Displaying items by tag: the arts

A new arts center will make its Miami Beach debut at 32nd Street and Collins Avenue in December 2015. Founded by Alan Faena, an Argentine hotelier and real estate developer, the 50,000-square-foot Faena Forum will be dedicated to the development of the area’s cultural programming, including the arts, urbanism, politics, science, and technology.

Designed by Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas and his firm OMA (The Office for Metropolitan Architecture), the center will be a partner institution to Argentina’s Faena Arts Center Buenos Aires. Ximena Caminos, the executive director of the Faena Arts Center Buenos Aires, will work with an advisory committee of arts professionals to fine-tune the Faena Forum’s mission and develop programs that will help it reach its goal of fostering dialogue about Latin American cultural practices in the United States.

For the first time in its 187-year history, the New York-based National Academy will welcome photographers, video artists, and performance artists to its organization. A community of artists, students, museum-goers, and supporters of the arts, the National Academy had previously only allowed painters, sculptors, printmakers, and architects to be voted into membership. Known as National Academicians, each year since 1825 a select group of the country’s most celebrated artists are elected to become members of the Academy.

This year’s inductees include the video and performance artist Joan Jonas (b. 1936), photographer Cindy Sherman (b. 1954), and video artist Bill Viola (b. 1951). Twenty other newly elected visual artists and architects will join the Academy’s 300+ active members this year. After being inducted, each Academician presents the Academy Museum with a selection from their oeuvre. The National Academy Museum’s permanent collection currently includes over 7,000 works. Past and present National Academicians include Andrew Wyeth (1917-2009), Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959), and Frank Gehry (b. 1929).

The National Academy also includes the Academy School, which offers studio-based classes. Over 30 faculty members lead courses and workshops in painting, drawing, sculpture, new media, video and photography, printmaking, mixed media, and art theory.

The National Endowment for the Arts announced today that its current chair, Rocco Landesman, will step down after three years in the position. Landesman, who recently turned 65, plans to retire to Miami Beach at the end of year.

Landesman was a top Broadway producer when Barack Obama nominated him to head the NEA in May 2009. A Tony Award winner, Landesman is best known for producing Mel Brooks’ “The Producers” as well as for his revivals of “Guys and Dolls,” “Sweeney Todd,” and “Death of a Salesman.”

The NEA, a federal agency that supports and funds the arts, has appointed the current Senior Deputy Chairman, Joan Shigekawa, as the interim chairman for the new year while the NEA looks for a permanent successor.

Landesman said in a statement released by the NEA, “My intention has always been to serve one time, and we have been able to accomplish more than I had ever thought possible…we have continued to support and strength the entire spectrum of arts in this country, and we have been able to expand the national conversation through convenings, traditional media, and new technology.”