A decade after he gave the Miami Art Museum $35m, leading to its rebranding as the Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM), the art collector and property developer Jorge Pérez has renewed his commitment to the institution with a $25m gift that was announced at the museum’s annual gala on Saturday (11 November). Pérez and his wife, Darlene Pérez, were honoured at the gala for their support.
“I’ve always believed that no city is truly great without a world-class art museum,” Pérez said in a statement. “That belief led to our family’s initial gift a decade ago, and remains the driving factor in this latest contribution. Our entire family is in awe of how far this incredible institution has come, and we are proud to be in a position to help it fuel its mission of deepening South Florida’s artistic and cultural offerings.”
In addition to the museum’s latest charitable windfall, Saturday’s gala featured the announcement of the fifth recipient of the $50,000 Pérez Prize, which went to Christopher Cozier, an artist, writer and curator based in Trinidad. Cozier’s work—which has been featured in Documenta and the Sharjah, Liverpool and Havana biennials, among others—references and seeks to complicate conventional readings of the Caribbean and its history. (Past winners of the Pérez Prize have included Christina Quarles, María Magdalena Campos-Pons and Daniel Lind-Ramos.)
“We are so grateful for Jorge and Darlene’s generosity towards PAMM throughout the years—including this monumental gift—and for their dedication to Miami’s creative community as a whole,” Franklin Sirmans, the museum’s director, said in a statement. “Their support elevates the institution in every way and positions PAMM for continued success in utilising art as a catalyst for genuine human interaction, communication and exchange.”
Beyond the Pérezes’ gift, the fundraising gala brought in $2m to support PAMM’s educational programming, among other initiatives.