• Article

    A timely exhibition at Macalester College combines oral histories and printmaking to bring immigrant experiences to life

    Published November 24, 2014 by

    Raoul Deal, "DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals)," Immigration Series #10, woodcut, 2013. In light of President Obama’s executive actions on immigration, announced last week, Raoul Deal’s exhibition of new and recent work in Macalester College’s Law Warschaw Gallery seems especially timely. At the center of...
  • Article

    ‘IowaWatch Connection’ radio program scores well with stations

    Published November 24, 2014 by

    Lyle Muller is executive director and editor of the Iowa Center for Public Affairs Journalism-Iowatch. Photo: IowaWatch reporter/digital analyst Lauren Mills (left) and co-founder Stephen Berry (rear, center) talk on the 'Your Town' program Aug. 19, 2014, with Jay Capron (right) on KXIC radio in Iowa City, IA, one of 21 radio stations airing the IowaWatch Connection program. In addition to airing the IowaWatch Connection on Sunday mornings, KXIC features IowaWatch on 'Your Town' the third Tuesday of every month. Credit: Lyle Muller/IowaWatch. Iowa radio stations participating in a statewide, experimental Iowa Center for Public Affairs Journalism-IowaWatch weekly radio show say they like the show enough to tell others about it. That’s the indication from a recent survey to determine the show’s value to the stations. “Well done,” one station program director wrote about the show, called “The IowaWatch Connection.” The show launched with the support of an INNovation Fund award from Knight Foundation and the Investigative News Network. “I like having the show on air and would continue it as long as it’s produced,” wrote another. The feedback is important as the almost 5-year-old Iowa Center, a nonprofit, nonpartisan investigative and explanatory news organization, tries to secure funding to continue the program. “The IowaWatch Connection” launched on July 4, 2014, to spread the center’s in-depth reporting to a statewide radio audience. The show aired on 17 stations until Oct. 6, 2014, when an 18th station joined the network. By Nov. 20, 2014, 21 stations were airing the program – 20 in Iowa and one run by a high school radio station in suburban Chicago using the program for educational purposes. Fourteen of the 17 radio outlets airing the program during all or most of its duration responded to the survey.
  • Article

    Dustin Lance Black applauds Cinetopia Film Festival

    Published November 22, 2014 by

    By Drew Waller, Michigan Theater This year, the Cinetopia International Film Festival in Ann Arbor, Mich., a winner of the 2013 Knight Arts Challenge Detroit, premiered the important documentary “The Case Against 8.” We took advantage of this opportunity to bring in filmmaker Dustin Lance Black, who wrote the stage...
  • Article

    EXILE yourself in art books at the Book Fair

    Published November 21, 2014 by

    Detail from Amanda Keeley's pop-up Exile Books. There is a super cool new addition to this year’s Miami Book Fair International, which will culminate this weekend Downtown. Artist Amanda Keeley has “opened” her new arts book lounge during the fair, which offers a mix of literary...
  • Article

    Give Miami Day raises record $5.2 million for nonprofits

    Published November 21, 2014 by

    Community Block Party attendees check out participating nonprofit organizations during the event. Photo courtesy of The Miami Foundation. Once online donations passed last year’s record of $3.2 million, organizers at The Miami Foundation realized that Give Miami Day 2014 would be their most successful Giving Day yet. Thursday’s Give Miami Day raised $5.2 million for 520 South Florida nonprofits, with a total of 19,245 gifts. This was the first year that The Miami Foundation promoted a funding goal for Give Miami Day, set at $5 million. “As Miami continues to evolve, Give Miami Day acts as a gateway for new members of the community to learn more about local causes they are passionate about and contribute to the overall success of our city,” said Miami Foundation CEO Javier Alberto Soto. Working with a cohort of local partners, including Knight Foundation, The Miami Foundation helped incentivize community giving by making a bonus gift for every online donation between $25 and $10,000 received on Give Miami Day. Twenty-four prizes were awarded to nonprofits that hit key milestones throughout the day, such as the first gift received and receiving gifts from the most countries.
  • Article

