Miami Arts Maven Beth Boone wins Prestigious Berresford Prize

Miami Light Project artistic and executive director Beth Boone, winner of the 2024 Berresford Prize. Boone says that “being a part of the cultural ecosystem of Miami has been like the thrill of a lifetime, and it’s been exactly the work that I believe I was supposed to do in my life.” Photo by Kevin Alvarez Cordova, courtesy of Miami Light Project.

Beth Boone, Miami Light Project’s firebrand presenter, devoted nurturer of emerging artists and cultural force as strong and graceful as a Southern live oak, has won the 2024 Berresford Prize from United States Artists.

This national award, now in its fifth year, comes with an unrestricted $50,000 prize and celebrates arts curators, administrators and presenters who, like Boone, are building the groundwork and creating the environments in which artists can do their best work.

Judilee Reed, president and CEO of United States Artists, writes in an email that “Beth Boone stood out for her undeniable impact on Miami and South Florida’s arts community, from spearheading Miami Light Project for the past two decades to fostering exchange with Cuban artists and other international makers.”

For her part, Boone says that “being a part of the cultural ecosystem of Miami has been like the thrill of a lifetime, and it’s been exactly the work that I believe I was supposed to do in my life. I do feel like I have been lucky enough to be a part of the foundation laying and the culture building of the city.”

Boone first arrived in Miami in August of 1994, when a huge wave of Cuban rafters was attempting its own voyage to Florida’s shores. After moving here months later, she worked for the Florida Grand Opera for two years and then joined Miami Dade College’s Division of Cultural Affairs. In a curious twist of fate, she and her mentor, Olga Garay-English, head of the college’s Cultura del Lobo series, would work together on the commission of an original opera “Balseros,” that tells the story of that massive exodus that summer of 1994.

In 1998, when Miami Light Project founders Janine Gross and Caren Rabbino decided to move on to new endeavors, they hired Boone to head the organization. The die was cast.

With its focus on contemporary performance, the Light Project was a perfect fit for Boone; under her leadership, the organization has evolved beyond its original mission as a presenter of cutting-edge dance and performance art from around the country and world into a support hub for South Florida artists looking to create, live and thrive in the 305.

Beth Boone with Gentry George and dancers during Here & Now 2023. Photo by Kevin Alvarez Cordova, courtesy of Miami Light Project.

“I really felt like the work that I was setting out to do was to commission, develop and produce new work by Miami-based artists,” she says. It has been the signature element of her 26-year tenure as artistic and executive director of Miami Light Project. As part of their Here & Now initiative, for example, artists like Teo Castellanos, Rosie Herrera, Adele Myers, Gentry George and Natasha Tsakos have been given the space, both physical and emotional, to explore ideas and develop new work. Here & Now functions like a cultural incubator, Boone says, providing critical support in the way of seed money, rehearsal space and a performance venue to local contemporary performers as they create new work.

“There’s literally no place like home—artists have to have a home if they’re going to make work,” she says.

Through initiatives like the Light Project’s, artists are seeing Miami not as a place performers aspire to get away from, but a place where they can stay, set down creative roots, and thrive.

Beth Boone (center right) with Miami Light Project staff Regina Moore, Eventz Paul and Terrence Brunn outside their new space in Miami Shores. Photo courtesy of Miami Light Project.

“We have invested in artists who are now seeing that it’s a fertile ground that they can remain living in. They don’t have to leave and go to New York or Los Angeles or London or Chicago or wherever they’re going,” says Boone. “I think that that is the particular thing that we have done at Miami Light Project that has been monumental for the community, which is a deep, deep investment in Miami-based artists.”

Coming up this season, some of those homegrown artists will have the opportunity to collaborate at the Lightbox Studio with artists from William Kentridge’s Center for the Less Good Idea in Johannesburg, South Africa. Beginning in November, this five-year project will bring together artists from both cities to develop work and to explore creative practices in collaboration with one another.

“It’s just a thrilling project,” says Boone, “and is one more way in which we can connect Miami artists to the world and connect artists from the world to artists deeply rooted in Miami.”

With her eyes firmly set on the horizon, Boone looks forward to a long and fruitful future in her beloved adopted town:

“My hopes and dreams are that we continue to invest boldly in new ideas and risk taking and experimentation and supporting voices of marginalized artists and all of the people that make up our great city and beyond.”

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