is a reminder to visitors of the location\u2019s closeness to the ocean creating a reflective outdoor area.<\/p>\n

New York-artist Robert Rahway Zakanitch has two pieces in the Center with the Hibiscus Grand Curtain <\/em>in the Ziff Ballet Opera House and the Green Lace Scrim<\/em> in the Knight Concert Hall.<\/p>\n

Zakanitch created a painted velour curtain that serves as a centerpiece for the Ziff Ballet Opera House. The design is a symbol for the richness, depth and diversity of the South Florida cultural community.<\/p>\n

The curtain has hibiscus flowers, palm fronds and other tropical forms creating an impressive backdrop for performers and a distinct signature image for the Ziff Ballet Opera House.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>

The glass railings of the Ziff Ballet Opera House designed by Jos\u00e9 Bedia (Photo by Emma Reyes).<\/p><\/div>\n

The Green Lace Scrim<\/em> in the Knight Concert Hall is a semitransparent scrim that serves as a veil for the organ in the hall.<\/p>\n

The scrim consists of multiple layers, enhances visual interest in the space and complements the wide variety of musical events that take place in the Knight Concert Hall.<\/p>\n

The Center also just launched a visual art collection program called the Knight Masterworks Print Collection.<\/p>\n

This is a program that will commission limited-edition prints to create a permanent art collection at the Center. The artists that will be taking part of this collection will obtain inspiration from the center\u2019s diverse programming and the city\u2019s cultural art scenery.<\/p>\n

In the late 1990s, Ted Arison, founder and chairman emeritus of Carnival Corp., donated $10 million to the center and, to honor the gift, one of the Center\u2019s main theaters was named after the company, the Carnival Concert Hall.<\/p>\n

The center received another $10 million donation by Dr. Sanford L. Ziff, founder of Sunglass Hut International, and he was given the naming rights to the other main theater, Sanford and Dolores Ziff Ballet Opera House.<\/p>\n

The Center opened it\u2019s doors on October 2006 with a four-day celebration that included performances by its four resident companies, the Concert Association of Florida, Florida Grand Opera, Miami City Ballet and New World Symphony, America\u2019s Orchestral Academy.<\/p>\n

The Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts of Miami-Dade County, as it\u2019s known today, got renamed when Adrienne Arsht, a national business leader, philanthropist, and supporter of the Center since its inception, made a $30 million donation on Jan. 10, 2008.<\/p>\n

Aside from the artworks, concerts, ballets and Broadway shows, the Center offers an upscale restaurant, PRELUDE by Barton G. It\u2019s located on the second floor of the Ziff Ballet Opera House.<\/p>\n

Former head bartender of the restaurant, Ray Tabares, expressed his favorite part about working in a place like The Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts of Miami-Dade County.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love the fact that I was a small part of cultural history in Miami. The center has given all of us in the greater Miami area a feel for the preforming right at our backyard without having to go all the way to Broadway. It\u2019s a major sign that Miami is growing into its own little metropolis.\u201d <\/strong><\/p>\n

IF YOU GO
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