South Florida Sun-Sentinel (Sunday)
Arsht Center gets new CEO
A new central lobby (artist’s illustration above) is part of the Parker Playhouse’s $25 million renovation in Fort Lauderdale. The venue will shut down sporadically over the next two years for upgrades.
A rare melding of musician, teacher, architect and virtuoso executive, the peripatetic Johann Zietsman was born and raised in South Africa under apartheid, but made himself at home wherever the arts offered him a chance to make things better: In the black townships of his homeland, in the Arizona desert city of Mesa, and in the Canadian oil town of Calgary, where he turned a traditional cultural complex into a focal point for the city’s growing diversity and youthful sophistication.
In every place he’s been, he has lived up to a reputation for bridging racial, ethnic and cultural divides through the arts while running a tight administrative ship. Like many in the field, Zietsman is a strong believer in the transformational power of the arts, but he says they can’t deliver if the business end doesn’t.
Now Zietsman is bringing his skills not to South Beach, but to downtown Miami. He’s taking over as president and CEO of the Arsht Center for the Performing Arts, which announced his appointment on Tuesday. Zietsman will replace John Richard, who announced his retirement earlier this year after 10 years at the helm of the Arsht, one of the largest performing arts centers in the hemisphere and a South Florida cultural linchpin.