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    Sounds of love fill the air at Bechtler

    Published February 12, 2015 by

    Valentine’s Day weekend plans still unsettled? Look no further than the Bechtler Museum of Modern Art’s "Music and Museum” program featuring soprano Helen Goldsby. This performance, “Chamber of Love VI: Serenades and Ballades,” will showcase compositions by Rimsky-Korsakov, Rachmaninoff, Fauré and Puccini. The concert will be performed in the fourth-floor...
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    Opa-locka and the art of renewal

    Published February 12, 2015 by

    Artists and urban planners collaborate on an ambitious public art master plan for Opa-locka, Fla. Photo coutresy of the Opa-locka Community Development Corporation. The images of Opa-locka, a small, blue-collar city 10 miles north of downtown Miami, speak of hard times — but also possibility. The Knight Arts Challenge is nurturing that potential.  In 2012 the nonprofit Opa-locka Community Development Corp. won an Arts Challenge grant for an arts festival and exhibit. The resulting “Art of Transformation,” which took place Nov. 12  to Dec. 14, 2014, included dance, music, public art and a street festival, and celebrated Opa-locka’s revitalizations efforts. Last year, the Opa-locka Community Development Corp. also won a new Arts Challenge grant to engage artist and landscape architect Walter Hood to turn Ali Baba Avenue into a large-scale public art project and, as the grant description notes, “work with residents to transform the avenue – currently wide, barren and unappealing to pedestrians and drivers – with painted interventions.”
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    Knight News Challenge to focus on elections

    Published February 12, 2015 by

    Photo credit: Jamelah H. on Flickr.com This post was updated on Feb. 24, 2015. On Feb. 25 we will open the next Knight News Challenge with this question: How might we better inform voters and increase civic participation before, during and after elections? The challenge is a collaboration between Knight Foundation, the Democracy Fund, Hewlett Foundation and Rita Allen Foundation, all of which plan to contribute funds, expertise and outreach as well as helping to review entries. What’s at stake, for the winners, is a share of more than $3 million. Related Link  Knight News Challenge As with past challenges, this one will cast a wide net. We are looking for innovative ideas ranging from new ways that news media and others can inform voters, to making voting easy, efficient and fair, to converting election participation into longer-term civic engagement, on the local, state or national level. With news organizations and others gearing up for the 2016 elections, this is a unique moment to explore new ways to engage Americans in the political process and increase participation in our democracy.
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    Code for Miami welcomes residents to help hack the community at CodeAcross2015

    Published February 11, 2015 by

    Photo courtesy of Danielle Ungermann. Danielle Ungermann is the events coordinator of Code for Miami, which Knight Foundation supports to help attract and keep talent and expand opportunity in South Florida. Every Monday night, you can be sure to find developers, designers, data geeks, leaders, and idea-makers massed together at The LAB Miami. It isn’t the latest startup to hit the South Florida scene; it’s Code for Miami, a volunteer Code for America brigade trying to improve civic technology for Miami-Dade residents. With the support of Knight Foundation Fund, Code for Miami will host the I <Hacked> Miami CodeAcross Hackathon and Writeathon on Saturday, Feb. 21, to welcome more South Florida residents into civic hacking. At the hackathon, writers, urbanists, civic hackers, government staff, developers, designers, community organizers and residents with the passion to make our region better will come together to hack, write and collaborate on four projects:
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    ‘Knight Cities’ podcast: Miami developer Avra Jain shares insights on real estate revitalization

    Published February 11, 2015 by

    Do you ever look at an abandoned building in your city and think, why doesn’t someone fix that up? Do you ever imagine that you might be the one to bring it back to life? Avra Jain is a Miami-based real estate investor and developer. Her latest project is the redevelopment of the famous Vagabond Motel in the up-and-coming MiMo Biscayne Boulevard Historic District, and she has advice for would-be developers. Here are five things you should know from Avra Jain on real estate revitalization:
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    South Florida’s family of arts: Important next steps

    Published February 11, 2015 by

    Photo courtesy of New World Symphony. Rhett Del Campo is managing director of Seraphic Fire, a 2013 winner of Knight Arts Challenge South Florida. Knight Foundation has invested $100 million in South Florida the last seven years. The cost of all cultural facilities South Florida has built in the last 10 years totals almost $1 billion. It’s hard to imagine any other  other region in America is being this aggressive.  These numbers alone make South Florida deserving of international attention. Howard Herring, president and CEO of the New World Symphony, made these points at Classical South Florida’s Fifth Annual Leadership Gala Luncheon, which recognized the recipients of the Sanford L. and Dolores Ziff Honors for Outstanding Contributions to the Arts, which included the New World Symphony.
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    Mardi Gras live in downtown Macon

    Published February 10, 2015 by

    Mardi Gras live in downtown Macon - February 17 from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. Quite often, when we think of Mardi Gras celebrations, New Orleans instantly comes to mind. Nevertheless, the first Mardi Gras bash in this country was held in Mobile, Alabama. Today, many...
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    FilmGate showcases students’ solutions to South Florida challenges

    Published February 10, 2015 by

    At the Learn.Do.Share. workshop hosted by FilmGate Interactive this weekend, team “Raise The Earth” presented their ideas to make South Florida more of a place where people are motivated to take sustainable actions. The ideas presented by (left to right) Amy Molina, Tristan Calay, Teiheim Edwards, Sarah Engel, Meyling Yi, Brian Martinez, and Steven Espinoza will be incubated for the next 12 months by FilmGate. Photo by Jenna Buehler. Just how Miami Beach will survive amidst projected sea level rise is one of the thorniest issues affecting the island city. Last week, 30 teens from across South Florida brainstormed solutions as part of Learn Do Share, a multimedia workshop series that was part of the transmedia conference FilmGate Interactive. Run by Columbia University, Learn Do Share. is a design workshop that helps prototype interactive solutions for global challenges. “The work that we do is about creatively solving problems that communities face by finding ways to involve youth as part of that process,” said co-founder Lance Weiler. “It takes a lot of people to attack complex, wicked problems and at Learn Do Share. we are empowering youth to collaborate on ideas and implement prototypes for change.”