Philanthropist Adrienne Arsht to receive award for work with Miami arts community

Philanthropist Adrienne Arsht is fueled by a need to bring people together and to find ways to support them.

That’s been true since she moved to Miami in 1996 to run TotalBank, a family-owned bank. Not knowing many people in the city and eager to meet more, she immersed herself in the diverse community by hosting desayuno (breakfast in Spanish) meetings at her home. Several times a month from 8 a.m. to 9 a.m., she invited people of all backgrounds whom she found interesting.

“I remember a guy who taught fencing, and I invited him,” Arsht recalls. “I was the happy recipient of the fellowship and always printed out the guest list so when everyone left, they had [each other’s] contacts.”

The meetings were timed early enough for her guests to be able to get to their offices, though people would often still be chatting outside her house at 9:45 a.m.

Arsht’s ability to bring together people from different backgrounds is one reason she’s being honored this weekend at her namesake Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts in Miami. At a gala Saturday, Arsht, 82, will receive the inaugural Arsht Angel Award for her significant financial contributions to the organization.

“We feel strongly about our community engagement work,” said Johann Zietsman, CEO of the Arsht Center. “The only reason we can sustain is because generous people like Adrienne believe in that work. She set that example and led by example by showing her peers that this is necessary.”

Through taking salsa dance classes, spending nights with friends on Calle Ocho and watching performances at the Coconut Grove Playhouse, Arsht quickly became fond of Miami’s arts community after she arrived in 1996. At the time, philanthropist Judy Weiser was part of a group that was conceptualizing what a performing arts center in Miami would look like, and Arsht took notes.

“Any great city’s Urban League will tell you that research shows that you will need a good university system, sports system, performing center and airport,” Arsht said of what Miami needed to become a world-class city. She would, of course, come back to the idea years later.

In November 2007, Arsht sold TotalBank for $300 million. Rather than leading another company or starting a new business, she pivoted into the nonprofit sector and focused on using her skills for philanthropic endeavors.

“When I sold the bank, I had more money than I needed to live,” she said. “Philanthropy is a human value we all have. We are born to care for others.”

After learning about a childcare center that would provide care for children of teen parents pursuing high school degrees and education, Arsht contributed $250,000 to what is now known as the Adrienne Arsht Family and Child Development Center in Little Havana.

Then, in January 2008, Arsht returned to the idea for a performing arts center, donating $30 million to what was then known as the Carnival Center for the Performing Arts. The center had opened in 2006, but its financial future was in question by 2008. Its final construction cost was $473 million, and it ended 2007 with a deficit of $2.5 million. Arsht’s contribution helped revive the project, and the center was soon named after her as a sign of gratitude.

“When the Arsht opened in 2006, it was a difficult start,” Zietsman said. “It takes a while to build financial resilience to sustain a building like that. At that moment when the Arsht was vulnerable, Adrienne stepped in with this visionary gift. This community has been good to her, and she was a respected member of the community and wanted to give back.”

Affirming Miami’s various diverse communities throughout the years is something Arsht has been proud to support through the performing arts center. After George Floyd was murdered by Minneapolis police in May 2020, many cultural centers and corporations rushed to create programming for diverse communities. But the Arsht Center had already been doing it, Arsht said.

“I think one of the significant reasons [the Arsht] did so well during the pandemic, and before and after, is because it programs for the entire community,” she said. “There’s something innately for everyone. I’m on the board for the Lincoln Center and the Kennedy Center, and after George Floyd there was a specific focus on expanding programming. In Miami, that was always there. Miami was diverse for its roots.”

Zietsman said he has always appreciated Arsht’s authenticity and zeal for learning about those around her.

“You can see it comes from the heart, and she likes to see our work,” he said. “I’ve always been impressed by her astute mind. She can look at a situation and knows immediately what needs to be done.”

Arsht attributes her perseverance and her affinity for helping others to growing up with Jewish parents in Wilmington, Delaware. While her father, S. Samuel Arsht, was a lawyer and her mother, Roxana Cannon Arsht, was the first woman judge in Delaware, she was aware of the prejudice they faced as Jews and the sexism she would also face as a woman.

“When I applied to Penn Law where my parents went, I was denied, and they said a man would get more work done,” said Arsht, who later graduated from Villanova Law School in 1966.

She believes her legacy is in her namesake performing arts center for what it’s done in supporting the local arts community and helping propel Miami’s global status. Her penchant for taking risks and helping others, she said, is what made it possible.

She pointed to a quote on her stationery: “Jump and develop your wings on the way down.”

“That’s how I live,” she said.