    My Brother’s Keeper hackathon supports black youth interested in tech careers

    Published November 21, 2014 by

    Philly Hackathon: Kalimah Priforce, co-founder of Qeyno Labs and hackathon organizer, talks to youth Trailblazers about their pitches. Photos by Monica Peters. Team Change Your Community worked feverishly in a computer lab at String Theory Charter School in Philadelphia last weekend to create an app for community good. The youths tossed out problems, ideas for solving them, and narrowed down their options to one. Then, they got to work coding.  The result: an app that allows users to take pictures of abandoned buildings and nominate them for how they should be renovated or used. Their project took first place during the event, the first hackathon for the White House initiative My Brother’s Keeper. Team members took home Samsung Galaxy tablets and a chance to participate in a Google Hangout with #YesWeCode founder Van Jones, the hackathon’s keynote speaker. The real prize, however, is that the hackathon, held Nov. 14-16, is a step toward guiding the 95 boys and girls who participated on a trajectory to careers in technology. “Whenever young people start to break negative patterns and start a new positive pattern you have no idea what that’s going to mean for history,” Jones said.
  • Article

    University-community engagement is a two-way street

    Published November 21, 2014 by

    Not all neighborhoods around the University of Chicago want the same amount of engagement with campus police. (AP Photo/Stacie Freudenberg) This post is cross-posted with permission from Next City. How can urban “anchor institutions” — colleges, universities, hospitals and other major institutions that are rooted in a specific place — strengthen their communities? One parking lot at a time. Midtown Detroit President Susan Mosey spent much of 2014 persuading her neighborhood’s major employers, Wayne State University, Henry Ford Health System and Detroit Medical Center, to give up one surface parking lot each for redevelopment in a neighborhood where eliminating surface parking is a major catalyst for community revitalization. The panelists at Next City’s City Sessions panel on “The University as Community” on Nov. 19th at Moore College of Art in Philadelphia had many other examples of little things that “eds and meds” and other large place-based non-profit institutions can do to hasten big change in their neighborhoods and cities. It could be something as small as offering space in an institutional building for a local bakery to set up a cafe, or shifting printing to a struggling local printer that allowed it to expand and modernize with a new $2 million printing plant (as happened in Detroit), or designing campus buildings so their main entrances open out onto city streets rather than in toward campus (a Chicago example).
  • Article

    Charlotte, N.C., riding forward into a bike-friendly future

    Published November 21, 2014 by

    Photo by Flickr user Tyler LaCross.  What does Charlotte need to become a more bike-friendly city? Events to let people experience the joy of cycling; A clearinghouse for easy, safe routes; Better signage identifying bike routes; More bike safety information included in driver’s license testing; A central cycling hub where bike commuters can grab a shower and store their bikes during work hours;
  • Article

    North Carolina Governor honors Gantt Center Founders

    Published November 21, 2014 by

    By Bonita Buford, Harvey B. Gantt Center As on many campuses in the early 1970s, students at the University of North Carolina Charlotte (UNCC) held sit-ins, demanding that the rich history and contributions of African-Americans be acknowledged. Campus leaders heeded the students’ rallying cry and launched what was to become...
  • Article

    Palm Beach Opera successfully matches grant

    Published November 20, 2014 by

    By Ceci Dadisman, director of communications Palm Beach Opera, a winner of the 2013 Knight Arts Challenge South Florida More than a year ago, we were excited to learn that we would receive an $80,000 Knight Arts Challenge matching grant from Knight Foundation. The funds from the Knight Arts Challenge...
  • Article

    Open Studio at the AIRIELAB

    Published November 20, 2014 by

    By Deborah Mitchell, AIRIE/Artists in Residence in Everglades Regina Jestrow, Sabal Palm Frond, 2014, 18”x58”, conte on rice paper Regina Jestrow is the AIRIE November resident. She has been walking the trails of the park, creating “rubbings” of her surroundings, and paintings about her research. Canoeing,...
  • Article

    Initiative connects journalists and filmmakers to enrich storytelling

    Published November 20, 2014 by

    Jess Search is CEO of the BRITDOC Foundation, which Knight Foundation supports to promote excellence in journalism. Video by BRITDOC Foundation on Vimeo.   A few years ago here at the BRITDOC Foundation we began noticing the deepening relationship between journalism and documentary. It felt like a lot of long-form stories that used to be covered elsewhere were moving to documentary and that many younger people who would once have trained as journalists were more interested in making films. So we began to support - with the Bertha Foundation - films in this space, where storytelling and creative filmmaking meet journalism and investigation.  What we are learning is that journalists and documentary filmmakers have a great deal to gain from each other’s crafts and collaborations and that their work can be highly effective in creating social and political impact.  We hope to develop these ideas further and share them more widely with Knight’s support. Kevin MacDonald, who won the Academy Award for his film “One Day in September,” has said, “The demand for documentary material is being driven by a decline in trust of the news media. There are terrible things going on in journalism and one of the reasons that documentary is thriving is because journalism is in crisis.” News anchor Christiane Amanpour has gone further, saying “Independent documentary is the last refuge of journalism in America.”