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    Endeavor Detroit seeks local entrepreneurs to join its network

    Published March 10, 2015 by

    Photo of Detroit by Mike Boening Photography on Flickr.  Antonio Lück is scouring metro Detroit for high-growth companies that could someday generate the kind of economic impact automakers produced in the region in the 20th century. “How many companies exist because of Ford and GM? That’s what we want to accomplish,” said Lück, the managing director of Endeavor Detroit. Endeavor, a nonprofit group that helps companies scale, or grow rapidly, by providing them with a global network of mentors and advisers, selected Detroit for its second U.S. affiliate and named its board of directors in February.
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    Why we care about elections

    Published March 10, 2015 by

    Knight News Challenge on Elections video series.  Rick Perlstein noted elections are a means for understanding Americans’ “fears and dreams.” Herbert Gans has called elections “proxies for democracy,” as Election Day is that rare event in which “citizens play a major [role] in government.” At Knight, we care about how people access and use the information they need for living their lives in a democracy. In particular we’re interested in how new digital tools, and related behaviors, might be changing the ways in which Americans relate to their civic institutions; that’s what has driven our interest in open government, libraries -- and elections. I’m hoping that we all will learn about needs and opportunities to expand access to and use of information, as well as for rethinking the ways citizens in a democracy express their hopes. I’ve already begun to get questions about what fits within the challenge. If you’re thinking about ideas for better informing voters or improving what it means to be a voter--before, during or after an election--we want to hear your idea, before March 19.
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    YoungArts Miami brings 100 emerging artists into the limelight

    Published March 10, 2015 by

    Anais Perez, 17, a student at Doral Performing Arts & Entertainment Academy and a 2015 YoungArts Winner in Visual Arts (above), joins the newest class of YoungArts finalists this week. Photo provided by YoungArts. This post has been updated.  YoungArts Miami will celebrate its newest class of 100 South Florida artists by hosting a series of public performances and exhibitions March 13-15. The program will showcase students and alumni in multidisciplinary performances, readings, film screenings and visual arts exhibitions on the YoungArts campus in Miami and at The Colony Theatre on Lincoln Road in Miami Beach.  For three decades, student artists of all backgrounds across the country have gained access to institutions, such as  The Juilliard School, and exclusive opportunities, such as the U.S. Presidential Scholar of the Arts award, as a result being accepted as National YoungArts Week finalists.
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    Florida gets a close-up at Miami International Film Festival

    Published March 10, 2015 by

    Film still from "The Record Man." Image courtesy Miami International Film Festival. Given that the theme of the 32nd Miami International Film Festival is “Every Character Under the Sun,” it’s only fitting that some of the most intriguing offerings in the event are stories about South Florida characters told by local filmmakers. “The Record Man,” by Mark Moormann, is a portrait of the late Henry Stone, a gutsy, enterprising music pioneer who ran an independent record empire out of a Hialeah warehouse. Then there’s “Dawg Fight,” a film by director Billy Corben, which looks at the world of mixed martial arts-style backyard fights in Miami-Dade; and on yet another different note, The Holders, takes a sobering look into Miami-Dade County animal shelters by Miami-based Venezuelan performer, writer and director Carla Forte. The three films are part of the competition for the Knight Documentary Achievement Award, which has a cash prize of $10,000. “We’ve come a long way,” says Moormann, whose previous work include “Tom Dowd & The Language of Music,” a 2003 Grammy-nominated documentary on recording engineer and producer Tom Dowd, another South Florida music figure with a global impact. “There is a real creative explosion right now—certainly in the filmmaking world. It’s really starting to happen —and I’m glad to be part of it.”
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    In Detroit, documenting music that lives in minds and memories

    Published March 9, 2015 by

    On March 16, Knight Arts Challenge winner Ara Topouzian will debut a new documentary on the history of Armenian Music in Detroit, to be shown both on Detroit Public Television and via livestream online. Here, Topouzian talks about the challenges of documenting traditional music. One of the greatest challenges of creating a documentary on Armenian music is that so much exists only in the minds and memories of the people who play it.  The music, from ballads that describe centuries of village life to upbeat songs performed at weddings and dances, wasn’t notated. There is no sheet music. What we know is what we play live for audiences and listen to on recordings. We also most certainly lost music due to the atrocities of the Armenian Genocide of 1915, where 1.5 million Armenians were massacred at the hands of the Ottoman Turkish government.
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    ‘Architecture of Color’ premieres at MIFF 2015

