She once told an interviewer that she saw her philanthropic giving as a race against time. Her plan, she said, is to give away all of her money before she dies – hoping to get the timing right.
Starting out with $300 million from the sale of a Miami bank, she has cheerfully and irrepressibly established herself as a leading patron of the arts and current affairs. Her million gift rescued the then-floundering Carnival Center opera house/ concert hall/theater complex in Miami that now flourishes as the renamed Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts.
She gave million to set up the Adrienne Arsht musical theater series at the Kennedy Center (where she is treasurer) and another million to the Atlantic Council to establish the Adrienne Arsht Latin American Center.
