Carbonell Awards Names OUR FUND FOUNDATION as Winner of This Year's Vinnette Carroll Award
Gary Schweikhart cites the LGBTQ community foundation's support of arts organizations across the region.
Gary Schweikhart, board president of the Carbonell Awards, South Florida's Theater & Arts Honors, has announced the recipient of the fourth of nine Special Awards that will be presented at the 49th annual Carbonell Awards Ceremony on Monday, November 16, at 7:30 pm at FAU's University Theatre in Boca Raton 33431.
'While we will be honoring specific people and productions in 20 competitive categories from approximately 100 shows presented between September 2025 and August 2026, the Carbonell board of directors has unanimously voted to also bestow this Special Award,' said Schweikhart.
THE Vinnette Carroll AWARD
For Outstanding Achievement in Advancing Diversity, Equality & Inclusion in South Florida Theatre
Our Fund Foundation
The Our Fund Foundation is South Florida's LGBTQ community foundation, dedicated to building a more inclusive region by connecting philanthropy with purpose. Founded in 2011 and based in Wilton Manors, Our Fund stewards $30 million in assets and awards approximately $2.5 million annually to nonprofit organizations serving the LGBTQ community and its allies. From the arts to social services, Our Fund invests in organizations that ensure every South Floridian — regardless of who they are or whom they love — can see themselves reflected, represented, and celebrated. Our Fund is proud to support a theatre community where inclusion isn't an aspiration, but a standard.
Playwright Michael McKeever hails Our Fund for 'playing a significant role in transforming the region's cultural landscape (through grants that) support everything from queer dance and theater to LGBTQ+ cinema and historic preservation, providing broader audiences to marginalized voices.' While Martin Childers, Managing Director of Island City Stage, describes the Foundation as 'a transformative force in South Florida's cultural landscape… (making an impact that) can be measured not only in dollars awarded, but in the countless artists, audiences, and organizations whose work has been sustained and strengthened through their generosity. By investing in arts and culture, championing equity, and responding decisively when the community needed them most, the Our Fund Foundation has become an indispensable partner' at a time when government funding of the Arts has become particularly precarious.
Previous winners of this award include Michel Hausman, co-founder and artistic director of Miami New Drama (2025); director, actor, and college educator John Pryor (2024); Christina Alexander & Katie Christie, for leading the South Florida Theatre League's Anti-racism Theatre Strategies Cohorts (2023); and Marshall L. Davis, who served for nearly 40 years as managing director of the African Heritage Cultural Arts Center (AHCAC) in Miami's Liberty City (2022).
PREVIOUSLY ANNOUNCED CARBONELL SPECIAL AWARDS 2026
- The George Abbott Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Arts — Stuart Meltzer, Founding Artistic Director of Zoetic Stage.
- The Christine Dolen Award for Outstanding Debut — Ali Tallman, Director of The 39 Steps for New City Players.
- The Jan McArt Award for Outstanding Small Theatre — Brévo Theatre
STILL TO BE ANNOUNCED
- The Charlie Cinnamon Award – August 11
- The Ruth Foreman Award – August 18
- The Bill Hindman Award – August 25
- The Howard Kleinberg Award – September 1
- The Bill von Maurer Award – September 8
- 120 Carbonell Award Finalists in 20 Categories – September 15
All the 2026 Special Award recipients were nominated by members of South Florida's theatre community with the Carbonell Board of Directors making the final selection. The 120 Carbonell Award Finalists will be based on accumulated scores from the nonprofit organization's pool of nearly 50 experienced and diverse volunteer judges—with seven judges from various counties assigned to each show. During the 2025-2026 season, Carbonell judges evaluated approximately 100 professional productions at more than 30 theatres throughout Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach Counties.
This season's Carbonell Awards will be presented on November 16 at a glittery ceremony that is South Florida's version of Broadway's Tony Awards. Hundreds of actors, musicians, performers, writers, directors, back-stage technicians, producers, critics, designers, specialty artists, and diehard theater fans are expected to attend. The event is being produced and directed by Andrew Kato, Producing Artistic Director/Chief Executive of the Maltz Jupiter Theatre, with the award-winning Caryl Fantel serving as Music Director and Eloisa M. Ferrer as Coordinating Producer. Tickets for the ceremony and after party are only $45 and will go on public sale in mid-October.
Sponsors of the 49th Annual Carbonell Awards ceremony and after party include the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts; Aventura Arts & Cultural Center; BroadwayWorld; Broward Center for the Performing Arts; Broward Cultural Division; Carbonell Sculptures Ltd.; Cultural Council for Palm Beach County; Donald M. Ephraim Sun & Stars International Film Festival presented by MorseLife Health System; FAU Department of Theatre & Dance; Kravis Center for the Performing Arts; Lesser, Landy, Smith & Siegel – Florida Injury Lawyers; Miami-Dade County Auditorium; The Dennis C. Moss Center; OutClique Magazine; South Florida Cultural Consortium; South Florida Theatre League; Mark Traverso & Conor Walton; Donald R. Walters, P.A.; and The Wick Theatre & Costume Museum.
ABOUT THE CARBONELL AWARDS
The Carbonell Awards fosters the artistic growth of professional theater in South Florida by celebrating the excellence and diversity of our theater artists, providing scholarships, and building audience appreciation and civic pride by highlighting achievements of our theater community. More than 30 professional theater companies in Broward, Miami-Dade and Palm Beach Counties participate in the awards process every year. The Carbonell Awards also celebrate the accomplishments of local artistic leaders by presenting various Special Awards.
Along with New York's Drama Desk and Chicago's Joseph Jefferson Awards, the Carbonell Awards are among the nation's oldest regional arts awards and predate others, including Washington, D.C.'s Helen Hayes Awards. The Carbonell Awards are named after the internationally renowned sculptor Manuel Carbonell, who designed the signature solid bronze and marble award given annually to Carbonell Award winners. Over nearly half a century, the Carbonell family has donated more than $250,000 in awards. For more information, please visit www.carbonellawards.org.
Photo Credit: Carina Mask)
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