Horizons Fall 2016

13 NSU HORIZONS Series , Julian Schnabel: Versions of Chuck , and Roberto Juarez: A Sense of Place . Clearwater studied modern and medieval art at New York University and Columbia University. The museum’s administration, curating, and education are on Clearwater’s shoulders. She guides the museum’s Art Academy, in which young children and teens are offered courses that run from painting and drawing to the digital arts and fashion design. Adult classes teach figure drawing, photog- raphy, oil painting, and art history— even Adobe Workshop. She also augments exhibitions with lecture series of interest to the public, as well as faculty members and students at the university. In May of this year, the David and Francie Horvitz Family Foundation came through again, awarding a $1-million challenge grant to support exhibitions, programming, and operations. The grants are part of Realizing Potential: The Campaign for Nova Southeastern Univer- sity , the largest phil- anthropic campaign in the university’s 52-year history. The NSU goal is $250 million. Another $300 million will come from sponsored research, service, and training programs. Also in May of this year, the National Endowment for the Arts selected the museum for a $25,000 “Art Works” award that will go toward the conservation of its collection of avant-garde Cobra art from Europe. Since her arrival, Clearwater has led a campaign of rebranding and expansion of the museum’s reach— locally, nationally, and internation- ally. Even the logo was redesigned. Another effort has increased the museum’s visibility during Art Basel, South Florida’s international art fair. The December, 2015, Vanity Fair featured a photo spread that stated: “The dinner honored television producer and art collector Douglas S. Cramer during Art Basel that brought together luminaries from the art world and Hollywood… hosted by Bob Colacello of Vanity Fair and Bonnie Clearwater, NSU Art Museum director and chief curator, the elegant evening took place at Juvia on Miami Beach, and also celebrated NSU Art Museum’s exhibition, Revolution of the Eye: Modern Art and the Birth of Ameri- can Television .” Other notices of exhibitions have appeared in The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal . Clearwater clearly thinks out of the box. She lives in Miami Beach and often commutes to New York via the Fort Lauderdale- Hollywood airport. On one such trip, she noticed open billboards in this popular travelers’ terminal. Soon, ads for the NSU Art Museum Fort Lauderdale appeared there for the first time. “All this is getting NSU out there,” she said. “I want to extend the arts scene northward to Palm Beach County, south to Miami-Dade County, and to western Broward County. We’re looking for a new range of supporters to add to what we have.” Outreach also extends to the NSU student level, and for at least one, it is very personal. Malika Kuzibaeva, born in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, came Left: By the Light , by Shinique Smith, 2013, ink, acrylic, fabric, aluminum, collage on canvas over panel, from Belief + Doubt: Selections from the Francie Bishop Good and David Horvitz Collection , on display through January 2017; NSU Art Museum Fort Lauderdale; Promised Gift of David Horvitz and Francie Bishop Good. ©Shinique Smith Courtesy, David Castillo Gallery