Laura Bruney
For more than 35 years, Laura Bruney has been a tireless cheerleader of the arts, relentlessly promoting the value of the arts to the private sector and ensuring that everyone understands that in Miami-Dade County, the arts mean business. As President & CEO of the Arts & Business Council of Miami since 1988, Laura has empowered the creative ecosystem and helped develop Miami-Dade’s 2.1-billion-dollar nonprofit arts industry. She has brilliantly led the movement to keep the arts in business through high-impact partnerships between corporations, small business, entrepreneurs and the cultural community. A transformational leader, Ms. Bruney has designed signature programs that develop better arts boards, amplify audience development and engage marketing innovators, and provide legal advice to artists and inventors, including Miami Arts Marketing Project, Culture Connectors, Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts, Patent Pro Bono FL and Arts Board Match. She was at the forefront of increasing arts coverage in the new media landscape with the development of Artburst, Miami’s media hub for the arts. A Past Chair of the National Private Sector Council for Americans for the Arts, Ms. Bruney serves on the Executive Committee of the Miami Arts Action Alliance, South Florida Theatre League and the Beacon Council’s Creative Industries Task Force. Additionally, it’s been recently discovered that Laura Bruney is an immensely talented nature and landscape photographer. Last year, Laura was awarded the first-ever Michael Spring Leadership Award, which recognizes outstanding achievement of a visionary cultural leader who - like its name sake - embodies inclusive values and the highest level of excellence in service to the arts.