Perez Art Museum Miami launches African-American art collection with Knight funds - posted by Florida Fine Art Blog

Faith Ringgold’s Black Light Series #1: Big Black (1967), now a part of the 

Perez Art Museum Miami’s permanent collection. 

Photo credit: nmwa.org

Perez Art Museum Miami launches African-American art collection 

with Knight funds

When it opens on the Miami waterfront in December, the Perez Art Museum Miami will have a collection devoted to contemporary African-American art, thanks to a $1 million gift from Knight Foundation and real estate developer and art collector Jorge M. Perez, the Miami Herald reported. For Knight, the funding is a way to ensure the new museum both reflects and engages the community that surrounds it.

“Diversity is one of our great assets. Collections that reflect the range of our cultures might challenge us; but if it’s great art, it will not only inspire us, it will connect us to one another and to our Miami home,” Alberto Ibargüen, Knight Foundation’s president, said of the gift...

In 2007, Knight Foundation also provided a $10 million endowment grant to PAMM, to ensure that 40,000 Miami-Dade students will enjoy the collection annually.

The collection of African-American contemporary art is so far unnamed.

“We believe that there are likeminded patrons out there who believe in the idea of this fund allowing the museum to create a more diverse collection and because of that, we’ve chosen not to name the fund based upon our gift,” Dennis Scholl, Knight Foundation’s vice president/arts told the Herald. “We want to give somebody else the chance to step up and take advantage of that opportunity.”

Perez Art Museum Miami website found here
Knights Arts found here