Rita Moreno and Rosie Perez

By: Mary Jo Almeida-Shore 

On Saturday, January 11, the National YoungArts Foundation culminated its 33rd annual YoungArts Week with a bash in its gorgeous, shiny-new campus. The Backyard Ball, featured a Gala and special alumni performances that brought together more than 800 notable guests to celebrate the artistic excellence of the 2014 YoungArts finalists for the first time at the beautiful former site of the historic Bacardi Tower and Museum buildings. The evening raised over $1.5 million to be used directly to support YoungArts, whose mission is to support the development of talented young artists in the literary, performing, visual, and design arts. 

The Gala and performance portions of the evening, were set in an elegant outdoor tent, where guests enjoyed cocktails courtesy of Bacardi, dinner, and a powerful alumni performance directed by renowned dancer, choreographer, and YoungArts Artistic Advisor, Bill T. Jones, who also made an impromptu appearance on stage, bouncing between dancers to cheer them on.  Tony Award® winner Brian Stokes Mitchell emceed the evening that also included speeches from YoungArts Artistic Advisor, Frank Gehry and actress, Rosie Perez, who presented award-winning, world renowned, architect Zaha Hadid and Academy Award winning singer, dancer and actress Rita Moreno, with the YoungArts Arison Awards for their influence on the development of young artists. YoungArts alumnus Andrew Rannells, who currently appears on the HBO series, Girls, received the Alumni Award.  Read the rest of this entry »

Michael Capponi, Amber Arbucci, & Moses Bensusan

By:  Mary Jo Almeida-Shore 

Hollywood descended upon Miami in more ways than one on “New Year’s Eve week” on South Beach, a place where one night just isn’t enough to bid adieu to a stellar year and usher in a new one. Aside from the numerous celebrity sightings outlined in our Celebrity Sightings section, Supermodel Amber Arbucci joined longtime friend and South Beach philanthropist, nightlife impresario and construction mogul/developer (our Swiss Army Knife of friends) Michael Capponi, and developer Moses Bensusan, to throw one of the best parties of the season on Saturday, December 28, at the Soho Beach House.  The debut party for the Costa Hollywood condo resort, was aptly dubbed Hollywood Meets Hollywood, and celebrated the addition of Capponi to the development team at Costa Hollywood and served as a formal introduction to SoBe’s fast-growing sister to the north, Hollywood Beach Village, an up-and-coming beachfront haven.  Read the rest of this entry »

By: Dr. Mary Jo Almeida-Shore 

Hermès promised, and delivered to Miami, “A Journey into the Extraordinary” for its third A Man’s World  event – following Beijing and Paris – an art-fashion happening on May 30 – a party, like none the Magic City has ever seen, filled with multi-sensory experiences and illusions designed to deeply penetrate, and somewhat overwhelm one’s senses.  Over 600 guests were in town for the unprecedented event that took place at the iconic Moore Building, the 1921 architectural monument of Miami’s Design District, a few doors down from the Hermès boutique – utilizing the building’s fascinating interior structure as a backdrop for 11 human-experience art installations that allowed audiences to connect to each one. Upon entering, guests were awed as they looked up at models and aerial artists who dangled from and walked across giant square suspension beams almost fifty feet above mirrored floors, dressed in the Spring 2013 collections.  Guests also walked across a mirrored floor that gave the illusion they themselves were walking on suspended beams of peerless beauty as they looked “into the floor,” the effects were mesmerizing.  Read the rest of this entry »

By:  Mary Jo Almeida-Shore 

PAMM’s Premiere Gala 

If you build it- they will come…and marvel, dance, dine and rejoice in Miami’s “crowning jewel” art museum- designed by famed Swiss architects Herzog & de Meuron.  Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM) celebrated its debut with party after party, an official ribbon cutting and an over-the top gala- unmatched in its grandeur and elegance.  On December 7, seven hundred fifty art world VIPs, and civic and philanthropic leaders celebrated the opening of the Premiere PAMM Gala, which raised more than $2 million for the new museum’s public programming. The party began as the sun was setting, with guests filling the museum’s exciting galleries, enjoying the floor-to-ceiling water views, scrumptious bites from the museum’s signature Stephen Starr restaurant and sipping cocktails and Champagne on the terrace, before entering the enormous tent, that had been decorated with gorgeous crystal chandeliers, and tables topped with hundreds of flowers-roses and brilliantly-hued orchids in silver vases. The dance party began immediately, as the crowd took to the dance floor before the special welcome by Pérez Art Museum Miami Board Chair Aaron Podhurst, who presented Jorge Pérez with a sculpture by Michele Oka Doner in honor of his leadership through the museum’s construction phase and his continued generous gifts of cash and art.   Read the rest of this entry »

Rose McGowan

More than five hundred invited party-goers did just that-at the opening of  Flaunt Magazine’s “Affordable Care”a four-day exhibition-examination of art, music, fashion and culture with photography,  paintings and video, from Vanessa Beecroft to Nicolas Jaar.  Invitations went out only two days prior, but there was major buzz in the international art world from New York Times and Vanity Fair articles the previous weekend, making this one of Art Week Miami 2013’s most coveted and exclusive events – for those truly in the know.   The opening evening premiered art legend Vanessa Beecroft’s “VB72″ a major performance piece in collaboration with Kanye West, with 65 nude models, some masked, all covered from head to toe in two types of silty, earth-tone clay, pushing the forefront of contemporary art.  Ms. Beecroft is the Artistic Director and Choreographer for West’s current Yeesus tour.  She stood anxiously backstage at the beginning of her three-hour piece.  The tall thin Italian artist peeked through a small opening in the180 foot wide towering white-felted curtain.  This was a departure from her usual venues – the Guggenheim-New York, the Venice Biennale, Museum für Moderne Kunst-Frankfurt, among others.  Beecroft chatted backstage with event producer Michael Leondas Kirkland of mkarte, and said: “VB72 is inspired by my current sculptural work which is mostly in clay,” exemplified by the amorphic ceramic heads carefully placed on the floor in varying positions interspersed among the clay-clad models. Read the rest of this entry »

By:  Dr. Mary Jo Almeida-Shore 

To quote Vanity Fair, “Like a magnet, it draws them. Free champagne, celebrity wattage—and, let’s not forget, the spectacular art of Art Basel Miami Beach—creates private-jet gridlock in South Florida the first few days of every December. If everyone is an Irishman on St. Patrick’s Day, everyone is a ‘collector’ during Art Week Miami.”  While we can’t quite disagree with the sentiment, a commonality during this year’s Art Week was the altruistic nature of many of the events.  From UNTITLED’s VIP opening to benefit Elton John’s AIDS Foundation, to Omar’s  Gala Dinner for Lady Gaga’s Born this Way Foundation, to ELLE DECOR Modern Concept House’s contributions to the Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center and Bombay Sapphire/Russell Simmons’ dinner to help emerging artists to the crown jewel of the week:  the PAMM Gala- event hosts, art collectors, celebrities, socialites, artists and partygoers gathered for good.  That’s not to say that extravagant parties for the sake of the party and over-the-top art soirees were amiss- nor that FOMO (fear of missing out) did not reach fever pitch-even among celebrities last week.  For now, we cover the tip of the iceberg- with art parties for charities and a spattering of celebrity sightings. Check back next week for more of the biggest parties and celebrities of Art Week 2013.   

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