Miami’s O Cinema.

Today, ArtPlace America, a nationwide initiative that puts the arts at the heart of community revitalization, announced $15.2 million in funding for new projects in 44 communities across the United States. We’re excited to see that arts leaders in seven of the communities where Knight invests – Miami, Philadelphia, St. Paul, San Jose, Macon, Detroit and Charlotte – are receiving support for their ideas.

Knight Foundation is a founding funder of ArtPlace, which is a collaboration of 13 leading foundations and six of the nations largest banks.

Our goal at Knight is to make the arts a part of people’s everyday lives and create the kind of collective experiences that attach people to place. Through our work in the Knight communities, we have seen that artists can be major players in revitalization efforts that contribute to more vibrant, open places. We believe in the power of art to transform and engage communities.  And each of the projects chosen from amongst 1,200 submissions, are driven by teams that are doing just that. We are thrilled to announce this round of funding with ArtPlace and look forward to seeing the work of placemaking leaders unfold— to the benefit of so many communities.

ArtsPlace has highlighted all of these important projects on their website, including those in seven of the Knight communities:

Charlotte, N.C.:

·      Arts & Ecology Community Campus at Brightwalk at Historic Double Oaks $ 400,000 McColl Center for Visual Art McColl Center for Visual Art will create an artist-led Arts & Ecology Community Campus in alliance with the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Housing Partnership in the Brightwalk Community at Historic Double Oaks, a brownfield development located adjacent to Center City and a vital component of the evolution of Charlotte’s Greater Statesville Avenue Corridor Revitalization Plan.

Detroit, Mich.:

·      REVOLVE Livernois $ 200,000 Detroit Economic Growth Association (DEGA) REVOLVE Program REVOLVE Livernois will match world-class designers and artists with local university students, residents and entrepreneurs to activate vacant storefronts and public spaces with pop-up art installations, businesses and events to transform Detroit’s historic “Avenue of Fashion.”

Macon, Ga.:

·      Tattnall Square Center for the Arts $ 425,000 The Corporation of Mercer University Mercer University, working with local stakeholders, will transform a historic former church in a revitalized urban corridor into a community performing arts center; thereby, replacing vacancy with constant activity in a prime location in this small city.

Miami, Fla.:

·      Cine Al Fresco $ 100,000 Living Arts Trust, Inc d/b/a O Cinema O Cinema will create a sustainable outdoor green space and “theater” in order to offer ongoing outdoor films, performances and other events for the diverse, urban community in the Wynwood neighborhood.

·      Office of Neighborhood Development $250,000 Performing Arts Center Trust Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts Building on momentum from its publicly-embraced master plan and the burst of public and private investment in its once-dormant neighborhood, the Adrienne Arsht Center will become one of the first major performing arts centers in the country to create its own Office of Neighborhood Development dedicated to accelerating and sustaining the creative evolution of its rapidly-changing, downtown Miami surroundings.

Philadelphia, Pa.:

·      Department of Making + Doing $ 150,000 Breadboard / University City Science Center The Department of Making + Doing will channel the brain trust and assets of four dynamic Philadelphia-based art, design and technology organizations to activate the 37th Street pedestrian walkway to externalize creative production and elevate the local profile of the Avenue of Technology.

·      River Stage at the Waterfront $ 310,000 Delaware River Waterfront Corporation (DRWC) Delaware River Waterfront Corporation and its partners will transform the Boat Basin at Penn’s Landing into a “river stage” in order to activate public space and foster civic engagement to advance a future in which the waterfront becomes a cultural and economic center of activity.

·      FringeArts on the Waterfront $ 400,000 FringeArts FringeArts will construct and activate an outdoor plaza and performance space to serve as a welcoming space for performance and socializing at its new location on Philadelphia’s underutilized Delaware River waterfront.

·      Destination Frankford $ 335,150 Philadelphia City Planning Commission (PCPC) Through the creation of a vibrant public space, artfully designed signage and street furniture, a storefront dedicated to local artists and an arts-focused marketing campaign, Destination Frankford will increase exposure to Frankford’s growing arts scene, add vibrancy to Frankford’s commercial corridor and attract new artists, businesses, and residents to Frankford.

San Jose, Calif.:

·      MACLA – A New Cultural Model $ 750,000 MACLA/Movimiento de Arte y Cultura Latino Americana MACLA will re-imagine how an arts organization at the intersection of an arts district and an immigrant neighborhood functions by creating a new cultural model and stage for community participation shaped by a permanent facility and program expansion.

St. Paul, Minn.:

·      Bedlam Lowertown: Arrivals and Departures $ 350,000 Bedlam Theatre Bedlam Theatre will develop and execute programming to activate Bedlam Lowertown, a venue and anchor for artist activity, a public space to see, hear, eat and be art at the nexus of the Twin Cities’ Central Corridor transportation center.

·      Blue Ox Art Putt $ 350,000 Blue Ox In partnership with public and private partners, Blue Ox, a collective of artists from the historic West 7th neighborhood will build an artist-designed mini-golf course as the anchor attraction of a 15-acre neighborhood redevelopment project of the former Schmidt Brewery.

To read more please visit the ArtPlace website.