Meet the 2021 Knight Arts Challenge Winners – Miami
Launched in June, the 2021 Knight Arts Challenge sought the best ideas for the arts from individual artists and arts organizations in Akron, Detroit and Miami. Knight Foundation is pleased to announce the winners of the Challenge in Miami — 24 South Florida artists and arts organizations that will share $2 million to bring their innovative ideas to life to reach audiences where they are.
Meet the 2021 Knight Arts Winners – Miami
Antiheroes Project
$42,000
As Miamense as Possible
A series of newly commissioned works by Miami-based LatinX playwrights 40 years of age and under.
Miami Light Project
$59,000
Positive Vibration Nation
A newly commissioned multimedia Guaguanco rock opera by Miami-based Grammy nominated composer, singer, multi-instrumentalist Sol Ruiz.
LIZN'BOW (Liz Ferrer and Bow Ty Enterprises Venture Capital)
$60,000
[Cries in Spanish]
A bilingual episodic web series developed through community workshops and performances that follow the stories of six Latinx and queer fem characters living outside of the norm.
The Patricia & Phillip Frost Art Museum
$25,000
An Elegy to Rosewood
An exhibition that re-evaluates the history of Florida’s Rosewood community and, more broadly, racial violence in Florida.
Gustavo Matamoros
$64,000
And Sometimes the Space is Full of a Previous Space
A series of experimental collaborations with intermedia artists that will transform Deering Estate’s community theater through immersive experiences with new technologies.
Dimensions Variable
$50,000
Archive, Digital, and Writer Commissions
A collection of digital commissions that support contemporary art on the web and social media alongside Dimensions Variable’s in-person gallery.
WAAM (Women Artists Archive Miami)
$50,000
Artist as Archivist Residency
A series of visual arts residencies that reframe Miami’s community archives as spaces for civic engagement and social justice.
Alexandra Fields O'Neale
$13,300
Bound//Unbound
A sound art piece that uses the ocean as narrator to describe the cyclical nature of enslavement through the middle passage and freedom through the Saltwater Railroad.
Robert Colom
$150,000
Cinemovil
A series of free, outdoor screenings of Caribbean, Latin American and locally-made films, across the Miami-Dade neighborhoods.
Juraj Kojs and Pioneer Winter
$75,000
Close Encounters
An augmented reality work where communities of performers and audiences are brought together in a shared experience through music, movement and technology.
Adam Weinert & Institute for Contemporary Art Miami
$39,500
Dance of the Ages
An immersive retelling of Ted Shawn’s iconic work, “Dance of the Ages” (1938) for site-specific performances at Miami’s Institute for Contemporary Art (ICA)
Photo: PHILMONT, NY – JULY 11, 2017: Choreographer Adam Weinert at The Mill in Philmont, NY. . CREDIT: Eva Deitch for The New York Times
Downtown Doral Arts and Culture Foundation
$100,000
Downtown Doral Holiday Festival
A festival of diverse arts programming that will reduce barriers to arts participation by bringing cultural experiences directly to the community in the accessible, open-air Downtown Doral.
Lee Pivnik
$75,000
Habitat: Regenerative Shelters as Symbiotic Solutions
To reimagine the home as a potential site for climate care, yielding a living earthwork serving as a center for interdisciplinary art and ecology research in South Dade
Miami Dade College – Live Arts Miami
$100,000
Haint Blu
A new, site-specific work created by Urban Bush Women that will take audiences on an immersive dance-theater journey at the Historic Hampton House.
Islandia Press
$60,000
Islandia Journal
To expand a Miami-based print and digital publishing enterprise focused on reexamined local history.
Symone Titania Major
$30,000
Martin's Footprints: Marches in Coconut Grove & Goulds
A photography series documenting the duality of two important marches that took place in Miami during the pandemic to stop gun violence and police brutality.
[NAME] Publications
$60,000
Migrant Archives
An online and physical repository of cultural archives drawn from artists and other cultural producers who are part of the displaced communities that now call South Florida home.
Olympia Center/Olympia Arts Miami
$150,000
Olympia Arts Miami – Bicycle Theatre
Humorous, topical and quirky original theatre performance during which the audience travels from scene to scene on bikes, scooters and anything else they can roll on (except cars).
Fringe Projects
$150,000
Southern Histories
A research-driven, public art initiative that will commemorate under-recognized historical narratives connected to Miami’s roots in the American South, the Caribbean and Latin America with monumental works at culturally relevant sites.
Delou Africa
$60,825
Tall Spirit: Stilt Artistry of Black Immigrants
An intergenerational project showcasing the traditions of stilt culture from Africa to the Americas.
Hued Songs
$90,000
The Juneteenth Experience
A tri-county celebration of Juneteenth through song, dance, spoken word, and multimedia.
Miami-Dade Public Library System
$60,000
The Vasari Project: Miami's Art Timeline
A project that will update Miami’s oldest local arts archive and present complementary programming drawn from its materials.
Museum of Contemporary Art North Miami
$150,000
Welcome to Paradise
A new quarterly commissioning program that will invite South Florida artists to activate MOCA’s Paradise Courtyard with temporary experimental works of art.
Photo: Exterior – Aerial
The White Elephant Group
$98,600
White Elephant Film Festival
A community-inclusive film exhibition and industry event incubating and celebrating our uniquely Miamian cinematic perspective by commissioning a slate of short films.
“Our Knight Arts Challenge winners exemplify the evolving nature of South Florida’s artistic voice, and reflect the immense talent in our cultural sector. Across various disciplines and mediums, the ideas of each artist and art organization will reach new and existing audiences in innovative ways. We’re excited to see how their unique visions evolve.”
Victoria Rogers, Knight’s vice president for the Arts.
2021 Knight Arts Champions
Every year, as part of the Knight Arts Challenge announcement, Knight also selects a group of Knight Arts Champions. Meet this year’s 23 community leaders in South Florida who have contributed to our region’s rich arts and culture scene. The Champions direct $10,000, provided by Knight, to South Florida artist or arts organization of their choice. Meet the 2021 Champions here.
More on the 2021 Knight Arts Challenge
*Stay tuned for the announcement of the Knight Arts Challenge winners in Akron and Detroit on Monday, December 6.