Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts
| Arsht Center | |
The Ziff Ballet Opera House seen from the Knight Concert Hall on opening weekend
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| Full name | Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts of Miami-Dade County |
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| Former names | Carnival Center, Miami Performing Arts Center |
| Address | 1300 Biscayne Blvd. |
| Location | Miami, Florida |
| Public transit | Adrienne Arsht Center (Metromover) |
| Type | Performing arts center |
| Capacity | Sanford and Dolores Ziff Ballet Opera House: 2,400 John S. and James L. Knight Concert Hall: 2,200 Carnival Studio Theater: 200 |
| Construction | |
| Opened | 5 October 2006 |
| Architect | Cesar Pelli |
| Tenants | |
| Florida Grand Opera | |
| Website | |
| www |
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| General information | |
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| Coordinates | 25°47′14″N 80°11′24″W / 25.78722°N 80.19000°WCoordinates: 25°47′14″N 80°11′24″W / 25.78722°N 80.19000°W |
Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts, commonly called The Arsht Center, is Florida's largest performing arts center and is located on Biscayne Boulevard in the Omni neighborhood of Downtown Miami, Florida, United States. It is one of the largest performing arts centers in the United States.
The Center was partly built on the site of a former Sears department store; an Art Deco building constructed in 1929, pre-dating the Art Deco hotels on Ocean Drive. It was added to the United States National Register of Historic Places in 1997 as Sears, Roebuck and Company Department Store. However, by 2001, the only surviving part of the original structure was a seven-story tower built by Sears, the space's successor. The department store space itself had been demolished and developers decided to preserve the tower and incorporate it into the new performing arts center.
The Center opened as the Carnival Center with a grand opening on October 5, 2006, with many famous performers, politicians and movie stars attending, including Gloria Estefan, Jeb Bush, Andy García and Bernadette Peters.
On January 10, 2008, it was announced that philanthropist and business leader Adrienne Arsht donated $30 million to the facility that would make it financially stable. In recognition for the gift, the former Carnival Center for the Performing Arts was renamed "The Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts of Miami-Dade County", or the Arsht Center for short.
In December 2008, M. John Richard joined the Center as President and CEO after more than 20 years at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC). Under his leadership, the Arsht Center has come to call itself Miami’s "New Town Square."
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