Philanthropic 50: Adrienne Arsht

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 $30 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 $5 million to set up the Adrienne Arsht musical theater series at the Kennedy Center (where she is treasurer) and another $5 million to the Atlantic Council to establish the Adrienne Arsht Latin American Center.