COURTESY ARTCENTER/SOUTH FLORIDA
The Miami-based collector and patron Dennis Scholl has been named president and CEO of ArtCenter/South Florida. In his new role, he will guide the organization’s handling of a $88 million endowment that came from selling its Lincoln Road headquarters in 2014. Previously, Scholl served as vice president for arts of the Knight Foundation for six years, until 2015.
“The visual arts are my professional and personal passion,” Scholl said in a statement. “When the ArtCenter approached me to lead them through this sea change moment, both for the organization and for Miami, I jumped at the chance.”
The news, which was first reported by The New York Times, comes after developer South Beach TriStar 800 bought the ArtCenter’s historic building at 800 Lincoln Road—an iconic deco structure built in 1938—in a sale that provided the organization with an unprecedented cash windfall. ArtCenter plans to use the funds to, according to a press release, “expand its role in serving the city’s growing cultural community.”
In addition to his role at the Knight Foundation, Scholl has served on the boards of local institutions such as the Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami, and the Pérez Art Museum Miami, as well as the Aspen Art Museum and the Detroit Institute of Arts. In 2015, Scholl and his wife, Debra Scholl, received the National Service in the Arts Award from the Anderson Ranch Art Center.
One aspect of the new role, Scholl said, will be to increase Miami’s stature in the art world when the city is not hosting Art Basel Miami Beach. He told the Times that he plans to develop the city’s reach “beyond those five days in December.”