    Published March 9, 2015 by

    The world premiere of Architecture of Color, a documentary portrait of Brazilian artist Beatriz Milhazes directed by José Henrique Fonseca and Priscila Lopes, opens this Thursday, March 12th at 9:30 p.m. and Saturday, March 14th at 4 p.m. during the 2015 Miami International Film Festival. Beatriz...
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    Land Mindz uses art as therapy

    Published March 9, 2015 by

    Auditions for Macon the Stage: Artistic Expo will be held at Fresh Produce Records on March 21. A sometimes forgotten piece of American history is that many states in our nation, including Georgia, were formed from the labor and minds of servants sent here to work...
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    Taking civic participation from the voting booth to the streets

    Published March 9, 2015 by

    Photo by Flickr user Spyros Papaspyropoulos. Seamus Kraft is executive director and co-founder of The OpenGov Foundation, which has received support from Knight Foundation. Below he writes about Knight News Challenge: Elections, which asks the question, How might we better inform voters and increase civic participation before, during and after elections? Winners will share in more than $3 million. Apply at newschallenge.org. Growing up an Irish Catholic kid in Massachusetts, my Papa perpetually preached his simple civic creed. “Come hell or high water, we do three things in this family: Pay our taxes, go to Mass and vote.” You don’t need to be a Papa or a Ph.D. in political science to know elections matter.  Everyone knows the ultimate direction of our democracy is dictated by those who show up to vote. That’s why campaigns pour armies of people and spend billions of donor dollars to get you to pull that lever. All that money, all those hours, all those “voter education initiatives,” stump speeches, airport rallies, everything is aimed at you and your single opportunity to choose.
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    Chasing the sun in the Everglades

    Published March 9, 2015 by

    By Sara Rabinowitz, AIRIE fellow Chasing the Sun, 2.11.15, 2.12.15, 2.13.15 February 1st at 7:05 a.m. I stood facing east, taking a picture of the sunrise through the entrance gates to Everglades National Park. This was the first time I chased the sun during my residency...
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    In Miami, new funding and new beginnings in the arts

    Published March 9, 2015 by

    Professor Thomas Sleeper conducts University of Miami Frost School of Music students in 'The Marriage of Figaro.' Credit: Jenifer Day Clark, 2012 By Alberto Ibargüen Each year, Knight Foundation’s trustees visit different Knight communities, to see and feel the work being done in the cities where...
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    In Miami, new funding and new beginnings in the arts

    Published March 8, 2015 by

    Professor Thomas Sleeper conducts University of Miami Frost School of Music students in 'The Marriage of Figaro.'  Credit: Jenifer Day Clark, 2012. Each year, Knight Foundation’s trustees visit different Knight communities, to see and feel the work being done in the cities where Jack and Jim Knight once owned newspapers. This year, we put the spotlight on Miami, with a day that began in Wynwood and culminated in a community gathering at the Perez Art Museum Miami. It’s an ideal way to celebrate that art has become general in Miami, and it’s inspiring a new generation to build the city’s future. Dennis Scholl (download) Victoria Rogers (download) Related Links "Victoria Rogers named Knight Foundation’s vice president for arts" - press release, 3/8/2015 "Knight Foundation announces $25 million in new gifts for the South Florida arts" - press release, 3/8/2015 Our funding in the arts dates back to Knight Foundation’s first investments in the 1950s; Jack and Jim’s mother, Clara, was a devoted patron of the arts and recognized their role in building community. But nearly a decade ago, we saw an opportunity in Miami to accelerate the organic change beginning to happen, and invested heavily to fuel it. Our approach has been two-pronged: We fund key institutions, such as New World Symphony, Miami City Ballet and the Miami International Film Festival, which each year offer programming to tens of thousands of South Floridians. Our first big grant in this area was the naming gift for the John S. and James L. Knight Concert Hall at the Arsht Center for the Performing Arts.  Our funding helps these organizations engage a broad swath of the community in their work.