Starting March 16, the Knight Arts Challenge Miami is going on a road trip – to Key West, Fort Lauderdale, and a host of neighborhoods in between. In all, the challenge is holding eight community conversations ahead of the 2016 challenge, which will award a total of $2.5 million to the best ideas for the arts in South Florida. Submissions will be accepted starting April 4 at knightarts.org.

Our goal at Knight is to help make art general in South Florida, and we are looking for projects that happen in all corners of our region, from Palm Beach to the Florida Keys.

The community conversations are opportunities for Arts Challenge applicants to ask questions about the challenge in person, and hear from a panel of winners on how their projects are going, and their inside tips on applying.

If you’re looking for more individualized feedback on your idea, our staff is holding office hours towards the end of April in Doral and Wynwood. During those times, our program staff will be at Macondo Coffee Roasters and Panther Coffee to review ideas, provide advice and answer questions. Those sessions are first come, first served.

Information for all – including two sessions in Spanish – is below – as are the links to RSVP. Thanks so much to our media sponsors Art Loft/WPBT Channel 2; Miami New Times and Soul of Miami.

See you there!

Upcoming community conversations:

• 6:30 p.m. March 16: Freedom Tower, 600 Biscayne Blvd., second floor, Miami, RSVP. Panel: Hattie Mae Williams of the Tattooed Ballerinas; Susan Caraballo of FEAST Miami and Hannah Nicholas of the alt Default.
• 6:30 p.m. March 17: Overtown Youth Center, Auditorium, 450 NW 14th St., Miami, RSVP. Panel: Mikhaile Solomon of the Prizm Art Fair; Zedric Bembry of Live in Color and representatives of Delou Africa.
• 6:30 p.m. March 21: South Miami-Dade Cultural Arts Center, Black Box Theater, 10950 SW 211th St., Cutler Bay, RSVP. Panel: Deborah Mitchell of Artists in Residence in Everglades and representatives from New Theatre.
• 6:30 p.m. March 22: Milander Center for Arts & Entertainment, Garden Plaza Room, 4800 Palm Ave., Hialeah; 6:30 p.m. in English; 7:30 p.m. in Spanish, RSVP. Panel: Francisco Tardio of Microtheater; Joaquin Martinez, of the Miami Dade College Hialeah Campus and the Hialeah Cultural Center.
• 6:30 p.m. March 23: The Projects Space @ FATVillage, FATVillage Arts District, 521 NW First Ave., Fort Lauderdale, RSVP. Panel: Darius Daughtry and Seth Levit of the Jason Taylor Foundation and Mindy Shrago of the Young at Art Museum.
• 6:30 p.m. March 24: West Dade’s Artefactus Theater, 12302 SW 133rd Court, Miami, 6:30 p.m. in English, 7:30 p.m. in Spanish; West Kendall. Panel: Jose Manuel Dominguez of Artefactus and Joann Yarrow of Teatro Prometeo. RSVP
• 1:15 p.m. April 5: Islamorada’s History of Diving Museum, 82990 Overseas Hwy., Islamorada, RSVP
• 1:15 p.m. April 6: Key West, Gato Building, 1100 Simonton St., Key West, RSVP

We will also host office hours to give one-on-one feedback about applications:

• 2 to 4 p.m. April 23 in Doral, Macondo Coffee Roasters, 2494 NW 89th Place, RSVP
• 5 to 7 p.m. April 27, Panther Coffee, 2390 NW Second Ave, Miami, RSVP