LTC 318-2010 City Awarded $200,000 m MIAMI BEACH
OFFICE OF THE CITY MANAGER
NO. LTC # ,318 -2o10 I LETTER TO COMMISSION
TO Mayor Matti Herrera Bower and Members of the City Commission
•
• FROM: Jorge M. Gonzalez, City Manager
DATE: November 30," 2010 W7
• SUBJECT: City Awarded $200 Grant from Knight Foundation for "Sleepless Night"
have the great pleasure to inform you that yesterday the City of Miami Beach Department
of Tourism and Cultural Development was awarded a matching grant of $200,000 from the
John S. and James L. Knight Foundation in support of "Sleepless Night ", which will occur
next on November 5, 2011. Mayor Matti Herrera Bower accepted the award from Alberto
lbarguen, President and CEO of the Knight Foundation, at a gala ceremony last night at the •
• Arsht Center's Knight Concert Hall.
l am especially proud that this grant was one of only 27 projects funded out of more than 950
proposals to the Knight Arts Challenge, and that it was the third largest grant awarded in this
year's program. The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation's Knight Arts Challenge is a
five -year, $40 million initiative "to bring South Florida together through the arts." Knight is
spreading the city's $200,000 ($100,000 per year) grant over two consecutive years to
enable Sleepless Night to become an annual, rather than biannual event.
Sleepless Night was created by the Cultural Arts Council (which counts cultural marketing as
one of its primary concerns) to strengthen our reputation as the region's prime cultural
tourism destination. The highly successful international. Nuit Blanche model (which first
appeared in Paris in 2002) was chosen because it offered the opportunity to reach all of the -
diverse populations of South Florida, and to create community by removing the barriers that
often disenfranchise some segments of the population. Additionally, Nuit Blanche had been
triumphant at addressing the ultimate issue facing the arts today, audience - building, by
engaging the public with a wide range of cultural presentations woven into the fabric of a
social event. Similar events are held annually in other major international cities, including
Madrid, Rome, Paris and Montreal, to name a few.
I am confident that Sleepless Night will continue to grow and become a major, annual
signature event for the city, and extremely grateful to the Knight Foundation for its
recognition of the event's significance for our community. .
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