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Black Tie
International:
The National YoungArts Foundation Backyard Ball and Alumni
Performance
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2015 Arison Alumni Awardee Josh Groban,
YoungArts Board Member Sarah Arison, YoungArts President and
CEO Paul T. Lehr, YoungArts Backyard Ball Mistress of
Ceremonies and 1997 YoungArts Winner in Theater Zuzanna
Szadkowski, and 2015 Arison Alumni Awardee Chris Young at
the National YoungArts Foundation's 2015 Backyard Ball and
Alumni Performance in Miami, FL. Photo
by Getty Images. |
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On Saturday, January 10th, the National
YoungArts Foundation (YoungArts)
kicked off the Miami social season with its annual Backyard
Ball and
Alumni Performance hosted
at their national headquarters and campus in the city’s
burgeoning downtown neighborhood. The sold out event, which
is YoungArts’ largest annual fundraiser, raised over $1.7
million - $200,000 more than 2014 – to directly support the
organization’s contributions to the
artistic development of talented young artists from around
the nation. The Backyard
Ball was the
culmination of the 2015
National YoungArts Week, during
which 170 YoungArts Finalists in the visual, literary,
design,
and performing arts spent the week in Miami working with
distinguished master teachers, such as James
Caan, Phylicia
Rashad, Jeff
Koons, Sylvia
Plachy, Livingston Taylor, Tierney Sutton, Rebecca Walker, Desmond
Child and Carrie
Mae Weems,
and sharing their talents with the public.
The 2015 Backyard
Ball was
hosted by National YoungArts Foundation President & CEO, Paul
T. Lehr, co-chaired
by Tracey
& Bruce Berkowitz
and Elizabeth
& Facundo Bacardi, and emceed by YoungArts alumna,
Master Teacher, 1997 YoungArts Winner in Theater and U.S.
Presidential Scholar
in the Arts, and former Gossip
Girl and
current Girls actress, Zuzanna
Szadkowski. The 2015 Arison Award
was presented to renowned visual artist Jeff
Koons,
and the 2015 Arison Alumni Awards were
presented to GRAMMYÒ Award-nominated
recording artist, singer, songwriter, actor, YoungArts
Master Teacher,
and 1999 YoungArts Winner in Theater, Josh
Groban; and GRAMMYÒ Award
and Country Music Association (CMA) Award-nominated singer,
songwriter,
and 2003 YoungArts Winner in Voice and U.S. Presidential Scholar in the
Arts,
Chris Young.
The Backyard
Ball was
highlighted by a multidisciplinary performance directed by
Tony AwardÒ-winner, dancer, choreographer, and YoungArts
Artistic Advisor,
Bill T. Jones. The performance featured YoungArts alumni
from around the nation, was assistant-directed by 2011
Winner in Dance,
Caleb Teicher and
written by 2011 Winner in Writing, Danny
Rothschild.
The festive evening welcomed more than 800 guests, including
Tony AwardÒ winner, Phylicia
Rashad; Academy
Award-nominated actor, James
Caan;
renowned photographer, Bruce
Weber; famed
musician,songwriter,
and producer, Desmond
Child; celebrated
classical dancer and choreographer,
Jacques D'Amboise; 2014
YoungArts Finalist in Dance and winner of FOX’s So
You Think You Can Dance season
11,Ricky Ubeda; Sarah
Arison;
Jorge & Darlene Perez; Alex & Olga Blavatnik; Don Soffer;
Armando Codina; Dennis & Debra Scholl; Adriana Cisneros;
Martin Margulies;
Lourdes Lopez & George Skouras; Dr. Luigi Maramotti, Chairman
of Max Mara Fashion Group;
Lisa Heiden-Koffler; Russell Galbut; Andres Fanjul Jr.;
Paul & Marie-France Bloch; Daniel & Marcella Novela; Marvin
Ross Friedman & Adrienne Bon Haes; Eugene & Frances
Sevilla-Secasa;
Andreea Baclea; John Lin; Sarah & Austin Harrelson; Paul & Swanee
DiMare; Nancy Batchelor; Eilah Campbell-Beavers; Alan &
Diane Lieberman;
and Paloma
Kiki Soyka.
The exquisite evening concluded with dancing and dessert
under the stars on the YoungArts Plaza and music by famed
deejay, DJ
Cassidy.
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About the National YoungArts Foundation
The National YoungArts Foundation (YoungArts) was
established in 1981 by Lin and Ted Arison to identify
and support the next generation of artists in the visual,
literary, design and performing arts; assist them at
critical junctures in their educational and professional
development; and raise appreciation for the arts in
American society. Each
year, there are approximately 11,000 applications to
YoungArts from 15-18 year old
(or grades 10-12) artists, and from these, approximately 800
winners are selected.
YoungArts provides these emerging artists with life-changing
experiences and validation by renowned mentors, access
to significant scholarships, national recognition and other
opportunities at critical junctures throughout their careers
to help ensure that the nation’s
most outstanding emerging artists are encouraged to pursue
careers in the arts. To date,
YoungArts has honored more than 20,000 alumni, including
Doug Aitken, Josh Groban, Jenji Kohan, Desmond Richardson
and Kerry Washington, with over $12 million in monetary
awards; facilitated in excess of $60 million in college
scholarship opportunities
in the past two years; and enabled its participants to work with master
teachers who are among the most distinguished artists in the
world, such as Marina Abramović, Mikhail Baryshnikov,
Plácido Domingo, Zaha Hadid, Robert Redford and Bruce Weber.
YoungArts is working with world-renowned architect and
YoungArts Artistic Advisor Frank Gehry to transform the
former Bacardi Tower and Museum buildings and
three-and-a-half acre campus into its national headquarters,
which will support expanded local activities in Miami and
across the country. The new campus will feature a Gehry-designed
performing arts center and park with state-of-the-art sound
and video capabilities. Since
opening the campus for programming in November 2013,
YoungArts has held salons sponsored by Knight Foundation
with Marina Abramović, Robert Redford, Justin Peck & Sufjan
Stevens, Joshua Bell, and Ben Folds; hosted Olafur Eliasson
and his Little
Sun installation
in partnership with MoMA PS1 and Fondation Beyeler; launched
a Visual Artist in Residency program supported by The
Related Group; held master classes for local music students
with jazz icon Wynton Marsalis and opera star Plácido
Domingo; produced an interdisciplinary performance on the
campus with Robert Redford and Sibylle Szaggars Redford,
Living Colour’s Will Calhoun,
and YoungArts alumni Dave Eggar and Desmond Richardson; premiered HBO’s Joshua
Bell: A YoungArts MasterClass; and hosted a concert
series in
partnership with III Points Presents featuring FKA twigs,
James Blake and SBTRKT.
For more information, visit youngarts.org, facebook.com/YoungArtsFoundation
or twitter.com/YoungArts. To watch a brief video about YoungArts, click here.
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