• Article

    ‘Knight Cities’ podcast: What never appears in your city’s economic development playbook

    Published February 25, 2015 by

    Paul Grogan is one of the nation’s great civic innovators. Paul has had a 360-degree view of what makes cities tick—from his early service as aide to two Boston mayors, to the creation of the nation’s first national intermediary for community development, to the founding of CEOs for Cities, then to Harvard and now as president and CEO of the Boston Foundation. It’s been a tour de force of civic service, which is why Paul always has important new insights to share on cities. He talked with us this week on “Knight Cities” about the remarkable resurgence of Boston and how it was fueled by the most unlikely developments.
  • Article

    Reading Terminal Market: February update

    Published February 25, 2015 by

    By Ann Mintz, Reading Terminal Market The Reading Terminal Market’s Knight-Foundation-funded performance series is called Music @ the Market, but it includes other forms of performing arts, including dance. The Philadelphia community is lucky enough to have access to a portable, modular dance floor owned by Dance USA Philadelphia. Since...
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    Miami joins over 100 cities in a 48-hour design thinking adventure

    Published February 25, 2015 by

    An image of participants during the Madroño Service Jam 2014 in Madrid, Spain. Photo courtesy of Rafael Zaragozá Álvaro/thinkersco on Flickr. Every spring thousands of people from over 100 cities across the world gather to participate in a 48-hour design-thinking adventure called the Global Service Jam. Started by Markus Hormess and Adam Lawrence of WorkPlayExperience in Germany in 2011, the Global Service Jam is a growing, volunteer-run community event that brings together people from all walks of life to exercise their creativity and problem-solving skills. This year South Florida, joins the ranks of Global Service Jam sites for the first time through the Miami Service Jam, made possible by Knight Foundation and the Wynwood Warehouse Project. The Global Service Jam kicks off worldwide at 5 p.m. local time on Friday when the secret theme will be revealed. Participants have until 3 p.m. local time on March 1 to publish their projects on the Global Service Jam website.
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    Knight News Challenge on Elections opens for ideas

    Published February 25, 2015 by

      The Knight News Challenge on elections is now open for ideas through 5 p.m. ET March 19. This News Challenge, our 13th, reflects Knight Foundation’s ongoing support for projects that improve how people access and use information to participate in democracy.In partnership with the Democracy Fund, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and the Rita Allen Foundation, we are seeking projects* that provide an answer to the question: How might we better inform voters and increase civic participation before, during and after elections? There are lots of ways that you can interpret that question, and we aren’t seeking any specific type of project. Ideas can address any part of the voter journey, from nonpartisan ways to inform voters, to streamlining the voting process, to converting the energy of Election Day into long-term civic engagement and everything between. This challenge is open to anyone, from journalists, designers, students, civic technologists and academics, to news organizations, startups, nonprofits, governments and individuals. Winners will share in more than $3 million.
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    The Clinton Global Initiative University: Empowering the next generation of social innovators

    Published February 24, 2015 by

    Photo by Paul Morse/Cilnton Global Initaitve on Flickr. Bill Wetzel is director of Clinton Global Initiative University, which Knight Foundation supports to build the community of Miami’s entrepreneurs and innovators, while fostering talent and expanding opportunity. From March 6-8, more than 1,000 young leaders from around the world will come to Miami for the Clinton Global Initiative University (CGI U) 2015 meeting, where they will join President Bill Clinton, former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, Chelsea Clinton and dozens of other social innovators and entrepreneurs to turn ideas into tangible action. President Clinton established Clinton Global Initiative University in 2007 to engage college students and the university community in addressing some of the most pressing challenges of the 21st century, and we’re excited to bring our eighth meeting to the University of Miami.
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    The awe-inspiring art of Xu Bing

    Published February 24, 2015 by

    Xu Bing's "Book from the Sky" falls from the ceiling. As we enter the Chinese Year of the Goat (or Sheep or Ram – it took John Oliver’s HBO show to clarify for us that the ancient word yang doesn’t differentiate much between these hoofed animals),...
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    Knight Arts Challenge winner Cannonball propels artists and a broad mix of ideas

    Published February 24, 2015 by

    Executive director of Cannonball, Christopher Cook. Photo by Tatiana Hernandez.  In a four-story, 1924 industrial building in downtown Miami, creative ideas are being developed and launched. That’s only fitting, since this renovated former warehouse is the home of Cannonball. The name alludes to one of the word’s meanings as “a jump in the water with the arms holding the knees tight against the chest.” And that is what Cannonball has done: Dive into the South Florida arts scene with a major splash. From its foundation in 2003 as LegalArt, whose original purpose was to provide free legal services and professional development programs to emerging artists—something it still does with its LegalLink initiative—Cannonball has grown into a full-fledged arts organization; it supports innovative art creation and those who make it happen, and fosters educational opportunities to engage in a dialogue with the community (there is a classroom in the building where courses and seminars are held as part of a non-traditional study program called  r.a.d, for research.art.dialogue).
  • Article

    Do you know the way (to stay) in San Jose?

    Published February 24, 2015 by

    Photo by Mike Boening Photography on Flickr. Much of the world will forever know San Jose, Calif., not as the “Capital of Silicon Valley,” but as the longed-for destination in Dionne Warwick’s 1968 hit, “Do You Know the Way to San Jose?” The song, which flew to the top of the charts and sold more than a million copies worldwide, celebrates “a place where I can stay … and ... find some peace of mind.” In 2015, those goals are much more elusive. Start talking with anyone in this city of a million -- from the homeless to hometown executives -- and all conversational roads lead to housing. The conversations are usually less around the where, but the how: How many jobs do you work to afford your place? How far is your commute? How much over the asking price did you pay? On one end of the market, San Jose/Santa Clara County hosts the nation’s fifth-highest homeless population, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Until recently San Jose was home to “The Jungle,” one of the largest homeless encampments in the nation, until the city closed it -- this in the center of Silicon Valley, home of groundbreaking innovation that is changing our world.
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    Discovering the sounds of Detroit

    Published February 24, 2015 by

    By Tod Machover, composer and head of the MIT Media Lab’s Opera of the Future Group A new, collaborative symphony, led by the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and Tod Machover of the MIT Media Lab and funded by Knight, is taking shape in the Motor City. Below, Machover, who is gathering...