Adrienne Arsht
/SOURCE OF WEALTH: TotalBank; lawyer
FUNDING AREAS: Arts & Culture, Resilience, Hispanic Community, Delaware Community
OVERVIEW: Adrienne Arsht has made big grants in the arts, including to create the Adrienne Arsht Center in Miami. Other interests include resilience. Through the Arsht Canon Fund, she works to increase educational opportunities and access to healthcare for Hispanic families.
BACKGROUND: Adrienne Arsht graduated from Mount Holyoke College and received her J.D. from Villanova Law School in 1966. She is the daughter of the Roxana Cannon Arsht, the first female judge in the State of Delaware, and Samuel Arsht, a prominent Wilmington attorney. Adrienne Arsht began her Delaware law career with Morris, Nichols, Arsht & Tunnel. In 1969, she joined TWA’s legal department, becoming the first woman in the company’s property, cargo and government relations departments. In 1996, she moved to Miami to run her family-owned bank, TotalBank. From 1996 to 2007, Arsht served as chairman of the board until she sold the bank to Banco Popular Español.
ISSUES:
ARTS & CULTURE: In 2008, Arsht made a $30 million contribution to Miami’s Performing Arts Center renaming it the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts of Miami-Dade County and gave another $11 million to the center in 2022. In 2012, meanwhile, she made a $10 million gift to Lincoln Center, where she’s a vice chair, creating the Adrienne Arsht Stage in Alice Tully Hall. Arsht gave $5 million in 2020 to support the Metropolitan Museum of Art‘s internship program and to support its MetLiveArts performance series. She’s also given strong support to places like the Met, Met Opera, National Gallery of Art, and Kennedy Center, home to the Adrienne Arsht Theater Fund. She sits on the board of the Kennedy Center.
RESILIENCE: Arsht spearheaded the creation of the Adrienne Arsht Center for Resilience at The Atlantic Council. She gave matched a $30 million Rockefeller Foundation gift, renaming it the Adrienne Arsht-Rockefeller Foundation Resilience Center, which aims to “reach one billion people with resilience solutions to climate change, migration, and security challenges by 2030.” Arsht also founded the Adrienne Arsht Latin America Center at the Atlantic Council in 2013 to focus on the role of South America in the trans-Atlantic community. She gave an additional $25 million to endow the center in 2022.
HISPANIC COMMUNITY: Arsht also works through the Arsht Canon Fund, an endowed fund at the Delaware Community Foundation, to increase educational opportunities and access to healthcare for Hispanic families. The fund prioritizes language and education programs, including including a Spanish literacy program called Plaza Comunitaria. It also works in college access and in educational and personal development programs for children K-12. In healthcare, the fund is interested in mental/behavioral health programs (focused on suicide prevention, drug/alcohol addiction, bullying, and other topics), while also improving access to care for Latino children.
Arsht also funded the creation of a Best Buddies chapter to serve Hispanics and African-Americans with mental disabilities. She gave The Atlantic Council $5 million in 2013 to launch the Adrienne Arsht Latin America Center and another $25 million in 2022 to endow the center.
OTHER: Arsht made a $2 million gift to Goucher College, creating the Roxana Cannon Arsht Center for Ethics and Leadership, in honor of her late mother who was an alumna. She’s also supported University of Miami, including its Arsht Ethics Programs, and a lab at Bascom Palmer Eye Institute of the University of Miami.
LOOKING FORWARD: With ties to New York, Miami, and Delaware, expect Arsht’s steady giving to continue.
LINK: Arsht.com
